New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1855-05-23
AN AMERICAN ART.
mon InteresI


tering Law applied to il; ard if we needed
new argument to demonstrate the benefcence
ofprotection for our national industry, we should
point to the splendid successes which have re-
warded the wisdom Of our ancestors in securing
us from those fatal influences Of European COM
petition which have been balefally felt in al
other branches of manufacturing. In the art Of
| ship Building, one Of the noblest 10 which hu-
| man ingenuity ever directed It's energies, we
have mp to within year or two enjoyed an abb
solute freedom from foreign interference. There
was no tariff of duties laid upon foreign-built
vessels, but an absolute prohibition of importa-
! ton 4 citizen of the United States was pro-
hbted from owning even a skif which was not
built within the jurisdiction of our Government.
What has been the result OF this policy The
last number of The Westminster RcrieD cOnfesses
that ior fifty years past the merchant ships ofthe
Omitted States have VIGOROUSLY been far better
built than those Of Great Britain And yet
Great Britain has during the past fifty years
been the greatest maritime power of the world,
and even now she pretends to rule the waves,
though at the same time she is compelled to
/
to the Crimea.
The greater includes the less in the mechanic
arts as well as in mathematics, and if we are
dependent upon Europe for our laces, silks,
gloves, hosiery, calicOes and the innumerable
costly articles of art-manuiacture which cyili-
zation renders necessary to our daily COM
| fort, while we are furnishing her with the
nober productions Of our shipyards, 1t is be-
cause these lesser arts have not enjoyed the
same degree Of protection which was extended
to the art of navigation. Our connosseurs
90 into fegned raptures over trumpery works o.
art which are imported here from Europe, and
write home, when they go abroad, extray-
agant eulogiums on foreign buildings, while
they have no eyes for the magnificent
objects lying at our wharveAor gliding in and out
Of our harbors like exhalations of loneliness
from the bosom of the deep. They do not know
or feel that the Parthenon is not more beautiful,
or the finest palace of France orltaly more
legitimate object of authorship than some OF
the beautiful vessels which lie neglected in the
waters of our own magnificent harbor. John
Ruskin saws in the first volume of his Stones of
MUS that " without any manner of doubt ship
- is one of the loyeliest things man ever made,
ard one of the noblest; nor do | know any
&" lines out of divine work so lovely as those Of
L" the head Of a ship, or even as the sweep OF
the timbers OF small boat" The opinion of
such an enthusiast in art as Ruskn, who has de-
voted his life to a study OF architecture, may be
.f,I "A oh og Npt
we doubt if he has ever seen any such noble ex-
amples of ship-building as we are familiar with
in this country.
We were most forcibly reminded of Ruskin's
enthusiastic tribute to the beauty OF a ship,
few days SINCE while standing at the stern OF the
frgate Niagara in the Brooklyn Navy Yard, and
taking in by one glance of the eye the exquisitely
beautiful lines OF, that superb specimen of naval
architecture. 1t is an odd expression to apply
to such huge mass of timber, for we believe
she is the largest vessel in the world, but lovely
is the only term that properly tells the exquisite
sensation with which the view of her fills the
mind She is truly the most graceful and salts
fying work of art we have ever beheld, and,
looking upon the faultless curves OF her tim
bers, and the fascinating sweep of her enormous
hull, one feels as every artistic and thoughtful
mind must sometimes have done when gazing
upon a sleeping infant or bank Of cumulous
clouds in a summer sky
What adds to the sensation Of delight with
which we view stupendous work of human in
genuity like this noble ship is the almost sub
lime impossibility Of its conception and execu-
ton. The Apollo Belvidere or the Venus of
Milo is only beautiful copy of a human being
gracefully moulded and deliberately carved,
patched, chseles, mended and altered until its
resemblance to the original or to the artists
ideal was complete. But in the case OF ship
infinitely complicated principles are involved,
the combination of which in the mind of the
builder must produce the perfected form before
the first timber can be laid or the orders issued
10 the thousand workmen who are to aid him in
accomplishing his splendid design. One little
mistake in the foundation, one miscalcuation
or error of judgment in the beginning will be
fatal TO the whole work. But no such error
occurs, and the great work grows slowly up
under the eye of the watchful architect until the
noble vessel is launched upon the element which
she has been fitted to dwell in and master.
The Niagara is we learn the largest of the five
screw steam frigates which are now in process
Of construction for the Nary, and as We have
stated, the largest ship in the world; and We
have no doubt that she will be as preeminent in
beauty and in all the qualities which a ship
should possess as she viii be in size.
The actual dimensions OF this magnificent yes
sci are as follows: Tunnsge $500; extreme