HISTORY OF MARINE ARCHITECTURE.

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architecture, as practised in India, appears to turn ; and as the inhabitants seemprincipally to excel in the practical or mechanical part, the following account oftheir adroitness, given by a modern foreign navigator, cannot fail to be interesting :

“ The ships which are built here, cost, it is true, very dear, but they are ableto navigate the sea for an hundred years together. There was a ship here in ex-istance, which performed a voyage to Mocho and back, in the year 1770, beingfreighted on account of Mr. Sluiskens, the second of the Dutch factory at Surat,of which, the time when it was built, is not known ; only, that in a letter,written by Mr. Zwaardekroon, the then director of Surat, to the government atBatavia, in the year 1702, it is called the Old Ship, although from that time tillthe year 1770, it performed an annual voyage to the Red Sea.

“This ship was also known by the appellation of the Iloly Ship, because thepilgrims from India, going to, or returning from, Mecca, always took their pas-sage on board of her; and on the same account, that ship had a peculiar privi-lege at Mocha and Jedda, of taking on board a certain number of chests andboxes, free of duty, which privilege was the more valuable to the owners, as theduties exacted at those places are excessively high.

“When I was at Surat, on my first voyage, this ship was a-ground about half aDutch mile below the city, and so near falling to pieces, that I did not think theowners would be at the charge of repairing her again ; in effect, when I was atSurat, in the year 17 77, on my second voyage thither, she was, as I have beforementioned, entirely destroyed by the last violent afflux of the river.

“ I computed it to be one hundred and thirty, or thirty-five feet from stem tostern. It was built like a frigate, with three masts, and cut away full as sharp atthe bow as our ships. The stern, as tradition says, had been that of an Englishship, which was lost in this river; it has, at least, much resemblance to the re-presentation of the ships of the last century. It had two decks, likewise a quarter-deck and forecastle ; the gun-room was very larg^ ; the height between the deckswas scarcely five feet; the cabin was adorned within with a great deal of carving,and not the least piece of wood was left without some foliage or imagery; upon -the quarter deck were, as in our ships, little huts or cabins, and before them afixed awning, such as we call a wafeikraam ; the catheads were excessively heavypieces of timber, twice as large as those of a ship of one hundred and fifty feet inlength ; the cables run over the top, at the bow, in a deep notch, as our tow-linesdo ; the bowsprit was not fixed upon the stem, but at the right side of it.

Yol. III. X X

“ This