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HISTORY OF MARINE ARCHITECTURE.

“ The ship belonged to a Turkish merchant, called Tjillebe, who had severalships. He is one of the principal merchants of the city, and greatly respected bythe Nabob.

“ They do not build their ships in the same manner the Europeans do, for most ofthe timbers are fitted in after the planks have been put together. There was onebuilt while I was at Surat, in what is called the English yard ; it appeared to meto have about one hundred feet length of keel; it stood in a kind of graving dock,if a large excavation, closed towards the river by a dam, without a stone facing,or any thing that resembled it, may deserve that appellation.

“ They do not, therefore, launch their ships as we do, from slips, but when suffi-ciently finished for floating, they dig through, from the water to the docks justmentioned, which they call cradles, and the ships are, as it were, dropped intothe stream that is brought up to them.

“ They do not put the planks together, as we do, with flat edges, towards eachother, but rabbit them ; and they make the parts fit into each other with thegreatest exactness, bestowing much time and attention upon this operation ; forthis purpose they smear the edges of the planks which are set up, with red lead,and those which arc intended to be placed next are put upon them, and presseddown, in order to be able to discern the inequalities which arc marked by the redlead. These are afterwards taken away, and they repeat this, till the whole fits ex-actly ; they then rub both edges with a sort of glue, which becomes, by age, ashard as iron, and they cover it with a thin layer of capoc, after which they unitethe planks so firmly, and closely with pegs, that the seam is scarcely visible, andthe whole seems to form one entire piece of timber.

“ They fit the timbers and beams in the same way to the planks, so that apiece of wood is sometimes put in, and taken out, more than ten times before it isfixed for good and all.

“ The knees, or crooked timbers, are generally of the natural growth into thatform, without being forced or warped by fire, especially where particular care istaken of the construction, and no expence spared.

“ Instead of bolts, they make use of pieces of iron, forged like spikes, the pointof which is driven through, clenched on the inside, and again driven into the wood.They make the iron, which they imploy for this purpose, very rough and flexible.

“ They have also a peculiar way of preserving their ships bottoms, by occa-sionally rubbing into them an oil, which they call wood-oil, and the planks

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