An arrangement might be made for filling the bulk-heads through a pipe from a cistern, which is supplied by the water thrown from the floatboards against the side of the paddle box, to which the cistern is attached. This cistern need be only two inches wide or even less, and placed about two feet above the deck of the vessel; the pipe will pass through the side immediately under the deck, and descend to the bottom of the bulkhead, where it will enter it, having a stop cock upon it to cut off the supply, if required.

There will be another pipe leading down from the top of the bulkhead through the ship's side immediately under the deck, into the other paddlebox, which will complete the arrangement, and keep up a constant circulation.

When in harbour, or the engine is not at work, the bulk-heads may be supplied once a watch, or as often as the officer in command may require, by a deck pump in the paddle box, filling the cistern through a hose, which will occasion little trouble and no expense in the outfit. In either of which cases the current must be incessant, and the temperature never perceptibly altered. The principle upon which the bulk-head is formed being established, a very little experience will teach men the best mode of carrying it out, according to the circumstances of the ship in which it is placed.

The same effect will be produced on the other side of the bulk-head, where the heat cannot be raised above that temperature, forming the best store-room for every kind of article which might be melted or ignited by the heat of the fire, whether tallow, artificial fuel, or any other inflammable material. If such bulk-head be placed between the boilers and the habitable part of the ship, and be supplied with the water required, either by a deck pump or one attached to the engine, the cabins within one foot of the boilers will be the coolest in the ship in the hottest climates. Let any one reflect on the inconvenience he would feel in living in warm weather in a berth within two feet of the boilers, with only a wooden bulk-head between them, (which being soon heated through, will remain at that temperature so long as the boilers are at work, and will be the means of conveying the heat of the boilers to the berths adjoining to it,) and contrast it with a berth in which the temperature of the bulk-head can never be raised above that of the water with which it is filled, and he will soon be convinced of the value of the proposed alteration.

It may be made equally available for heat or for cold it may be kept at that of the sea water when in hot climates, or be raised, by a communicating pipe with the boiler, to any temperature that may be found most agreeable when in the colder latitudes in winter; by placing it, therefore, between the boilers and the habitable part of the ship it will be found most useful to the officers and crew, in whatever climate they may be.

It has been said by some persons that the engine-room was the coldest part of the ship. I may be allowed to express a doubt of this assertion; not only because the radiating heat from the boilers and fire-places must affect the atmosphere which surrounds them, but because the most attentive and experienced officers of the service have constantly spoken of the difficulties of cooling those places, particularly in bad weather;

and the persons to whom I have alluded would not be angry with me for doubting their account, if I asked the question whether they tried with the thermometer the other parts of the ship through which the current of air passed to effect their object? And if their engine-room appeared to be cooler than those of other vessels, I would enquire at what expense was the advantage obtained? I cannot help suspecting that it was done at that of the health and comfort of the ship's company, by keeping a communication open with the decks on which the men are berthed, and by drawing a stream of air down the fore hatchway (to use the expression of a naval friend) "enough to blow the men out of their hammocks."

The health and comfort of the ship's company, when engaged in active operations, or on an enemy's coast, is as essential to the service as that of the engineers and their men. The object, therefore, which I have endeavoured to accomplish, is the health and comfort of all. I would not allow any communication between the engine-room and the ship's company and I am satisfied that every steam-boat officer who knows his duty, and has the good of the service at heart, will agree with me in its importance. I would carefully guard the habitable part of the ship from access to the engine-room by bulk-heads, so formed as to prevent the possibility of a communication of heat to, or a current of air from, the deck on which the ship's company live; and I would supply the stoke-hole and engine-room with air by a very different process. With such comfort as those bulk-heads would afford, and by attention to the ventilation of the stoke-hole and engine-room, properly understood and regulated, there is no reason why a steam-vessel should not be as healthy, perhaps the most healthy, vessel that could be sent into the tropics. Perhaps I may be told that attempts have been made to prevent the heat from going into the other part of the vessel from the engine-room by the double bulk-heads of wood, with a space for air between them, but let any one consider what must be the situation of the ship if the less accessible of these bulk-heads should take fire, with such a channel for air to maintain it-the commander would rather be subject to the heat than the additional and difficult enemy he would then have to contend with.

