Naval ARCHITECTURE (continued)

Those, on the contrary, who would enlarge the breadth, pretend, 1st, That this form is better fitted to receive a good battery of guns; 2dly, That there will be more room to work the guns conveniently; 3dly, That by carrying more sail, the, ship will be enabled to run faster; or, that this quality will at least overbalance the advantage which the others have of more easily dividing the fluid; 4thly, That, being broader at the load-water line, or place where the surface of the water describes a line round the bottom, they will admit of being very narrow on the floor, particularly towards the extremities; and, 5thly, That a broad vessel will more readily rise upon the waves than a narrow one.

From such opposite principles has resulted that varicty of standards adopted by different shipwrights; and a servile imitation of these mechanical methods has, to the great reproach of the art, produced all these pretended rules of proportion: for the various models they have hitherto adopted indisputably prove their doubt and uncertainty with regard to their proper standard. Hence these pretended mysteries which are only to be revealed to such as are initiated into the craft! Hence this division of the art into classes, or, according to the technical term, into families, each of which affects, with becoming solemnity, to be possessed of the true secret, in preference to all the others! And hence violence of opposition, and mutual contempt amongst the artists! Indeed nothing appears more effectually to have retarded the progress of naval architecture, than the involving it. in mysteries which the professors would gravely insinuate are only intelligible to themselves. This ridiculous affectation is nevertheless tenaciously retained, notwithstanding the example to the contrary of some of the most able shipwrights in Europe, who are real masters of the theory of their art, and do honour to their profession, and who are justly exempted from the censure to which the others are often exposed.

It is not to be expected that an art so complicated and various, comprehending such a diversity of structures, can be treated at large in a work of this sort. To enter into a particular detail of the theory and practice; to explain the different parts with sufficient accuracy and perspicuity, would of itself require a large volume, and, by consequence, greatly exceed the limits of our design. Being thus necessitated to contract our description into a narrow compass, it will be sufficient to give a general idea of the subject; to describe the principal pieces of which a ship is composed, and to explain the principal draughts used in the construction thereof.

Reference Works