MASTS, YARDS, AND OTHER TIMBER FOR THE NAVY.

FRANCE, like other European ftates which have a royal navy and fleets of merchant fhips to keep in repair, imports timber from Livonia and Ruffia. This general magazine begins to be exhaufted, the quality of its mafts is not fo good as formerly. This commerce is, moreover, attended with the disadvantage to France of requiring confiderable remittances of money, without reckoning the inconveniencies of a dangerous navigation, frequently interrupted by ice; alfo the competition of feveral nations, which their proximity and many other circumftances naturalize, fo to speak, in the ports and feas of the North; advantages which the French cannot have.

These confiderations ought to determine France to turn her attention to the United States, to procure from them the timber neceffary for their navy, and mast timber efpecially. If she can meet with a supply of this kind from America, it is beyond a doubt but fhe will find more real advantages therein than the north of Europe can afford, whether it be in the manner of paying for

the timber, or in the navigation, which is much lefs dangerous and uncertain than that of the Baltic.

Moreover, why fhould not fhip-timber of American growth be proper for the use of the French navy? There is but one objection to this, and it arifes from prejudice.

It is pretended in France, that the quality of American timber is very much inferior to that of the Baltic. Some people go fo far as to maintain, that it is improper for the construction of veffels. I have reafon to believe, that this judgment is not only hasty, but dictated either by ignorance, or the partiality of perfons interested in feeing no other timber arrive in the French dock-yards than that of the north of Europe.

It is not in the laws of nature, that immenfe countries, whofe afpects are as varied as thofe of Europe can be, and in whofe foil there are the fame diversities, fhould produce no timber but cf a quality inferior to that of the timber of Europe. The quality of timber varies on our continent according to the climate, the nature of the foil, and other circumstances. If there be any timber of which the quality must be naturally of an inferior kind, and become gradually more and more so, it is that of Europe; because the forefts, which produced the bent timber, are exhaufted, or tend daily to be fo. Moreover, there are rules for cutting of timber, and preparing it before it is put to use; if

4

these

these are neglected, the quality is more or less changed. Now is it not poffible that, from a want of experience, or from other momentary circumstances*, the Americans may not have been able to put these rules into practice, and that the quality of the timber may have suffered by it?

.

Better directed enquiries, and a more attentive examination, will foon deftroy this prejudice against the quality of American timber; a prejudice fo much the more difagreeable, as it would deprive the commerce between France and the United States of an article important to the two nations.

If France will inform herself seriously of this matter, let her confult even the enemies of America; let her confult Lord Sheffield, fo moderate in his eulogiums, when it is neceffary to give them to the independent Americans. His Lordship fays exprefsly, "that the negociators of the treaty of

*For instance, the cutting of timber in a proper feafon, and not to Jet flip the favourable moment, a great quantity must be cut at once, by the union of a number of hands. The Americans have them not in fufficient numbers. Timber muft alfo be left expofed to the air, or in the water a long time, before it can be properly made ufe of; and the Americans, preffed by neceffity, cannot always make this facrifice of time; therefore, the defects of American timber must not be attributed to its nature, but to unfavourable circumftances. This reasoning overturns all the affertions which the partiality of personal interest has hitherto advanced against the timber of America.

Sixth edition, page 89,

P. 4

66 peace,

<< peace, who have ceded the territory of Penob "fcot, to the eaft of Cafco bay, belonging to "Great Britain, deferve the fevereft cenfure: "as this country produces, without contradic"tion, the best timber. The coaft," adds his Lordship, "is covered with timber proper for "navigation and other ufes, and in quantities fuf"ficient to the wants of Great Britain for cen"turies to come. The white pine, known in

England by the name of the Weymouth Pine, "or the Pine of New England, abounds in this territory; it is inconteftably the best for mafts, " and grows there to a prodigious heighth."

This is confirmed to us by enlightened men, who have travelled and refided a long time in the United States. These men affure us, that the States produce all kinds of timber of which we are in need, and that the white pine of the Connecticut, Penobscot, and Kennebeck rivers is, at leaft, equal in quality to that of the north of Europe. The fhip-builders of Philadelphia esteem it fo much, that they begin to make use of it for fide planks above the furface of the water.

Green oak, of which there are so fine forefts in Georgia, unites the most precious qualities ;—it may be procured from St. Mary's, of a more confiderable fcantling than that which comes from the Levant and the island of Corfica; it is compact, the worms never attack it, and its duration is unequalled. The cubical foot weighs ninety-five

pounds

pound, which is twenty pound more than that of the white oak commonly made ufe of. Such is its folidity, that the common thickness of planks, &c. may be diminished nearly one half in using it *.

Lord Sheffield, after having said that no timber, proper for mafts, is found to the fouth of forty-one degrees, declares, however, that the yellow pine of the Southen States furnishes great mafts for merchants fhips t. The white and yellow pines are of a quality fuperior to others;—the grain is fine, that of the yellow pine is close. All these pines are employed in the conftruction of houfes and veffels, and are put to all uses to which pine is applicable, whether it be in fquare pieces or in boards.

Finally, when we fee great Britain fet a value on American timber; when it is recollected, that, before the war, fhe had got furveyed a canton of fix hundred thoufand acres, in the province of

The green oak of Carolina is the hardest timber known;-the veffels built with it are of a very long duration. See what Colonel Champion fays in different parts of his work of American timber, and wherein he refutes the opinion of Lord Sheffield on American mafts.

+ Page 93d, 6th Edition, is the following note :-"The mafts of America are inferior to thofe of Riga; but thefe are very "expenfive, on account of the diftance they are at, and the confi"derable duties which they pay at Riga. Ia time of war, the

great mafts delivered in England, coft from 2, 3, to 400l. fterling. "The greatest masts, made use of in thenavy, are thirty-fix inches in diameter, and come from America. Great mafts, made of several "pieces, are at prefent preferred."

Sagga