Page:In defense of Harriet Shelley, and other essays.djvu/311

 ABOUT ALL KINDS OF SHIPS

one of the stern ward lakes into the sea, and the trim is restored. This can be repeated right along as occasion may require. Also, a lake at one end of the ship can be moved to the other end by pipes and steam-pumps. When the sailor changed the slat- frame to-day, he was posting a transference of that kind. The seas had been increasing, and the vessel s head needed more weighting, to keep it from rising on the waves instead of plowing through them; therefore, twenty-five tons of water had been trans ferred to the bow from a lake situated w r ell toward the stern.

A water compartment is kept either full or empty. The body of water must be compact, so that it cannot slosh around. A shifting ballast would not do, of course.

The modern ship is full of beautiful ingenuities, but it seems to me that this one is the king. I would rather be the originator of that idea than of any of the others. Perhaps the trim of a ship was never perfectly ordered and preserved until now. A vessel out of trim will not steer, her speed is maimed, she strains and labors in the seas. Poor creature, for six thousand years she has had no com fort until these latest days. For six thousand years she swam through the best and cheapest ballast in the world, the only perfect ballast, but she couldn t tell her master and he had not the wit to find it out for himself. It is odd to reflect that there is nearly as much w r ater inside of this ship as there is outside, and yet there is no danger.

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