DOCK, An inclosed space for the reception of ships, either for their security or for the convenience of building or giving them repairs. This word has been derived by some, absurdly enough, from the Greek beγj>μaι, to receive. That we had it, along with almost the whole of our seaterms, from the northern continental nations, is sufficiently obvious. Thus in Flemish it is doh ; Teutonic, doch ; Swedish, docha; Suio-Gothic, docha ; perhaps originally from dehhen, to cover, protect, secure, inclose. The dock for inclosing the prisoner in a court of justice is evidently from the same origin.

Docks for the reception of ships are of two kinds, wet and dry.

A wet dock may either have gates to retain the water in it, so that ships shall constantly remain afloat, or be left open for the tide to flow into and ebb out of it at pleasure, either leaving it dry at low water, or with a certain depth of water remaining in it, according to its construction and situation with regard to the low-water mark, and to the ebbing of the sea at spring or neap tides. A wet dock, without 'gates, is generally distinguished by the name of a basin, which, however, is sometimes indiscriminately applied to a wet dock, whether with or without gates.

A dry doch either becomes dry by the ebbing of the tide when the gates are left open, or by shutting the gates at low water, and pumping out whatever water may remain in it at that time, by the power of men, horses, wind, or, which is now most commonly performed in the king’s dock-yards, by the steam-engine.

A wet doch, therefore, may be defined to be “a basin of water, in which ships may be kept afloat at all times of the tide a dry doch, a “receptacle in which every part of a ship can be examined, and its defects repaired.” Ships may also be conveniently built in dry docks, and floated out by opening the gates; though, in all dockyards, there are places set apart for this purpose, under the name of slips. A wet dock is called by the French un basin ; a dry dock, une forme ; and a slip, un calle.

The digging out the earth, and building the surrounding walls of masonry to prevent the sides falling in, and the preparation of the mortar and puzzolana, in the construction of a wet dock, are attended with great labour and expense. The two wet docks or basins of Cherbourg (see Breakwater), which aτe probably the finest specimens that exist in the world, are estimated to have cost three millions sterling. The labour of excavation may sometimes be spared, and a series of wet docks or basins conveniently made by turning the course of a tide-river through an isthmus, and placing a pair of gates at each end of the old channel. In this way were the new docks of Bristol constructed out of the bed of the Avon.

Wet docks are an improvement in navigation and commerce of the utmost importance, but of very modern date in this country; indeed, they owe their introduction entirely to a spirit of individual enterprise in commercial speculation. Liverpool might still have remained a poor fishing village but for its convenient docks, which not only produce to the town and corporation a large revenue, but ensure to the merchant every possible facility in refitting, loading, and discharging his ships, whatever their burden or their cargo may be, without being exposed to the risk of losing both ship and cargo in a rapid tide-river; and, at all events, to an unavoidable delay, occasioned by distance, the weather, or the state of the tides.

Hull is also greatly indebted for the extension of its commerce to its docks. Its old wet dock contains an area of ten acres nearly, and has accommodated at one time 130 sail of such vessels as frequent that port.

London, though unquestionably the first city in the world for its opulence, its commerce, and public spirit, and possessing within itself the powerful internal means of supporting docks, and all other conveniences that trade and shipping may require on the most extensive plans; London has been the last to try the experiment of docks, except in the case of two spirited individuals, Mr Perry at Blackwall, and Mr Wells at Greenland Dock, both private ship-builders. Notwithstanding the total inadequacy of legal quays, which subjected the merchants to incalculable losses and delays, and in many cases proved absolutely ruinous; notwithstanding the effect of the heavy, expensive, and fatal embarrassments experienced regularly on the arrival of the West India fleets, and the annual losses, by plunder in the river, on West India produce, which alone were calculated to amount to L. 150,000 to the proprietor, and L.50,000 to the revenue, and more than the double of those sums, including other branches of commerce; it was not till the year 1799 that prejudices and private interests were so far removed as to enable the merchants concerned in the West India trade to obtain an act of parliament to carry into execution a plan of docks, quays, and warehouses, for the convenience of that trade on the Isle of Dogs. Since that time the London Docks, St Katharine Docks, and various others, have been completed, to the incalculable benefit of the shipping interest and the commerce of the metropolis.

The docks of Liverpool were the first of the kind that were constructed in this kingdom, by virtue of an act of parliament passed in 1708; and from that period the town of Liverpool has rapidly raised itself from a poor fishing village, and a port for coasting vessels, to be the second commercial town and port in the empire; and the plan of improvements now carrying into execution for the enlargement and better arrangement of the docks will, when completed, render it, for convenience and appearance, in this respect the very first, not London even excepted.

It appears from a statement, apparently authentic, that in the ten years ending with 1808, the number of ships which entered these docks was 48,497, tonnage 4,954,204; and the dock duties received L.329,566; and that, in the following ten years ending in 1818, the number of ships was 60,200, the tonnage 6,375,560, and the amount of duties L.666,438. It may also be observed, that this extraordinary increase has taken place since the abolition of the slave trade, which, it was asserted, would be the ruin of Liverpool.

The docks of Hull have also been advantageous, though in a less degree, to the wealth and prosperity of this trading town. The docks at Leith afford security and convenience to the increased commerce of the capital of Scotland.

The West India Docks on the river Thames commenced in February 1800, and were opened in August 1802. They consist of an outward and a homeward-bound dock, and communicate by means of locks with a basin of five or. six acres on the end next to Blackwall, and with another of more than two acres at the end next to Limehouse, both of which basins communicate with the Thames. The outward-bound dock is about 870 yards in length, by 135 in width, containing consequently an area of more than twenty-four acres; the homeward-bound dock is of the [7:8:76]same length, and 166 yards in width, its area being little short of thirty acres; and the two together will contain with ease at least 500 vessels of from 250 to 500 tons. The whole are surrounded with a high wall, and, as a security against fire, the moment that a ship enters the dock the crews are discharged, and no person whatever is allowed to remain on board, or within the premises, the gates of which are closed at a certain hour. They are surrounded by immense warehouses, which are estimated to contain nearly 10,000 hogsheads of sugar, and an immense quantity of rum. The sum authorized by parliament to be raised for completing these docks and warehouses was L.1,200,000, and the total expense was probably not far short of one million and a half; yet on this capital the subscribers have been receiving from a very short period after their opening ten per cent., which, by the terms of the act, is not to be exceeded, and the term granted is limited to twenty-one years; but, like most other property, these docks have been greatly depreciated in value, and at present barely pay eight per cent.

The next set of docks that were undertaken for the advantage of the trade of the capital was the London Dochs. These docks are situated in Wapping, and are appropriated for the reception of all ships arriving in the port of London with wine, spirits, tobacco, and rice on board, but not exclusively, ships having on board other cargoes being admitted, on the payment of certain fees. The act of parliament for incorporating the dock company was passed in 1800, authorizing them to raise a capital of L.1,200,000; but such was the number of houses to be purchased (we believe not less than twelve hundred) occupying the site of the dock, that this capital, by subsequent acts, was extended to L.2,200,000, the dividends on which are limited, as in the West India Docks, to ten per cent. The great dock is 420 yards in length, and 230 yards in width, covering an area of twenty acres. A basin of three acres nearly connects it with the river. The warehouses are very magnificent; and the tobacco warehouse is the grandest and most spacious building of its kind in the world, being capable of containing five and twenty thousand hogsheads of tobaceo, and the vaults underneath as many pipes of wine. This single building, under one roof, is said to occupy upwards of four acres of ground. These docks were opened in February 1805.

The East India Docks, for the exclusive reception and accommodation of the East India ships, were the last in succession. The act for the incorporation of the company was passed in July 1803, authorizing them to raise a capital of L.200,000, which was afterwards increased to L.600,000, the dividend, as in the ease of the two others, to be limited to ten per cent. These docks are situated at Blackwall. That for the reception of homeward bound ships is 470 yards in length by 187 in width, containing a surface of rather more than eighteen acres; the outward-bound dock is 260 by 173 yards, and is consequently something more than nine acres. An entrance basin of three acres nearly, and a spacious lock, connect them with the Thames.

A dry dock, requiring to be perfectly water-tight, demands the greatest care in its construction. It is sometimes lined all round with wood, but more generally with masonry, mostly of hewn granite. The expense is very considerable, as the foundation, by means of piles or otherwise, must be well secured, all leakage prevented, and the culvers or drains properly constructed, to let in and carry off the water without its undermining the quays or piers. The cost of a complete dry dock will vary probably from L.20,000 to L.100,000, according to the size of the ships it is intended to admit, and the nature of the ground on which it is to be constructed. A dry dock may be single, or made to contain only one ship; or double, to contain two ships; but the former is the most common, because most convenient.

As it is of the utmost importance to preserve the water in a wet dock, and to keep it out of a dry dock, it may be proper to describe the different kinds of gates which are in use for this purpose.

The most common, and on the whole, perhaps, the best and most convenient, are swinging gates, which open in the middle, and he flat, one part against each wharf or sidewall of the passage leading into the dock or basin. The elevation of this kind of gate is represented in Plate CCIII. fig. 3. This kind of dock gate requires to be made of great strength, with sound timber and good iron, and the gudgeons on which the hinges turn to be well secured into the stone abutments. Care also must be taken to make the bottom of the passage and the bottom of the gates perfectly plane and parallel, to prevent leakage, and give facility to their opening and shutting, which is usually assisted by rollers fixed in a groove, and performed by means of a small capstern on each pier. Attached to the top of the gates is usually a foot bridge with railing, which, separating in the middle, opens and shuts with the gates.

The most simple, but by no means the most effective contrivance for keeping out the water, is the wicketgate, of which the plan and elevation are represented in Plate CCIII. fig. 5 and 6. It consists of three parts, which, when opened, are removed separately. This gate is rarely made use of unless where the abutments are not sufficiently strong, or their foundation sufficiently secure, to bear the weight of a pair of swinging gates.

