Papers; but now everything worth preservation naturally finds its way to the ‘Transactions.’ Any movement affecting shipping also leaves its record there in Papers and Discussions which will hereafter have a high historical value.” As evidencing the change which has latterly come over the Institution with respect to its annual proceedings, it may be noted that whereas in the early years there were at some meetings no papers—leaving out of account those by Froude and Rankine—except by Admiralty members and others concerned with Government work, there was not a single paper by an Admiralty man during the meetings of the present year. * * * * * With the general reference already made to Mr Froude’s invaluable labours in connection with the resistance of vessels the brief statement of the agencies through which progress has been made during the present century may be considered as brought down to the period coming within the scope of the term “Modern,” as used in this work. The more difficult task of chronicling the progress made during the period in question, both in the science of naval architecture purely, and in the application of science to practice, must now be attempted. The plan upon which it is proposed to accomplish this is to show wherein and to what extent scientific methods in designing and observing the behaviour of ships have been regarded, and indicating generally where still further improvement may be looked for. To accomplish this in such a way as to take appreciative account of the most salient features, and yet to avoid difficult technical terms and unnecessary elaboration, may involve some omissions and slight inaccuracies, important enough from a strictly scientific point of view, yet which do not materially affect the faithfulness of the record.[5] As preparing the way for references to those more special points in connection with which scientific progress has taken place during recent years, the following general and elementary outlines of the principal scientific problems in ship design and construction may be helpful to many readers:— DISPLACEMENT AND CARRYING CAPABILITY. A vessel floating at rest displaces a volume of water whose weight equals her own total weight. For vessels floating in sea water the number of cubic feet of water displaced per ton of weight is, as nearly as possible, thirty-five. For vessels in fresh water—_i.e._, lakes or rivers—the cubic feet per ton of weight is thirty-six. By calculating the volume of under-water portion of the vessel’s hull, the number of cubic feet displaced by the vessel when floating at any given draught is obtained. This result, divided by 35 or 36, according as the water is salt or fresh, gives the number of tons weight displaced, and consequently the total weight of the vessel.