HISTORY OF MARINE ARCHITECTURE.
]S 2
seven Inches and an half; and, according to the English method of calculatingtonnage, was of eighteen hundred and thirty-two tons burthen. To pursue thecomparison farther, the Princessaof 70 guns, taken from the Spaniards in theearlier part of the war, and before that which commenced with France, thoughof force somewhat inferior, was in length one hundred and sixty-five feet oneinch, in breadth fortv-nine feet eight inches, and one thousand seven hundredand nine tons, Englifh burthen*. To the capture of this ship has been im-properly attributed, by many scientific and ingenious British writers on the sub-ject, the first introduction of those superior dimensions and the different contourgiven to some of the British ships of war; but it is a well-known fact, that thefirst British ships built by way of experiment were from French models, as theValiant, which was copied from the Invincible, and the Triumph.
The comparison between the ships in the inferior rates bore scarcely lessproportionate difference : the Essex, a ship of 64 guns, launched in 1740, mea-sured one hundred fifty-one feet in length, forty-three feet fix inches in breadth,and was only twelve hundred and twenty-six tons in burthen r while the Frenchship, Fougueux, captured in 1 747, was in length one hundred and fifty-nine feeteleven inches; in breadth forty-four feet two inches and an half; in burthen, mea-sured according to Englifh computation, fourteen hundred and three tons. TheIsis of fifty guns captured from France, merely owing to the circumstance ofher being out of trim, and called by British seamen, on account of her peculiarexcellence in sailing, the flying Isis, was in length one hundred forty-two feetthree inches, in breadth forty feet three inches and three quarters, and measuredone thousand and thirteen tons. Her cotemporaries belonging to Britain werenot so dissimilar in respect to tonnage, measuring, the greater part of themat least, nearly one thousand tons, while some of them, as the Severn, Tavi-stock, and Assistance, were nearly two feet longer, and one foot wider;the Bristol of the same force was nearly ten feet longer, and of very im-material difference as to the breadth; but, owing to her inferiority of depthm the hold, very trivially exceeded the French ship in tonnage." A demonstra-tive proof arises from the excellence of the Isis, that its relative proportions,
* The Monmouth, a British ship, of 70 guns, launched two years afterward, was in length onlyone hundred and fifty-one feet; in breadth, forty-three feet five inches; and of 1225 tons burthen.Historians have been so fond of the marvellous, in respect to the Princessa, that they have representedher as larger than any British first rate then existing. This certainly is an exaggeration ; but it mustbe admitted, however, that the Royal William, the largest ship in the British navy, was only two hun-dred and nine tons superior. The Royal Anne, which, in h* day, had been considered as the finestship ever built, was only one hundred, having measured exactly eighteen hundred and nine tons.
not