New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1855-05-07
SAILING SHIPS.

Among all the arts there is none IN whicn
modern superiority is so incOntestable as IN snip
building Indeed. We incline TO believe that IN
this art we have now reached the limit oil per-
FICTION. As regard model and rig OF ships we
fancy that the world will hereafter do little
more than yibrate from one to another OF those
varieties already in use. The immense strides
If the last few years, and the wonderful achieve
ments of our clippers. followed as they have
been by reaction, after faithful trlai oil the
new models. seems to demonstrate what Is prac-
ticslly the best external shape for ships pro-
PEELED By sails. We had occasion To observe
more than a wear ago, that the clipper build OF
,hips. although they were accomplishing won
dertiu and unheard of feats of speed, would
gradually be abandoned. This opinion is con-
frmed by every days experience. Our wariest
and yisest owners and masters Fronting by every
experience and every hint. with an eye perpetu-
aly keen for profit, and a vigilance as wakeiul As
human cupidity, seem to have, with toleraoie
unanimity settled upon the httest model for
sailing ship. This model may be termed cross
between the old freighting-ship of quar-
ter of century ago and the modern clip
per. An example OF such vessel may be seen
n our docks in new packet just added to one
of our Liverpool lines. We alude TO the ship
NEPTUNE. belonging We believe, to Messrs. T.
H. Marshall II Co. 4 more substantial noble
looking. and sailorly craft never loated
We do not know where she was built
or by whom But there is fitness, ro-
business and air of championship and perfection
about every part that challenges the spontane-
GUS admiration of every man who has an eye Tor
admirable specimens of naval architecture. II
such craft cannot successfully wrestle with the
sea and the storm, it is hard TO imagine one that
will She is Il vessel to excite the dormant en-
thusasm of a decayed tar of eighty winters.
Yet we do not mean TO say that she is the only
ship of her kind. BY no means. She is but
specimen of a class She belongs to family ct
American ships that are of exquisite symmetry
and unriyalled qualities-a class of ships that
have given Us our great maritime distinction all
over the world There is something singular to
the unfinished, perhaps, in making idols OF such
specimens of human handicraft; but, we dare
say, it is as legitimate an enthusiasm and as true
love of beauty as ever thrilled in delight before
Greek statue or Gothic cathedral. Besides,
it is field of production in which Americans
may properly feel a national pride.
But there is one thing yet left for genius TO
achieve in shp-building. This is to render our
vessels more secure against the perils of the
deep. The ship of our time, as of all time, is
but a shell. Perforate or break it anywhere and
the consequences are fatal The remedy is sim
pie and easy, and can be made with scarce any
detriment to the profit or capacity OF the ship.
This is, TO divide her into water-tght compart-
ments. Most especially should this be done
with all passenger ships. The sad tragedy of
the Arctic is a pregnant lesson, as well as an
eminent example of what such mode OF con-
struction would have done in single instance.
Ii saved the ship, and her passengers, which
came in collision with that Inflated steamer.
Let the plan we suggest be- generally adopted
aud the long list of vessels which annually go
down unheralded and swell the vast number of
missing ships will be sensibly decreased. Many
pair of noble vessels have, We doubt not,
closed in fatal embrace in the darkness of
night leaving not relic To tell the story of their
loss. Yet such a collision need never be fatal.
The necessity of such additional precautions for
safety is becoming more imperative from the
rapid multiplication OF sea-going vessels, and
from the fact that every sea is by night and by
day trayersed by steamers running in all direc-
tions, thus vastly increasing the risk of contact