"uprights." The public may, no doubt, like to know why the "poor fisherman" is sent afloat in a "turnover," whilst the coastguardman is sent afloat in a stable boat of a less peculiar construction. Why is "poor" Jack not provided with the same sort of lifeboat as his brother Jack in the navy? Here, then, is a case for humanitarians. After all it may, however, turn out that the Institution is right in the main, and is, probably, only desirous of an opportunity for letting the public know of the conditions on which and reasons by which their committee have been guided in selecting "turnovers" in preference to "uprights." That the Admiralty and the Institution can both be right, and yet that the two bodies at the same time supply boats essentially different as lifeboats for the same districts, is. undoubtedly possible. We should, however, like to hear a good deal more about this last "turnover" casualty and its causes. As regards the "uprights," the following extract from Capt. Sulivan's last work on Chasing Slave Dhows" is instructive and con firmatory: 66 "On the afternoon of the 28th of the same month a dhow appeared coming from the southward, so we immediately weighed and steamed towards her. It may here be remarked, that owing to the strong current from the south and light winds, the dhows, which are never calculated to sail on a wind, have no chance of an escape from a vessel north of them. On nearing this dhow, which was running up towards us, close in shore, she put her helm up, and ran through the breakers on to the beach, becoming a complete wreck in a few minutes. We were close to her, though outside the breakers, and in time to see a crowd of unfortunate slaves struggling through the water from the ship to the shore. Many of them, no doubt, were drowned in the attempt, and others escaped up the hill before our boat could get near the shore. It was a question if the danger was not too great to risk the surf in the attempt to rescue any of them. We lowered the lifeboat, one of White's five-oared, Mr. Breen, midshipman, and Richards, carpenter, slipping down the life lines into the boat with me, and we shoved off. I intended, if the bar appeared too dangerous to cross, not to risk the lives of the crew; and I confess, after my experience, I never would allow a boat to attempt it again on this part of the coast; it did not look so bad outside. We gave way, and at this time we could see many of the slaves on the beach and in the water. Suddenly we found ourselves amongst the breakers. A sea struck us abaft, and washed clean over the boat from stem to stern; and she must have broached-to if it had not been for the weight of two of us on the yoke line. Then another sea struck us, and then another, washing over the whole length of the boat, and every one in it; but, owing to her admirable construction, the seas went out over the bows, leaving only a few inches of water in her. In a few minutes we were over the bar, and inside it was comparatively smooth. But how was it possible ever to get out again, was the first thought that struck me, as I never saw worse looking breakers, not even at Buffalo Mouth or Algoa Bay. They extended the whole length of the coast for many miles, and from the inside we saw what they really were. were too late to rescue many slaves; we, however, found seven little wretched children from five to eight years of age. * * were a week on board before they could stretch out their legs. * * We * They When we were shoving off, the natives (Somallies) came down and fired. * We had still to cross the bar, and it was nearly dark. After attempting to cross it once or twice, and being carried back by the breakers, I thought, as we were armed, of hauling the boat on to the beach for the night, as there was no anchoring inside the bar, for excepting close to it there was only a white sheet of foam, which, on receding, left the boat nearly high and dry on the coral. At last, after waiting for about a quarter of an hour longer, there appeared to be a lull. It was now or never; the crew gave way with a will, and we succeeded in crossing, getting only one heavy breaker over us from stem to stern; the boat, however, going through it like a fish. We had the poor children stowed in the bottom of the boat. We looked anxiously round, after we had passed, to see if the sea had taken one of them out, indeed it was a miracle it had not." It is more than probable that had the lifeboat referred to by Captain Sulivan been built on the self-righting principle she would have turned over, and have satisfactorily demonstrated how good that principle is. PRIZE SAFETY-VALVE. We have received several requests for particulars of the Prize Valve, in order that other competitors may determine whether to challenge the decision or not. This being so, we are constrained to publish a fac simile of the design, which we do on the opposite page. Any further notice of challenge should be at once sent in. We have already received three. INSTITUTION OF NAVAL ARCHITECTS. THE fourteenth session of this Institution commenced on the 3rd April, at noon; the meetings were held in the hall of the Society of Arts. Sir John S. Pakington, M.P., the President, after the Report of the Council had been read by the Hon. Secretary, delivered the opening address. We are glad to see that, in consideration of the valuable