E E Commercial and Agricultural Magazine.

No AML NOVEMBER, 1800. C NaL dA.

A ſhort Account of the TRANSIT, a newly conſtructed Ship, with Five MAasTs, accompanied by a corre engraved VIEw of her when under fail,

dl Ln inventor of this projeted improvement in naval archi- teure is Mr. Richard Hall Gower, who has been ſeveral years in the ſervice of the Honourable Eaft India Company, and 1s the third‘ſon’ of the late Dr. Foote Gower, the Cheſhire Hiſtorian, and Phyſician, at Chelmsford, in Eſſex.|

The principal obje&s which were kept in view in contriving this novel ſhip were,—to ſai] faſter on a fide wind, and much cloſer to the wind, than veſſels on the ordinary conſtruAion; and, at the ſame time, to ſimplify and lighten the maſts and rigging» ſo as to remove ſuperfluous preſſure, and introduce general œconomy.

Tt is a well known truth, that a ſingle thought has given riſe to affairs of magnitude, when fuch thought has been conceived in the true order in which it ought to bave been placed. Per- haps the idea which firſt ſuggelted itſelf to the inventor, in the veſlel before üs, owes a part of its juſt celebrity to a circum- ſtance of this kind. He had frequeatly remarked, what indeed might have indifferentiy ſtruck others, that when a hail is braced up to the wind, the Iee-Icech is ruck with greater force by the wind than the weather-!eech: if, therefore, thought he, the quantity of lce-leeches could be augmented, the multiplied preſ- ſure of the wind would undoubtedly accelerate a veſle]. A foundation being thus laid, the lightneſs of ſtru@ure, and œco- Nnomy, which are the reſult, have naturally ariſen out of the firſt thought, as it gradually expanded.

A tolerable notion of the principles of this invention may be obtained by viewing the veſlel under Lul, Now, if, inſtead of the numerous diviſions of ſails which we there ſee, the canvas had been one large ſheet, fore-and-aft, it is obvious that 2 con-= ſiderable part of ſuch ſail would have little or no employ, except indeed increaſing gravity, waſte of canvas, and the charge of ſtouter maſts, yards, and rigging, By dividing, and producing more lee-leeches, the united effort of the ſails to accelerate the veſlel, is conſiderably augmented,

The ſails ſtand true to the wind, with a perfely flat ſurface, without the power of retaining a bagful of wind, which can

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CoM.& AGR. MAG. DE