A third kind of gate consists of a floating dam or cais-soon, first introduced into this country by General Bentham, and first applied to the great new basin in Portsmouth dock-yard. They are built somewhat in the shape of a Greenland fishing-boat, sharp at the two ends, narrow, and deep in proportion to the depth of water at the entrance of the dock. The keel fits into a groove at the bottom of the passage, and the two slanting ends rise and fall in corresponding grooves cut into the two abutments. Of this kind of gate, fig. 1 and 2, Plate CCIII. represent the plan and elevation. By letting in the water, the cais-soon sinks in the grooves, and acts as a closed gate; and by pumping out the water, or letting it out to a certain depth, the dam floats as the tide rises, and the narrow part, rising to the top, is readily disengaged from the grooves, and easily floated away as a boat. The advantages of these floating dams, as stated by General Bentham, are, that they are cheaper of construction than the gates heretofore in use for closing docks or basins; that they occupy less space, are more easily repaired, and one and the same dam is capable of being used, as need may require, in different places at different times. These caissoons have also the advantage of serving as bridges of communication for loaded carriages across the entrances they close, and they require much less labour than gates in opening or shutting up passages into docks or basins, since their occasional buoyancy may be obtained without pumping water or unloading ballast.

Fig. 7 represents a plan, and fig. 4 a sectional elevation, of a dry or graving dock, into which ships arc taken to have their defects examined and repaired, coppered, &c. and in which, if necessary, as already observed, ships may be built.

When a ship is brought into a dry or graving dock, she gradually subsides as the water flows out, till her keel rests upon the line of square blocks which are placed to receive it along the middle for the whole length; and on [7:8:77] these blocks she is kept steady and upright by a number of shores or poles on each side, one of their ends being placed on the altars or steps of the dock, the other under the ship’s bends and bottom. As a ship under repair generally requires something to be done to the main or false keel, or at any rate these parts require to be inspected, sometimes to shift the main keel, or to add to the whole length of the false keel, it was always found necessary in such cases to remove the blocks in order to get at the bottom of the ship; but this operation could not be performed without the more serious one of first lifting bodily the ship clear of all the blocks, and suspending her as it were in the air. This process was performed by driving wedges simultaneously under the ends of all the shores that supported the ship; an operation that required from four to five hundred men to enable them to suspend a ship of the first rate. When the San Josef, a large three-decker, required her bottom to be examined in 1800, the assistance of almost every artificer in the dock-yard was found necessary to perform this process of lifting her; nor was this the only inconvenience; the ship, thus suspended, suffered very material injury by the pressure of her own enormous weight against the ends of the shores that supported her, such as forcing in her sides, straining the knees and all her fastenings, breaking the treenails, &c.

To remedy these glaring inconveniences and very serious injuries that ships thus placed were apt to sustain, and to effect a saving of time and expense in the operation, Mr (now Sir Robert) Seppings, then master shipwright, and afterwards surveyor of the navy, contrived, sixteen or eighteen years ago, an improvement, as ingenious as it is simple, by which twenty men will suspend the largest ship in the navy, or rather, which amounts to the same thing, will disengage any one block that may be required, in the space of two or three minutes, without the necessity of suspending her at all; and, as a first rate in dock sits upon about fifty blocks, these twenty men will clear her of the whole of these blocks in about two hours; and as the saving of a day in completing the repairs of a ship is frequently the saving of a whole spring tide, the docking and undocking of a ship may make, and frequently has made, by this new method, the difference of a fortnight in the time of equipping her for sea.

The block of Mr Seppings, instead of being one solid piece, consists of three wedges, or, more properly speaking, of one obtuse wedge and two inclined planes, which, when put together and placed under the ship’s keel, appear as under, when viewed in the direction or line of the κeel, where G is the wedge on which the keel rests, having its obtuse angle equal to 170°, and HH are the two inclined planes, each having an acute angle of 5°. The wedge is of hard wood, having its two sides lined with iron; the two inclined planes are of cast iron. When one of these blocks is to be disengaged from under a ship’s bottom, nothing more is required than a few smart blows alternately on the two sides of the two inclined planes, when they fly out, and the middle part or wedge drops; and the facility of thus disengaging any of the blocks is in proportion to the quantity of pressure upon that block. The strokes are usually given by a kind of catapulta or battering-ram, being a thick spar or pole moving on a pair of wheels, as KK. This simple contrivance to get at any part of a ship’s bottom by removing in succession all the blocks, without the necessity of lifting the ship, which the removal of any one block required to be done by the old method, is now universally adopted in all the dock-yards; and the lords of the admiralty marked their sense of the great utility of the improvement, by bestowing on Mr Seppings a reward of L.1000 for the invention.

Another very material improvement, recently introduced into his majesty’s dock-yards, is that of covering the dry docks and building slips with roofs. The rapid decay of our ships of war by that species of disease known by the name of the dry rot i attracted very general attention; its effects were well known, but a variety of opinions were entertained as to its causes and its cure. It was quite obvious, however, that exclusion of air and moisture were the two great operating causes in giving activity to the progress of the disease (see Dry Rot); and that a ship in dock, stripped of her planking, and open to the weather in every part, alternately exposed to frost, rain, wind, and sunshine, must at least have her timbers differently affected, some swelled and water-soaked, others shrunk with heat, and others rifted with the wind and frost; and, if closed up with planking in this state, might be expected, at no great distance of time, to exhibit symptoms of decay. The workmen, too, in the open docks or slips, suffered from the vicissitudes of the weather no less than the ships, and their labour was frequently suspended, to the great detriment of the naval service. The measure of roofing over the docks and slips bad long and repeatedly been suggested, but, either from prejudice or a false economy 7 , it was only very recently carried into practice, but is now almost universal in all the yards. These roofs are generally constructed so as to be capable of having the sides and ends occasionally closed, according to the quarter from which the wind may blow; and by this contrivance the timber is prevented from rifting, as it is liable to do, by the action of a thorough draught of wind, and the health of the artificer is prevented from injury. The light is admitted through numerous windows placed in the roof. These roofs are in general supported on a row of wooden pillars, and covered with slate, some with plates of iron, and others with shingle. Plate CCIII. fig. 8, exhibits the transverse section of a roof thrown over the head of the dock at Plymouth, in which the Foudroyant is repairing; its span, from A to A, being 95 feet 4 inches, and the extreme width, from B to B, 125 feet 4 inches, supported, on the principle of trussing, without a single beam. Another of the same kind was built over the Prince Regent at Chatham, whose span was 100 feet, and the extreme width 150 feet. These immense roofs were constructed after a plan of Mr Seppings. The cost of one of the dimensions above mentioned was from L.6000 to L.7000, which, great as it may appear, must be amply repaid by the superior quality and durability of the ships built under it; but the same roof, with little or no repair, will, in all probability, serve as a covering for eight or ten different ships in succession. General Bentham, who, in his statement of Services rendered in the Civil Department of the [7:8:78] Navy, seems to claim to himself all the inventions and improvements which have been introduced into the dockyards for the last twenty years, carries his invention beyond a mere covering, and proposes to house over the docks and slips so completely as to afford “means of heating, warming, ventilating, and artificially lighting the interior at pleasure; the introduction of boilers or steamkilns for bending the planks within the inclosure; the introduction of machinery for assisting in various operations, particularly the more laborious ones; the providing room for carrying on all the shipwright’s work within the building; besides a variety of lesser works, such as it is found very inconvenient during the building or repairing of a ship to have executed, for example, in a smith’s or carpenter’s shop at a distance.” Such buildings would not only be enormously expensive, but, in the present crowded state of the dock-yards, utterly impracticable. With regard to the invention of covered docks and slips, they have been used in Venice from time immemorial; and it appeared, from the evidence given by Mr Strange, the consul at that port in the year 1792, before the commissioners of land revenue, that two-and-twenty large ships had been under covered slips, some of them for sixty years nearly. At Carlscrona, also, there are several covered docks, and both Mr Nicholls and Mr Snodgrass strongly recommended the building of ships under cover nearly thirty years ago.

Among other experiments which have recently been making in the dock-yards for facilitating and expediting the repairs of ships, one may be mentioned, of which many persons are sanguine enough to think that the successful result is likely to be attended with most important benefits to the naval service. It is that of hauling up ships of war, of any dimensions, on building slips, instead of taking them into docks. It is no uncommon practice, at various ports of this kingdom, where there are neither artificial basins nor natural harbours, to haul vessels of the burden of fifty to two hundred tons, or probably larger, upon the beach, by means of capstans, to give them repairs; in like manner, most of the large fishing smacks are hauled up for security in tempestuous weather; but the practicability of hauling up ships of war, especially of the larger classes, was a matter of some doubt. Several frigates had, at various times, been hauled upon slips, when the docks were all occupied; and the ease with which the operation was performed induced the officers of the dockyard to propose the hauling up of a line-of-battle ship. The Kent, of 74 guns, was selected for this purpose. It was necessary, in the first place, to take her into a dock, to have proper bilgeways prepared, and to be stripped, so as to be made as light as possible, her weight being, according to a calculation made from the water she displaced when afloat, about fourteen hundred tons. To heave up this weight fourteen capstans were employed, and the number of men to work these were as under:
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The time occupied in hauling her up, after all the purchases were brought to bear, was forty minutes. The expense of preparing her, and the loss and wear and tear of the materials, was estimated at somewhere about L.2000.

The advantages which slips are supposed to possess over dry docks are many and important. They can be constructed at one twentieth part of the expense; they occupy less space; they can be constructed on a steep or a shelving shore; and ships can be hauled upon them either in spring or neap tides; whereas a dry dock can only be made in particular situations, and, when made, ships can only be docked and undocked in certain states of the tides; from which circumstance a considerable delay and inconvenience are frequently experienced. It should be recollected, however, that a large ship must necessarily go into a dock preparatory to her being hauled up on a slip.

