derstand better those affairs, and know that every one
concerned in supplying the army finds means, in the doing it, to fill
his own pockets." I assur'd him that was not my case, and that I had
not pocketed a farthing; but he appear'd clearly not to believe me;
and, indeed, I have since learnt that immense fortunes are often made
in such employments. As to my ballance, I am not paid it to this day,
of which more hereafter.

Our captain of the paquet had boasted much, before we sailed, of the
swiftness of his ship; unfortunately, when we came to sea, she proved
the dullest of ninety-six sail, to his no small mortification. After
many conjectures respecting the cause, when we were near another ship
almost as dull as ours, which, however, gain'd upon us, the captain
ordered all hands to come aft, and stand as near the ensign staff as
possible. We were, passengers included, about forty persons. While we
stood there, the ship mended her pace, and soon left her neighbour far
behind, which prov'd clearly what our captain suspected, that she was
loaded too much by the head. The casks of water, it seems, had been
all plac'd forward; these he therefore order'd to be mov'd further aft,
on which the ship recover'd her character, and proved the sailer in the
fleet.

The captain said she had once gone at the rate of thirteen knots, which
is accounted thirteen miles per hour. We had on board, as a passenger,
Captain Kennedy, of the Navy, who contended that it was impossible, and
that no ship ever sailed so fast, and that there must have been some
error in the division of the log-line, or some mistake in heaving the
log. A wager ensu'd between the two captains, to be decided when there
should be sufficient wind. Kennedy thereupon examin'd rigorously the
log-line, and, being satisfi'd with that, he determin'd to throw the
log himself. Accordingly some days after, when the wind blew very fair
and fresh, and the captain of the paquet, Lutwidge, said he believ'd
she then went at the rate of thirteen knots, Kennedy made the
experiment, and own'd his wager lost.

The above fact I give for the sake of the following observation. It
has been remark'd, as an imperfection in the art of ship-building, that
it can never be known, till she is tried, whether a new ship will or
will not be a good sailer; for that the model of a good-sailing ship
has been exactly follow'd in a new one, which has prov'd, on the
contrary, remarkably dull.