stronger indication of her rapid ascent subsequently can scarcely be conceived. In 1793 the masters of vessels on the Wear and Tyne were so deficient in solid nautical skill, that ships were frequently detained in harbour eight or ten days from sheer incapability of procuring a captain fitted to take the command even to countries no further distant than Norway. The most expert and informed was, perhaps, only a fair specimen of the originals from which Falconer, the poet, drew his picture of a northern ship-master many a long year ago: The hardy sons of England's furthest shore; Nor was the mechanical skill of shipbuilders on a much higher level. Even in 1804, although a ship of 12 or 14 keels was kept on the stocks eighteen months or two years, her construction was far from excellent in proportion to the time occupied. The form, in general, if not invariably, was exceedingly rude and clumsy, approximating more to that of a tub (the scornful designatian often bestowed upon them since) than any youthful observer of our present beautiful and graceful vessels can possibly imagine to himself. The fact is, we believe, science had comparatively little to do with the matter. A few general principles, no doubt, gave a basis, but the superstructure was greatly an affair of guess-work and eye-work. Frames were laid down from 5 to 10 feet apart, near the centre of the vessel. Others were then placed at a distance of 20 feet, or so, from the bow and stern; and all the rest of the work was done at the arbitrary pleasuse of the builder, by his individual caprice or conjecture, lucky or unlucky, as the case might be, and far more likely, of course, to be the latter than the former. In fact, the results vouch for it; the ships generally being as unshapely hulks as ever rolled in a heavy sea. One great cause of deformity was the extreme disproportion of breadth of beam to the ship's whole length, not more than one to three and a half; that is to say, a vessel 70 feet long was about 20 feet broad. In some cases, however, the proportion was less; for in 1805, when Mr. Philip Laing left the North Sand for the Dock now occupied by Mr. Hall, the length of the first vessel he built (the Betsey of 129 tons) was 66 feet, and the breadth 22, being exactly one third. This proportion has been gradually wearing away up to the present time, when a ship's length is ordinarily four and a half to five and a half times that of its breadth. The improvement not only adds greatly to beauty of model, but to practical excellence in sailing. It gives a ship not only greater speed, but greater "sea kindliness," (as the phrase is,) and does away, in a great measure, with the heavy pitching and rolling motion of those "old familiar tubs" which, even in dock, a landsman could hardly look at without insipient sensations of sea-sickness! Yet, in 1810, a vessel built at Southwick, by Mr. Benjamin Heward, (the Nicholson Nicholson of 16 keels, or 200 tons old measure,) was considered of so fine a model, that the builder was presented with a piece of plate as a testimonial of high approbation. Whoever now glances an eye along both banks of the Wear at Sunderland, and sees the number of splendid vessels in every stage of progress on the slips, will not easily conceive the state of shipbuilding, either as to size, construction, or number, at the period to which we have been adverting, say about forty or fifty years ago, a little more or less. The probability is that not twenty vessels were built in a year, and those very small ones; a ship of 400 tons being considered of prodigious and gigantic size. The state of the river, indeed, rendered the building of large ships impossible; and we gather some idea of it from the plain fact that a vessel after loading six keels of coals was compelled to go into the roads and receive the remainder of her cargo there. Previous to the year 1815 the average tonnage of vessels built on the Wear was 180. Between that period and 1830 the average rose to 225; between that and 1840 to 286; and between 1840 and 1850 to 325. We must conceive that, somewhere within these respective periods, vessels of larger tonnage were occasionally built, but the statement we have just made is correct as to average. With regard to the increase of vessels in number, it may be indicated by the fact that recently, within one year, (the least) one firm alone, Messrs. R. Thompson and Sons, launched vessels to the extent of 2,900 tons; a greater number, no doubt, than all the yards on the Wear, at the periods we have adverted to, ever launched in an equal space of time. With regard to dimensions, it should be stated that in 1815 ships began to be built for the West India trade, and the tonnage of vessels increased accordingly; so that from 300 to 400 tons gradually ceased to be considered as a very extraordinary burden. We may here add that shipwrights wrought generally then, if not exclusively, by piece-work, and engaged to build vessels at two guineas per ton. With regard to the main materials of our shipbuilding, we have already said that oak and beech with English elm were the kinds of timber generally used. The former was chiefly from Pictree, near Lambton Castle. Previous to 1820 the decks of vessels were usually of Baltic red wood, to which succeeded American yellow pine; and, for the general purpose of shipbuilding, African teak, mahogany, green heart and East India teak, have gradually been introduced; the latter very extensively so. Hempen rope, previous to 1820, was almost universally used for cables; but from that time iron chain gradually superseded it. The contrast between past and present in the condition of Sunderland shipbuilding has been repeatedly forced upon us during this brief sketch; and it would be curious, as well as instructive, to crown the whole by distinct descriptive reference to some of the fairest triumphs of that splendid art in our dock-yards of the Wear in the present day. We feel, however, that it would be a delicate, perhaps an invidious task, and will therefore (without the ungraciousness of individualising) merely state, for the general reader of other places, that vessels are now continually