It has been considered as not at all impossible, as was suggested some time ago by Mr Perring, the ingenious clerk of the check in Plymouth dock-yard, that the whole ordinary may hereafter be laid up on slips, which, if housed over, would unquestionably be the best means of increasing their durability, and preserving them from partial decay. Nor is it certain that in the end it would not be the most economical mode of preserving them. The expense, as appears from the Estimates of the Ordinary of the Navy for the year 1817, is L. 187,000 for harbour victuals, harbour moorings and riggings, &c. besides L. 135,000 for wages; the chief part of both which sums is on account of ships of war laid up in ordinary, none of which would be required by placing them on slips. It would indeed form a singular revolution in naval management, if ships hereafter should be laid up in ordinary on dry land, whilst the timber of which they are built is now considered to be the best preserved under salt water; a process which, from some experiments recently made, promises fair to be the most effectual prevention of, and a probable cure for, the dry rot. (See Dry Rot). This method of preserving timber has long been practised at Brest, Carthagena, and several other places on the Continent; and the only objection to it in some of our ports appears to be the attack of the worm known to naturalists by the name of teredo navalis, whose bite is almost as destructive as the dry rot.

On the other hand, there are very many and serious objections, even were the measure practicable, of hauling up ships of the line in particular, to be laid in ordinary on slips. In the first place, the length of sea-beach which would be required is greater than probably all the dock-yards in the kingdom could furnish. Secondly, the three warrantofficers who are now employed in each ship, and who are the best men in the service, being no longer necessary, would be turned adrift, and, in all probability, utterly lost to the navy. Thirdly, no large ship could be hauled on the slips without being previously taken into a dock to have her bilgeways fitted, and her bottom prepared for placing her on the slip. The time taken for this purpose must necessarily interfere with the other works of the yard; and after taking her out, the preparations for heaving her up, the capstans, blocks, purchase-falls, chains, and a variety of other articles, amount to a very large expense, not less, with the expense of the roof to cover the ship, than L.10,000 for each slip so hauled up.

Doch- Yards.

Previously to the reign of Henry VIII. the kings of England had neither naval arsenals nor dock-yards, nor any regular establishment of civil or naval officers to provide ships of war, or to fight them. They had admirals, however, possessing a high jurisdiction and very great power. (See the article AdmiraD. And it would appear, from a very curious poem in ĩíachluit’s Collection, called The Policie of Keeping the Sea, that Henry V. had both ships, officers, and men exclusively appropriated to his service, and independently of those which tĥe Cinque Ports were bound, and the other ports were occasionally called upon, to furnish, on any emergency. By this poem it also appears that Little Hampton, unfit as it now is, was the port at which Henry built
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But what these dromions were no one can now tell; nor is it easy to conceive how the building and repairing of the Great Harry, which in the reign of Henry VII. was launched at Portsmouth, and cost L.15,000, was managed, considering the very rapid strides made at once from the small Cinque Port vessels, manned with twenty-one men and a boy, to this enormous floating castle. At that time it is well known that they had no docks, nor even substitutes for them.

The foundation of a regular navy, by the establishment of dock-yards, and the formation of a board, consisting of certain commissioners for the management of its affairs, was first laid by Henry VIII., and the first dock-yard erected under his reign was that of Woolwich. Those of Portsmouth, Deptford, Chatham, and Sheerness, followed in succession; and the last, excepting the new and unfinished yard of Pembroke, was Plymouth, which was founded by William III.

From the first establishment of the king’s dock-yards to the present time, most of them have gradually been enlarged and improved by a succession of expedients and make-shifts, which answered the purposes of the moment; but the best of them possess not those conveniences and advantages which might be obtained from a dock-yard systematically laid out on a uniform and consistent plan, with its wharfs, basins, docks, slips, magazines, and workshops, arranged according to certain fixed principles, calculated to produce convenience, economy, and dispatch.

Neither at the time when our dock-yards were first established, nor at any subsequent periods of their enlargement as the necessities of the service demanded, could it have been foreseen what incalculable advantages would one day be derived from the substitution of machinery for human labour; and without a reference to this vast improvement in all mechanical operations, it could not be expected that any provision would be made for its future introduction; on the contrary, the docks and slips, the work-shops and store-houses, were successively built at random, and placed wherever a vacant space would most conveniently admit them, and in such a manner as in most cases to render the subsequent introduction of machinery and iron railways, and those various contrivances found in the large manufacturing establishments of private individuals, quite impossible, even in the most commodious and roomy of his majesty’s dock-yards.

The want of a systematic arrangement in our dockyards, independently of machinery, and the enormous expenditure of money laid out on expedients, were questions of frequent discussion among naval men connected with the various administrations of the navy, and it was thought by many that it would be more desirable to construct an entire new dock-yard in some eligible situation, on an extensive scale, than to continue the improvements in the old ones. For this purpose, so early as the year 1765, the attention of the naval administration appears to have been turned to the Isle of Grain in the river Medway, along the shore of which is a fine expansive sheet of deep water. A dock-yard thus placed, on a systematic plan, would supersede that of Chatham on one side and Sheerness on the other; but it was discovered on boring that the substratum was so loose and sandy as not to admit of a solid foundation. General Bentham, however, revived the project in the year 1800, which he seems to claim as his own, and painted the situation in such glowing colours, and as affording so many advantages for a grand naval arsenal, that the lords of the admiralty were induced to order a fresh set of borings to be taken. These were carried to the depth of sixty feet, and were everywhere found to consist of sand and mud, and totally unfit for the construction of basins, docks, and such solid buildings as are required for naval purposes.

The imperfection of the naval yards to the eastward, the extension of the boundaries of France towards that quarter, the occupation of the great naval port of Antwerp, and the uninterrupted command of the Scheldt and the ports of Holland by that power, rendered an enlargement of the means of naval equipment in the eastern dockyards of England, or a new naval arsenal, indispensable. For the latter purpose the banks of the Thames were considered, in every point of view, as preferable to those of the Medway, the entrance into the latter being narrow, and having a bar across it, on which, at low water of spring tides, there is only fourteen or fifteen feet of water; whereas the navigation of the Thames is at all times uninterrupted, excepting by the badness of the weather. It communicates directly with the great market-town of London, in which every description of stores, foreign and domestic, is accumulated; and the trade of the Thames is the great source from which the fleet is supplied with seamen. The marshy peninsula of Northfleet was considered by naval men, who had turned their attention to the subject, to possess every possible requisite for the establishment of a royal dock-yard on an extensive scale. It was sufficiently removed from the mouth of the river to be completely sheltered, yet near enough for ships to proceed to sea with one wind. In the river between Northfleet and the sea there is plenty of water for the largest three-deckers to proceed with all their guns, ammunition, stores, and provisions on board, and almost with any wind, if moderate. A copious stream of good fresh water runs across the peninsula. The soil afforded plenty of earth suitable for bricks; the foundation was excellent for docks, slips, wharfs, and buildings of all kinds. It was sufficiently near the metropolis for speedy communication with the naval departments, and to receive stores in barges and the river craft. It was capable of being defended both on the land and river side; and when the whole was raised to the height of twelve feet with a dry gravelly soil, from the excavations of the docks and basins, there could be no doubt of the healthiness of the situation. By the direction, therefore, of the lords of the admiralty, a complete survey was made by Messrs Rennie and Whidbey, who furnished a plan and estimate of a naval arsenal on a magnificent scale, within which all kinds of machinery were proposed to be employed for the making of anchors, sawing of timber, rope-making, block-making, &c.; iron railways to be laid from the timber wharfs to the timber fields, from thence to the mills and pits, and from them to the docks, slips, and workshops. The estimate, it appears, was about six millions sterling, which Mr Rose, in his letter to the late Lord Melville, calculates, with the fortifications and unforeseen expenses, to amount actually to ten millions; an expense which the minister did not venture to propose, though there can be little doubt that, when the case was fairly stated to the public, and the necessity of increasing our naval establishments to the eastward had been made apparent, no violent opposition would have been made to a measure which tended to keep up our naval superiority, and which was the less objectionable, as none of the money would have been taken out of the country, but circulated within it, to the encouragement of the arts, trades, and manufactures of the kingdom.

The board of revision made a detailed report on the merits of the plan, which, however, as the execution of it was delayed, was not printed; but the real reason was supposed to be, the very gloomy view taken by the commissioners of the disadvantages and imperfections of the present dock-yards, which Mr Rose seems to think, [7:8:80]and indeed it is generally thought, is by no means warranted, and that those disadvantages in that report are greatly exaggerated, perhaps to enhance the value of the Northfleet plan, of which they seem to have been much enamoured. Imperfect as the old dock-yards are, chiefly from their having risen, as before observed, to their present state, by a succession of expedients and make-shifts, they are nevertheless far superior to any similar establishments on the Continent of Europe, if we except the unfinished arsenal of Cherbourg, whose magnificent basins (see Breakwater) are certainly unequalled, and the space surrounding them capable of being turned to every possible advantage. Μ. Charles Dupin, a French officer, who examined all our dock-yards with a skilful eye, pronounces them as by far superior to any on the Continent. We have heard much of the magnificent basins and the covered docks of Carlscrona, but the one has been greatly overrated, and the others are merely covered over with shed-like roofs; nor is there the least likelihood that the plan will ever be finished. We have been told likewise of the superior advantages of the naval arsenal of Copenhagen, where every ship has its appropriate storehouse. This plan has been adopted at Brest, and is reprobated there by every naval officer, and the officers of the yard, as most inconvenient, and a great waste of room, by having the most bulky and the most trifling articles stowed together in the same room. A better arrangement is that of having certain magazines appropriated to certain kinds of stores, and arranged according to the class or rate of ship for which they are intended, and, if appropriated or returned stores, the name of the ship to which they belong painted in front of the birth in which they are deposited. This is the system generally followed in our dock-yards.

The great point in which our naval arsenals are most defective is the want of wet docks or basins; which, however, are to a certain extent compensated at the two principal dock-yards of Portsmouth and Plymouth, by two magnificent harbours, in which the whole navy of England, when dismantled, may be moored and laid up in ordinary, in perfect security. The want of basins, however, in our dock-yards is most severely felt in time of war, when the expeditious fitting out of the fleet becomes so very desirable. One at Portsmouth on a small scale has been found of incalculable advantage to that yard; and a larger one, now constructed at Sheerness, will probably make that yard of sufficient capacity to supersede the necessity of a new establishment at Northfleet, or in any other situation to the eastward.

