He speaks of them in his journal as "monstrous."[7] So
long as he remained in office everything was done in a
perfunctory way. A small vessel named the Bee was built at
Chatham in 1841, and fitted with both paddles and the screw for
the purposes of experiment. In the same year the Rattier, the
first screw vessel built for the navy, was laid down at
Sheerness. Although of only 888 tons burthen, she was not
launched until the spring of 1843. She was then fitted with the
same kind of screw as the Archimedes,that is, a double-headed
screw of half a convolution. Experiments went on for about three
years, so as to determine the best proportions of the screw, and
the proportions then ascertained have since been the principal
guides of engineering practice.
The Rattler was at length tried in a water tournament with the
paddle-steamer Alecto, and signally defeated her. Francis Pettit
Smith, like Gulliver, may be said to have dragged the whole
British fleet after him. Were the paddle our only means of
propulsion, our whole naval force would be reduced to a nullity.
Hostile gunners would wing a paddle-steamer as effectuaily as a
sportsman wings a bird, and all the plating in the world would
render such a ship a mere helpless log on the water.
The Admiralty could no longer defer the use of this important
invention. Like all good things, it made its way slowly and by
degrees.
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