The captain said she had once gone at the rate of thirteen knots, which is accounted thirteen miles per hour.  We had on board, as a passenger, Captain Kennedy, of the Navy, who contended that it was impossible, and that no ship ever sailed so fast, and that there must have been some error in the division of the log-line, or some mistake in heaving the log.  A wager ensu’d between the two captains, to be decided when there should be sufficient wind.  Kennedy thereupon examin’d rigorously the log-line, and, being satisfi’d with that, he determin’d to throw the log himself.  Accordingly some days after, when the wind blew very fair and fresh, and the captain of the paquet, Lutwidge, said he believ’d she then went at the rate of thirteen knots, Kennedy made the experiment, and own’d his wager lost.

The above fact I give for the sake of the following observation.  It has been remark’d, as an imperfection in the art of ship-building, that it can never be known, till she is tried, whether a new ship will or will not be a good sailer; for that the model of a good-sailing ship has been exactly follow’d in a new one, which has prov’d, on the contrary, remarkably dull.  I apprehend that this may partly be occasion’d by the different opinions of seamen respecting the modes of lading, rigging, and sailing of a ship; each has his system; and the same vessel, laden by the judgment and orders of one captain, shall sail better or worse than when by the orders of another.  Besides, it scarce ever happens that a ship is form’d, fitted for the sea, and sail’d by the same person.  One man builds the hull, another rigs her, a third lades and sails her.  No one of these has the advantage of knowing all the ideas and experience of the others, and, therefore, can not draw just conclusions from a combination of the whole.

Even in the simple operation of sailing when at sea, I have often observ’d different judgments in the officers who commanded the successive watches, the wind being the same.  One would have the sails trimm’d sharper or flatter than another, so that they seem’d to have no certain rule to govern by.  Yet I think a set of experiments might be instituted, first, to determine the most proper form of the hull for swift sailing; next, the best dimensions and properest place for the masts:  then the form and quantity of sails, and their position, as the wind may be; and, lastly, the disposition of the lading.  This is an age of experiments, and I think a set accurately made and combin’d would be of great use.  I am persuaded, therefore, that ere long some ingenious philosopher will undertake it, to whom I wish success.