The Sun.
London, England, 1845-09-04 00:00:00

Bit IG4.

Twenty-three afloat
Ten in pro,re,i
203,993

PACKETS.

Nine afloat
11RIGANTINEti

63,850

Three afloat
One in progrets Bl2
20,212

X 1,356,250
We have nearly a hundred ships, involving an expenditure
of 1,3b6,250/. This enormous sum applies, it will be remem-
bered, to vessels many of w hich are only half finished, and has
no reference to steamers, on which an enormous amount of
money has also been squandered, without the production of a
single vessel that really answers the purpose for which she was
intended. Now it is surely competent to any Member of Par-
liament or public journalist to assert that this immense amount
of the public treasure ought not to have been placed at the dis-
posal of any individual, let his reputation for talent have been
what it might, without the most ample proof of his competency
to direct its application. To confine ourselves to Sir William
Stnonds's four crack ships, the Vernon, the Queen, the Pique,
and the Albion—it is a fact, placed beyond the possibility
of contradiction, that [not one of them has realised the
etdculations of her constructor ; and that he has scarcely
ever produced a ship which has answered his own
expectations of her displacement. Among the more
flagrant examples of this sort of incapacity may be mentioned
the Spartan, the Gorgon, the Victoria and Albert, and the
Retribution. Several, like the Gulnare, the Blazer, and the
Tartarus, floated so deep in the water that it was nece•sary to
take out the engines which had been provided far them, and
supply their Flute with others better calculated to conceal the
miserable blunders of their constructor. Nor was an ex- '
change of engines the only expedient to which it became ne-
cessary to resort before these vessels could be commissioned.
'I he Gorgon was built with a view to carry guns on her lower
deck, but the notion was of necessity abandoned and her ports
caulked down, or the first gale would have sunk her ; and yet
with this fact before their eyes, the Surveyor's patrons permitted
him to lay down another vessel on similar lines. The Cyclops, the
Victoria and Albert, and numerous others of his ships, have only
been rendered serviceable by continual and costly alterations
after trey were launched; to say nothing of even more expen-
sive deviations from the original plans furnished by hint when
they were on the stocks. Yet in the teeth of these formidable
proofs of incompetency, blunders which no degree of tinkering
or coaxing can ever repair, and which nut even the unscrupu-
lous favouritism of Lord Minto could conceal—notwithstanding
the shield he extended over their author—no qualm or doubt
of any as to the propriety of enabling their perpetrator
t, go on squandering the public money in the accumulation of
fresh failures, appears, for one moment, to have entered the
heads of his patrons. Nay, so blind was their partisanship,
that, in all the pretended trials of Sir W. Syrocinds's ships with
those of other constructors, they took care to have them con-
ducted on a principle that offered as slight a chance as possible to
his ri, als ; aid if any vessel, like the Pal ham, offered prac-
tical proofs of superiority which it vas impossible to suppress
or distort, they permitted him to break her up, or sell her out
of the service. We believe we are within the mark when we
affirm that ships have been thus disposed of whose very copper
and iron, to say nothing of timber, comparatively undamaged,
have produced nearly the sum for which they have been sold.
On the other hand, the Vernon and Pique, new ships, have
ab•olutely cost a great deal more than they are worth in altera-
tions anti repairs, and are now (of the condition of the Vernon
at least we can steak confidently) only tit, like the Rover, to
be broken up. Tide by the way; for we propose, on a future
occasion, to lay before our readers some details of the condi•
thin and value of the various ships either broken up or re-
commended to be broken up by the present Surveyor of the
Navy, and the inadequacy of the price obtained for them.
.Vase, reeenir d 710 S moutons. It is a fact which cannot be

gainsaid, and which has been repeatedly admitted in the
House of Commons and elsewhere, by men every way com-
petent to form a correct judgment on the subject, that during
the last twelve years the science of naval architecture has not
only not advanced, but has absolutely retrogaded; and that this
result is owing to the adoption, nay mere, the protection of
the crude theories of unscientific pretenders, who, if required
so to do, would be found unequal to the solution, mathema-
tically, of one of the simplest problems of their art. During
the existence of the school of naval architecture, fostered and
encouraged by the good Lord Melville, there was, we will
venture to affirm, nu one of its alumni who could not have
calculated n ith the nicest precision the displacement of a vessel
of given dimensions. In our own day, however, and some
twelve years after the impolitic dissolution of this valuable in
stitution, on the ground, we presume, that an elementary
know ledge of ship-building is not requisite to qualify a
sul veyor of the navy fur his duties—out of upwards of a
hundred ships constructed by Sir William Symonds we are
perfectly safe in asserting that there are not half a dozen
which fulfil, in this simple element of the science, the
intention of their constructor. The obstinate repudiation
by Sir William Symonds of that aid by which alone a
naval constructor can achieve a contemplated result
reply of the well-known painter, Fuseli, when recommended
"nature,"
a tu precision,
re, reminds us forcibly of the
Hang Nature (said he) she
off William seems to eschew the study of the
by a
scientific:uittlsi Infarenin out
t. ey dtdetgpl%);rsettesunSdei oryn
t of his art on the same principle—it
" puts him out l" Yet, ignorant as he is of the science of
ship-building, so much so, indeed, as to be unable to solve its
simplest problem, he has been permitted to make his hit or
teavtear may have been the motives
miss" experiments for upwards of tesvoestiveofyenaerasr,loynammoirlleiotrhiaannda
screening for so long a period
olat
fi:hfs Inirfreneasi ships,detperarcui:
incapacity,
:adaansutsdi
of
au that,
trATeodlrymd intwrogahol
ta,
hy n
im the means of increasing the
number of his failures, it is incumbent on their successors, who
have shown so sealous and anxiout a desire to promote the in-
terests of the public service, to adopt some mode of releasing
are hourly incur-
titl:g4moniviliviessaic.rcoonusntth. e vLaosrtdreisrpigoensstirbeil,itshothehyas a sound practical
as well as theoretical knowledge of the subject, proposes the
establishment of a board of construction as the only feasible
means of arriving at any really satisfactory result. Let the
surveyor be a member of this board if it be thought desirable;
but let him, for the future, be restrained from the repetition of
blunders which the merest tyro in the science, acting upon
known and recognised principles, would be enabled to avoid.

