New Inventions.

At Chichester, on the 10th, was launched the new vessel constructed by the ingenious Captain Gower, which is to carry five masts, and to exceed in celerity every vessel hitherto constructed. About eleven o'clock, A.M. a great concourse of spectators had collected at Itchenor, a small village on the Chichester River, where the vessel was built, and by twelve the opposite shores of Bosham-Hard and Chedham-Hard were completely lined. At a quarter past twelve, the signal being given, she descended gradually into the water in a majestic manner, amidst the shouts and well wishes of thousands. Among the company present were his grace the Duke of Richmond, and a large party of his friends; General Lenox and Lacy [?]; several Captains and officers of the Royal Navy from Portsmouth, &c. &c. The bottle was thrown by Captain Allen Chatfield, with an ardour that bespoke his hearty good wishes for her success; and the exclamations of "Success to the Transit" resounded from all quarters. It is the intention of Captain Gower, the inventor, to have a trial of skill with one of our best sailing frigates, and immediately afterwards to proceed up the Thames.

A trial has been made at Woolwich, under the the [sic] direction of the Board of Ordnance, in the presence of several Lords of the Admiralty, and a committee of Field Officers, of two twenty-four pounder guns, mounted upon a patent gun carriage, lately constructed by Mr. John Gover, of Rotherhithe, upon an entire new principle for the sea service, one of which was fired nineteen rounds at the target in the short space of nineteen minutes, with admirable effect, and was capable of performing with much more quickness. The other was fired from the battery at the water side, for the purpose of ascertaing the range of the shot, which, to the astonishment of every officer present, made a range of two thousand yards, though the charge of powder was but four pounds, and the elevation but one degree. The officers universally expressed their entire satisfaction of this experiment of an invention which appears to be the most perfect of the kind ever discovered.

Naval Chronical, Vol. III (1800), p 412.

Transcribed by Lars Bruzelius

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