Mr. Robert Duncan on Evolution in Naval Architecture During the Reign of Queen Victoria

Excerpt from Mr. Robert Duncan on Evolution in Naval Architecture During the Reign of Queen Victoria

This ten-breadths limit became almost a rule for nearly twenty years; but within the last ten years the researches of the late Mr. Froude, in his experiments on the models of ships of war, to determine the effect of proportions and form on resistance and speed, have had the effect of causing a reaction in favour of greater breadth, even for the highest speed types, and this reaction has affected the lower types to such a degree that the length of an ordinary cargo steamer, in proportion to breadth, is now very little over the proportion common to the largest iron sailing ships of this time.