HISTORY OF MARINE ARCHITECTURE.

4ia

the united efforts of these philanthropic colleagues, the lives of some hundredsof persons have already been fortunately preserved, who would otherwise havefallen victims to the rage of the ocean.

Success in one respect rarely fails to excite envy, or at least, to use a morebenevolent, and certainly more appropriate term in the present instance, emulation.A boat was built in the River Thames, having the space under the thwarts boardedup, and rendered water-tight, by which means though the boat itself should befilled with water, the vacuum or empty space whither it could not penetrate,would prove such a counterpoise of flotation to the weight of the rowers, as wouldprevent the boat itself from sinking. A variety of contrivances, all tending to thesame point, suggested by several ingenious persons, appeared in different quartersabout the same time, but the distinguishing points are so immaterial, as to renderany specific explanation unnecessary.

The science of Marine Architecture has, for many ages, been subservient tothe impulses of ambition, avarice, luxury, or curiosity : it remained for Britain,in the eighteenth century, to direct it to purposes more truly noble and patriotic,of general benefit, and of universal extent—to the prevention of domestic misery;to the maintenance of national population; and to the preservation of the humanspecies.

THE END.

Clarke, Printer,Northumberland-Court,

Strand.