HISTORY OF MARINE ARCHITECTURE.
281 -
Kates.
Guns.
Ships Names.
Observations.
N
Uncertain when built,
nothing known of them till their first appearance at the several
ports, according to the dates given.
6th.
20
Sea ford . .
Portsmouth
1712
Ditto 1722
Ke-built 1/24.
Sole ha v . .
Ditto
171s
Sheeruess . .
Sheeruess
1712
Ditto 1729
Ditto 173 L
Rlandford . .
Woolwich
17H)
Biddeford . .
Ditto
1711*
Ditto 1725
Ditto 1*27-
Greyhound .
Ditto
1712
Ditto 17l(>
Gibraltar . .
Plymouth
1713
Ditto 1725
Ditto 1727.
Hind . . .
Sheerness
1712
Lively . . .
Plymouth
1713'
Purt-Mahon ,
Portsmouth
1714
Rose . . .
Chatham
1712
Ditto 1“22
Ditto 1724.
Speedwell . .
Plymouth
1712
Success . .
Portsmouth
1?I1‘
Seahorse . .
Ditto
1711
Ditto 1725
Ditto 1727.
Valeur . . .
Plymouth
17 IS
Ditto 1/17
Winchelsea .
Sheerness
1713
Garland . .
Portsmouth
1712
Ditto 1721
Ditto 1724.
Dursley. . .
Deptford
17 is*
(jnltin
Portsmouth
1712
Bedford „ .
Sheeruess
1712
Sunk
*
The gradual cncrease in the dimensions of ships composing the British narycannot be placed in a stronger and more comprehensive point of view than theyare by the form pursued in the foregoing list. The Royal-Anne, built in the year1706, though mounting 100 guns, was of no more than 1809 tons burthen, fromwhence it appears, that even British ships of the same class have been enlargednearly one-fourth in the course of the last century ; and that the French, in theinstance of the Commerce de Marseilles, have advanced their ideas of augmentationto one-third. Britain appears in her turn to have formed the resolution of being,surpassed as trivially as possible, while in any degree consistent with propriety ;so that although the Caledonia is stated, By the dimensions givch in the precedingtable, to be somewhat more than one hundred and forty tons inferior to the Frenchship, yet, it must be remembered the latter has, in the opinion of judges, esteemedthe most competent, been considered as cncrcased beyond the natural boundsprescribed by reason and prudence; and the British ship exceeds, in a far greaterdegree, the St. Joseph, the largest of the two first rates,, captured from Spain in1797, than it is itself surpassed by the Commerce de Marseilles.
The augmentation progressively given by almost all maritime powers, to shipsof the same class, whether first or sixth rates, for the space of more than a cen-tury, is a subject which has occasioned some controversy, though there can be littledoubt of the propriety of the measure, w hen carried to only a moderate extent.It certainly would be an extravagant expenditure of the public treasure, even in
the