$20 Invention of Life-boats, 
facilitate its landing and launching. To 
the latter, I am inc!ined to believe, Mr. 
Mr. Greathead is indebted for the hint of 
the curved keel; to which, I will venture 
to aflert, his boats do not owe their fafety. 
Allowing that in this form the centre of 
gravity iso determined, as to render it 
impoffible for the body to float in any but 
the proper direction ; can this not he ef- 
feéted without a curved keel? It certainly 
ean; and if fo, why fhould the boat be 
deprived of gripe? when it mult be al- 
lowed that the difficulty of preferving the 
direction of the boat muft be increafed in 
proportion to the curvature. It is allo 
certain, that the fpheroidal fe&tion Mr. 
Greathead fpeaks of, in his examination 
before the committee of the Houle of Com- 
Ynons, may, by being lengthened at the 
ends, have this property of fwimming 
with the curved furface below, deftroyed ; 
and it, perhars, will not be found impof- 
fible to overfet the boat he fent to Memel, 
the extravagant fheer of which approaches 
near to the deftruStion of that property 
of the fpheroidal feftion. However that 
may be, I think there is fufficient evidence 
to every difcerning eye, that fuch eleva- 
tion of the ends, confidered in conjun&tion 
with the fmall quantity of the body which 
is properly in the fluid, muft, with refpect 
to the direétion of the boat, render her 
the fport of every wave that may ftrike 
her obliquely on either end; in any cafe 
it makes more depend on the fkilfulnefs of 
the fteerfman than is prudent or neceflary, 
atthe fame time that it countera&is his 
power, by the fhortnefs of that part of the 
ear which remains within board. 
To conclude:—Mr. Greathead has 
enly applied a curved keel to his boat, 
not invented it; and that it is a detedct, 
where the purpofe it is faid to an{wer can 
be effected without it, I fhall attempt to 
prove by a circumftance with which every 
gnan converfant in fhip building is well 
acquainted. A fhip comes into duck with 
her keel lower at the ends than at mid- 
fhips, viz. what the fhipwrights call 
hugged ; fhe is cut up-at the ends, and a 
new keel is introduced on a ftraight line. 
This thip will never again hold a wind, 
or fteer fo well as before. If fuch be the 
effe&t of reducing the keel to a ftraight 
line, what admirable effeéts would not a 
eurved Keel produce!!! Again, the co- 
bles are narrow flat-bottomed boats, a 
little curved abaft for the convenience of 
landing, and have rudders which go 23 
feet below the bottom, which ferve in- 
ftead of deadwood to hinder their over- 
fitting. Now let me afk the unprejudiced 
[Nov. : ts 
public, if Mr. Greathead’s curved keef 
has not had properties afcribed to it, to 
which it is not entitled? Let me afk if it 
be not an error in the conftru@tion, when. 
the velocity of the moving body, its di- 
rection and fafety can be effeéted better 
without it; for Wouldhaye’s model pof- 
feffes all the good properties of the life- 
boats without any of the defeéts: nor do 
the boats built by Greathead differ from. 
Wouldhave’s model in any material point 
but thofe I have mentioned, and in which 
every experienced builder willacknowledge 
it would have been better to have been an 
exact copy. Mr. Greathead, therefore, 
though he has pocketed the reward, is not 
the inventor (but only the builder) of the 
life-boat, and has marred a geod plan by 
endeavouring to deviate from it. 
It ia the opinion of feveral feafaring men, 
with whom I have converfed on the fub- 
jest, that the whole excellence of the life- 
boat confifts in its fize, the cork, and its 
flaunching fides. That the cork is the 
material part of the conftruétion, may be 
gathered from the circumftance of her 
having gone to fea with a hole in her bot- 
tom, and, when filled with water, ftill 
retaining fufficient buoyancy to bring the 
men fafe to fhore. 
The idea of rendering her buoyant by 
cork is allowed to have been fuggefted by . 
Wouldhave, as is exhibited by his model 3 
and though Mr. Greathead {ays in his 
examination, that the idea of the flaunch- 
ing form and curved keel were drawn 
from the fection of a fpheroid, I am very 
certain that a midfhip {¢étion of his boat 
does not exhibit any evidence that the 
generating fegrent was ever carried round 
the tranfverfe diameter, or axis of the 
{pheroid. But her form E have already 
mentioned, and fhall only now obferve, 
that Wouldhave’s model flaunches more 
than the life boats—that it cannot be over- 
fet—that when filled with-water, her gun- 
wale or midship is abovt an inch above 
the line of flotation, and, where there is 
any motion; foon throws out the greater 
‘part of the water fhe has fhipped. 
Why Wouldhave’s claim to this inven- 
tion has been fo long delayed, remains 
now to be explained, and the concatena- 
tion of caufes whieh has ftrangely allowed 
Mr. Greathead to claim the merit and re- 
ceive the reward. If, in doing this, F 
fhould bring any thing forward that may 
feem to bear hard on any one’s charaéter, 
or reprefent him in an unpleafant light, 
I fhall only plead in excufe for it, that in 
this affair I am entirely unprejudiced, am 
guided only by truth, and that I thall i 
afk: . eet 
