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.

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