The Sun.
London, England, 1847-06-04 00:00:00

INSTITUTION OF CIVIL
ENGINEERS.
Jc•sz I.—Sir John Rennie, President, in the chair.
The paper read was an account of the iron barque
Josephine, of Liverpool, by Captain Masters, who
commanded her in the voyages she has made.
The subject of iron vessels is one of great
importance, and the use of that material in naval
architecture has been steadily progressing since it
was introduced for sea-going vessels by Mr. Manby
in the steamer named after him, in 1821, and which was
the only vessel that ever conveyed a cargo direcf between
London and Paris without trans-shipment. Sanguine
hopes had been entertained of introducing iron vessels
of war, but it appears from the partial accounts that
have been made public of the results of the experiments
at Woolwich and elsewhere, that the effects of cannon
shot on iron vessels is more destructive than upon
tiaber.
The paper read was a plain and somewhat dry specifi-
cation of the construction of the vessel, which will
however, when printed in extenso in the minutes of pro-
ceedings, be extremely useful. The main dimensions of
the barque Josephine are :—Length over all, 99 feet 6
inches ; extreme breadth, 24 feet 6 inches ; depth of
hold, 9 feet 9 inches. Register tonnage, 168 tons ;
by old measurement, 221 tons. She was of a pe-
culiar build, differing from almost any other mer-
chant ship, being intended for service in the Mexican
trade, and calculated to cross the bar of Tampico, and
other impediments. She was entirely of iron, even to
the bulwarks; and as she lay low in the water, draw-
ing 9 feet aft, and eight feet 8 inches forward, her
Torts were hung on hinges forward, so that they
should act as valves, and allow the water to escape
from the deck, and yet shut of themselves when she
heeled over deep on her side. Her general rate
of sailing was from 11f to 12 knots per hour ;
she was very buoyant and very dry ; rising well
to the sea. There was great capacity for stowing the
cargo, owing to the absence of large projecting timbers.
She was somewhat damp forward and aft, but was very
dry in the main hold. There was not found to be any
difference in the health of the crew from that of wooden
vessels • she was a little cooler than other ships, owing
to her being so deep in the water, and the thin material
did not retain the heat like wood.

--lion ships have generally been found to get very foul.
The Josephine was, however, paid with various compo-
sitions as experiments, that which succeeded best was 1
barrel of varnish, 24 cwts. of best tallow, 40 lbs. black
lead, 1 lbs. brimstone, 70 lbs. arsenic. This being ap-
plied hot, the iron having been previously warmed and
paid with boiled linseed oil, appeared to have prevented
foulness, as after ber voyages there was little weed or
grass, and scarcely any barnacle; but very alight oxida-
tion took place, and that only where the composition had
been rubbed off. _

They were as much annoyed by rats as in a timber
ship, nor could they be destroyed by any of the means
adopted.
The principal feature of the paper was that which
treated of the local attraction of the compasses, which
can scarcely be in an abridged form. It appeared
that as long as the ship was on an even keel and
perfectly upright, the compasses acted correctly, but
in proportion to the listing over so was the derange-
ment of the magnet, for the local attraction ~being
changed by the side frames and deck beams falling into
new positions, this caused great variation in the ship's
course, and it led to a conjecture whether this may not
have been the cause of the loss of the Great Britain, as
if her compasses were acted upon as much as those of the
Josephine, a deviation of six miles and a half from her
course might easily have occurred.
Captain Masters suggested the hanging the binnacles
complete in gimbles like the compass, in order to their
alvrays remaining vertical, and also in adjusting the
compasses that they should be tried in every position,
a tstble of variation being made out for every degree of
list ing over. The paper was illustrated by drawings of
the vessel and of her rigging, which possessed poe c 1.•
ari corrections u
ties, and also by several tables for the n of
the compasses.

'I e paper announced to be read at the next meeting
was " On the Expansion of Steam," by J. M. Heppe',
Grad. Inst. C.E.
A..t the monthly ballot the following gentlemen were
elected :—Messrs. J. B. Clacy, J. Phillips, W. Sayce, and
Captain J. L. A. Simmons, associate.