…
No timid hand, or hesitating brain, gave form and dimensions to the Lightning. very great stability, acute extremities, full short, midship body, comparatively small deadrise, and the longest end forward, are points in the excellence of this ship. By European naval authorities such a model would be reudiated on account of the centre of gravity of displacement being found abaft of mid-lengths of load line, but such authors have little weight with the independent modellers of America and although the mechanical advisers of her owners have accomplished their purpose, by filling out the bow of the vessel to suit their crude notions of science, it will be found that some modification in the distribution of the propulsory power was all that was necessary (as we shall show in connection with her spar draught in our next issue) to make her all that could be desired by the fogyistic advocates of full bows in the Old World.
The U.S. Nautical Magazine and Naval Journal Vol. III (1854).
Transcribed by Lars Bruzelius.
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