Ballast

“ From long habit, they sit there very contentedly, for a length of time, almost entirely naked, and appear to think that no other kind of ballast is needed. If the wind were suddenly to change, they would probably get a ducking, by their own weight bearing down the boat, with such a lever. ”

“ It is only by careful study that one can ascertain just the amount of ballast that is needed; but, once found, do not change it for light or heavy weather, but keep it intact, and you and your boat will soon understand each other much better than will be the case if it be continually changed. A happy medium is what must be sought for in the question of ballast ”

“ We should never reach the end of our tale if we followed step by step the adventures of the strange and colossal traveller. Suffice it, then, to say that the drama soon became more exciting, for this immense inflated monster, which held the lives of nine passengers in its claws, threatened to burst its fragile covering. The safety-valve is hastily opened, and, unheedful of the ballast, the gas is allowed to escape. The balloon immediately falls, and its descent is so rapid as to cause the hair of the passengers' heads to stand on end, and the wind to whistle in their ears. ”

“ After the balloon and the car were in equilibrium, we threw over 19 lbs. of ballast, and we rose in the midst of silence, arising from the emotion and surprise felt on all sides.
"Nothing will ever equal that moment of joyous excitement which filled my whole being when I felt myself flying away from the earth. ”

“ The advantages of water over other forms of ballast are so numerous that nothing else would be used in small boats were it not for the great amount of space it occupies; and so serious is this objection that one but rarely comes across a boat thus ballasted. ”

“ The very strong wind which arose immediately before our departure, had driven us down to tee ground many times, making us fear for the safety of our oars, &c., when we resolved to throw over as much ballast as would enable us to rise against the wind. The ballast, including from 70 to 80 lbs. of provisions, was thrown over, and then we rose so rapidly that all the objects around were instantly passed and were very soon lost to view. The swelling form of our balloon told us that the gas inside had expanded under the heat of the sun and the lessening density of the surrounding air. ”

“ It is used to counter-ballance the effort of the wind upon the masts, and give the ship a proper stability, that she may be enabled to carry sail without danger of over-turning.
There is often great difference in the proportion of ballast required to prepare ships of equal burthen for a voyage; the quantity being always more or less, according to the sharpness or flatness of the ship’s bottom, which seamen call the floor.
The knowledge of ballasting a ship with propriety, is certainly an article that deserves the attention of the skilful mariner ”

“ In botany “ballast plants” are so-called because they have been introduced into countries in which they are not indigenous through their seeds being carried in such ballast. A ship “in ballast” is one which carries no paying cargo. In modern vessels the place of ballast is taken by water-tanks which are filled more or less as required to trim the ship. ”

“ We required to throw over ballast in proportion as the almost insensible escape of the hydrogen gas caused us to descend, in order to remain as nearly as possible at the same elevation. If circumstances had permitted us to measure the amount of ballast we threw over, our course would have been almost absolutely horizontal. ”

“ Our car advanced majestically in a long inclined plane. On arriving near the trees, I feared that their branches might damage the car, so I threw over two pounds of ballast, and we rose again. We ran along more than 120 feet, at a distance of one or two feet from the ground, and had the appearance of travelling in a sledge. The peasants ran after us without being able to catch us, like children pursuing a butterfly in the fields. ”

“ Thus I have not a word to say against the ballast-fin so far as racing is concerned, but in cruising the average man who sails for pleasure wants a craft that he can haul out of the water easily to scrub, clean and paint. Now, if you put a ballast-fin boat on the mud for any one or all of these purposes she requires a "leg" on each side to keep her upright, and also supports at the bow and stern to prevent her from turning head over heels. The stationary fin always represents your true draught of water. It is always with you and is an integral portion of the boat's hull. ”

“ The men who go over to the new truth, once it has gained a certain hold, go over en masse, of one accord, much as ballast is rapidly put into a ship to maintain its equilibrium. If not ballasted, the vessel would not be sufficiently immersed, and would change its position every moment. ”

“ Imagine that you have thrown out the ballast—just enough, for if you throw too much, you will become too light and go too high. The little cloud ceases to mask the sun. Your gas heats up again to its first temperature and regains its old lifting-power. But, having less to lift by the amount of ballast thrown out, it now shoots higher into the air, and the gas in the balloon dilates still more, and either escapes through the safety-valve or has to be deliberately sacrificed to prevent the balloon going too high. ”

“ I arranged the ballast about her so that it should conceal her as she lay at the bottom of the car, and covered her with wrappings. Although it still wanted some hours of the time fixed for my ascent, I could not trust myself one moment from the car, so I got into it at once, and watched the gradual inflation of the balloon. Luggage I had none, save the provisions hidden in the ballast bags, the books of mythology, and the treatises on the machines, with my own manuscript diaries and translations. ”

“ The wind quiets down, and we go at something under fifteen miles an hour, as the sun sinks away in the west, and the blue of the sky in the east deepens and deepens. All this time Mr. Spencer has regulated our height by a judicious expenditure of ballast, and now we are low enough to hear the voices of the enthusiastic populace, as they rush out of door with cries of "Balloon! Balloon!" ”

“ He had no sooner delivered the news but the fleet was in sight: many of our ships' companies were on shore in the island; some providing ballast for their ships, others filling of water and refreshing themselves from the land with such things as they could either for money or by force recover. By reason whereof our ships being all pestered and romaging, everything out of order, very light for want of ballast, and that which was most to our disadvantage, the one half part of the men of every ship sick and utterly unserviceable. ”

