THE AMERICA YACHT.
OFF one of our great naval ports, the shipbuilding of England has been challenged by an alien vessel, and defeated totally. It is a remarkable incident, and not satisfactory to the national pride.
We may find solace in the fact that it is due to "accident." Strange as it must appear, it has only been in comparatively re- cent times that attempts have been made to reduce the water- cleaving power of the ship to scientific rule ; and hitherto science has not been happy in its efforts. The victory of the America, if we are not mistaken, practically refutes the newest hypothesis in the search for the philosopher's stone in the science of ship- building. The principle of Mr. Scott Russell's plan, we believe, was based on the fact that water ,displaced by a body which is removed refills the vacuity, not so much by falling in at the sides, as by rising from below ; hence it was calculated, that if a vessel were built sharp and deep towards the bows, broad and shallow towards the stern, the very act of the water in rising to supply the displacement would aid the impetus on the body, of the vessel : and experiment tended to justify that expectation. The make of the America, we understand, is quite the reverse of that just described : the bows are sharp, and the breadth of beam, which is Considerable, is greatest about parallel to the:mainmast; so far coinciding with the other model. But-the draught of water at the bows is trifling—about three feet; and it deepens to three times as much towards the stern.
The make is not conducive to great freightage capacity ; yet its origin is commercial. American shippers have inclined lately to prefer speed to large capacity ; as they find that rapidity, by faci- litating certainty of movement and a multiplicity of voyages within a given time, returns a larger profit than slower and more uncertain voyaging with greater bulk. The model of the America is the result.
The good luck of the discovery has first fallen to the -United States ; but there is no room either for chagrin or dismay. Ship- building in this country is not stagnant; a considerable number of ships are made annually, and there can be no doubt that any well- tested model will soon find its way to our docks. We shall not therefore be much-behind in the practical progress of shipbuilding. Nor is it to be assumed, that because empiricism has beaten science, the latter is to yield in despair. On the contrary, empiricism has always been the jackal to theoretic science, and every discovery by the working shipwright only brings us nearer to, the desideratum —a scientific rule. We have heard an American express the hope that England, by beating America, would give the impulse for a new effort which should again give his country a new triumph. Such friendly emulation is not rivalry. : it is but the pride of him who for the moment gets foremost in the search for a common good. A more invidious feeling would have kept the America at a distance from our waters : as it is, our friends hasten over, with a natural pride, to-make us a party in the new idea.
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