To many persons the history of steam-navigation, and the management of steam-vessels, is quite new; and men may undertake to fit them out, and others may be placed in command of them, who are not practically acquainted with the service. Such persons will necessarily endeavour to ascertain what are the difficulties they may have to encounter, and take advice from those officers who have had experience in them, or it may yet be some time before our vessels will arrive at that perfection which is the aim of every man who is entrusted, publicly or privately, with any branch of that service.

There is another matter connected with this subject of still greater importance, in the estimation of some persons to whom I have proposed it, viz., the fitting up of hospital ships, and the sick-bays in other vessels, with bulk-heads of this description, particularly for hot climates. It appears to them that if the bulk-heads be kept at the temperature of the sea water in the tropics, and iron bedsteads be attached to them, of which the two outer legs alone would touch the

decks, that those bedsteads may be always kept at about the same temperature; because all the heat above the temperature of the water will be withdrawn from the bedstead, and conveyed away by the bulk-head. Indeed, if greater advantage would be gained by it, those bedsteads might be made of hollow tubes, and the water of the bulk-head be allowed to circulate through them; so that the sick man would be surrounded by a cool substance, for his bedding to rest on, which it is said would tend greatly to the recovery of his health. I speak only of the means within my power: the medical gentlemen must decide on its value and importance.

These bulk-heads afford equal protection against fire as against the ill effects of heat: one might as easily burn a kettle full of water as a metal bulk-head of this description. The more violently the fire impinged against its side, the more rapidly would the water circulate; but it could not flow more rapidly out of the upper pipe, through the action of the fire, without being as rapidly filled below, if the communication were properly arranged with the water from whence it is supplied; and as long as there is water in it the metal plates cannot be destroyed. Let, then, this principle be carried into the floor and top, as well as the sides of the room that is used as the magazine or shellroom, either in men-of-war or in steam-vessels, and let its door or hatch be constructed in the same way, and be hung on hinges made hollow, and guarded from leaking by stuffing-boxes, so that the water may flow into the door through one hinge and out through the other, and the whole space within the room will be as safe from fire as water and metal can make it. For it is obvious, from the position of every magazine, that the sides and top are the only parts which can be affected by fire, making it a very bad boiler, and proportionably a safe magazine.

The account which was given in the Times newspaper of the 14th of May, 1842, of the loss of the Madagascar' steam-vessel, on the coast of China, in which the first alarm arose from smoke being seen to issue from below, when, after great labour in clearing the coal-boxes, the vessel was found in flames, "the bulk-head immediately abaft the boilers being on fire," forms a melancholy instance of the precarious state of those vessels when some time at sea.

This instance will at once show the value of metal bulk-heads filled with water being fitted near the boilers, in place of those of wood. No one will ever know the cause of that accident. The fire-places were on the other side of the boilers; but such was the state of the wood in the bulk-head at the back of boilers, from the incessant heat, that it took fire without any one knowing how, or having any suspicion where the fire could be, until it had gained too much head from the inflammable state of the materials, to be afterwards arrested, and the vessel was burnt, and half her crew lost their lives. The narrator of this accident displays the same feeling with regard to the dread of explosion, as he immediately adds, after describing where the fire was discovered to be, "this was about forty-five feet from the magazine."

I will not go into the account of the narrow escape of H.M.S. 'Salamander,' preserved from destruction by the good conduct of her officers and ship's company, or other instances that could be adduced of fires on

board other steam-vessels: these cannot be necessary to convince those who are acquainted with steamers of the critical position in which all on board are now placed, with the bulk-heads composed of the most inflammable materials, forming, with the decks and other wood-work, a train to their magazines and shell-rooms, and within so short a distance from such fires as are necessarily kept up for the engines.

The condition, however, of the Geyser,' at Gibraltar, on the 18th of July, 1842, (since this patent was sealed,) must not be passed over. A correspondent of the Naval and Military Gazette, of the 6th of August, states, that on the fires of H.M.S. Geyser' being lighted, a boiler became red hot, and ignited the wood-work that was near it. After describing the position of the vessel near the wharf, and the means resorted to to arrest the progress of the fire, he says, "everything combustible was passed quickly up the after hatchway, the shell-room and magazine at once directed to be opened, and the latter to be drowned, the order for which was, however, almost immediately countermanded. The shell-room was, however, at once cleared of its contents, which were put abaft the main-mast under tarpaulings, with hands stationed to heave them overboard at a moment's notice." Whether this account be accurate or not in its details, it shows the impression on the mind of the writer, and is another instance added to the many already known of the advantages which would be derived from making the shell-rooms and magazines proof against fire.

