An History of Marine Architecture

Excerpt from An History of Marine Architecture Including an Enlarged and Progressive View of the Nautical Regulations and Naval History Both Civil and Military of All Nations Especially of Great Britain Vol. 1 of 3: Derived Chiefly From Original Manuscripts as Well in Private Collections as in the Great Public Repositories; And Deduced From the Earliest Period to the Present Time. In respect to that doubt and obscurity which has so long and so hap pily divided the minds of commentators and critics with regard to the form of particularly celebrated ships there need not be adduced a stronger proof of the Very uncertain grounds on which enquiry is to be pur sued than the laboured disquisitions which have taken place without in any degree ascertaining the point as to the formation of ships at'' a period no farther distant than that of King Henry the Eighth. Description and profound representation appear in almost numberless instances at variance with each other. The Harry Grace a Dieu is of very different force in the oficial account given of her equipment from that which the drawing preserved in the Pepysian library seems to convey the idea of. Taken in'' a strict''senser it can no more he considered as an actual portrait ofa ship; rudely as vessels might then be constructed than can the uncouth figures of vessels which are so frequently seen on the reverses of an cient coins be taken as the actuali and correct records of the form of gallies. Not to speak contemptuously of securions a'' document if can only be esteemed as the general resemblance of a ship Such as might be sketched by the most artless hand updn'' mere recohection and at a very'' remote period from actual inspection. Notwithstanding however the pre tended form of some particular parts tntally inconsistent as they are with visual truth may in the minds of'' many persons perhaps have brought its accuracy into disrepute yet on acornp''arison With other'' collateral tes timony there seems good reason to suppose that'' several of the general points are correct.. About the Publisher. Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at forgottenbooks. This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases an imperfection in the original such as a blemish or missing page may be replicated in our edition. We do however repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.