These are the principal considerations on the stow age of ships; and it happens fortunately, that the modes of stowage required by a clue attention to the qualities influenced by it are generally compatible with one another. The stability requires the greatest weights as low as possible, which is agreeable to concen trating them towards the middle of the ship's length, which is required to produce the best effect on the pitch ing, tacking, and strain of the materials. Bolding a steady course, and the action of the rudder, require the weights to be placed so that the centre of gravity of Ihe ship may he before the middle, but not so much as to be practically opposed to the consideration of its being very near to the middle, which reduces the resistance to com ing about. The rolling requires the weights to be wing ed, whith may be done by judgment and attention, with out raising their centre gravity, which would dimin ish the stability.
The result of these observations is, that the movea ble weighqs in a ship should hr so disposed that its centre of gravity may be low and a little before the middle of its length; and that they should be winged as much as pos sible without raising their centre of gravity.
Chapman, says, in his Treatise on Shipbuilding, that the centre of gravity or a ship should be between the limits of A, and of the length before the mid dle. This proportion he most probably determined
by calculations made on different ships in the Swedish service. The centre or gravity of ships of seventy-four guns, stowed according to the English method, as to the height of its situation, is generally from about six to nine inches above the load water line.
These principles govern the stowage of ships, but the manner and degree to which they should be car ried into practice, must be ascertained by experiment. A course of experiments on the quantity of ballast, and the best disposition of weights on every class of ships, would be very valuable to the science of Naval Architecture. By determining the proper trim of the different classes of ships, much valuable information would be obtained for the naval architect in making designs. Many calculations, which are made by as suming the set of the ship in water, hut which it is afterwards found necessary to alter, would be made with much greater certainty than at present. It is by a combination of theoretical and experinzental knowledge, in this .subject as in most others connected with naval architecture, that this science will arrive at perfection.