HISTORY OF MARINE ARCHITECTURE.

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of inexperience, to frame something like a regular system for the establish-ment of a navy : a system in which vessels were properly classed, as suited,according to the ideas of the ingenious inventor, to every different species ofservice which a naval war could render necessary.

He proposes seven different species of construction.: the first he calls aGalleon, a term that has been already so sufficiently explained as to render anyfarther illustration needless: the second, Rambargo; an appellation applied bythe French to light frigates, or, as they were then stiled, pinnaces : the. third,Galizabra, is somewhat analogous to that kind of vessel already describedas a galleas: the fourth, Frigata; a species of light warlike vessel wellknown in modern times by the same term, the use of which, as well as of theship itself, was derived originally from the Italians,, who were the inventorsof both : the fifth is termed a Galerone, or galley,, and differs but little in formand principle from the vessel, bearing the same name, which has, since thatperiod, been so much in use among the Mediterranean powers : the sixth,Galerata, a smaller species of galley n the seventh, Passa-Volante, a verylight vessel, built entirely on the same principles with the galley, intending to.answer the purpose of a dispatch-boat, or scout, and, therefore, contrived withall possible attention to swiftness,, in preference to every other quality.

Nothing can be more evident than that the genius of this noble person wascramped by the customs of the times, and those maxims which were peculiarto the countries in and near which he sojourned. -This is a circumstance whichmay be much lamented by posterity; for it is by no means unlikely, that thesame strength of mind, employed on the general,. instead of the abstract, prin-ciples of the science, would have rendered it material benefit. Sir Robert, withthat true spirit of enthusiasm, which, when applied to a laudable purpose,scarcely ever fails to raise its possessor into eminence, caused a vessel to befinilt at Southampton on the same principle with that recommended in bisproposed draught for a galleon. This done, he made a voyage in it to Indiam the year 1594; and, according to his report, it fully answered every purposewhich even his own expectations had framed.

•The principles of construction which he has laid down for the Galleon arethese :—length, four times the breadth; perpendicular height, from the. lowere dge of the keel to the under side of the'main-deck-beams, one breadth andmi half; perpendicular height of the stern from the keel, two breadths andone fourth; height of the forecastle one breadth and one fourth. As these

propor-