1787,

24 STEAM NAVIGATION.

commerce must derive from the saving of time, and a speedierintercourse of nations.

Their remarkable STIFFNESS renders them the fittest vessels forrivers and canals, as every year many lives are lost by the over-setting of open boats.

Their small DRAUGHT of WATER should occasion many canalsto be dug, as the expence will be inconsiderable; and the advantageof numerous canals is sufficiently known in Europe.

The same PROPERTY will have the effect of opening numberlessports, which, from their small depth of water, could never beforereceive vessels. Nay, where more ports are not to be found, everysand-bank may be easily made to answer the purpose; for, as a vesselof this kind will take the ground with each of its three keels at thesame instant, so, if the vessel be run on the beach at high water, thecrew will be able, by the return of the next high water, to dig a dockfit for her reception; and, with little trouble, she can be again setafloat upon the sea.

As these vessels sit upright on the ground, every bank is equallyfit, with a dry dock, for their repairs: a matter of great importanceto ships which may have received damage, or have sprung a leaknear a coast deficient in ports.

It was my wish to have built the EDINBURGH on a scale suffi-ciently large to have rendered her fit for a voyage of any length.This would have shewn more clearly the principle of her construc-tion, and would have enabled me to ascertain, with greater accuracy,not only the best forms and proportions of the three vessels, but alsothe proper distances at which they ought to be placed from eachother. From an undertaking of such magnitude, however, I wasnot only prevented, by the attention I owed to the duties of a greatbusiness in which I was then engaged, but I was also restrained byprudence, having, during the late war, expended large sums in num-berless experiments for the improvement of Artillery, with a view to

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