138

HISTORY OF MARINE ARCHITECTURE.

rendered them inferior, speaking individually, according to their different ratesand classes, to those of their cotemporaries in the possession of France or of Spain,were numerous. The several defects, which had long been discovered, were, atlength, generally admitted as facts at the commencement of the year 1746. Thenew arrangement having, however, taken place, the British ships of war may beooir-idered as built from, this time on a system entirely new ; and it is necessaryto state, in few words, the improprieties in that which had preceded it.

The ships previously composing the British navy were so extremely long, inproportion to their breadth, at the same time so deficient in bearings forward,that, in a heavy sea, they pitched, and laboured with such violence as to en-danger, considering this as the slightest inconvenience they were to expect, theloss of all their masts. Reflection, at length, produced an attention to the cause.The absence of these defects, which became too discernible in the vessels of differentcountries, were, at last, too glaringly apparent to be neglected by Britain. Thepractical experience derived, as already and repeatedly observed, from the superiorqualifications of vessels captured from the enemy, caused an alteration of con-struction, and introduced, as it were, a total-different system into the British prac-tice. The first attempt towards emancipation from the former servitude, was theconstruction of the Royal-George, a ship, at that time, deemed the paragon ofbeauty, and considered as the ne plus ultra of perfection in the science of marinearchitecture. The services rendered by this ship to the public, were of the mostimportant kind, ller force nominally exceeded that of any vessel then possessedeither by France, Spain, or any other country in the universe ; for, owing to thegeneral relaxation which had universally taken place with respect to marine archi-tecture, all countries, France and Spain excepted, appeared little attentive to theconstruction ot ships in the higher rates. The two nations last mentioned actedfrom motives far more scientific than Britain herself, of which notice will be hcre-alter taken; suffice it,on the present occasion to observe, that, having once takenthe alarm, she immediately set on foot the establishment of a marine, which sheflattered herself should, in actual principle, be equal to that possessed by any of hercotemporary rivals. The Royal-George, however, though a ship of the first rate,and, at that-time, very justly considered one of the finest vessels in Europe, scarcelyexceeded, in dimension®, the Princessa, a Spanish ship of 70 guns only, which hadbeen captured from the enemy; for though reflection and observation had, at length,indeed; commenced their operations on the minds of the marine architects inBritain, the defeat of subsequent squadrons, and the capture of various other ships,

whose