3 54 Observations on the Circular Sterns of Ships* 
are not told, that as all the guns will recoil to a common centre,, 
there will be little room for them to be worked, and that the 
men being so crowded together, 44 will be exposed to the most 
destructive raking fire.” We are told, that 44 when an enemy’s 
ship has laid upon the quarters of any vessel, it has technically 
been called” 44 the point of impunity ” This is granted ; and from 
the superiority of our tactics, &c., it is the position that we used 
generally to be able to take ; but with the round stern, the fire of 
at least the aftermost gun on the broadside, when in that posi- 
tion, is entirely lost. 
Our author goes on to say, that 44 Sir Robert Seppings has 
stated, in his letter before alluded to, that, according to the pre- 
sent disposition of the ports, a three-decked ship can bring at 
least ten guns to bear upon her assailant, a two-decker eight, 
and a frigate four.” This can be no argument in favour of the 
curvilinear form, for it is the same number that ships with the 
old form could fire right aft. 
44 Their sea-going properties are improved, by the omission of 
quarter-galleries, which acted as a back-sail, when ships were go- 
ing on a wind.” This must be acknowledged ; but what propor- 
tion do quarter-galleries bear to poops, which are now put on 
even to brigs ? 
That Sir Robert Seppings himself does not think the form per- 
fect, maybe proved by his having already twice altered the plan of 
the Vengeance, which is now building at Pembroke. Is it not a 
pity, that such extensive alterations should be carried on, before 
the inventor’s own ideas are matured upon the subject ? 
Mr Harvey mentions *, that 44 Sir Robert Seppings, in his 
first appendix to his able letter, has furnished above 120 ex- 
amples of ships of different classes, the sterns of which have been 
made the subject of frequent and strong complaint by their respec- 
tive commanders. To increase the importance of the documents, 
it is worthy of observation, that they have not been collected 
from any very limited portion of time, or when any particular 
feeling in favour of a change of form might have existed in the 
Navy ; but during a period of nearly a quarter of a century.” 
This says nothing more than that Sir Robert Seppings has 
* Edinburgh Philosophical Journal , No. xiii. Art, 3. 
