26 JOURNAL OF THE PLYMOUTH I-NSTITUTION. 
Maury's Laws of Currents and of Storms, the Composite system 
of sailing was effectually introduced, and it has now become the 
means, with the aid of steam, of bringing the most remote parts 
of the earth within forty days' sail. Nor ought we to forget to 
mention the aid that was rendered in prosecuting this great scheme 
to successful issue by another of our members, who has often 
charmed with his hearty voice in lecturing to us on practical ques- 
tions pertaining to the sea, and discussing with us not sea-lore 
alone, but all other general matters of lectures. Capt. Walker, for 
many years Queen's Harbour Master of this port, was one of us, 
did us good service, and better still to his Queen and country by 
the aid he rendered Towson, and by his elucidations of some of 
the laws of magnetism as affecting the compass as a sailor's 
instrument. 
Again ships, ships, ships ; can a Britisher be tired of them, let 
alone a Plymouthian or a seaport Englishman 1 
Sir Francis Drake, we are told, went around the world in little 
ships not larger than our trawlers ; we go around them in ships big 
enough to hold the population of a little town, in greater comfort 
and safety than can be found in any town in Britain. His ships 
were of wood, and their successors were wont to be talked about as 
the wooden walls of old England ; but our ships are of iron and 
of steel. He and Raleigh, and Frobisher, and Hawkins, had to do 
their work, trusting in their powers to control the winds and the 
waves to their purpose, through the living sunshine. We have to 
dig the fossilized sun-force out of the earth and to use it to our 
purpose with careful measure and strict judgment, to fight against 
the powers of the air and the sea when they are not in accord with 
our purpose, to harness them together to do our work when they 
do agree. 
In 1812 the first steamship was launched on the Clyde, but it 
was not useful. In the year 1818 regular sea voyages were under- 
taken in the Channel. The Sir Francis Drake began to run in the 
summer time only from Plymouth to Portsmouth, and the Channel 
Islands soon after were associated with the Brunswick. These two 
vessels continued to run for many years. The former was a remark- 
ably well-built, well-engined vessel for her time. 
It was not until 1838 that ocean voyages were attempted, and 
successfully too, by the Great Western and Sin'ns, in the face of 
high authority to the contrary, as to the impossibility of accomplish- 
