[MANUSCRIPT] "Theory of Ship Building," a folio notebook, consisting of title page with cartouche and 33 pen-and-ink or pen, ink and wash drawings, 5 double-page, some with headings in ink or explanatory tables and measurements, [ca. 1722], on paper with fleu-de-lys watermark, bound in contemporary panelled calf gilt (rubbed). [Scott 816: citing the watermark as Churchill no. 437] These finely-executed drawings illustrate the "Properties and rules of the ballance," "The properties of water as it relates to floating bodies," "How to account for the weight of water against dock gates," "Description of the manner of drawing sollids through the water, to find the lines of least resistance," "Resistance of Sollids in fluids," "Draughts of fishes," the rigging and hulls of ships, "Proper Place and Shape of a Midship Bend," "A precedence for fitting sails to ships," types of sail, "Sailing bodies to ships," "A ship close hauld to the wind," "How the rudder governs the ship," and "The ship when turning about," then end with a full construction plan.

Details
[MANUSCRIPT] "Theory of Ship Building," a folio notebook, consisting of title page with cartouche and 33 pen-and-ink or pen, ink and wash drawings, 5 double-page, some with headings in ink or explanatory tables and measurements, [ca. 1722], on paper with fleu-de-lys watermark, bound in contemporary panelled calf gilt (rubbed). [Scott 816: citing the watermark as Churchill no. 437] These finely-executed drawings illustrate the "Properties and rules of the ballance," "The properties of water as it relates to floating bodies," "How to account for the weight of water against dock gates," "Description of the manner of drawing sollids through the water, to find the lines of least resistance," "Resistance of Sollids in fluids," "Draughts of fishes," the rigging and hulls of ships, "Proper Place and Shape of a Midship Bend," "A precedence for fitting sails to ships," types of sail, "Sailing bodies to ships," "A ship close hauld to the wind," "How the rudder governs the ship," and "The ship when turning about," then end with a full construction plan.
Further details
This volume of drawings or "draughts," while intensely interesting in itself, acted as the plate volume to a separate and now lost volume of text. The cartouche on the title page contains the following note: "NB These draughts are explain'd by a Manuscript Paper Book," and each drawing is cross referenced to a page number in the text, presumably lost at some point before Scott acquired the book of drawings.

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