those constructed on their lines were the best in our service. In fact, we were forced to take French vessels as models of those of our own constructing, so little understood were the principles which ought to govern the science. This reproach is now however washed away-we are no longer the copyists of the French, we now as far exceed them in the construction, as we always exceeded them in the management of their vessels. Take the following as examples of this assertion :—

Writing from the Chinese seas, the captain of H.M.S. Iris makes a statement from which the following passage is extracted :—

"I describe a trial of sailing with the French squadron I found at Singapore, consisting of the Sirene 52, Sabine 32, and Victorieuse 28. At a large dinner party at the Commodores, at which I was present, the decidedly expressed opinion was, that La Courte Corvette (Iris) might have a chance with the Sabine and Victorieuse, but nothing could sail with the Sirene."

As the whole of the letter will be found in extenso in the following pages, it is sufficient here to state, that a trial took place, and at starting, the Sirene was three miles distant, and two points on the weather bow of the Iris, this was at 10 A.M. and at 3 P.M. the latter vessel had beaten the Corvette hull down, and the Sirene, which the French officers thought not to be equalled in speed, was one point abaft the Iris's lee beam; nothing could more satisfactorily prove the great superiority of the Iris.

In like manner it will be seen by the following pages, that the Harlequin sailed, in about an hour, twice round a French ten-gun brig. The Rover beat a French Corvette, by eight days, in running from Rio to Valparasio. The Acorn sailed round and round a French twenty-gun brig. The Cleopatra was challenged to a trial of sailing by a French brig of war, and in a beat of three miles the French vessel was beaten one mile and a half, to the great disappointment of the French Admiral who was confident of success; and the Ranger beat the French brig of war, L'Alcyone, reported to be one of the fastest of their vessels.-Sir F. Collier's letter gives another instance in the Vernon's decided superiority over a French squadron in the North Sea.

These surely may be considered sufficient proofs that the French no longer hold their superiority in building ships of war, and it may perhaps be inferred that as all of the foregoing vessels have been constructed by SirW. Symonds, his system cannot have proved to be so entire a failure as some people would have the public to imagine. It would be difficult to find a similar list of vessels, built by other naval architects, which could thus beat some of the fastest vessels in the French navy, perhaps the only vessels which could pretend to such a competition would be those built after French models; and yet in the face of such facts all credit is denied him for making the smallest improvements, and the Government is attacked for allowing vessels to be laid down upon principles of construction decidedly superior to any hitherto known or acted upon in Great Britain.

Before entering further in details however, it may be as well, for the benefit of those who may have hitherto devoted no attention to the subject, to give a short sketch of the rise and progress of the improvements affected by Sir W. Symonds. It was impossible for me to obtain the requisite information to enable me to do this without some assistance. I have not the honour of being personally known to that gallant officer, but through the medium of a mutual friend I was placed in possession of much that is contained in the following pages; though for the great mass of the information and correspondence I am indebted to official documents and to the voluntary communications of commanders, who have sailed in ships of his construction, and who shared with myself in the indignation excited by a continuous effort to impress the public mind with the belief that the very best ships in the Royal Navythere built by that gallant officer-were unfitted for active service.

This indignation has not been a little inflamed, nor the necessity for the present publication lessened, by the speeches in Parliament of certain gallant officers, depreciating the merits of the system of Sir W. Symonds, although those very officers had formerly written in almost unqualified praise of his ships, after having commanded them under various and oftentimes trying circumstances. I do not wish to bear hardly upon them. I seek not to attribute motives,-I give their letters-and if the sentiments therein expressed are strangely at variance with their parliamentary

effusions, the fault is not mine; let the public judge what value should be set on one or on the other, or whether value should be attached to either.

Sir W. Symonds soon after he first turned his attention to the science of naval architecture, bringing to the task his practical knowledge as a seaman, was much struck by the great stability of the Gibraltar, as compared with that of any other vessel in the Royal Navy. He became, after some consideration, convinced that a ship having her means of stability, but having also a fine bottom, would beat all the ships in the service on every point considered valuable in vessels of war. Some years elapsed, however, before he had an opportunity of testing the correctness of this idea, until he resided in Malta, when he was enabled, from a munificent bequest in the Will of the late Admiral, the Honourable William Cornwallis, to test the principles he contemplated in the construction of a Yacht called the " Nancy Dawson," in which he visited most of the interesting places in the Mediterranean. Her sailing qualities and capabilities as a sea-boat attracted the notice of Lord Vernon, and he soon became convinced of the soundness and solidity of that system of construction. The exertions of the noble Lord, to bring the Board of Admiralty, of that day into his views, was most strenuous. He felt it would be a benefit conferred upon the Empire if he succeeded, and with a spirit of disinterested patriotism, he at length offered to purchase the Columbine, then about to be laid down, if built upon the plan of Sir W. Symonds, should she, after a fair and sufficient trial, not prove to be successful.

Lord Vernon was ultimately enabled to carry his point; and Sir W. Symonds built the Columbine* at Portsmouth Dock-yard, notwithstanding the factious opposition of the Dock-yard authorities and their creatures; and then commenced the illiberal cabal and persecuting intrigues of the School of Naval Architecture; every difficulty being thrown in his way; and here let me for one moment call attention to the performances of this beautiful vessel : Commander Henderson, in his report to the Admiralty of the sail

* His Lordship also took his own Yacht, the Transit, to pieces, and converted her into a reduced Columbine, calling her Harlequin.

b

ing qualites of the Columbine, makes a statement from which I may here extract the following passages.-The report will be found in extenso in the subsequent pages of this volume.

