Page:Royal Naval Biography Marshall v4p2.djvu/470

 she had twenty-nine lieutenants, four pursers, and two surgeons, appointed to her. He paid off that ship at Portsmouth, Sept. 15th, 1827 ; and was appointed captain-superintendent of Pembroke Dock-yard on the 16th July 1830. 



officer’s proficiency in the important science of naval architecture, has been noticed at, which portion of our work was written during the absence of his first experimental ship, the Champion 18, on a cruise to the westward of Scilly, in company with the Thetis frigate and two sloops of war, the Orestes and Pylades, built by Professor Inman and Sir Robert Seppings.

Throughout the various trials which took place on that occasion, and were conducted so perseveringly, and in such a manner, by Captain Sir John Phillimore, of the Thetis, as to prove the ships under all circumstances, so that every excellency in each might be fairly ascertained, it was evident that the Champion could carry more sail, and worked quicker, and behaved better, in a gale of wind and a heavy sea, than either of her consorts. Every subsequent account proves her to be a very superior vessel.

In Dec. 1826, Captain Hayes commissioned the Wolf 18, a second corvette built on fixed principles known by no other person. The Lords of the Admiralty had some time before “made him a grant of £1000, as their first compensation, in consideration of the benefits he has rendered to his country by his improvements in ship-building, as exemplified in the Champion and the Arrow cutter .” His 28-gun frigate Challenger, built at the same time as the Wolf, and likewise commanded by him, is thus spoken of by one of her officers, in a letter dated April 28th, 1827:

“The Challenger is the finest vessel I ever saw; excellent quarters, the best accommodations, and every good quality. We carry our ports