HISTORY OF MARINE ARCHITECTURE.

I8y

so that the ports might be opened even in a swell. The same cause operating ingreater or less degree, produced the same effect through every class and de-partment of the Dutch marine, and through every port of the United Pro-vinces, from the first rate to the schoot, from the Texel to the shallowesfishing; creek.

The principles of construction adopted by the Hollanders will hereafter betreated of at sufficient length ; in the present instance, their political conduct,the extent of their state navy, and their commercial marine, are the onlypoints under consideration. Of the state of their navy sufficient observa-tion has been already made : Their commerce appears to have reached the ut-molt summit to which industry and ingenuity of a particular kind were capa-ble of raising it. Their trade with India was immense; nor, through thewonderful assistance which they contrived to derive, more particularly in timeof war, from St. Eustatia, was that with the West-India islands and the con-tinent of America itself less consequential. The vessels employed in theAsiatic trade exceeded in dimensions those of every country in Europe, veryfew of them being of less than one thousand tons burthen, while severahreached as high as twelve hundred. The rest of the ships employed inforeign commerce were proportionally consequential in their dimensions;while the flotilla engaged either in the inferior departments of commerce, orin pursuits occasioned by it, compensated by its superior numbers for any infe-riority to which it might be seemingly sunk, when compared with the petite ma-rine of any other country in the universe. This however was far from beingthe case; for if the actual burthen, or faculty of portage, is to be considered asthe sole or grand excellence of vessels, those of Holland, like the junks of China,had long vied with, and at times (as was actually the case in the middle of theeighteenth century) surpassed those of every nation in the universe. Theschoot, the dogger,and the galliot, always equalled, and very frequently exceeded,the tonnage of the sloop, the snow, and the brigantine, of those European coun-tries which were accustomed to look down, rather contemptuously perhaps, onthe Dutch vessels, owing to their singular form, and those peculiarities whichthe eye rejects as disagreeable, because they have not become completely fami-liar to it. If, however, as will be hereafter shown, the properties of thegalliot shall be found much better calculated for the occupations inwhich it is engaged, and the seas through which it is intended to be navi-gated, than those of any other species of vessel hitherto contrived would be,contempt will be immediately converted into admiration ; while satire inju-

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