"On weighing from the Downs on the 2nd of September, 1834, at 5h. 15m. A.M. H.M.S. Thalia was seven miles directly to windward, and under sail before Columbine; that both vessels worked through the Channel the whole day under double-reefed topsails, setting and taking in top-gallant sails occasionally; and at 7h. 30m. P.M. we anchored under Dungeness, three miles to windward of Thalia, having beat her 10 miles out of 25. On the following day, under similar sail the vessels weighed together about a mile distant, working through the Channel as before; Thailia was lost sight of from the mast-head in 11 hours; and ever since that period Columbine has had the advantage over every ship of war she has yet sailed with, of from a mile, to a mile and a half an hour to the wind, except on one occasion only, beating between the Islands of Cerigo and Seroi with unsteady winds, when Childers, for three hours following crossed on opposite tacts about the same distance, or rather less to windward than she was at starting, viz. three cables' length; but this was a singular exception only, as the very first opportunity after of sailing with her in open sea room, off Malta, on the 7th August 1835, under the observation of the commander-in-chief, she beat Endymion, Sapphire, and Childers, at the rate of a mile and a mile an hour to the wind; and although Childers is the fastest vessel, excepting Vernon, she has sailed with, the advantage over her may be estimated at a mile an hour to the wind, and sparing top-gallant, and top-mast studding sails off the wind.

"On the first trial with Scout and Childers by the orders of the Commander-in-Chief, on the 5th November, 1834, our superiority over Scout was from a mile and a half to two miles, and over Childers a mile to the wind in moderate winds; and in strong winds, after Scout parted company, we spared Childers top-gallant sails, and weathered on her nearly half a mile an hour without them.

"On the 7th March, 1834, running with the wind abaft the beam in a considerable sea, under treble reefed topsails, double-reefed boom mainsail and fore topmast staysail, lowering maintop sail occasionally to keep on the Admiral's beam, from 8h. P.M. to 4h. A.M. of the 8th, spared Caledonia, Edinburgh, Revenge and Canopus, courses and jib, Thunderer and Portland hauling up and setting square mainsail, as necessary to keep station; and on the 9th, in working round the Island of St. George with Vernon and Portland, whilst making the last tack to weather the island, the fore-yard gave way in the slings, which compelled us to pass to leeward of it again. At 45 minutes past noon Vernon spoke us abreast of the Island, standing for Salaamis, carrying all sail; Portland was then hull down a head, steering for Salaamis, also, and, notwithstanding the want of our foresail, we came up and anchored at the same time with Portland, and only 15 minutes after Vernon,* each vessel carrying all possible sail.

"At 6 A.M. 27th January, 1836, a French brig-of-war was discovered six or seven miles a head. At 7h. both vessels were under top

* The Vernon was also built by Sir W. Symonds.

mast and top-gallant studding sails. At 8h. Columbine was abreast of her. At 9h. both vessels came to the wind with light wind. At 10h. they were under royals and all sail; French brig half a mile on the lee quarter. At 5h. P M. her royals were only to be seen from the deck on the same bearing, having left her immediately in the wind's eye 10 or 12 miles, without ever going more than 3 knots during the day; she was a brig of 20 guns, and appeared a powerful vesse.

"On our passage to England we came up with, to the southward of Ushant, and passed, as if at anchor, the Scorpion and Eclipse packets, the first having sailed from Malta eight days before us, and although two days were lost at Gibraltar and Tangier, we arrived at Plymouth two days before them.

"I have also to state, that she is extremely easy in every description of sea; that she carries her sail with uncommon stability, being able to bear her lee ports open under double-reefed topsails and courses, going nine knots close hauled; steers and works well, and, on a recent occasion ran twenty minutes under all sail before the wind, going 11 knots, without veering the tenth part of a point, with the tiller untouched by the helmsman; and I would humbly, but safely, assert, that she is, of the many vessels I have been in, the easiest in a head sea, and the most correct in steerage, (insomuch that her reckoning has scarcely been out a mile since I have commanded her,) and that she accommodates her crew with great comfort, stows foreign stores and provisions for four months well; drawing about 13 feet 11 inches forward, and 15 aft.”

One successful effort is rarely sufficient to convince the sceptical of the justice of a new theory. When Fulton succeeded in carrying his friends in the first experimental steam vessel to the place appointed for their holiday recreation, they were all willing enough to believe that they were there, but few indeed would believe in the possibility of returning by the same mode of conveyance. Thus Sir W. Symonds had established the validity of his theory by the performances of the Columbine, but there the matter might have rested had it not been for the enterprizing spirit of His Grace the Duke of Portland, who, on his first introduction, requested reduced Lines on which to build a Yacht for his own use; His Grace also caused several small vessels to be built at his own expense, to give Sir William an opportunity of trying practical experiments. The result of those experiments was the model of the Pantaloon, which vessel was purchased by the Government, after her performances had been reported wonderfully successful. More recently, this same public spirited nobleman has offered to risk large sums of money on the successful issue of Sir William's principles of naval construction.