the many improvements which men of skill have added to this practice within these few years, it would induce one to believe that the advantages of reflection and speculative knowledge were in no profession more eminent than in that of a sea-officer; for, not to mention some expertness in geography, geometry, and astronomy, which it would be dishonourable for him to be without (as his journal and his estimate of the daily position of the ship are founded on particular branches of these {10} arts), it may be well supposed that the management and working of a ship, the discovery of her most eligible position in the water (usually stiled her trim), and the disposition of her sails in the most advantageous manner, are articles wherein the knowledge of mechanicks cannot but be greatly assistant. And perhaps the application of this kind of knowledge to naval subjects may produce as great improvements in sailing and working a ship as it has already done in many other matters conducive to the ease and convenience of human life. Since, when the fabric of a ship and the variety of her sails are considered, together with the artificial contrivances for adapting them to her different motions, as it cannot be doubted but these things have been brought about by more than ordinary sagacity and invention; so neither can it be doubted but that in some conjunctures a speculative and scientific turn of mind may find out the means of directing and disposing this complicated mechanism much more advantageously than can be done by mere habit, or by a servile copying of what others may perhaps have erroneously practised in similar emergencies. But it is time to finish this digression, and to leave the reader to the perusal of the ensuing work, which, with how little art soever it may be executed, will yet, from the importance of the subject and the utility and excellence of the materials, merit some share of the public attention. {11} ANSON'S VOYAGE ROUND THE WORLD BOOK I CHAPTER I OF THE EQUIPMENT OF THE SQUADRON: THE INCIDENTS RELATING THERETO, FROM ITS FIRST APPOINTMENT TO ITS SETTING SAIL FROM ST. HELENS