The perfection of a dock-yard, then, independently of the advantages of machinery, which are but contingent, may be considered to depend upon one or more extensive basins, surrounded by spacious wharfs or quays. By means of these a prodigious saving of time, labour, and expense may be saved, in every stage of the progress of fitting out a ship for sea, from the moment she is launched from the slip, or taken out of a dock, as well as in dismantling a ship on returning to port to be paid off and repaired, or laid up in ordinary. For this purpose the docks and slips should occupy one of the sides of the basin, with working sheds for carpenters and joiners, smiths’ shops, saw-pits, and seasoning-sheds between them. The ship, when completed on the slip and launched into the basin, may then be taken immediately into the adjoining dock to be coppered. From this she proceeds to the second side of the basin, in the corner of which is the ballast-wharf; the remainder of the side will probably be occupied by the victualling department, with appropriate stores in the rear for various kinds of provisions, and behind these the bakery, brewery, and slaughter-houses; on the wharf the iron tanks for holding water, now universally used for the ground tier, in lieu of wooden casks. These are taken on board next after the ballast, and, together with the superincumbent casks, would be filled in the ship’s hold by means of flexible pipes to convey the water into them. The provisions would at the same time be taken on board at the same wharf, in front of the victualling stores. The third side might be appropriated to the ordnance department, with the gun-wharf extending along the whole side, and the gun-carriage storehouses, magazines, &c. in the rear. The fourth side would be occupied as the anchor wharf, with the cable storehouses, the sail lofts and stores, rigging loft, and magazines for various stores, in the rear. Behind these, again, on the first side, containing the dry docks and building slips, the ground would be appropriated to the reception, birthing, and converting of timber, from whence iron railways would lead to the saw-mills, saw-pits, and work-shops, all of which would be placed on that side. On the second side a pond or basin for the victualling lighters and craft, with wharfs communicating with the manufactories and storehouses; the same on the ordnance or third side; and on the fourth side might be placed the ropery, hemp storehouses, tar-houses, with a basin for hemp-vessels, lighters, and the like. Communicating with the great basin on the building side, and also with the river or harbour, on the shore of which the dockyard is to be formed, should be a mast-pond, with a lock for the storing of spars; in front the mast-houses, tophouses, capstan-houses, and a slip to launch the masts into the pond. Here also might be placed the boat-houses and boat-pond.

A peninsular situation like that of Northfleet, having at least three fourths of its shore surrounded with deep water, is peculiarly favourable for some such arrangement as is here mentioned; as any number of locks and canals might be made to communicate with the river, so that ships coming into the basin might not interfere with those going out, nor the lighters and other craft bringing their several species of stores, with either or with one another. By such an arrangment a ship would be equipped for sea at half the present expense, and within half the usual time. A ship fitting out for an anchorage distant from the dock-yard, as at the Nore and Spithead, is liable to every inconvenience and delay, as all her guns, stores, provisions, and water, must be carried to her in dock-yard lighters and other craft, into which and out of which they must be hoisted and rehoisted; liable to delay from bad weather and contrary winds; to be stove alongside the ship, to the total loss or damaging of their cargoes: added to which is the loss of time in going backwards and forwards, especially to the artificers; the desertion of the men; the accidents from the upsetting of boats; and many other evils of a magnitude not easily to be calculated, and exceeded only by the disappointment and vexation that unavoidably occur when ships are preparing for some particular and pressing service; all of which, when ships are fitted out in a basin for sea, are avoided. Here no delay, no embezzlement, no desertion, can take place. A ship in returning from sea may be docked and undocked into the basin with all her stores on board; and if to be paid off, instead of keeping the crew on board for weeks, till all the stores have been delivered into the dock-yard, the ship, by the proposed plan of basins, would remain securely in the basin, to be stripped at leisure by the riggers and labourers of the yard, and the crew become immediately available for other ships. Of the many superior advantages of wet docks for laying up ships to discharge, over the practice of exposing them in rivers or harbours, the shipping interest of the ports of London, Liverpool, Bristol, and Hull, can best testify, more especially[7:8:81] that of London, which has taken the precaution to surround the docks with high inclosing walls, by means of which all access is debarred, and all possibility of embezzlement prevented.

From a brief description of the royal dock-yards as they now stand, a general idea may be formed of their several capacities, advantages, and defects. Taking them in succession, according to their vicinity to the capital, the first is Deptford. — The front or wharf wall of this dock-yard, facing the Thames, is about 1700 feet in length, and the mean breadth of the yard 650 feet; the superficial content about thirty acres. It has three slips for ships of the line on the face next the river, and two for smaller vessels, which launch into a basin or wet dock, 260 by 220 feet. There are also three dry docks; one of them a double dock, communicating with the Thames, and the other a smaller one, opening into the basin. With these restricted means, even with an adequate number of workmen, its capacity for building ships, or for large repairs, must be very limited; but in the occasional repair of fourth-rates and frigates, and in the fitting out of sloops and smaller vessels, a great deal of work was performed at Deptford in the course of the war. The proximity of Deptford dock-yard to the capital is, however, of great importance, in the convenience it affords of receiving from this great mart all the home manufactures and products which may be purchased by contract for the use of the navy. It is, in fact, the general magazine of stores and necessaries for the fleet, from whence they are shipped off, as occasion requires, to the home yards, the out-ports, and the foreign stations, in store-ships, transports, coasting sloops, lighters, and launches, according to the distance to which they must be sent, to the amount, in time of war, of more than 30,000 tons a year.

The principal stores deposited in Deptford dock-yard are small cordage, canvass, and ships’ sails, to an immense amount; beds, hair for beds, hammocks, slops, and marine clothing; anchors under the weight of about seventy-five hundred, which are generally made by contract, all above that size being manufactured in the king’s dock-yards.

The great magazines for the reception of these stores consist of a large quadrangular building, with a square in the middle, of three stories in height, with cellars underneath, in which are contained pitch, tar, rosin, and turpentine. The length of each side of these storehouses is nearly the same, differing from a square only by some eighteen feet: this length is about 210 feet, but they vary in width from forty-six to twenty-four feet.

Parallel to the west front of this quadrangle is the rigging-house and sail-loft, 240 feet, and nearly fifty feet wide, in which all the rigging is fitted for ships and stowed away, the sails cut out, made, and placed in proper births for their reception, as well as for various other stores of a smaller kind.

On the eastern extremity of the yard is a long range of building, called the pavilion, in which the beds, hammocks, and slop-clothing are kept, and in which also are the housecarpenters’, the joiners’, and wheelwrights' shops. This building is about 580 feet long by twenty-six feet wide.

The remaining buildings usually appropriated to the different services of a dock-yard are all to be found at Deptford; a good blacksmith’s shop, a plumber, glazier, painter-shops, seasoning-sheds, store-cabins, saw-pits, masthouse, and pond, boat-houses, mould-loft, timber-births, besides good houses and gardens for the principal officers, with several coach-houses and stables, so that the whole space is completely filled up in every part.

The number of men employed in this yard, in time of war, may have been about fifteen hundred, of whom about one half were shipwrights and other artificers, and the other half labourers. There were, besides, in constant employ, eighteen or twenty teams of four each, of horses, to drag timber and heavy stores. Deptford dock-yard has recently been put down.

Adjoining to the dock-yard is the victualling-yard, the completest establishment of the kind, perhaps, in this or any other kingdom, though still capable of much improvement in the arrangement. Its frontage to the Thames is about 1060 feet, and mean depth 1000 feet, containing about nineteen acres. This space is laid out in a more convenient manner than any of the dock-yards, for answering all the purposes which were intended. The general storehouses in front of the wharf wall, the cooperage, the brewery, the butchery, and the bakery, are all separate and complete in themselves. A mill has recently been erected, of such capacity as to grind corn to be made into biscuit sufficient for supplying the whole navy. Besides all the requisite offices for keeping the accounts, there are houses and gardens for eight of the principal officers of the yard; and when the old wharf wall shall have been repaired, and carried out a little farther into the river, for which a sum of L.27,000 appears on the estimate of 1817, the victualling-yard will be complete in all .respects, according to the present arrangement. ÇNavy Estimates for 1817.)

The cooperage is spacious and well laid out. The staves are all sawed by hand, and this operation employs about 100 sawyers in time of war. Mr Brown of Fulham has . succeeded, it seems, in making casks by machinery, by which seventeen men in nine hours are stated to be able to complete 300 casks, whereas, by the ordinary method, the same number could only complete about eighty. The brewery is well arranged, so is the bakery; and the butchery, consisting of a yard for keeping the cattle, with pens for sheep and hogs, two spacious slaughtering-houses, cutting and salting-houses, by the abundant supply of water and constant washing, are kept in the cleanest order, and free from any disagreeable smell.

In the salting season 260 carcasses have been slaughtered in each of the two days in the week appropriated to killing, and the hog hanging-house is capable of containing 650 carcasses.

The total number of coopers, sawyers, bakers, and labourers employed during war, in the victualling-yard at Deptford, amounted probably to twelve or thirteen hundred.

Woolwich DockYard. — This first and most ancient of the dock-yards presents a frontage to the river of 3300 feet; the breadth is very irregular, being from 250 to 750 feet; and it contains an area of about thirty-six acres. It has five slips, which open into the river, three of which are for ships of the line, one for frigates, and one for vessels of a smaller class. It has three dry docks, one a double and one single dock, all of them capable of receiving ships of the line. With all its imperfections, Woolwich yard, with a complete establishment of artificers, has been of great service both in the building and repairing of ships of all classes. Some of the largest and finest ships in the navy have been launched from Woolwich yard, among which may be mentioned the Nelson and the Ocean. ∙ In fact, it is chiefly as a building yard that Woolwich ought to be considered as of much importance; and even in this respect it has of late years much deteriorated, owing to the increasing shallowness of the river, and the immense accumulation of mud, which is found in a very few weeks completely to block up all the entrances into the docks and slips, and along the whole length of the wharf wall. It is stated in the Eighth Report of the Select Committee on Finance (1818), that “the wharf wall at Woolwich, owing to the action of the tide on the foundation, is in a falling [7:8:82]state, and in danger of being swept into the river, it being secured only in a temporary manner, and requires to be immediately rebuilt in a direction that will preserve it from similar injury hereafter, and prevent, in a great degree, that accumulation of mud which has, in the course of the last ten years, occasioned an expense of upwards of L.125,692, and would threaten in time to render the yard useless.”

