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Les diagrammes suivants lliustrent la mAthode. 1 2 3 1 2 3 4 5 6 i fi- -^■m t* EXPLANATION AND ANSWER TO Mb. JOHN BRAITHWAITE'S SUPPLEMENT TO CAPTAIN SIR JOHN ROSS'S NARRATIVE OP A I ,,.--• V IK SEARCFl OF A NORTH-WEST PASSAGE. •T SIR JOHN ROSS. ■^}- Sir, TO THE EDITOR Ol- " THE TIMES." Nov. IS, ISM. [ OBSERVE that Mr John Bnithwaite has published a pamphlet which he unvianantobly designates "A Supplement to Captain Sir John Ross's Narrative of his late Voyage," &c., but which is only a supercilio--; attempt to exculpate himself. As it is not my intention to enter into any controversy, I request, thruvgo your widely circulated journal, to atnuaiut Mr. Biailhwaite, my Friends who desire it, and my numerous Subscribers, that ihcy may have, gruiis, u complete refutation of every assertion he has made, by applying at the Office for the FuWicatwn of my Works, No. 156, Regent Stipeet. "I, I am. Sib, yoor obedient Servant, JOHN ROSS, Captain R.N. ^1 ■•3 PUBUBHEt) BT A. W. WEBSTER, 156, REGENT STREET. EXPLANATION AND ANSWER Mr. BRAITHWAITE'S SUPPLEMENT. I CONFESS it is with reluctance I recur to the subject of the Steam Afachinery supplied to me by Messrs. Braithwaite and Ericsson ; not that I find any difficulty in refuting every assertion made by the former, in his supercilious attempt to make it appear that the failure of the machinery which he supplied to me was not to be attri- buted to him ; but because it is painful to mc to be forced to expose the disreputable practices resorted to by tliose in trade, who had acquired a fair character, and had thereby induced unsuspecting individuals to put conKdencc in their integrity. The feelings of contempt which Mr. Braithwaite's " Prefatory Notice" have naturally excited are not unmixed with pity, because it is lamentable to perceive a tradesman, even of the second class, descending to such unbecoming language as Mr. Braithwaite has made use of, while it is to me a source of regret that he should have taken offence at what I was bound to relate in justice to myself; but more especially to prove that steam, which I still firmly believe ought to be employed in the Arctic regions, had not, on the late occasion, a fair trial ; and it will be seen that the facts which I then thought unnecessary to publish, or which I then suppressed out of kind- ness to the manufacturer, will not ameliorate his case ; and if Mr. Braithwaite is offended at my want of coiu*tesy, I can only assure him that he would have been still more so ' had I made that communication which he seems to think he had a right to expect. A 2 EXPLANATION AND ANSWER Mr. Hraitliwaitc hcgins by giving a partial account of my introduction to him ; I ■ay parliii/, bccauBC he has omittcnl to state wha'; I told him at the first interview, namely, that I wanted steam machinery for a particular Ncrvicc ; and his reply was, that the Iwiler on his principle, which he showed me then at work, was fitHi/ Irieil, and Ht for «//// serriic ; on which I told him, that if his invention was good, the teat to which it would he put must fully establish its efficiency ; but if not, the reverse would l)c the effect. The conversatit)n alluded to, respecting •' war purposes," took place h)np iitd)sequent to our first interview, and was in eonsc<|uence of my having presented him with a coj)y of my i»ublicatitm on the subject, and was always mentioned as a «ii'condary object, w hicli it really was ; nor did Mr, Hruithwaite ever require to know what the Victory was intended for, or seem to care any thing about it. The secret of the expedition was kept solely at the desire of Sir l-'clix Booth, and there can be no doubt that if his boilers had been made of good materials in a " substantial and workmanlike manner," it would have been immaterial for what service they were wanted ; and the fact that more than one-half t)f the lujilers was actually above the water-line, when fixetl on board, is suilicient to prove that they were not required to be below it. I have now arrived at a point at which I must disclose a fact, that I am grievtHl to say may entail discredit on the individual, if not on the profession he belongs to. It was agreed, in the presence of Sir Felix Booth and Mr. Thom, that a contract should be drawn out for copper boilers and machinery to be furnished l)y Mr. Druithwaite to me for a stipulated sum. On the following day, when the deed was to %• '.xecutcd, it was discovered by me, that Mr. Braithwaite, in copying the original sketch, Jsad lefi out the word copper, and on my mentioning this, Mr. Braithwaite said, '♦ There is no occasion to write it out again on that account, as none but copper boilers shall ever go out of our manufactory." Witnesses to this being present I did not insist on it. In vain did I go to the manufactory to learn how the copper boilers came on, but the answer was, " they are a-making in the country." At last two iron boilers arrived from Birmingham ! and when I complained of their being iron, instead of copper, the reply was, " They were not made at our manufactory, neither was copper stipulated in the contract !" I was indeed mortified at the discovery, but could only blame myself for putting confidence in the unworthy manufacturer. It was then too late, the season was too far advanced to have new ones made of copjKT, and hoping that the iron material TO MH. DRAITIIWAITE S 91'1'PLEMENT. 