―187―

on the progress of nautical
science.

There have been in Europe two
great nautical schools, the Medi-
terranean and the Baltic. In the
first, a calm sea, the art of ship
building was a continual improve-
ment of the oar-raft, a coasting
navigation, the practice of the mari-
ners; and the port-customs, and
the maritime terms and laws, all
wear marks of this original charac-
ter. In the second, a stormy sea,
the art of ship-building was a gra-
dual evolution of the sail-raft; an
open navigation, from the earliest
times, was preferred; and the
usages, phraseology, the code of
regulations, are all tinctured by a
corresponding spirit. The common
and statute law of sea matters handed
down by tradition, and by the Rho-
dian code from the ancients, was
gradually modified into that system
of regulations known by the name
of “Il Consulato del Mare,” which
received the papal sanction in 1075,
was re-enacted in most of the sea
ports of the Mediterranean, but not
till 1162 at Marseilles, and was first
printed at Barcelona in 1502. This
work has been translated into most
European languages, our own ex-
cepted. The Dutch version of 1704
is the best.

The rules and orders taught by
circumstances and experience to the
Baltic sailors were first reduced into
written laws at Wissby, one of the
Hanse towns, and were printed in
1505 at Copenhagen, in the Frank-
ish tongue. The first English trans-
lation appeared in 1536.

The Arabians were the first to ap-
ply mathematical science to the im-
provement of navigation. The ear-
liest books on the subject appeared
at Seville and Lisbon. The first
English hints on this head are found
in W. Cunningham's Cosmographi-
cal Glass, 1559, where he recom-
mends the use of the quadrant. In
1581 was published “The New At-
tractive, by Norman;” a book
which forms an æra in the science.
It is a treatise on the variation of

the needle. The compass is gene-
rally thought to have been first used
by the Chinese, and brought from
the Indian seas, through Egypt, to
Italy; but when we consider the
vast difference in the mode of con-
structing this instrument, there is
reason to believe that it is equally
an original invention both in China
and Europe. The variation is a
European observation.

Davis' Seaman's Secrets, 1594, is
a book which does honour to the
author. His memory is properly
preserved by the denomination of
the straits which he discovered:
but Edward Wright, who improved
our sea charts at that period, the
patrons of the society for making
discoveries, founded in 1561, and
many others, merit also to have
their names preserved, by associat-
ing them with some of those natural
monuments which our voyagers are
often at a loss to baptize. Much of
our national prosperity, and much
of the civilization of the globe, are
to be ascribed to those who first na-
turalized maritime pursuits among
us.

After the year 1600 all the branch-
es of nautics came to be generally
studied; nor are the English wri-
ters on the subject at all inferior to
those of the rival nations, till about
the year 1750, when Euler's work
appeared, which seems to have
drawn the attention of the French
mathematicians to the theory of
ship-building; and, seconded by the
countenance of the court, to have
occasioned a remarkable advance-
ment of naval science in France.
The French, however, have made
much greater progress in the theo-
ry than in the practice of the nauti-
cal arts. In this respect the En-
glish, and under this denomination
the people of the United States may
properly enough be included, have
far exceeded all other nations. To
sail fast, to carry much, to make
way near, and, if I may say so,
against the wind, to turn and shift
postures and directions quickly, ea-
sily, and safely, are the constituents
of a perfect ship. We cannot sup-

―188―

pose that, in all these points, we
have as yet, by any means, attained
the ultimatum, but, on the contrary,
it is highly probable that the ship of
future times will as far exceed the
finest French frigate now sailing as
such a frigate does a Mohawk canoe.