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In French
In
1769 Charles Nicolas ROMME was appointed professor
of mathematics to the Marine Guard in Rochefort on
the recommendation of Etienne Bezout, a member of
the Royal Academy of Sciences and an examiner of
the Marine and Artillery Guards. Shortly after his
assignment Romme began a series of scientific
experiments in the port of Rochefort on navigation,
the resistance of fluids and the measurement of
marine longitudes. These experiments were the
subject of papers presented by his patron Bezout to
the Academy of Sciences. This led to Romme's
appointment as a corresponding member of the Royal
academy of Sciences and to the Academy's request
that he write a DESCRIPTION OF THE ART OF MASTING
and the same for THE ART OF SAIL MAKING to be
included in their publication of a Description of
the Arts and Manual Professions. Since neither of
these subjects lent itself to theoretical research,
the author gathered his information from actively
involved professionals in the port of Rochefort,
especially from Perain, a master-builder in the
Marine Guard. The plates were drawn by H. Penevert,
draftsman and master-builder for the Marine Guard.
Thus these two works give us a realistic account of
actual masting and sail work in the port of
Rochefort. The tables giving specifications of the
masts and yards that appear in the treatise on
sails are extremely useful, but the dimensions
given in the tables are only a base and must be
checked and compared with the figures in the end of
voyage accounts, keeping in mind that practices in
the port of Rochefort may differ from Brest or
Toulon. Beside the theoretical information on
dimensions and proportions, the Art of Masting also
contains a detailed description of mast and yard
making techniques, simple and complex, and also
describes arrangements made for rigging the
vessels.
The Art of Sails completes our knowledge by
providing information to us on sailmakers'
techniques of making sails and installing them on
ships. Additionally a most useful reference table
contains the dimensions of all parts of anchors of
different weights.
Scholars of naval archaeology and ship's model
builders will find these two works
indispensable.
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