SHIPBUILDING IN no period of the world has the subject of naval architecture had higher claims on public attention than the present, and to our own country in particu lar, it is an art of such transcendent importance, that no means ought to be left untried to give to it every perfection of which it is susceptible. Nor is it only in a commercial point of view that shipbuilding is valuable to man, since by the enterprise that fortu nately characterises the modern navigator, the ocean is become one of the high roads of civilization,—per haps the highest; and therefore in the successful cul tivation of the various arts connected with navigation and commerce, every lover of human improvement must feel an interest proportionate to the influence which they are now universally allowed to exercise on the improving destiny of man.
There are three capital points of view in which na val architecture may be contemplated. First, as re gards the means it affords for the purposes of war; secondly, as it relates to commercial enterprise and speculation; and thirdly, as it is connected with hu man improvement, the enlargement of geographical knowledge, and the extension of the blessings of ci vilization. The cultivation of the first is unfortu nately rendered necessary by the peculiar condition of the world; and perhaps the second and third are in some degree protected and assisted by it; but it is successful advancement of the latter, that ren ders the study of naval architecture most pleasing, and elevates it to a rank with those arts which essen tially minister to the happiness and well being of man. Commerce indeed is productive of unnumber ed blessings. Its theatre is the world; and the wide spreading waters of the ocean form the links of social harmony and love. The most distant nations are by its means connected;—national jealousies and preju dices become softened;—the wandering savage learns to value the blessings of social life; and the various productions which the wisdom and beneficence of the Supreme has rendered peculiar to particular climates and countries, are, by the arts connected with ship building, distributed through every part of the globe, to which the wide spreading enterprise of man has penetrated.
Little more than a century and a quarter have elaps ed since the, theory of mechanics was first applied to the construction and management of vessels, in a work published at Lyons in 1696 by Paul lloste,* and entitled, "Theorie de la Construction des raisseaux."
Prior to the publication of this interesting treatise, experience and imperfect observation were the guides of the shipbuilder. The torch of geometry had not then illuminated his path: nor were the maxims of mechanical science applied to his daily labours. Ships were constructed by rules, which a long succes sion of centuries had esteemed as infallible, and no man ventured to question their accuracy and origin. After a long night of darkness, however, arose Bet. nouilli, Bouguer, and Euler, who joined to the high est theoretical attainments, clear and definite concep tions of the practical applications of analysis to some of its most important elements. In the hands of Eu ler in particular, the subject first assumed a regular and systematic form; yet from the peculiar difficul ties connected with the inquiry, much, very much re mains to be done, to give to its theoretical investiga tions those capabilities of application which the inqui ry so particularly demands. Since the time of Euler, it has been enriched by the labours of Clairbois, of Chapman, of Atwood, and of some others; and the labours of the two latter have done much for its ad vancement. Its precepts and rules, however, are still too much influenced by caprice, by prejudice, and chance. The rigid and scrutinizing spirit of geom etry calls for a more precise application of its rules;— and where, we would ask, can its severe and unalter able precepts meet with a more extended field of ap plication ? At the present moment indeed, a spirit of inquiry seems to be awakened respecting shipbuilding, which no antecedent period ever exhibited. The public at tention has in a peculiar degree been drawn towards it, partly, perhaps, from apprehensions respecting the possible rivalry of other states; partly from the suc cessful applications of mechanical science to its vari ous branches, by the genius and intelligence of Sir Robert Seppings; and partly from the establishment of the school of naval architecture in Portsmouth dock yard, and from the admirable union of theory and practice which characterises the course of in struction employed in that most useful institution.