Memorials of the Sea: My Father: Being Records of the Adventurous Life of the Late William Scoresby, Esq. of WhitbyScoresby, William
History
Memorials of the Sea: My Father: Being Records of the Adventurous Life of the Late William Scoresby, Esq. of Whitby
Scoresby, William
Fathers and sons -- England -- Whitby; Scoresby, William, 1760-1829; Whaling
Amongst these conceptions may be particularised the following:—
1. An improved method of ship-building, both as to ships-of-war and
merchantmen, by adding to their strength in framing, and promoting velocity
by placing the masts and rigging, and also adding to their durability by
preventing in a great measure the attack of dry-rot.
2. Seasoning timber to prevent the dry-rot in ships, churches, and other
buildings.
3. To deepen the water on bar-harbours, and in navigable rivers, so as to
give easy access to all friends, and to shut out, when necessary, the
enemies of our highly favoured land!
4. To build _breakwaters_ in any depth, not exceeding twelve or fourteen
fathoms water, of materials that will not yield to the surge of the sea,
and, when immersed in the briny flood, will become tenacious and durable as
_terra-firma_, even as the granite rock.
5. To secure the banks of rivers, [subject to encroachments,] and to
support [endangered] buildings of any magnitude.
6. To improve low, wet, barren lands, near tide-flowing rivers, that bear
up only mire and dirt, by draining on the ebb and warping on the
flood-tide.
7. To draw off the foul and inflammable air from coal-pits and other mines
liable to explosion.
8. To lay out new streets, nearly level, over uneven ground, with vaults
under them for containing fuel, etc. for the inhabitants, and so arranged
as to admit of pipes for gas, water, etc., being laid or altered without
molesting the pavements.
9. To improve the hanging of venetian blinds in windows, [and to render
them more manageable and useful] for keeping out the sun.
10. To prepare oatmeal for the table by a new method of drying and shelling
the corn.
11. “To keep in health” by regimen.
12. To improve the making of _lasts_, so that the boot or shoe may
comfortably fit the foot of the wearer.
13. An improved method of pulling down decayed buildings in towns, in order
to rebuilding, as also of making new roads, to the honour of the British
nation, the accommodation of trade, commerce, and of the public.
14. Lastly, To beautify the Church and draw man unto it, [not by mere
outward architecture and adorning, however admirable,] but by appointing
and supporting _faithful pastors_ now when the current of prejudice is
setting in so strongly against it!”
* * * * *
Some few of my Father’s original ideas, on such topics as these, were
occasionally elicited in conversation, but, unfortunately, no record was
made of them by those immediately in intercourse with him, nor were any
papers, generally expository of his views, met with among those amid which
this curious and interesting document was found.
SECTION IV.—_Miscellaneous and concluding Notices._
The originality of mind, superiority of intelligence and peculiar abilities
of the subject of these records, were characteristics yielding much variety
of illustration in the foregoing pages.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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