It was, in fact, found necessary to diminish the depth of the hold of the Nelson, in consequence of the Trinity Board having stated that no vessel drawing above nineteen feet of water could be navigated down to Erith Reach, and one even of that draught not without difficulty and danger.

The magazines or storehouses are not to be compared with those of Deptford. They are more confined, and, owing to the narrowness of the yard, and the progressive additions made according as necessity required, there is little or no methodical arrangement. As far, however, as regards the building and repairing of ships,, its conveniences may be reckoned superior to those of Deptford. The new mast-houses and mast-slip, the new mast-ponds, and the houses for stowing yards, topmasts, &c. with the locks under them, are all excellent; and a new and spacious basin completes these great conveniences. The timber-births are well arranged, and the addition recently made to the western extremity of the yard will allow the stacking of several thousand loads of timber, and of classing it according to the purposes to which it may be applicable; and when the new smithery, and the line of wharf wall shall be completed, the dock-yard of Woolwich will become an important and valuable naval arsenal.

A considerable quantity of cables and cordage are manufactured at Woolwich; but the ropery is most inconveniently situated at a distance from the dock-yard, and great part of the town intervenes between them. Its length is 180 fathoms, but so narrow that the hemp storehouses, of three stories high, come close to the spinning house on either side. These storehouses are capable of containing about 2000 tons of hemp, and the cellars underneath them about 6000 barrels of pitch and tar. The hemp stores in the dock-yard are capable of containing about 2000 tons more.

In the present state and situation of the ropery, it would scarcely admit of the introduction of machinery, as has been done in most of the great private manufactories. The process of tarring, or passing the yarns through heated tar, and then drawing them through apertures in an iron plate, is performed at Woolwich by four horses. The laying of a cable of twenty-two or twenty-three inches is performed by the simultaneous exertion of 170 or ISO men, and requires upwards of an hour of the most severe exertion of strength, especially on the part of those who are stationed at the cranks, who not unusually break a blood-vessel by the severity of the labour. The simple and beautiful machine invented by the late Captain Huddart, performs with more accuracy the same process, and with the attendance of only three persons. For the reasons here stated, and the sufficiency of the other ropeyards, tliis at Woolwich has recently been disposed of.

Woolwich dock-yard seems to be complete in all the usual appendages of artificers, work-shops, store-cabins, offices for the clerks, houses and gardens for the commissioner and the principal officers of the establishment. The number of men employed during the war amounted to about 1800, of whom nearly 1100 were shipwrights and artificers, and the rest labourers. The number of spinners, knitters, layers, labourers, &c. in the ropery, might be about 260. Upwards of twenty teams of horses were daily employed in this yard.

One of the four divisions (the 4th, consisting of thirteen companies) of royal marines are stationed at Woolwich, where barracks and all the necessary buildings have been erected for their accommodation on shore. See the article Marines. Chatham DockYard. —This dock-yard is situated on the right bank of the Medway, to which it presents a line of river wall at least 5500 feet in length; the width at the upper end being 400, in the middle 1000, and at the lower end about 800. The superficial contents may be estimated at about ninety acres. It has six building-slips on the front, from which ships are launched into the river; three of these arc for ships of the line, and three for frigates and smaller vessels. In the same front arc four dry docks communicating with the Medway.

The inconveniences arising from want of arrangement are less felt in Chatham than in any other of his majesty’s dock-yards; and it could not perhaps be materially improved, if on the same site an entirely new dock-yard was to be planned. At the southern extremity of the yard is the ropery, hemp and yarn houses, rigging houses, a range of storehouses 1000 feet in length by about 50 in breadth, in front of which, along the wharf, are the anchor-racks, extending nearly 1000 feet. Next to these are the slips and docks, with the working-sheds and artificers’ shops close in the rear, an excellent smithery, timber-births, seasoning-sheds, deal and iron yard, &c.; and beyond these, on the eastern extremity of the yard, the officers’ houses and gardens. The commissioner’s house and excellent garden are situated nearly in the centre of the yard. The lower or north-eastern part of the yard is occupied by mast-ponds, mast-houses and slips, store boathouses and slips, ballast-wharf, timber-births, and saw-pits.

With all the advantages of interior arrangement, Chatham dock-yard still labours under that great defect to which most of the dock-yards are liable, from the injudicious manner in which the wharf walls have been constructed, without any regard being paid to the ebbing and flowing of the tide, or the currents of rivers, projecting in one part and retiring in others; the consequence of which is, that eddies are formed, and a constant accumulation of mud takes place along the line of the wall, and particularly in the openings of the dry docks, the slips, and the jetties. Of late years, however, since the attention of engineers has been called to this important subject, every opportunity is taken, in the repair of the wharf walls of the dock-yards, to correct the injurious effects arising from their improper direction; and as the river wall of Chatham is rebuilding, there is no doubt that due attention will be had to the line in which it is to be carried, so as to obviate the evil so universally complained of.

There is no wet dock or basin in Chatham-yard; but the Medway, flowing along it in a fine sheet of water, in some degree answers the purpose of one. The whole river might indeed be converted into a magnificent basin, by pursuing the same plan as that adopted in forming the new docks at Bristol. This would be effected by cutting a new channel for the river through the chalk cliff below Frindsbury Church, opening out a little above Upnor Castle, and continuing the new channel across the marsh near St Mary’s Crcek, so as to open out into Gillingham Reach close to the fort. Here a basin might be constructed wherein ships might be equipped in all respects ready for sea, whenever the wind and tide should be favourable. At present, owing to the shallowness of the water and the crooked navigation from Chatham round Upnor Point, they are obliged to take in their water and ballast at one place, their stores and provisions at another, their guns, powder, and ammunition at a third; in consequence of which, a ship is usually longer in getting out to sea from [7:8:83]Chatham than even from Deptford. If this new channel was made for the river, the whole space from the first reach below Rochester Bridge to St Mary’s Creek, at the lower extremity of the dock-yard, might be converted into one magnificent basin.

Chatham being a building, a repairing, and refitting yard, the establishment of men was much greater in war than at Woolwich or Deptford; the number of shipwrights and other artificers, and labourers, being probably upwards of 2000, besides those of the rope-yard, which might amount to about 250.

A considerable piece of new ground (about 2000 feet in length by 200 in breadth) has recently been added to the upper part of Chatham dock-yard, on which is erected one of the complctest saw-mills in the united kingdom, under the direction of Mr Bruncll. The mill is situated on high ground, and close to the margin of a deep circular basin or reservoir of water, dug down to the level of the Medway, with which it cornmunicates by a tunnel or subterranean canal, passing through the mast-pond. From the side of the reservoir opposite to the mill proceeds a long iron railway, supported on a double row of iron pillars; and alongside of and parallel to this railway, on the side next to the dock-yard, are a continued series of stages for the reception of timber after it has been sawn into planks. A steam-engine of the power of thirty-six horses sets in motion all the operations of this mill, which may thus be briefly enumerated: l⅛7, It drags up the large balks of timber through the canal into the reservoir as they are wanted. 2<7, It lifts up these large logs to the margin of the basin, carries them into the mill, and places them on the frame under the saws. 3d, It saws them with the greatest nicety into planks of any required thickness. ⅛th, It takes the pieces away thus sawn, and places them on carriages of iron, òth, It drives these carriages along the iron railway to any required distance. And Q>th, It deposits the sawn timber on the stages, ready to be used in any part of the dock-yard where it may be required. From these stages it is conveniently conveyed to the docks or slips by single horse carts or trucks, with great expedition, down an easy descent, and without the least interference with any of the works carrying on in the yard. The whole of these operations are conducted by about ten, or at most twelve men.

This mill is supposed to be equal to the power of fifty saw-pits and nearly one hundred sawyers, and is capable of supplying the dock-yards of Chatham and Sheerness with all the straight-sawn timber that they can require. But the great advantage of the plan is in its application of the steam-engine to the management and arrangement of timber, by which the labour and expense of a great number of horses are saved, and, what is of still greater importance, the obstruction and impediments to the general services of the yard are avoided, which the dragging about of large balks to and from the saw-pits, with teams of four horses each, occasions in all the other yards. It allows, besides, the large space of ground which these saw-pits would occupy, to be appropriated to other purposes.

The first division of royal marines, consisting of twenty-one companies, is stationed at Chatham, in excellent barracks, situated near to one of the extremities of the dockyard. (See article Marines.)

There is a small victualling depot, situated partly in the parish of Chatham and partly in that of Rochester, from which the ships at Chatham and at Sheerness and the Nore receive a supply of provisions and water; but no articles of ship’s stores are manufactured. The storehouses are sufficiently capacious for containing all the stores that can be required for the ships fitted out at the two ports on the Medway. The establishment consists of an agent, clerk of the check, storekeeper, and their respective clerks, which, with the messengers, porters, labourers, &c. may amount to about ninety persons.

Sheerness Pock-Yard. — This dock-yard is situated on a low point of land on the island of Sheppey, whose soil is composed of sand and mud brought from the sea on the one side and down the Medway on the other, and has so much contracted the mouth of this river as completely to command the entrance of it. The situation, in a military point of view, is a most important one, particularly from its vicinity to the North Sea and to the anchorage at the Nore; by which anchorage, and the works of Shecrness, the mouths of the Thames and the Medway are completely defended.