THE EXPERIMENTAL FLEET.
Yesterday we published a summary of the trials between
the ships of the experimental fleet, in the accuracy of which
results we have the greatest confidence. All accounts agree
that the trials took place in light winds, and for the most part
in smooth water, the very weather in which the surveyor's
ships have been always stated to have the advantage. Other
details of the trial railings induce a result rather different than
our yesterday's summary. We, therefore, give them as they
have reached us.
By these accounts, there were five trials between the whole
fleet " with the wind," and six trials " on a wind," besides
other trials one ship with another, and one class with another.
inthe trials July 19 and 22, and
;itgut e;,
17, and 18, five in number, the Queen is first,
Waving beaten the others three times out of five, but at the most
nut above a mile and a halt. The Albion is second, having
, "with the wind" an
beat the Queen once, and the Rodney four times out of five.
The Rodney is third, having beat the Queen once, and the
Albion case. The Canopus is fourth, beating the Queen
once, the Albion once, and the Rodney twice. The St. Vin-
cent is fifth, heating all the ships once, on which occasion the
Queen was fourth, more than a mile astern, and the Albion a
mile and a half astern ;
the Rodney was second on that occa-
sion, and the Canopus third, only about 32 fathoms from the
St. Vincent ; the Superb was sixth, the Vanguard seventh,
and Trafalgar last —thus
WITH THE WINII.

July 1 July Aug. Aug. Aug.
19 1 22 6 17 18
Queen
61 las last it.
Trafalgar
1 3
• 4
St. Vincent 6
Albion
Rodney
Canopus
Var guard
Superb 5 7 last ' 6 6
_---------.

7 , T,
,h
ae
nr ed were. 22 six
ttrialh e es
thet o ncla
was firA every time,
uweeirrrld," July 26, 'A , August 5,
beat-
ing the others above half a mile,
except on two occasions, and
in two trials was not much more than a cable's length. The
Canopus. second three times out of the six, and third twice,
beating the Albion four times. The Albion was third, having
been second only on one occasion, and till. d three times, beat-
ing the Rodney four time 3. The Rodney, fourth, beating the
AllJion twice. The Trafalar was fifth ; she beat all but the
Queen once and the St. Vincent three times. The St. Vin-
cent was sixth ; she did not try one day and was third on ano.
ther, beating the Albion and Rodney. The Superb was last
twice, and seventh four times; but the Vanguard was last four
times and before the Superb twice. Thus—
ON A WIND.

July July
Aug.T•7 9 22 Aug. Aug. Aug.
2G 29
--- - _
-- ---- ---
Queen ... .....
Trafalgar 5 2 6 - 5 4 46
6 5
St. Vincent 3 not tried 5
Albion 4 5 3 2 3 3
Rodney ... . 6 4 4 4 5 2
CA n oral i
last last last 7
Vanguard
Superb

The first day's trial, on the 19th July, lasted from a quarter
meg and three
to 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., and the advantage gained by the first ship
over the fourth ship was not so much as a quarter of a mile,
and over the seventh not two
quarters, arlii thf?,
last only six miles and a half, In some Gi tho tirals the rate of
il
sailing was only from ono to three knots, and sometimes the
ships had little more than steerage way. The degree of ineli.
nation varied. In a" cross swell," and the rate of railing five
knots, the inclit.ation was said to be—of Vanguard, 3 degrees;
Queen, 3i; Albion and Trafalgar, 4 , Superb, 4i ; St. Vin_
cent and Canopus, si;
Rodney, 0.

SEPARATE TRIALS.
In a tr;•,.l "cn Fr Iviild,' 0.3 the 14sili 441 y, 14.4 n the
under double-reefed topsails:
two
topgallant sails, jib, and spanker. wind westerly, at a rate of
det&eis only, aasitig to windward
sailing from .1 to 4i knots, the result was said to be thus:_..
Albion, Canopus, Vanguard, Rodney, and Superb.
With reference to the Queen and Albion, a trial sailing on a
wind took place on the 31st July, under double-reefed topsail:,
fo,e and ruainte;gallant sails, jib,
and ;:panker. Win 4 N W`iiy
wi w, oerrig-a point each way.. Rate dr sailing;iii knots.
T4e Alhion had a decided advantage.