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HISTORY OF MARINE ARCHITECTURE.

a regularity of system are moderns arrived, that the shipwrights of almost everyEuropean country are capable of stating, with considerable exactness, at the timeeven when a ship is launched, how long it will continue in a good state for activeservice; deprecating any of those accidents which it is within the bounds ofjjossibility may completely disable it in a very few hours after it puts to sea.Pursuing the same system of calculation, established by long observation and ex-perience, it becomes by no means difficult to say what number of new ships mustbe built annually to maintain a navy of any given extent in constant condition forimmediate use. This is certainly now' the case, but was by no means so at thecommencement of the eighteenth century. A new ship, during the whole of thefirst forty years, might be considered as almost a prodigy, except under such cir-cumstances as the capture, or total loss of the predecessor, bearing the same name,or the peculiar necessities of the state which rendered some extraordinary, thoughtrivial augmentation necessary. As though an enthusiastic species of venerationwas entertained, which it is confidently reported to have been, for that of the re-nowned Sir Francis Drake, in respect to every ship which had distinguished itself inthe service of its country, reiterated repairs were continued from time to time, sothat, in the end, it might generally be concluded, not a particle of the originalconstruction remained. To this circumstance may be imputed, in great measure,that want of improvement or alteration which pervaded the British navy at thistime ; and may well account also, for that hiatus which might, but for that cir-cumstance being made known, be considered an omission in report of the shipsbuilt for the public service during the earlier part of the last century.

Matters at length, as already observed, took a more favourable turn ; pre-parations were ordered to be made for the construction of a considerable num-ber of new vessels, a measure which was immediately carried into executionwith a zeal and spirit that appeared to manifest, in some degree, a consciousnessof former errors; and although, generally speaking, they were of the lowerrates or classes, yet the trammels of ancient custom being once broken through,the newly adopted system spread progressively, though at first gradually, till it atlength pervaded the whole.

The annexed -official paper will concisely prove the assiduity of administrationin this long-laboured and contested point, in which wisdom, after a tedious struggle,triumphed over custom ; notwithstanding the former total negligence of it, andsomewhat parsimonious adoption of the alteration, even in the instance where ap-plause is rendered them, might subject those persons who were intrusted with thedirection of public affairs to partial reprehension,

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