Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1886-08-29

,mt,Lt, iLe Nile. anu nv irAls,sir
after the next set Of marine battles We
may unfortunately have to fight?
One highlj romantic festute OF the
old life was crushed out Of it by the in-
PRODUCTION Of the iron plates. In former
sges when a ship went ashore and
obliged her mariners to leap on the land
or to struggle through the surf to pre-
serve their lives. the fragments of the
wreck very commonly enabled the peo-
pie TO build themselves little ships IN
which, with small freight Of turtle or
dried fish or picked buffllo-steaks,
they would sail away for a settlement,
reach home. and writo books Of their
travels. There are many exciting situ-
atoms Of this kind in such voyages
as those Of Master Cowley, Captain
Cooke, Captain Dsmpier, Commodore
Arson and others. who are in no wise
to be suspected OF exsggeratiOn, ia spite
Of De Foes sheer that $50 soon as
men have acted the sailor they come
ashore and write books Of their vOy-
age, not only to make a grea, noise Of
what they have done themselves, but,
pretending to show the way to others
to come after them, they set up for
teachers and chart-makers to posteri-
ty." But in these days Of iron VIVA,
are castawsy sailors to do? There are
no shsllops to be manufactured out OF
angle. irons, and a metal carcass high
and dry would be as worthless to the
nimblest and most cunning Of ships
carpenters as if she were St the bottom
Of the ocean.
WOOD VS.. IRON.
But the evanishment OF the Vulture
symbolzes the removal Of grave diff
Guilty that had been threatened in days
when nothing but wood was dreamt OF
in marine structures. 1t is n fact that
such was occasionally the scarcity OF
timber and the difficulty OF obtaining
it there was not to be sometimes found
so much as q single four-lnch plank IN
such a dock-yar as that, for instance.
at Plymouth. Sin proportion" says
a writer inquiring intothe condition Of
the royal navy, "as scanty supplies OF
timber were obtained twas instantly APP
piled to the ships, and on the arrival Of a
load there was so much scrambling for
it, more especially for the crooked tim
Der. that disturbances were nearly ex-
cited among the workmen. lie adds
With two points Of exclamation at the
end of his sentence: In the case of a
Fart of the crooked timber, the leaves
were still green" Iron remedied
difficulty which must, in courseof time,
have threatened this country's maritime
supremacy in proportion as the needs OF
her naval ornaments increased and the
supplies of timber diminished. 1t was
our fortune during the great wars
of the last and Of the early
part Of the present centuries
to keep our navy powerful by the nu-
merous captures made from the Dutch,
French, and Spanish. As an example.
in 1906 the whole navy, including hulks
and prison ships, consisted Of $50 ves-
sells, in all representing $4,000 tons,
of which ia, 1000 had been taken from
the enemy. But then, to be sure,
though timber was scarce, prices re-
manned comparatively low for even
crack ships, since little more than a
hundred years ago we read of the BOs-
Ton. a thirty-two-gun frigate Of nearly
! 700 tons, built by contract in the River
Thames for e7,53i-that is to say, for
about el0 ton. as against more than
$50 per ton for such an iron clad as the
Hero.
The old wooden ship, not, indeed,
such as the Vulture, which belongs
quite to our own times, but such hulks
as ore finds lying opposite the Isle o.
Wjsht or in Portsmouth harbor, or W
the Uamoaze, are pregnant with grave
and eloquent homilies. They illustrate
the history of shipbuildiDg, a subject
that should prove the most interesting
of all things to Englishmen. A few
types still survive in the merchant ser
vice at least the names are retained IL
spite of the entire alteration in rig
For instance, the ketch in the day
when those old wooden hulks were giving
battle to the enemy was furnished
with canvas and Yards which made he
resemble brig. There was also ayes
sci named a bilander, which has com
pletely disappeared; but the snow, To-
brig. the brigsntine, the xebec, tn
schooner. the galliot, and the sloop VI
have still. One kind Of war vessel lonl
fingered, and may be heard Of through
many chapters of English naval histor,
down to the present century. This wa
the galley, which we now think OF as
long, open boat fitted for ten or twelv
rowers, but which in earlier times wa
a name that distinguished q small bu
powerful vessel mounting three bate
ries of cannon, drawing little water
commonly rugged with large lsteen sails
and pulling twenty-five banks OF oars
Yet it must be said that, in spite G
the alteration OF names and modiica
tons and improvements Of detail spit
even OF the introduction of iron, tn
actual technical alterations Of the ms
rine are smaller than many woul
imagine. 1t is only necessary to TAX
up any old nautical dictionary, sue
as Boterler's Sea Dialogues 0
Blankley's Naval Expositor," t
perceive how really trifiDg are to
changes in the rigging of q shif
or even in the actual construc
ton of her, without referenC
to material. There is MOTTO
that the tall round-boved man-of-wa
: or merchantmen Of past day haule
the wind with the utmost difficulty, an
could scarcely hold her own on bow
line at eight points. But it has bee
distinctly shown that vessel with ca
harpings, contrived to allow the yard
to be braced we'll fore and Aft, could i
as close to the wind Is ak points. 5
G.S. Mares, In his l." Seamanship," give
a card Of points which allows vessel
DO within five points Of the wind
but this is not to be credited Of
, squMerigged craft. Six points to sese
and half, and even eight, are the tru