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18 from experience. There is no doubt that the iron becomes corroded after six or eight months' application, and we think we are justified in renewing the galvanized iron sheathing after 16 or 18 months, which is our practice, and even that practice is much cheap- er than using copper. The President: Mr. Furer, have you anything further to say in reply? Julius A. Furer: It may be of in- terest to say in connection with the repairs to the Nero that the vessel, now in; service, has been a collier for almost a year again, and the repairs are entirely satisfactory. Of course, as mentioned in the paper, no attempt was made to secure water-tight con- struction, as in the case of new con- struction, and the tanks were tested for ordinary water tanks, but the ves- sel has been perfectly satisfactory so fat Spencer Miller: I move a vote of thanks to Mr. Ferguson for his very interesting paper. The President: The motion is wel- comed by the chair; those in favor of extending a vote of thanks to the au- thor of this paper will say aye; con- trary minded, no. The motion is -car- ried. WOODEN SAILING SHIPS. Prot HC. Sadler next read B.. B. Crowninshield's paper entitled '""Wood- en Sailing Ships." Attention will be paid to this paper later. COMMUNICATED DISCUSSION. Thomas Amory De Blois, M. D., late lieutenant United States navy: I cannot express how p'eased I am with Mr. Crowninshield's paper, bringing back to us the remembrance of the beautiful white sails of the past. I show a photograph of a model of a "two-decker" of the sixteenth century. This model was in the museum of the old naval academy and appears to have some form of submarine defen- sive armor. She was a Venetian ves- sel and is rigged to sky sails, as will be observed: Having lived for three years aboard the old frigate Constitu- tion, I have been greatly interested in her restoration. If I miséake not, in 1863, although her lower yards were rigged with chain slings, she still had the "rove" hemp trusses, which had to be slacked up whenever the yards were braced "sharp up" on the other tack. Ihe cause of the old order in tacking ship: "Rise tacks and sheets, fet. go, and overhaul your weather liits and trusses, .bear. abaft your weather backstays" (referring to the breast backstays). All this had to be 'done to brace the lower yards "sharp " up. When the iron truss came in, it set THE Marine Review far enough out from the lower mast to keep the yard clear of the lower shrouds. JI enclose a photograph of the frigate Santee, a newer ship than the Constitution, and one which the mistake was made of piercing 'the spar deck ports directly over those of the gun deck. This weakened the ship and made it unpleasant to load the gun deck battery while those above were being fired. The sloop of war (gun deck sloop, i. e., with covered gun deck) was a beautiful type of the later "razeed" frigate. This. was done. to. several when the guns became heavier (9-in. smooth bore), the spar deck battery was abandoned and the hammock rail was lowered. I enclose photograph of the U. S..S. Macedonian, one of the best of those, and a beautiful working ship she was. Soon there followed the full-rigged sloop and frigate with hoisting pro- peller, and steam power of about six knots. The propeller was two bladed and the enclosing frame 'hoisted in a well, clear of the water. Abroad the United States sloop of war Brooklyn, in 1870, the propeller jammed while being hoisted and the sheavés were torn out of the propeller frame. The frame was then wedged down with crossed scantling in the propeller weil, the shaft was uncoupled and dragging the propeller we sailed from Sandy Hook to Libson in. 31 days. . IT miss the name of Steers in this account of our beautiful American sail- ing ships. Besides designing the yacht America, he designed for the navy the frigate Niagara (which laid the first cable) and the sloop of war Lancas- ter, known as "the man-of-war yacht," the most beautiful vessel the navy has ever known. I enclose a photograph showing the beautiful lines of the America when "hove down" to a mon- itor in the Severn river at Annapolis. I cannot finish these remarks with- out speaking of the pains our govern- ment once took to procure and pre- serve good building material for its wooden navy. In 1875 and 1876 I in- spected the fresh water ponds on the "naval. reserve' at Pensacola navy yard. Here two frigate frames of live stock had been laid down under wa- ter, long before the war of the re- bellion. In the winter of 1876 a con- tractor came down from Washington, employed a lot of men and two more sets of frames were laid down under the water (pegged and weighted when necessary). Now whether this beauti- ful material was "sold for a song," or whether it still lies in the sand, waiting to be fully seasoned by the of the "day of judgment" (for it will never rot under water) I know not. DISCUSSION. The President: This paper is now open for general discussion. Col'-E. Al Stevens: "i> trast that when Mr. Crowinshield's paper is published, the lines of the Ann Mc- Kim will not be omitted, as they have been in the advance copy. I join with Mr. Crowninshield in his admiration lines' of that "vessel, and J think it will be an admirable record for us to have it in relation to the speed of sailing ships which he men- tions. I am sorry he forgot the Sappho. It was, of course, a consid- erably smaller vessel than the clip- per ships, like the Sovereign of the mea, Dut the Sappho maintained something over 16 knots for a con- tinuous run for a number of hours. That was during her famous trip in which she lowered the then sailing ship record between New York and Great. Britain. I can remember as a boy watching a contrivance on board the Maria, to indicate the speed by balancing the head pressure of the water against a column of mercury. . 'It stood on the aft side of the fore- mast. The apparatus has been stand- ardized by the ordinary ship _ block, which was the only thing available in those days, and I can remember see- ing that log indicating between 14 and 15 knots. The tradition was that at one time she went a little over 17 knots between New Lopdon and' Newport. That was before my day. . [here was no doubt at all, however, that the old saying among seagoing men that a. sailing ship could under favorable conditions, at- tain the speed of the stedm_ ship, was true until the advent of the re- cent high speed vessels. Of course, the conditions had to be favorable, and the ships which were able to at- tain the high speed, the high record speed, were not necessarily the fast- est ships under all conditions, in faot, very high speed was generally the result of sacrificing those qualities which would give them the highest average speed. The President: I was wondering how long the fore and aft schooners were going to be used in trade? W. F. Palmer. Mr. President, they will continue just as long as you have a steel 'trust that charges you the present price of steel, and in addi- tion pretends to regulate the move- ments of the sun and stars, and the finances of the nation. I, for busi- ness reasons, feel somewhat tongue- tied about saying what is much in