With the bulk-heads which I have proposed to use to prevent the heat of the fires from passing out of the engine department, and with the magazines and shell-rooms made in the same way to give security from explosion, if the vessel be on fire from any cause, unconnected with her engines, to which all ships are subject, the steam-vessel may be as healthy and free from fatal accidents, by fire, as ships of any other description. To the man employed to send the vessel to sea, this may not be of much personal moment but if the health, comfort, and safety of the crew and passengers be of any importance to society; if the expenses arising either from the loss of health in the ship's company, or the loss of the ship itself, be worthy of the consideration of those upon whom the expenses will fall; the means proposed for preventing these evils, and now offered to the public, demand their attention and most minute investigation.

ON THE DAMAGE WHICH HAS OCCURRED IN THE BRITISH NAVY BY LIGHTNING, with an account of the attendant phenomena, abstracted from the Official Journals of the respective Ships, and from other authentic sources of information.-By W. S. Harris, F.R.S., &c.

(Continued from p. 401.)

CONQUESTADOR, 74.

1814. May 12th, moored in Port Royal Harbour, 5h. 30m. A.M.; the lightning struck the ship; main-top-gallant-mast split in pieces, main-mast and main-top-mast very much rent.

11th, wind S.E.; on the 12th, variable, and S. E., after which, on the 13th, calms and light airs from S.E.

The ship was obliged to have her main-mast taken out.

COLUMBINE, 16.

1837. June 25th, Coast of Africa, lat. 3° 41' N., long. 9° E. Standing off and on shore; Bembia point N.E. 14 or 15 miles. 8h. 10m. P.M., fore-top-gallant-mast shivered in pieces; fore-top-mast cap split open; one of the forecastle beams damaged.

The weather had been on previous days moderate and fine. 24th, wind S.S.W. and W.S. W., light airs and cloudy at night, with thunder and lightning. 25th, A.M. calm, with thunder and lightning; 7h. A.M. wind easterly, northerly, and easterly; at 2h. S. W.; 3h. 40m. squall from the N.W.; 6h. moderate and cloudy; 7h. 50m. squally, with very heavy rain. When the ship was struck, rain and lightning prevailed to an excessive degree. 12th P.M. heavy squall from the west with rain, thunder, and lightning. This weather continued for some time after; southerly and westerly winds; occasional squalls, with

rain.

The electrical discharge passed down the chain-topsail-tye and sheets, and split the sheet-block; it went below decks, ripped the copper off the galley floor, and filled the ship with a sulphureous odour; all the lights were extinguished in the binnacles by the concussion. Ship's log and account by Capt. Henderson, R.N.

CEYLON (Receiving Ship), 50.

1839. March 8th, Malta Harbour. Pole fore-top-mast and foremast shivered. The electrical discharge fell on the fire-engine, and became dispersed on reaching some water in the bottom of it.

The storm spread over the town and harbour of Valetta. The Bellorophon, Talavera, and Hastings, three line-of-battle ships, fully rigged, and having conductors, and lying near the Ceylon, were not damaged. (Report on shipwreck by lightning, p. 61 and 86.)

Wind on the 7th, S.E., where it had been for several days; moderate and cloudy by turns. On the 8th calm and cloudy. 7 A.M., N.W., squally, with heavy rain, thunder, and lightning. 9th, N.W. and W.N.W; moderate and clear.-Log of Hastings.

CHICHESTER Cutter.

1840. February 7th, at anchor in Killerran Bay, coast of Galway; 4 P.M. top-mast shivered in pieces; 5 feet of the mainmast split out, and the mast charred and damaged in several places; mast-head completely destroyed; the bulk-heads and berths below all smashed; cabin sky-light shattered and thrown up; all the dinner china, then on the table broken in pieces; part of the main-deck raised off the beams, and some of the bulwarks thrown out; the hold filled with smoke, and all the compasses rendered useless. The wind had blown a gale the whole day from W. to N.W. with occasional showers of hail; at four a very heavy squall with hail; a flash of lightning blazed over the ship, attended by a tremendous peal of thunder. The electrical discharge. came obliquely down the mast and passed through the deck behind it.