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Updated: May 15, 2025
We passed a large barque with every sail set, although it was a flat calm, which made us rejoice in the possession of steam-power. Several people on board are very unwell, and the engineer is really ill. It is depressing to speculate what would become of us if anything went wrong in the engine-room department, and if we should be reduced to sail-power alone in this region of calmness.
It would be only on rare occasions that a sailing vessel, if furnished with rocking gear for using the wave-power, would be set to go nearer to the teeth of the wind than she would under present conditions of using sail-power alone.
This double accident reduced her speed; but in addition the mast with all its hamper, dragging in the water on one side, both slowed the vessel and acted as a rudder to turn her head to starboard, from the "Constitution." The sail-power of the latter being unimpaired would have quickly carried her so far ahead that her guns would no longer bear, if she continued the same course.
The shorter duration of the average voyage made by the sail-and-oil power vessels had the effect of enabling shippers to realise upon the goods carried more speedily than would have been possible under the old system of sail-power alone.
To create a perfect screw-frigate, a ship with sail-power complete, and efficient for any service that may be required, the endeavor should be made by getting rid of every dispensable article of weight or bulk, and without reducing supplies below three months' provisions and six weeks' water to find space and displacement for an engine of sufficient force to drive her thirteen knots an hour, together with at least ten days' full consumption of fuel; and this, it is believed, might be successfully accomplished in ships of the dimensions of the Wabash, beginning with a judicious reduction of spare spars, spare sails, and spare gear, and by the addition of blowers to their present machinery: a subject which should immediately receive the earnest consideration of a commission of the most intelligent officers.
To a person interested in marine construction, especially one hailing from a land where steam has supplanted sail-power, and where gasolene and other inexpensive motors have made rowing almost obsolete, the Pearl River "hot-foot" boats, so called by Europeans, are intensely interesting.
The advantage of the wave-power, however, would be seen mainly during the calm and desultory weather which has virtually been the means of forcing sail-power to resign its supremacy to steam. For checking the rocker in time of heavy weather special appliances are necessary, which, of course, must be easily operated from the deck.
The situation became extremely dangerous on the evening of the 22d, for, the wind falling light, the sail-power of the "Alexander" was scarcely sufficient to drag both ships against a heavy westerly swell which was setting them bodily upon the Sardinian coast, then not far distant.
Mere running before the wind won't do it: so he makes a long detour, and doubles on his course, heading directly into the teeth of the breeze. Now the cruiser is at a disadvantage. Her sail-power gone, she stands no chance of capturing her game.
The wind, also, had diminished considerably in force, blowing now from a point to the westward of north, although the waves were still rolling heavily, as they always do for some time after a storm in the southern ocean, setting in towards the land that was just faintly visible right ahead of the Nancy Bell, and whither she was now proceeding steadily, but, of course, making but very slow progress through being waterlogged forwards and possessing such small sail-power.
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