3 was good I put up wit"u the impoHitioii. Mr. Hraithwaitc In under n misuikc wht-ii lie WMcrtB, that I purchased an old «team vckhcI, and wishetl him to fit engines on a novel construction, &c. The contract with him was mu(U( and executed, before I left London to look for a steam vessel to fit hh, not /«;/ construction of niaehinery. The contract was •igncd on the 9th of October ; and it was not until the 2d of November, ]H'2H, that I returned to London, having purchased the Victory at Livcrirool fourteen days before, and fitted her there with Mr. Robertson's paddles, in order to try their ellicney. The <»l(i engines being removed, Messrs. liraithwaite and Kricsson came on board on the IBth current, and inspected the Victory, when they higiily approved of her, having found in her engine-room more space than was re(|uired for their machinery ; and although the exact construction of the paddle-wheels was not told to them, because the ingenious inventor had not then secured his patent, it was fully explained that they were to be hoisted out of the water at pleasure, to which they made no objection. I must now declare, that neither the unwarrantable alterations in the boilers, engines, condensing apparatus, or any part of the machinery, were ever done at my re<|uest ; and that every assertion made by Mr. Braithwaitc to that efl'ect is incorrect. With regard to the coupling keys, Mr. Braithwaite must be labouring under a want of recollection, when he says that their breakage was insignificant ; for when that happened, the engine and paddle-shafts were completely unconnected, and consequently useless ; but I am ready to admit, that the engine might have worked i*^ it had no paddle-wheel to turn, which was actually the case whenever the key broke, llic next ten pages are chiefly occupied by a laboured but erroneous disquisition on the jiaddle-whecls, by which he makes his last struggle, in an attempt to show that it was owing to those that the failure took place. It is, fortunately, quite unnecessary for me to follow Mr. Braithwaite through his tedious categories, although they could all be refuted, in order to convince the public of the consummate folly and fallacy of his assertions ; for I have only to state the undeni- able fact, that the paddle-wheels on Mr. Itobertson's plan were immersed within one foot of the axis, on the voyage from Liverpool to London, and did actually impel the Victory at the rate of eight to nine miles per hour, when she had a common single engine of only thirty horse |)ower. For the express puq)ose of trying whether paddles on that construction would impel the vessel when deeply immersed, she was loaded and brought down in the water by putting an extra quantity of coals on her deck, after her hold was full, when the axis of the paddle-wheels was within less than one foot of the water ; that 4 EXI'I.ANATION AND ANSWER the vi'ssfl was tlien mndc fust to tlu' (juny at Liverpool, and the engine then on boani her, made tlie paddles steadily perform no lenN than thirty-three revolutions in one minute for more than an hour ; that on the same voyage tlie Victory heat her sister vessel, the Harriett, whieh (when she had the old paddles) used to beat the Victory, and that she passed the Dublin Steam Packet, whirh happened to sail at the same time, making her passage entirely by steam in four (hiys from Livcrpotil to London with the above-men- tioned puddles. That subse(|uently, when the new paddles were Iktcd, Messrs. Draith- waitc and Ericsson's machinery, even in its imperfect state, did actually propel the Victory at several times for some minutes, and on one occasion for /in/f an hour, at the rate of six miles per hour, and the speed (miy decreased because the steam could not be ke])t up. It was therefore positively proved that it could not be the constructiwle«lged leiikM of his Itiid iron hoilerN, even with the joint usKiHtanec of" mult dust ;" ullliough in addition Mr. KriesHon actunlly did put in dung and potatoeM. I niUHt now bring to the recollection of Mr. liruithwuite, that on our puHNUge In \\'o(»I- wieli, when he attributed the want of Hpeed to the deep immersion of the paddle-wheelH, I offered to unload the veHscI ho us to lighten her to her original draught, Ity putting her Ktorcfi and proviHiom* on board the hulk, in order to Hatisfy him that he wan iniHtaken . but this he strongly objected to, undoubtedly because it might lead to my ^vithholding the last payment. Passing over all Mr. Hraithwaite's unbecoming vituperation, I come to the 13th page, where he " particularly" adverts to what he calls each distinct charge. Pirst -" The machinery was execrable" — why ? lie says, because I told him the machinery was intended to propel a resscl constructed for war-purposes. I ask, Ought not this consideration to have induced Mr. IJraitliwaite to have made his machinery of the best material and workmanship, and fit for any service ? Ought not a ves.scl, intended for " war-purposes," be able to stand every other test ? Hut the truth is, that she was really intended for " war-jjurposes," in order to continue important experiments which I had begun, and they would have been continued, had not Mr. Hraithwaite deceived me ; first, by being a month later than he promised in completing the machinery ; and, secondly, by giving me a wretchedly defective engine, totally unlike that which I originally C(m- tracted for. And, with regard to ixpense, I have also great reason to be dissatisfied, which will be evident when I inform my readers that, taking the whole distance which the machinery actually propelled the ship, the cost was about £100 per mile ! And with regard to the opinion which those who inspected it entertained, I shall simply refer to Mr. Hraithwaite's own letter (which I received in Scotland) dated Htli of June, 18-29, of which the following is a copy : •' In your letter of Saturday you kindly promised me to hear from you more in •' detail, which will give me infinite satisfaction, and enable me to defeat the stupid pre- " judiee existing against high-pressure steam navigation, and enable me to deny the " infamous assertions that have been made, the authors of which are as yet undiscovered. 6 IXPLA NATION AND ANHWBH •* One MMrtinn I have fortunately Rome due to, and which will enable me to reeover ** cUma^CN fur injury iiuRtainetl, ai I have, or rather nIiuII have, printf of Honie proprietorit " uf Mtcam-TeiiMcU withholding an order ffore wc nailed, considered it an " utter failure ;'" but Htill I had hopcH, if the boiler* did " take up," that I might obtain a H]H