ON SIR WM. THOMSON’S NAVIGATIONAL SOUNDING MACHINE, by Mr P. M. Swan: Trans. Inst. N.A., vol. xx., 1879. ON STEAMSHIPS FOR THE CHANNEL SERVICE, by Mr John Grantham: Trans. Inst. N.A., vol. xiv., 1873. ON CHANNEL STEAMERS, by Mr John Dudgeon: Trans. Inst. N.A., vol. xiv., 1873. ON HIGH-SPEED CHANNEL STEAMERS, by Mr H. Bowlby Willson: Trans. Inst. N.A., vol. xv., 1874. ON THE ARK SALOON, OR THE UTILISATION OF DECKHOUSES FOR SAVING LIFE IN SHIPWRECK, by Rev. W. R. Jolley, R.N.: Trans. Inst. N.A., vol. xv., 1874. ON THE BESSEMER STEAMSHIP, by Mr E. J. Reed: Trans. Inst. N.A., vol. xvi, 1875. ON THE BESSEMER CHANNEL STEAMER: Naval Science, edited by Mr E. J. Reed, 1873. ON ELECTRIC LIGHTING FOR SHIPS AND MINES, by Mr Andw. Jamieson: Trans. Inst. Engineers and Shipbuilders, vol. xxv., 1881-82. ELECTRICITY ON THE STEAMSHIP (Series of Papers): the “Steamship,” vol. I., 1883. ON THE VENTILATION OF MERCHANT SHIPS, by Mr Jas. Webb: Trans. Inst. N.A., vol, xxv., 1884. ON THE COMPARATIVE SAFETY OF WELL-DECKED STEAMERS, by Mr Thos. Phillips: Trans. Inst. N.A., vol. xxv., 1884. ON THE APPLICATION OF HYDRAULIC MACHINERY TO THE LOADING, DISCHARGING, STEERING, AND WORKING OF STEAMSHIPS, by Mr A. B. Brown: Trans. Inst. N.A., vol. xxv., 1884. CHAPTER IV. PROGRESS IN THE SCIENCE OF SHIPBUILDING. The appreciation and employment of scientific method and analysis in designing and building ships have at no previous time been greater than they are at present. This is already yielding benefits and ensuring successes which only a few years ago would have remained ungathered and unachieved, or at best would only have been attained after wasteful expenditure of money, time, and skill, if not the sacrifice of human life. Not so long ago endeavours were seldom made to extract lessons of general value from particular occurrences, there being a disposition prevalent to accept facts without accounting for them—“to rejoice in a success and regard a failure as irreparable”—the outcome, it may at once be said, of indifference, false ideas of economy, and of a limited conception of the part scientific methods should play in successful shipbuilding.