services for ten years of the Hon. Secretary, Mr. Merrifield, £200 should be voted to him by the Council from the funds of the Institution, and that the members and associates be invited to enter into a subscription to present him with a testimonial in a more permanent form. We are also glad to see that Mr. Merrifield has been honoured by an appointment on the Royal Commission about to inquire into the construction of ships. A paper was read on the Devastation, Thunderer, Fury, and Peter the Great, by N. Barnaby, Esq., Vice-President and Chief Naval Architect of the Royal Navy. The Devastation and the Thunderer. Their hulls, engines, boilers, and magazines are protected by 12 inches of armour on the sides, by 3 inches of armour on the low decks, and by 6 inches of armour on bow and stern bulkheads in the hold. Each ship carries four guns, each capable of firing shell and shot weighng 700 lbs. each, at a velocity equivalent to about 900 miles an hour. These guns are protected at the breastwork and above it by at least 12 inches of armour, the faces of the turrets by 14 inches. The deck forming the glacis to these guns, which is 11 feet out of the water, is protected by 2 inches of iron beneath the oak. The trial of one of the ships at the measured mile, at her deep sea line, has shown that she has a speed of one and one-third knots over that which was estimated (13 840); and that she will reverse the course at full speed in one minute twenty-six seconds. The passage of the other from Pembroke to Portsmouth has shown that the low hull and the absence of rigging are likely to admit of the maintenance of high rates of speed with ease against head winds. Comparing them with the Minotaur, the Monarch, the Hercules, or the Sultan, no one here is likely to dispute their superiority for an engagement in the Channel, in the Mediterranean, or the Black Sea. Yet, as a matter of first cost, these ships (exclusive of artillery and stores) will not reach the cost of the Minotaur by £140,000, nor the cost of the Monarch and Hercules by some £40,000; and they will be fought by half the number of men. The ships are distrusted because they are said to be low freeboard monitors; and that type of ship which was once held up to us as a pattern of all that was admirable, is now out of favour. Well, the answer is, they are not low freeboard ships or monitors at all. A monitor 66 is a vessel which, with about 1,600 tons of bulk under water, has about 150 tons, or less than one-tenth out of water. A low freeboardship, such as the far-famed Miantonomah, has from 2 to 3 feet freeboard, right fore-and-aft; and with a bulk of about 4,000 tons under water, has about 1,000 tons out of water, or about one-fourth. Yet of these ships, we were told in this room, seven years ago, that when a heavy gale came on just after the American fleet had assembled for the bombardment of Fort Fisher, the monitors (with an out-of-water bulk one-tenth of their under-water bulk) rode out the gale quite as well as the broadside vessels, and were the only vessels in the fleet which did not drag their anchors. We were told with regard to the larger vessels with, from 2 to 3 feet freeboard, that one of them got into a very heavy and confused sea, with the waves 30 feet high. Referring to this occasion, Commodore Rogers said, we were then informed :-" During the heaviest of the gale I stood upon the turret, and admired the behaviour of the vessel. She rose and fell to the waves, and I concluded then that the monitor form had great sea-going qualities." This being so, there can surely be no just ground for alarm on account of lowness of freeboard, when the bulk of out-ofwater ship is not one-tenth, or even one-fourth, but is nearly one-half of the under-water ship; and this is the case in the Thunderer and Devastation. To confirm us on this point, we have the case of the Abyssinia and Magdala turret-ships, which made the passage to Bombay in the winter of 1870-71. In them the bulk of out-of-water ship was only one-third of that under water; and the height of freeboard was only 3 feet in one ship and 2 feet in the other right fore and aft. I may refer you also to the rule as to freeboard adopted by the Council of this Institution in 1867, according to which the Devastation should have 7 feet 9 freeboard. These ships will have 20 inches more than this for their average freeboard; and there will not be one single opening at this height, or even at twice this height. The lowest openings are, in fact, 24 feet out of the water. But there is low freeboard, it will be said, in part of the ship; there is a part of the stern which is only 4 feet 6 inches out of water! Quite true; and what of that? It is hermetically sealed with armour of 3 inches thick; and if, instead of 4 feet it were 4 inches, I cannot imagine why it should be objected to. No one will be asked to go there when the ship is at sea; and although it looks odd to see a part of the deck of the ship converted into a breakwater, it is a very innocent, if it should not prove to be (as I believe it will) a very useful novelty. The ship cannot be forced under the sea bodily; one-third of her whole bulk wili insist on remaining above the water so long as water does not enter the openings above the hurricane deck. Any depression of the bow must, therefore, be accompanied by a corresponding eleva |