De la structure des vaisseaux anglais, considérée dans ses derniers perfectionnements

Abstract

Being engaged in collecting materials for a work entitled “A Picture of Naval Architecture in the 18th and 19th Centuries,” the author was induced to visit this country, with a view to become acquainted with the various innovations and improvements lately introduced here in the art of ship-building; and, in the present communication, offers some remarks upon the plans proposed by Mr. Seppings, an account of which has formerly been before the Royal Society, and is printed in their Transactions for 1814. After giving an outline of the fundamental principles upon which Mr. Seppings’s improvements in naval architecture principally depend, and dwelling especially upon the diagonal pieces of timber which he employs to strengthen the usual rectangular frame-work, the author proceeds to state that similar contrivances were long ago suggested and even practised by the French ship-builders, in order to give strength to the general fabric of their vessels. Instead of making the ceiling parallel to the exterior planks, they arranged it in the oblique direction of the diagonals of the parallelograms formed by the timber and the ceiling, in the whole of that part of the ship’s sides between the orlop and limber-strake next the kelson. They then covered this ceiling with riders, as usual, and placed crosspieces between them in the direction of the second diameter of the parallelogram. This system, however, was abandoned in the French navy, on account of its expense, of its diminishing the capacity of the hold, and of the erroneous notion that the longitudinal length of the ship was diminished by the obliquity of the ceiling. In 1755, the Academy of Sciences rewarded M. Chauchot, a naval engineer, for the suggestion of employing oblique for transverse riders; and in 1772, M. Clairon des Lauriers employed diagonal strengtheners in the construction of the frigate l’Oiseau.