g, have been greatly improved by
Lord Dundonald's son, Captain the Hon. A. A. Cochrane, C.B.

"I believe," he said in a letter to Lord Haddington dated the 22nd of
May, 1843, "that all our old vessels of war, save the class of
eighty-gun ships and a few first-rate and large frigates, are almost
worthless; whilst our steam department is deficient in most of the
properties which constitute effective vessels. No blockades worthy of
the name can now be maintained by fleets of sailing ships; nor can
accompanying steamships be kept for months and years even in
'approximate readiness,' awaiting the distant night when it may suit the
enemy to attack our blockading force or quietly to slip out in the dark
in order to assail our commerce in other quarters. I have, my lord,
during the last twelve years actually disbursed, to the great
inconvenience of my family, upwards of 16,000l. to promote nautical
objects which appeared to me of importance. Your lordship knows their
nature, and it is in no way difficult to ascertain their reality. I
consider that several, if not all our line-of-battle ships, should have
the benefit of mechanical power, say to the extent of a hundred
horses--the machinery to be placed out of the reach of shot. The
construction of new ships on the best lines that could be found would
prove more judicious than repairing old ones, however apparently cheap
such repairs may be; for a few powerful and quick-sailing ships are
preferable to a multitude which can neither successfully chase, nor
escape from, an enemy."

That allusion to the "best lines" of ship-building, and some of Lord
Dundonald's other views on naval architecture, will be explained by
another letter written by him to Lord Haddington, three months before,
on the 20th of February. "I have lately," he said, "submitted to the
consideration of Sir George Cockburn an axiom for the uniform
delineation of consecutive parabolic curves, forming a series of lines
presenting the least resistance in the submerged portion of ships and
vessels--an axiom never before so applied in naval architecture, as is
manifest from the discrepant forms of our ships of war. I also offered
to Sir George's attention a new propeller and method of adapting
propellers to sailing ships in her Majesty's service, free from the
disadvantages of paddle-wheels and from the injurious consequences of
lessening the buoyancy and weakening the strength of the after part of
ships by a prolong