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HISTORY OF MARINE ARCHITECTURE.

The Indian method of constructing vessel 5 , far as the mere mechanical art ofputting them together extends, lias been occasionally practised by Europeans,particularly at Bombay, the principal naval depot, or dock-yard, belonging tothe British East India Company, but has, which rather throws a slur on thebenefits derived from commerce, sunk considerably in its practice, owing to thegreat length of time necessarily required in the formation of vessels so elaboratelybuilt. There, as well as in other parts of India, the planks forming the bottomare so nicely jointed, or to use the proper scientific term, fayed together, as to-render caulking almost totally unnecessary. The advantages derived from thispractice are not solely confined to the removal of the operation just stated, which is,perhaps, among the greatest inconveniences which attend maritime pursuits, but itmaterially contributes to the preservation of the bottom, by the exclusion of thewater, and the almost total prevention of its insinuation between the joints, than-which nothing can be more conducive to duration of the bottom in a sound state.The peculiar quality of the wood produced in the country is particularly con-tributive to the longevity of vessels, and nothing but its scarcity, added to the im-mense length of time required to construct a ship entirely in the Indian method,may, perhaps, prevent that quarter of the world from becoming the grand em-porium or pattern for the rest of the world in marine architecture *. “ At

Bombay,” say modern authors, “ the ships built with teak wood, are so*closely and carefully put together, that they very seldom require caulking.They have also a practice in that part of the world of rabbiting the planks into eachother, which when done, the interstices being filled with cotton, and the whole ex-terior payed with a resinous substance, or pitch, common in that country, and called'da'ma, the bottom presents, as it were, one impenetrable surface, as imperviousto the water as it< is possible for any substance, in the slightest degree porous,should be. The mechanical labour and attention paid to the formation of thepart just described, caused, as it were, naturally, and many years before it wasintroduced into what may be called European practice, the most rigid care to be

* The Sir Edward Hughes, a ship belonging to the British East India Company, was built atBombay some years since by the Indian shipwrights. The care taken in the construction, and thematerials used (the teak wood above-mentioned) have caused this vessel to render much more servicethan any European-built ship has done. It is a custom with the Indian shipwrights, which must notbe omitted to be mentioned, to make tanks, or cisterns, in the vessels they build ; these supply theplace of water-butts, for the necessary supply of the crew, and are found, in some respects, such asthe saving of manual labour, as well as stowage, together with their continuing always perfectlywater-tight, to answer the proposed purpose extremely well..

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