As a situation for a dock, the objections to which it was liable are now in a fair way of being removed. On account of the low swampy ground on which it stood, fevers and agues were at one time so prevalent, that shipwrights and other artificers were literally impressed and compelled to work at Sheerness. In process of time, however, a town sprung up close to the dock-yard, and with it some little improvement by drainage, embankments, and other measures. Still it continued, till a very short time ago, an unhealthy and disagreeable place. As a dock-yard it was totally destitute of all convenience or arrangement; and the whole premises, mixed among wharfs and buildings belonging to the ordnance department, did not exceed fifteen acres of ground. The storehouses were dispersed in various parts of this space, and in so ruinous a state, that a ship hauled up in the mud was by far the best in the whole yard. It had two small inconvenient docks for frigates or smaller vessels. It was in fact a mere point of refitment, and might be considered as an appendage to Chatham.

From the very limited capacity of Sheerness, and the mighty preparations in the Scheldt, originated the magnificent project of the naval arsenal at Northfleet, which, from a change of political circumstances, and from the important improvements now carrying on at Sheerness, is not likely ever again to be revived. The Finance Committee (Eighth Export) say they have learnt “that the re-establishment and extension of the yards at Sheerness and Chatham may be considered as superseding, under any circumstance that can now be likely to occur, the plan contemplated for a naval establishment at Northfleet, on so extensive a scale as to require the expenditure of several millions.”

These improvements appear indeed to be of sufficient magnitude to render any establishment at Northfleet wholly unnecessary, by making Sheerness, when finished, as complete a dock-yard, and perhaps more so, than any other in his majesty’s dominions. Previously to carrying into execution this important undertaking, a committee of engineers and others was appointed, among whom were Watt, Huddart, and Jessop, whose plan was afterwards minutely examined, and some slight improvements suggested therein by Mr Rennie. The first stone was laid on the 19th August 1814, and the whole was completed at an expense not far short of one million sterling.

The advantages arising from the adoption of this plan are, Lsτ, The addition of nineteen acres of ground to the dock-yai ’ d, by taking in the whole of the muddy western shore of the Medway, beyond the low-water mark of neap tides, and getting rid of the offensive and unwholesome smell which it perpetually occasioned. 2dly, The construction of a wet dock or basin 520 feet in length by 300 in width, equal in surface to three and one half acres, and capable of containing a fleet of ten sail of the line, in which they can take on board all their stores, ammunition, and provisions, and be equipped in all respects ready to proceed to sea. The entrance into this basin is from [7:8:84] the Medway, through a lock that is closed by a floating dam-gate. 3<7Zy, The construction of three dry docks on the eastern side of the basin, and opening into it, each capable of holding a first-rate ship of the line, ⅛thly∙, Ample space for constructing storehouses, mast-houses, mastponds, and slip, smithery, and artificers’ workshops of every description, othly, A further extension of the dockyard, by the addition of ten or twelve acres of a low marshy tract of land called Major’s Marsh, which at present is below the level of the sea, and the water kept out, as in Holland, by embankments, but which will be raised several feet by the excavation of the basin, the dry docks, and the mast-ponds, so as to allow of drains to carry off’ the water to the shore, affording space for timber-births, houses and gardens for all the officers of the dock-yard, as well as for the admiral commanding in chief at Sheerness and the Nore. These additions, together with some part of the premises held by the board of ordnance, will make the whole area of the new dock-yard of Sheerness amount to upwards of fifty acres. The wharf wall on the south side of the basin in front of the intended masthouses is a hundred feet, and that on .the riverfront sixty feet in width, lined on both sides with as complete a specimen of good and beautiful masonry of granite as any in the kingdom.

The usual officers, with their clerks, amounted during the war to about fifty; and the shipwrights, artificers, and labourers, to about eight hundred; the shipwrights being the most numerous, as the principal part of the work was confined to the repairing of small vessels in the yard, but mostly to repairs of the fleet afloat at the Nore or in the Medway.

Portsmouth Doch- Yard.— Portsmouth dock-yard will always be considered as the grand naval arsenal of England, and the head-quarters or general rendezvous of the British fleet. The dock-yard accordingly is by far the most capacious; and the safe and extensive harbour, the noble anchorage at Spithead, the central situation with respect to the English Channel and the opposite coast of France, and particularly with regard to the naval arsenal at Cherbourg, render Portsmouth of the very first importance as a naval station; and in this view of it, every possible attention appears to have been paid to the extension and improvement of its dock-yard. The sea wharf-wall of this yard, extending in the direction of north and south along the western shore of the harbour, is about 3500 feet in length, and the mean depth may be 2000 feet; and it incloses an area of more than one hundred acres.

In the centre of the wharf-wall, facing the harbour, is the entrance into the great basin, whose dimensions are 380 by 260 feet, and its area 2ģ acres. Into this basin open four excellent dry docks, and on each of its sides is a dry dock opening into the harbour; and all of these six docks are capable of receiving ships of the largest class. Besides these is a double dock for frigates, the stern dock communicating through a lock with the harbour, and the head dock with another basin about 250 feet square. There is also a camber, with a wharf-wall on each side, 660 feet in length, and of sufficient width to admit of transports and merchant ships bringing stores to the dock-yard. In the same face of the yard are three building slips capable of receiving the largest ships, and a small one for sloops, besides two building slips for frigates on the northern face of the yard, and a smaller slip for sloops. The range of storehouses on the north-east side, and the rigging-house and sail-loft on the south-west side of the camber, are magnificent buildings, the former occupying nearly 600 feet in length, exclusive of the two intermediate spaces, and nearly sixty feet in width, and the two latter 400 feet. The two hemp-houses and the two sea-store houses occupy a line of building which, with the three narrow openings between them of twenty-five feet each, extend 800 feet. The rope-house, tarring-house, and other appendages of the ropery, are on the same scale. The two sets of quadrangular storehouses, and the two corresponding buildings, with the intervening timber-births and saw-pits, at the head of the dry docks, issuing from the great basin, are all excellent, and conveniently placed. The smithery is on a large scale, and contiguous to it is an iron-mill, a copper-mill, and a copper refinery, at which is remelted and rolled all the old copper which is taken from ships’ bottoms; and here, also, are cast bolts, gudgeons, and various articles of copper used in the navy. The number of sheets manufactured in one year of the war amounted to about 300,000, weighing above 12,000 tons; on which it has been calculated that a saving of at least L.20,000 was effected for the public, besides obtaining a good pure article. Most of these were constructed under the direction of General Bentham. . (Bentham’s Services.} At the head of the north dock are the wood mills, at which every article of turnery, rabitting, &c. is performed for the usc of the navy, from boring the chamber of a pump to the turning of a button for a chest of drawers. But the principal part of these mills is the machinery for making blocks, contrived by that ingenious artist Mr Brunell (see Block-Machinery), which cannot be regarded without exciting the highest respect for the talents and skill of the author.

The northern extremity of the dock-yard is chiefly occupied with seasoning-sheds, saw-pits, and timber-births, the working boat-house, and boat-storehouse. On the eastern extremity are situated the houses and gardens of the commissioner and principal officers of the yard; the chapel, the royal naval college, and the school of naval architecture. The former institution has recently been remodelled, and the latter is a new establishment Formed by the recommendation of the commissioners for revising the civil affairs of the navy, for the education of a certain number of naval architects, known by the name of the “Superior Class of Shipwright Apprentices.” These two establishments were combined by order in council of the 30th January 1816, under the following regulations:

Naval College. — The number of students not to exceed, in time of war, one hundred; in peace seventy; of whom thirty are to consist of the sons of commissioned officers of the navy, and to receive their board, clothing, lodging, and education, free of all expense; the remainder to consist of sons of noblemen, gentlemen, civil and military officers, on payment of L.72 a year. The age of admission from twelve and a half to fourteen years. A bond is to be signed by their friends, in the penalty of L.200 for the first class, and L.100 for the second class, in the event of any young gentleman being withdrawn from the navy before he has served the proper time to qualify for the commission of lieutenant. (See article Navy.) No student to remain at college longer than three years; at the end of which, or sooner if he shall have completed the plan of education, he is discharged into one of his majesty’s ships, the college time being reckoned two years of the six required to be served to quality for such commission.

Naval Architectural School. — The number of students not to exceed twenty-four. Candidates for admission examined at stated periods, the degree of merit alone giving preference of admission; the age of entrance from fifteen to seventeen, and the duration of their apprenticeship seven years. The students are lodged, boarded, and educated, free of all expense, and have the following yearly allowances: 1st year L.25, 2d L.30, 3d L.35, 4th L.40, 5th L.45, 6th L.50, 7th L.60. And at the expiration of their apprenticeship they are eligible to all the situations [7:8:85]in the ship-building department of his majesty’s dockyards, to be there employed as supernumeraries until regular vacancies may occur; provided the apprentice shall have completed the plan of education, and be certified by the professor to be properly qualified.

The consolidated establishment of the two departments consists of a governor, who is the first lord of the admiralty for the time being; a lieutenant-governor, who is a post-captain in the navy, with a salary of L.800 a year and apartments; two lieutenants of the navy, with L.200 a year each, apartments, and an allowance for board; a professor, who is a graduate of the university of Cambridge, with a salary of L.700 a year, and apartments; a master of classics, history, and geography, with L.350 a year and apartments; three assistant-masters, well skilled in mathematics, the first with L.250, the two others L.200 a year each, with an allowance for house-rent; besides masters for teaching drawing, dancing, fencing, and the French language, and two serjeants of marine artillery. In addition to these, there is a superintendent of the school for naval architecture, a professional ship-builder, brought up in one of his majesty’s dock-yards, to instruct the apprentices in the practical parts of ship-building. The school for naval architecture has recently been abolished.

The professor has the charge and keeps the rate of all the chronometers which may not be in use belonging to the navy; and all midshipmen in the navy are now required to pass their examination in the theory of navigation, at the naval college, by the professor, in presence of the admiral commanding in chief, and the lieutenant governor. (See Navy.)

