They were not, however, what "Jack" had been accustomed to consider "dry ships." The ship built Dutchman fashion, with her bluff ends, is the driest of all ships, but the least steady, because she rises to every sea.

But the new ships, because of their length and sharpness, precluded this; for, though they rose sufficiently to an approaching wave for all purposes of safety, they often went through the crest of it, and, though shipping a little water, it was not only easier for the vessel, but the shortest road.
Nature seems to have furnished us with the finest design for a vessel in the form of the fish: it presents such fine lines--is so clean, so true, and so rapid in its movements.

The ship, however, must float; and to hit upon the happy medium of velocity and stability seems to me the art and mystery of shipbuilding.

In order to give large carrying capacity, we gave flatness of bottom and squareness of bilge.

This became known in Liverpool as the "Belfast bottom;" and it has been generally adopted.