built on the Wear of no less than from 400 to 1400 tons burden, of as bold and admirable construction, and as symmetrical a model, as can possibly be launched from any dock-yards in the world. The following is a list of the present builders : Abbay, W. R., Ayre's-quay Alcock, J. T., Low-street Austin and Mills, Low Southwick Bailey, E., Ayre's-quay Brown, E., North Hylton Buchanan and Gibson, Ayre's-quay Byers, W. Monkwearmouth Carr, H., North Hylton Candlish, J. and R., Low Southwick Chilton, W., Low Southwick Crown, J., Low Southwick Clarke, M., Low Southwick Crown, W., Low Southwick Forrest and Jackson, South Hylton Hall, G. W, and W. J., Monkwear. street Hutchinson, R., Monkwearmouth Laing, J., Deptford Leithead, A., Low Southwick Robinson, J., Deptford Robinson, W., Low Southwick Robson, T., Pallion Rogerson, J., South Hylton Short, G., Pallion Simpson, J., Pallion Smith, J., Pallion Spowers, W., South Hylton Stonehouse, T., Monkwearmouth The following table shows the number of vessels built here during the last ten years:— At the end of the latter year, there were also 13 vessels of 5,780 tons; and 100 vessels on the stocks in the progress of building. No port in the world can approach this. During the first six months of the present year there have been built and registered here 93 vessels, comprising in the aggregate 31,692 tons. Of these there have been sold to Sunderland, 41 ships (11,859 tons); other ports, 52 ships (19,833 tons). And at the present moment there are on the stocks 76 vessels, of 31,359 tons, most of them of a very high class. In conclusion, although again and again regretting the paucity of our materials, and that so much of energy and skill, alike mental and manual, developed through a series of bold enlargement and sagacious improvements, within a period of comparatively few years, should not have been chronicled duly and succinctly by some careful pen; or, if such documents have existed, that they should not now be available we yet hope and trust that our readers will think we have not discharged our duty either feebly or negligently. What we have done bears indeed little proportion to what is desirable, but we trust that it will be found in very fair proportion to what is possible. The things we sought we were very frequently unable to find; but what we could find we have endeavoured to sift needfully, and to use well. The workman and his means are alike dependant on each other. It has been said Homer could have done nothing with the language of New Zealand, or Phidias with an old fish-bone; and, in like manner, we may plead that the best architect can build no larger or better a fabric than the amount of his material admits. May the future historian be more fortunate in accumulation of facts, if not more expert in treatment and arrangement; and may he have to record that, from the year 1851, the stout hearted and true-hearted men of Sunderland— Men our brothers, men the workers, ever reaping something new; That which they have done but earnest of the things which they will do— rose rapidly in the scale of commercial and maritime greatness, and by increased vigour and enterprise, knowledge and wisdom, based their prosperity above all the shocks of accident, and all the languor of decline! NO. 11.-VOL. XXI. 4 G SHIPWRECK BY LIGHTNING.-DESTRUCTION OF MERCHANT SHIPS. Intelligence was received at Lloyds, on Saturday the 25th of September last, of the total destruction of the ship Maise, of Queenstown, by lightning, off Malta. Notices of this terrible catastrophe are given in the Times and Morning Herald newspapers of the 28th September and 10th of October last. It appears from these accounts, that the ship, being on her passage from Ibrail to Queenstown, was overtaken on the 3rd of August last, by a violent thunderstorm: towards midnight she was struck by lightning, on the mainmast, which, passing down into the hull, broke the vessel up into two parts. The ship went down almost immediately; the crew, fourteen in number, together with two passengers all perished; the master (Pearson) alone escaped, by means of a floating spar, on which he continued to buoy himself up for seventeen hours; at the end of this time he was fortunately picked up by a Maltese coaster. The Morning Herald of the 10th of October has a more detailed account of the circumstances of this most appalling instance of shipwreck by lightning, given by the master himself, who had arrived home after enduring great suffering and privation. The vessel belonged to Messrs. E. Young and Co., of South Shields. The master states that, being on deck towards midnight during a dreadful storm of thunder and lightning: "Before any one had time to say God help us, a ball of fire came out of the heavens struck the masts of the vessel and in a moment she capsized;" he computes that within three minutes the vessel went down with all hands on deck. The master and a poor lad called Murray, who afterwards perished, were the only persons which escaped at the time, by means of floating wreck. Having frequently devoted the pages of this work to a full and searching analysis of the important question of an efficient means of preserving ships against the destructive agency of lightning, we cannot pass by this recent instance of shipwreck by lightning, without a few remarks on the vast amount of similar destruction which has occurred and still continues to occur in our merchant service, from the irresistible expansive power of this terrible element. It would be a laborious but, perhaps, not altogether an unprofitable task to seek out and record cases of merchant ships damaged or destroyed by lightning. That such cases are most numerous and of an appalling character is quite certain, and it is to be greatly regretted that more attention has not been given to the subject by mercantile men. One of the great obstacles in the way of effectually preserving merchant ships against casualties by lightning has certainly arisen out of the system of insurances. The merchant or shipowner, calculating on the chances of damage by lightning, effects an insurance on his vessel such as will, in all probability, cover this chance, and, as |