The strength of Portsmouth dock-yard, during the war, was considerably above 4000 working men, of whom about 1500 were shipwrights and caulkers; the joiners and housecarpen ters were nearly 500; the smiths 200 nearly; the sawyers 250; the riggers and their labourers nearly 200; the scavelmen and labourers of various kinds nearly 700; and the rope-yard employed about 350 persons.

There are two victualling establishments at this port; the one in Portsmouth town, the other across the harbour, at a place called Weevil; both of them inconveniently situated for supplying the ships with water and provisions, more especially such as may have to take them in at Spithead. The former consists chiefly of provision-stores and magazines, with a tide-mill and a bakery; at the latter there is a cooperage and a brewery. The total number of persons employed, including the officers, at the two establishments, during the war, amounted to about 500. The victualling establishments are now consolidated at Weevil.

The noble building for the reception of sick and wounded seamen is situated on the Gosport side of Portsmouth harbour. Being appropriated to the military branch of the navy, it will be described under the head of Navy.

The second division of royal marines, consisting of eighteen companies, is stationed at Portsmouth, in barracks, which are inconveniently situated in the town; and eight companies of the royal marine artillery have their head-quarters at Fort Monckton, not far from Haslar Hospital. (See the article Marines.) Plymouth DockYard. — The naval station of Plymouth is inferior only to that of Portsmouth; and, in point of its more westerly situation, as considered with reference to the grand naval arsenal of Brest, it is superior even to Portsmouth. It possesses one of the finest harbours in the world, capable of containing, in perfect security at their moorings, not less than a hundred sail of the line; and by means of the breakwater it may boast of an excellent roadstead for eighteen or twenty sail of the line. The dock-yard, however, has only one small basin, without gates, whose dimensions are 250 by 180 feet, and contents little more than an acre; but the excellent harbour of Hamoaze, on the western bank of which the wharf-wall extends, almost compensates for the want of one, especially as the depth of water allows the largest ships to range along the jetties, and receive their stores on board immediately from the wharf.

Plymouth dock-yard extends in a circular sweep along the shores of Hamoaze 3500 feet, its width about the middle, where it is greatest, being 1600, and at each extremity 1000 feet, making its superficial contents about ninety-six acres. In the line facing the harbour are two drydocks for ships of the first rate, a double dock for seventy-four gun ships, communicating with Hamoaze, and another dock for ships of the line, opening into the basin. There is, besides, a graving-dock without gates, and a canal or camber similar to that in Portsmouth yard, for the admission of vessels bringing stores into the yard; which, communicating with the boat-pond, cuts the dock-yard nearly into two parts. There are five jetties projecting from the entrances of the dry-docks into Hamoaze, along side of which ships are conveniently brought when undocked. All these are situated between the centre and the northern extremity of the harbour line. On the southern part are three building slips for the largest class of ships, and two for smaller vessels; the outer mast-pond and masthouses, timber-births, saw-pits, and smithery. Higher up, on this end of the yard, is an extensive mast-pond and mast-locks, with plank-houses over them; and, above these, three hemp magazines, contiguous to which is the finest ropery in the kingdom, consisting of two ranges of buildings, one the laying-house, the other the spinninghouse, each being 1200 feet in length, and three stories in height. In the construction of the new rope-house no wood has been used excepting the shingles of the roof, to which the slates are fastened. All the rest is of iron. The ribs and girders of the floors are of cast iron, covered over with Yorkshire paving stone, and the doors, window frames, and staircases, arc all of cast iron, so that the whole building may be considered as proof against fire.

The northern half of the yard, besides the docks and basin, with all the appropriate working sheds and artificers’ shops, contains a cluster of very elegant stone buildings, ranged round a quadrangle, the longest sides being about 450 feet, and the shortest 300 feet. Within the quadrangle are also two new ranges of buildings, in which iron has been used in the place of wood. These buildings consist, of magazines for different kinds of stores, rigging-houses, and sail-lofts. The northern and upper part of the yard is occupied by a range of handsome houses, with good gardens behind them, for the commissioner and the principal officers of the yard, the chapel, the guard-house, and payoffice, stables for the officers, and the teams, and a fine reservoir of fresh water for the supply of the yard.

Plymouth is not only a good building and repairing yard, on account of its excellent docks and slips, and the great length of line along the Hamoaze, but also a good refitting yard, and was fully occupied during the war with the refitment of the western squadron, employed in the constant blockade of Brest. The number of men borne on the establishment of this yard might have been about 3000, of∖vhich about 800 were shipwrights.

Plymouth Victualling Establishments· — The victualling establishments are here, as well as at Portsmouth, unconnected, and, in fact, dispersed in three different places; the cooperage and the brewery being at South Down, near Millbrook, on the farther side of Hamoaze; the bakehouse and principal stores at the entrance of Sutton Pool, in the Catwater; and the slaughter-house on the Devil’s Point, at the head of the Sound. The total establishment of the victualling department at this port, officers includ-ed[7:8:86], amounted to about 400 persons. As at Portsmouth, the victualling establishments have been consolidated at Cremill, which consists of every possible convenience for victualling and watering the navy.

Plymouth Hospital is a handsome building of stone, or rather a series of separate buildings, regularly arranged, in which respect, as admitting a freer circulation of air, it is perhaps superior to that of Haslar. (See Navy.)

The third division of royal marines, consisting of twenty companies, are stationed at Plymouth. The barracks are conveniently situated at Stonehouse, very airy, and sufficiently spacious. (See Marines.) Pembroke DockYard. — This dock-yard has been established but a few years, and is intended merely as a building-yard. It is situated on the southern shore of Milford Haven, not two miles from the town of Pembroke. It includes an area of about sixty acres, its surface descending in a gradual slope to the water’s edge, along the shore of which is ample space for a couple of dry docks, and at least twelve building slips, over which it is intended to erect a connected series of roofs, which will not only be attended with much convenience to the workmen, but also with a great saving of expense. The slips, being built of wood, on a limestone foundation, are erected at a very trifling cost; and the only works of any considerable expense in the yard will be those of the dry docks, each of which will amount to the sum of L.60,000 nearly. For a new building yard a small storehouse will be quite sufficient, and an old ship hauled up serves all the purposes of one at present. There is no commissioner, nor is the usual establishment of officers completed. The total number of persons of all descriptions employed in the yard is under 500.

Ordinary of the Dock-Yards. — At each of the ports where there is a dock-yard, Pembroke excepted, a certain number of ships when put out of commission, or new ships not commissioned, are laid up in what is called a state of ordinary; and such ships, until recently, used to be placed under the immediate charge of the commissioner, the masters attendant, and other officers of the dock-yard. But a new system has lately been adopted, both with regard to the fitting of the ships for their better preservation, while thus unemployed (See Dry Rot), and also as to the care and management of them by naval commissioned officers living constantly on board. (See Navy.) Capacity of a Dock-Yard. — The capacity of a dockyard for building, repairing, and refitting ships of war, depends upon so many circumstances that it scarcely admits of calculation; chiefly, however, on the facilities afforded by a suitable arrangement of dry docks, building slips, and basins, and on the number of shipwrights and other artificers borne on the strength of the yard. In building new ships, where the materials are at hand, and no interruptions occur, the capacity may be ascertained to a tolerable degree of accuracy. To complete the building of a seventy-four gun ship, it is calculated that the labour of one man would be required for 18,000 days, or of eighteen men for 1000 days, or about fifty-four men to finish her in the space of one year. A dock-yard, therefore, with 500 good shipwrights, might be expected to launch from eight to ten sail of the line every year, if the conveniences of the yard admitted them all to be employed on building. But with regard to repairs, they are so various and so uncertain, that it would be next to impossible to form any calculation that should at all approach to the truth. A writer well versed in naval matters, in attempting to prove the sufficiency of our dock-yards, without having recourse to private merchant yards during war, has stated, that by a uniform system of management, “the annual regeneration of ships of the line maybe safely reckoned at twelve sail, and that of frigates at eight sail and that, besides, there “might be docked for casual repairs, in the course of one year, two hundred and sixty-seven sail of ships and vessels of war.” (Letter to Lord Melville on the General State of the Navy, 1810.)

When Henry VIII. first established a regular king’s doek-yard at Woolwich, he appointed a board, consisting of certain commissioners, for the management of all naval matters; and it is curious enough, as appears from the Pepysian Collection of Manuscripts in the university of Cambridge, that the regulations which he made for the civil government of the navy, and which were, in the reign of Edward VI., revised, arranged, and turned into ordinances, form the broad basis of all the subsequent instructions given to the several officers to whom the management of the civil affairs of the navy has been committed. (First Pep. Nav. Reν. y )

The commissioners of the navy then consisted of the vice-admiral of England, the master of the ordnance, the surveyor of the marine causes, the treasurer, comptroller, general surveyor of the victualling, clerk of the ships, and clerk of the stores. They had each their particular duties; and once a week they were ordered to meet at their office on Tower Hill, and once a month to report their proceedings to the lord high admiral.

In 1609 the principal officers for conducting the civil affairs of the navy were suspended in consequence of many abuses being complained of; and other commissioners were appointed, with powers to manage, settle, and put the affairs of the navy into a proper train, and to prevent, by such measures as might appear to be necessary, the continuance of the many great frauds and abuses which had prevailed. A similar commission was renewed in 1618, which in a full and minute report detailed and explained those frauds and abuses.

That commission, which ended on the death of James I., was renewed by his successor, and remained in force till 1628, when it was dissolved, and the management of the navy was restored to the board of principal officers, as established by Edward VI.

In the disturbed reign of Charles I. the navy was suffered to go to decay; but by the extraordinary exertions of Cromwell, it was raised to a height which it had never before reached, but again declined under the short and feeble administration of his son.

On the restoration of Charles II. the Duke of York was appointed lord high admiral; and by his advice a committee was appointed to consider a plan he had drawn out for the future regulation of the affairs of the navy, at which he himself presided. “In all naval affairs,” say the commissioners of revision, “he appears to have acted with the advice and assistance of Mr Samuel Pepys, who first held the office of clerk of the acts, and was afterwards secretary of the admiralty; a man of extraordinary knowledge in all that related to the business of that department, of great talents, and the most indefatigable industry.”

