It proceeds from the impetuous velocity of the
waves, which, rushing ahead so much faster than the vessel that is
even driving before the gale, breaks against the quarter, or stern,
and throws its masses of water along the deck, in a line with its
keel. I suppose the President steamer to have been lost by the first
of these two dangers, as will appear in the following little theory.
There is no doubt that well-constructed steamers are safer craft, the
danger from fire excepted, than the ordinary ship, except in very
heavy weather. With an ordinary gale, they can contend with sufficient
power; but, it is an unfortunate consequence of their construction,
that exactly as the danger increases, their power of meeting it
diminishes. In a very heavy swell, one cannot venture to resort to a
strong head of steam, since one wheel may be nearly out of water,
while the other is submerged, and thus endanger the machinery. Now,
the great length of these vessels renders it difficult to keep them up
to the wind, or head to sea, the safest of all positions for a vessel
in heavy weather, while it exposes them to the additional risk of
having the water break aboard them near the waist, in running dead
before it. In a word, I suppose a steamer difficult to be kept out of
the trough, in very heavy weather; and no vessel can be safe in the
trough of the seas, under such circumstances; one of great length less
so than others.
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