JF Ptak Science Books Quick Post
I came upon this article in The Annals of Philosophy for April 1818, suggestively entitled and not-ignorable “A Plan for a Fire Ship”, by Col. Mark Beaufoy. It turns out to be a simple plan with a not-so-simple way of guiding in a ship meant take fire/explode amidst an opposing fleet/flotilla. I am far from knowing anything about naval history, so all I am doing here is reporting on this interesting article, though I have no little doubt that there is a rich history of remotely-guided bomb ships in the history of naval warfare. (The idea sounds pretty expensive to me…)
“[Beaufoy, 1764-1827]…devoted much of his life to naval experiments at the Greenland Dock with James Scott and Captain John Luard of the “Society for the Improvement in Naval Architecture”. He published the results of his work in one of the leading scientific journals of the day, The Annals of Philosophy. In 1815 he described a recording tide meter, and in the same article went on to describe the power of the wind on square sails and the resistance to motion both in air and water of different shapes.”–Wikipedia (Beaufoy does mention the use of square sails in the article.)
