chatham dockyard (4 Ergebnisse)

No Binding. Zustand: Very Good. A splendid original antique engraving. Mounted (matted) and ready to frame. A view of Chatham Dockyard, hand-coloured, colouring not contemporary but delicately and expertly done.

60pp, folded map, colour illustrations throughout. 30x30, ring bound, illustrated card covers Some slight wear on covers, contents good. Significant initial study for the historic dockyards at Chatham, and how they could be developed as they were withdrawn from active use.

HMS Gorgon was designed by Sir William Symonds and launched in 1837. Her direct-acting engines (in which the engine's cylinders are placed under the crankshaft), built by Seaward and Company, were the first to be fitted in any vessel. She was scrapped in 1864. 4pp., 4to. Bifolium. In good condition, lightly aged and worn, but with the signature torn away. Addressed, with seal in black wax, to 'Benjamin Sharpe Esq | 19, Fleet Street, | London' (Sharpe's father had been resident partner at that address in the banking firm of Gosling & Sharpe. The first paragraph reads: 'Dear Sharpe, | I have just returned from the Gorgon, and my visit to her has verified the substance of our Conversation on Thursday last. | Her present armament consists of 4 32-pounder (bored) guns & 2 84-pounders (10-inch) on the weather deck. if properly armed she would also carry 12 32-pounders on the main-deck, but she is deficient in these. Her draft of water is about 15th. & 15 . 6 which, I believe, is what she ought to draw if her armament were complete, with the full compliment of men, water, provisions, munitions &c.' The letter continues with detailed criticism, with reference to a trail 'in the river in July last, with Ld Minto & other lords of the Admiralty on bd', the fact that 'her displacement had been sadly miscalculated',an incident on the coast of Spain, her engines and paddle-boards. 'To judge of Gorgon, whether she be a failure or otherwise, she should be tried as an armed vessel, carrying 16 32-pounders & 2 swivel guns [.] We have no more money that we know what to do with - no more workmen than we to keep pace with our wants in the shipwright department - & yet we are sacrificing both to the vain endeavours of adventurers in naval architecture, while there are plenty of persons in the service who might be advantageously employed in preventing the occurrence of these & other discreditable blunders if it were not the fashion to prefer speculative notions to the plain & unerring principles of the of naval Construction'.

A substantial letter, 3pp., foolscap 8vo. 100 lines of text. Bifolium. In very good condition, on aged paper, with one closed along crease line neatly repaired with archival tape. Addressed on reverse of second leaf, with Chatham postmark, frank, and black wax seal, to 'Viscount Ingestrie M:P. | 2 Wilton Crescent | Belgrave Square | London'. An interesting document, in which a distinguished Victorian naval architect makes detailed criticisms of an innovation in his field. (HMS Gorgon was designed by Sir William Symonds and launched in 1837. Her direct-acting engines (in which the engine's cylinders are placed under the crankshaft), built by Seaward and Company, were the first to be fitted in any vessel. She was scrapped in 1864.) Read begins his letter: 'My Lord | Nothing could exceed my astonishment at the reply or rather which Sir C. Adam gave in citing the Gorgon as a specimen of the success of the personal conductor of our Naval Construction. | In a lithographic account privately circulated but which the Hampshire Telegraph published; it was stated for what purposes this bad & wretched failure was designed. - She was to be able to carry 10 long 32 Pr. between decks - 4 32 Prs. and 2 10 inch Bomb Cannon on the weather deck - She was to take or be able to take a regiment on board with all its equipage for a colonial voyage across the Atlantic.' He proceeds to describe the 'falling off' from these specifications, commenting that 'her constructor had so little knowledge of what he was about, that he was deficient in displacement at least 400 tons corresponding to a too great immersion of 3 feet about [.] When she left Plymouth for her first trip to St. Sebastian she drew 17 ft 3 in aft instead of her intended draft 15.6 and the Ports abaft the Paddle Boxes were only from 3 ft 3 in to 3 ft 6 in above the water!! Of course the Ports were still caulked in.' At the end of this criticism he describes the Gorgon as 'a failure'. He proceeds to 'shew how experiments are got up', concluding, 'is this the way that an experiment involving a cost of 40000£ should be conducted? - The engines alone of the Gorgon cost 20000£.' He continues 'Would Sir C. Adam produce the lithographic circulars of which the Gorgon was intended for and would he venture to place in contrast with it the actual performance of the ship?' He gives more specifications, before stating: 'The Constructor of the Gorgon ought to be called upon to explain if he can the early discrepancy between his intentions & performances. He ends by apologising for 'this rough document'.