Considering the state of ship-building in 1655, the foregoing plan must have been some very primitive scheme; but, rendering vessels unsinkable, has long been a favourite subject with inventors. 13. How to make such false Decks as in a moment should kill and take prisoners as many as should board the Ship, without blowing the[6] Decks up, or destroying them from being reducible, and in a quarrer[7] of an hours time should recover their former shape, and be made fit for any imployment without discovering the secret. Footnotes [6] the real. P. [7] _read_ quarter. [_False destroying Decks._] William Bourne, in his “Inventions of Devices,” 1578, devotes the “Third device” to show--“How to use a plain or open deck hatches, that it is not possible to enter the ship without spoiling of the enemies.” 14. How to bring a force to weigh up an Anchor, or to do any forcible exploit in the narrowest or[8] lowest room in any Ship, where few hands shall do the work of many; and many hands applicable to the same force, some standing, others sitting, and[9] by virtue of their several helps a great force augmented in little room, as effectual as if there were sufficient space to go about with an Axle-tree, and work far from the Centre. Footnotes [8] and--for, or. [9] and yet. [_Multiplied strength in little room._] We shall have to allude to the ambiguous use of the word “force” in the same sentence, as indicating “strength, power, &c.” or, “a pump, or pump plunger,” in John Bate’s, and other old works on mechanics. Now if we were to read this, “How to bring the force [or plunger of a pump] to weigh up an anchor, &c., and many hands applicable to the same force [or pump], &c.”--we should have a statement strongly indicating the modern contrivance of the hydraulic press. The concluding portion of the sentence only serves to strengthen this suggestion. See “force” used in No. 21. In 1594, Edmund Jentill, writing to Lord Burghley, mentions, as his fourth invention:--“A devise whereby two men may be sufficient to weigh the weightiest anchor in her Majesty’s navy, with greater expedition than it is now done with the number now used.” Also, “The like device is found for the hoisting of the main-yard with the like expedition.”--MS. Lansdown, 113, Art. 4: and, “Letters on Scientific Subjects,” edited by J. O. Halliwell, F.R.S. 8vo. 1841. 15. A way[1] how to make a Boat work it self against Wind and Tide, yea both without the help of man or beast; yet[2] so that the Wind or Tide, though directly opposite, shall force the Ship or Boat against it self; and in no point of the Compass, but it shall be as effectual, as if the wind were in the Pupp,[3] or the stream actually with the course it is to steer, according to which the Oars shall row, and necessary motions work and move towards the desired Port or point of the Compass. Footnotes