The entire management of the navy was now in the hands of the duke, as lord high admiral, by whom three new commissioners were appointed to act conjunctly with the treasurer of the navy, the comptroller, the surveyor, and clerk of the acts, as principal officers and commissioners of the navy. A book of instructions, drawn out by Mr Pepys, was sent to the navy board for its guidance. A rapid progress was made in the repair and augmentation of the fleet; but being called away, in consequence of the Dutch war in 1664, the example of zeal and industry set by Mr Pepys was not sufficient, in the duke’s absence, to prevent [7:8:87] neglect and mismanagement in every department except his own.

From 1673 to 1679, the office of lord high admiral being put in commission, at the head of which Prince Rupert was placed, the king, through Mr Pepys, arranged all naval affairs; but in the latter year, when the duke was sent abroad, and Mr Pepys to the Tower, a new set of men were made commissioners of the navy; who, without experience, ability, or industry, suffered the navy to go to decay. “All the wise regulations,” say the commissioners of revision, “formed during the administration of the Duke of York, were neglected; and such supineness and waste appear to have prevailed as, at the end of not more than five years, when he was recalled to the office of lord high admiral, only twenty-two ships, none larger than a fourth rate, with two fire-ships, were at sea; those in the harbour were quite unfit for service; even the thirty new ships which he had left building had been suffered to fall into a state of great decay, and hardly any stores were found to remain in the dock-yards.” He re-appointed Mr Pepys as secretary of the admiralty; he set about an inquiry into the characters and abilities of the first ship-builders in England; and by the advice of Mr Pepys, he joined Sir Anthony Dean, eminent in that profession, with three others, to the former principal officers in a new commission. The old commissioners were directed entirely to confine their attention to the business of a committee of accounts. To each of the new ones was entrusted a distinct branch of the proposed reform; and it appears that, highly to their credit, “they performed what they had undertaken in less time than was allowed for it, and at less expense ;” having completed their business to the general satisfaction of the public two months before the Revolution.

The business of the navy, thus methodized and settled, remained undisturbed by that event. The commissioners of revision justly observed, that “the great work of reestablishing the fleet, and restoring order, industry, and discipline, in the dock-yards, accomplished in so short a time by the commissioners then chosen, with so much carc, proves, in the most convincing manner, how much depends on having the civil affairs of the navy placed under the management of men of real ability, professional knowledge, and uninterrupted industry.”

It will readily be supposed that the vast increase of our naval force since that time has necessarily required many additional orders and regulations, some of which, from circumstances, were not compatible with each other; some were given to one dock-yard and not to another; others in one yard became obsolete, while they continued to be acted upon in another; so that there was no longer that uniformity in the management which it is so desirable, indeed so essentially necessary, to preserve. From the year 1764 to 1804, when his majesty appointed a commission “for revising and digesting the civil affairs of his navy,” the attention of the lords of the admiralty and the navy board had frequently been directed to this important subject; but owing to various causes nothing was done to forward so desirable an arrangement, except that Sir Charles Middleton (afterwards Lord Barham), when comptroller of the navy, classed and digested under distinct heads, in a book for that purpose, all orders and regulations prior to the year 1786. The commissioncrs of naval inquiry, appointed in 1803, state the necessity of revising the instructions, and digesting the immense mass of orders issued to the dock-yard officers, and regret that a work of such utility should not have been completed. The late Lord Melville, to whom the navy is perhaps more indebted than to any single individual, and who, from the active part he had long taken in its concerns, was well aware of the irregularities and disorder which prevailed in the dock-yards, on his appointment to the administration of naval affairs, determined to carry into execution a complete system of reform and of uniform management in all the several departments. The commission consisted of Admiral Lord Barham, John Fordyce, Esq. Admiral Sir Roger Curtis, Bart. Vice Admiral Domett, and Ambrose Serle, Esq. They made fifteen distinct reports, the date of the first being 13th June 1805, of the last the 6th March 1808; all of which, except two, have been printed, by order of the House of Commons, and mostly carried into effect by his majesty’s orders in council. One of the two not printed is an inquiry into the state of the navy at different periods, and of naval timber; the other relates to the formation of a new dock-yard at Northfleet, which, however advisable and even necessary the design of it might have been considered at the time when Bonaparte was energetically carrying on his mighty plans for the creation of a naval force to contest the power of the ocean with Great Britain, will, as has already been observed, no longer be thought so under present circumstances.

From these reports have been established, for the first time, in all his majesty’s dock-yards, one uniform system 1 of management, by which it was hoped incalculable advantages would have been derived to the public, in the preventing of frauds, in the saving of labour and materials, and consequently time and expense, and in securing better workmanship in the construction of ships, which is perhaps of all other considerations the most important; but the system was cumbrous and very expensive.

The management of the dock-yards, and of all the civil affairs of the navy, was, until recently, entrusted to cer- 1 tain commissioners appointed by patent, of whom the comptroller of the navy and three surveyors, and seven other commissioners, formed a board at Somerset House, for the general direction and superintendence of the civil concerns of the navy, subject to the control of the lords commissioners of the admiralty. At most of the home yards and of the foreign yards was a commissioner of the navy, who was always a naval officer of the rank of captain. The foreign yards over which a commissioner presided were, Bermuda, Cape of Good Hope, Gibraltar, Halifax, Jamaica, Malta, Quebec, Kingston, including the lake establishments and Trincomalee, which, with the five belonging to the home yards, Woolwich (including Deptford), Chatham, Sheerness, Portsmouth, and Plymouth, made the whole number of commissioners of the navy amount to twenty-four. The salary of each of the home commissioners was L.1000 a year, that of the comptroller L.2000. The salary of the foreign commissioners L.1200 a year, except that of the Cape of Good Hope, which was L.1800, and Trincomalee L.3000 a year. They were also entitled to liberal superannuations when unfit for further service; and, at their death, their widows received a pension for life of L.300 a year. All these have been swept away, and the two great departments, the navy and the victualling offices, have been consolidated with the admiralty, and the details of the business placed under five principal officers, each having a separate department. These are, 1. the surveyor of the navy; 2. the accountant general; 3. the storekeeper general; 4. the comptroller of the victualling and transports; 5. the physician.

The treasurer of the navy is a high and responsible officer appointed by the crown, and removeable at pleasure. His salary was L.4000 a year, but it has recently been reduced to L.3000. The establishment of the navy pay-office at Somerset House consists of a paymaster and deputy; three cashiers, one for the navy, one for the victualling, and one for the allotment branch; an accountant; [7:8:88] inspector; a superintendent of the payments of the dockyards, resident in London; sixty established and eighteen extra clerks, besides six pay clerks and three conductors of money at the four pay ports, Portsmouth, Plymouth, Chatham, and Sheerness.

To each of the four dock-yards, Deptford, Portsmouth, Plymouth, and Chatham, are victualling establishments for supplying the fleet with provisions and water; and also at Dover, Cork, Cape of Good Hope, Gibraltar, and Malta. The victualling board at Somerset House consisted of a chairman and deputy chairman, the former with a salary of L.1200, the latter of L.1000 a year, and five other commissioners with salaries of L.800 a year each; a secretary to the board, and a secretary to the committee of accounts; a registrar of securities, and 136 clerks, with salaries varying from L.800 to L.80 a year, according to their class and length of service. These have all been abolished, and, as before stated, consolidated with the admiralty.

The transport board having been dissolved at the end of the war, its twofold duties were divided between the navy and victualling boards; those which concerned the hiring of transports devolved on the commissioners of the navy, and those which related to the sick and hurt department on the commissioners of the victualling board, on whom also devolves the direction and superintendence of all the naval hospitals at home and abroad. These have also merged in the admiralty.

The principal officers of an established dock-yard were, 1. the commissioner; 2. the master attendant; 3. the master shipwright; 4. the clerk of the check; 5. the storekeeper; 6. the clerk of the survey; to which have recently been added the subordinate officers of timbermaster and the master measurer. By the new regulations, the commissioner has been superseded by a superintendent, the clerk of the check and clerk of the survey abolished, as well as the master measurer, and a store receiver substituted for the timber-master. Many subordinate officers have also been abolished, and the whole system of working the men, keeping the accounts, &c. simplified and amended; and some idea may be collected of the diminution of the expense by the simple fact, that, in the ordinary estimate of the navy for 1817 the establishment of officers in Portsmouth yard was L.50,065, whereas in 1833 it is only L.19,803.

Hitherto the men were usually employed by what was called task and job; but they are now wholly put upon day pay.

The commissioners of naval inquiry (Sixth Report) clearly expose the “combination of self-interest which has been permitted to exist against the public in all the persons who were concerned in the accounts of job-work, and the fictitious manner of making up those accounts.” The quarter-men, for instance, were paid wages according to the amount of the earnings of the men under their own superintendence, and the accounts of those earnings were taken by themselves. General Bentham has furnished an instance of the gross abuses which existed under the old system of job-work. “By the regulations of the navy board, nothing less than L.5. 2s. was to be paid for the smallest repair of a thirty-four feet launch. If the above sum should be found inadequate to the payments for the work done to a boat of this class, the repair was then to be denominated a middling repair; in which case L.l 1. Is. was the exact sum. Again, if this sum were insufficient, the repair was to be denominated a large repair ; and in this case, although the value of the workmanship might have exceeded the sum of L.ll. Is. only by a few shillings, the expense was to have appeared in the account as doubled, and set down atL.22. 2s. and nothing less was to be the exact sum paid for this work.” Nothing was more common, in estimating a man’s wages, than to find him working three or four tides, and very often three nights, in one day. (Bentham’s Services, &c.) The whole of this system is now done away; and the consequence is, that as much work is performed, and turned out in a more workman-like manner, and a very large saving, both in pay and materials, by resorting to day pay, under proper superintendence. The effect of the change of system, and the reductions that have been made in the establishments at home and abroad, have reduced the expense in the year 1817 from about L.556,000 to L.286,000, making a saving of L.270,000 a year.