422 
ME. E. J. EEED ON THE UNEQUAL DISTEIBUTION OE 
the weight exceeds the buoyancy by 115 tons*; between R 1 and R 2 , a length of 65 feet, 
the excess of buoyancy amounts to 220 tons ; from R 2 to R 3 , 80 feet, the excess of weight 
is 275 tons; and between R 3 and R 4 , on a length of 30 feet, the weight exceeds the 
buoyancy by 210 tons. These figures furnish another illustration of the advantages 
resulting from the adoption of moderate length and proportions in iron-clad ships. 
In all the preceding examples the ships have been supposed to be fully laden ; but 
there must, of course, occur alterations in the amount and stowage of the weights on 
board, and consequently in the relative distribution of the weight and buoyancy. Earlier 
writers on the subject have fully recognized this fact, and nearly all of them concur in 
stating that the greatest strains experienced by a ship floating in still water are those 
incidental to the state when all the weights of equipment are removed, but that the 
character of the strains remained the same as when the ships were laden. In this 
opinion they were probably correct in so far as the ships of their period were concerned, 
as the older classes of ships always hogged considerably ; but in modern ships when 
light, the characters as well as the intensities of the strains are often very different from 
those when they are fully laden. For example, if a paddle-wheel steamer, like the 
‘ Victoria and Albert,’ had her heavy weights of engines, boilers, coals, &c. removed, 
the buoyancy amidships would become greater than the weight, and the ship would be 
brought into a condition similar to that of the ‘ Minotaur,’ when fully laden, illustrated 
by fig. 2 (Plate XVI.). A few illustrations will show more clearly that the conclusions 
drawn by the earlier writers by no means hold for all modern ships, some of which are 
strained in a very different manner when light and when laden. As extreme cases I 
will take the ‘ Minotaur’ and the ‘ Audacious.’ 
The ‘ Minotaur’s ’ distribution of weight and buoyancy, when a mere shell, with 
engines, boilers, &c. all out, as they Avould be if the ship were undergoing a thorough 
repair, is shown by fig. 5 (Plate XVI.). The curve H H in this diagram agrees with 
the curve similarly lettered in fig. 2, and the inner of the two curves marked D D repre- 
sents the displacement of the various divisions, or, in other words, is the curve of buoyancy 
for the ship when light. At the extremities the curve II H falls considerably outside 
the curve I) D, the excess of weight before the water-borne section R 1 R 1 , 90 feet from 
the bow, being 560 tons, and that abaft the water-borne section R 2 R 2 being 500 tons on 
a length of 80 feet of the stern. When the ship is fully laden, we have seen that the 
excess of weight forward on a length of 80 feet is 420 tons, and that at the stern there 
is an excess of 450 tons on a length of 70 feet; so that when this ship is quite light the 
difference between the distribution of the weight and buoyancy is even greater than it 
is when the ship is fully laden, and the resulting strains will obviously be more severe. 
There is, however, another aspect of this question to which I must briefly refer. It 
is only when the ship is undergoing a thorough repair that she would be left a mere 
shell ; and usually the engines and boilers are left in place when the other weights are 
* The stem of the ‘ Audacious ’ is more nearly upright, and the lower water-lines are finer than the ‘ Belle- 
rophon’s.’ 
