480 
EXPLANATION OF THE PLATES. 
moving the pin to one of the other holes, when the rudder may be placed on the 
quarter on either side if at any time it may be required to lay the ship to, to shift 
the tiller, or to reeve new ropes to the wheel. The heel of the mainmast is fitted 
in an iron crutch with a strong pillar, in order to bring the mast nearer its proper 
position for sailing, which otherwise would be prevented by the boilers. 
In corroboration of the foregoing facts we shall here state a most extraordinary 
circumstance. Her Majesty’s frigate, the Pique, of thirty-six guns, built with Mr. 
Lang’s safety keels, had the misfortune to run on the rocks near the strait of Belle 
Isle, on the 22d of-September, 1835, and tore off her false, and likewise her outer 
main keel all the way fore and aft, and ground away, in four different places, the 
inner or solid keel, and the longitudinal pieces at those parts forming the garboarcl 
connected thereto, which being so firmly attached to the ship bore the violent fric 
tion of such ponderous weight, the frigate with her guns, stores, &c., in contact 
with the rocks without being displaced, and the vessel was got off, preserved from 
shipwreck, and brought to England in safety, although encountering very severe 
gales of wind on her passage. Several instances have occurred of other ships fitted 
with the safety keels getting off the rocks without admitting any water. We shall 
now mention two cases, not only to prove the safety of vessels fitted with the keels in 
question, but to shew the strength of the fabric of ships built like the Medea ; those 
alluded to are the Lightning and Flamer steamers, constructed by Mr. Lang, and 
built under his superintendence. The former vessel, the Lightning, on her first pro 
ceeding to sea, ran ashore a little below Sheerness, on the Spaniard shoal, fell over 
on her side where she lay dry at low water; she floated again at high water, and it 
was found she had sustained no damage. As she was entering Dover harbour, soon 
after, she ran full speed against the pier and struck her fore-foot or gripe, knocking it 
over on one side, but made no water; on being docked at Portsmouth after this, her 
gripe was replaced and no other injury appeared. The next important occurrence 
happened when at Jersey: being aground alongside the pier, and a rope made fast to 
her mast-head, secured to the shore to keep her upright, the water having left her 
dry above one hundred and fifty feet, the rope broke and she fell violently down on 
her side; this shock was severely felt in the engine-room, but she sustained no injury 
in the hull nor machinery by the fall; at high water she righted again and sailed 
across the Channel to the Downs, where she was run into, just abaft the starboard 
paddle-box, by a loaded collier, which did the Lightning but little harm in her top 
side and sponcing, but the collier, by the concussion, stove in her bows, ran on shore 
to save her from sinking, and became a wreck. 
In the heavy gale of wind in February, 1833, the Lightning was in the Irish 
Channel on her way to Dublin, with the Erin, a large steam vessel, when the latter