“ The preceding fault became of more consequence by the nature of the ballast, which we had been obliged to take in, on account of the prodigious quantity of provisions we had stowed. Forty tuns of ballast, distributed on both sides of the kelson, and at a short distance from it, and a dozen twelve-pounders placed at the bottom of the pump-well (we had only fourteen upon deck) added a considerable weight, which being much below the center of gravity, and almost entirely rested upon the kelson, 4put the masts in danger, if there had been any rolling. ”

“ At twelve the sand ballast having choked our pumps, and there being seven feet water in the hold, all the casks afloat, and the ballast shifted to leeward, cut away the rigging of the main and mizen masts, both of which went instantly close by the deck, and immediately after the foremast was carried away about twenty feet above. Hove overboard all our guns, upon which the ship righted a little. We were then under a necessity of letting all our slaves out of irons, to assist in pumping and baling. ”

“ But, then, if I want to get a rapid ascension, so as to escape these savages, I must employ means more energetic than the cylinder. Well, then, in throwing out this overplus of ballast at a given moment, I am certain to rise with great rapidity.”
“That’s plain enough.”
“Yes; but there is one drawback: it consists in the fact that, in order to descend after that, I should have to part with a quantity of gas proportionate to the surplus ballast that I had thrown out. Now, the gas is precious; but we must not haggle over it when the life of a fellow-creature is at stake.” ”

“ Some ballast would normally have been placed under the cabin stores, in the run. The boilers, engine, and fuel weights were relatively important. To trim the ship, with minimum ballast, the location of the machinery weights would have to have been about as shown in the reconstruction drawings. It may be observed that the engine and fuel weights are relatively great for the recorded hull dimensions and resultant displacement limitation, indicating only a small quantity of ballast would have been employed under any circumstance. ”

“ And I do not believe that without such previous study and experience a man is capable of succeeding with an elongated balloon, whose handling is so much more delicate. Before attempting to direct an air-ship, it is necessary to have learned in an ordinary balloon the conditions of the atmospheric medium; to have become acquainted with the caprices of the wind, now caressing and now brutal, and to have gone thoroughly into the difficulties of the ballast problem, from the triple point of view of starting, of equilibrium in the air, and of landing at the end of the trip. ”

“ Two years subsequently Messrs A. M‘Millan & Son, Dumbarton, introduced water ballast into one of the largest class of sailing vessels then being built. Unlike previous sailing ships with provision for water ballast, however, the vessel was constructed on the structural cellular bottom principle, having bracket floors and continuous girders, as so generally approved in steamships. Capacity for water ballast, to the extent of over 300 tons was thus provided, the filling and discharge being effected by a special donkey engine, supplied with steam from a large donkey boiler. ”

“ Against this Christopher Pett indignantly protests, under date September 19, 1663: "If stones are used instead of shot for ballast of the King's new yacht she will be damaged, for the quantity of stones required would make it needful to half fill the cabin, and would make her run to leeward." From this it appears that Christopher Pett had a pretty clear idea of the effect of ballast stowed low; the positive knowledge of the fact having taken more than two centuries to develop to its full extent and power. ”

“ When, therefore, we reflect that well into the last century, crack racing-yachts in England and America were ballasted with pig iron and iron ore, and in 1851 the America had iron ballast moulded to fit her floors and frames—at that time an extravagant novelty—and that only of late years lead ballast has come into general use as a modern improvement, we may well be cautious in accepting anything as new. It is interesting also to note Christopher Pett's anxiety with regard to the quality of canvas for the sails of the new yacht ”

“ He cannot go without ballast, and he can get none after he is outside, except he gets fish, which is by no means certain. On the other hand, if he gets a large quantity of fish, he can throw some of his ballast overboard, and he doesn’t want to row half a ton of ballast eight or ten miles. But if his boat is stiff, and will carry reefed sails, or a whole foresail, with a moderate quantity of ballast that he can keep in all the time, not sufficient to overload her when fish are plenty, and yet sufficient to make her safe, he is suited. ”

“ In balancing the sails, it must be remembered that the further out a sail is on an extremity of a boat, the greater its effect in driving that end of the boat off the wind.
Sometimes a vessel’s sails are not properly balanced because the ballast has not been stowed in the right place. It is obvious, for instance, that if ballast be shifted aft the weather helm will be diminished, for the stern of the boat will draw more water and so offer more lateral resistance, whereas the stem of the boat will draw less water, and will therefore be more easily blown round. ”

“ But be advised, and be on the safe side: have plenty of ballast, if [22] the speed is not the very fastest that the boat is capable of making.
Professional boatmen, lobstermen, and fishermen are never eternally shifting and changing their ballast: having found the "happy medium," they let it alone for the season. It is only the amateur that is continually sailing his yacht upon her "beam-ends," or watching with the utmost anxiety the fast approaching squall, for which the professional cares naught. ”

“ The skill of the spherical balloonist consists precisely in maintaining his desired altitude with the greatest economy of gas and ballast ; but, be he ever so exact, the time must come when repeated condensations have forced him to throw out his last gramme of ballast and repeated dilatations have lost him so much gas that the balloon sinks to earth—no longer spherical, but pearshaped, with its lower part hanging flaccid. ”

“ First, there are the horizontal rudders or hydroplanes, fitted outside the vessel both fore and aft, by which she can be forced down, provided she has sufficient way on, in much the same fashion as an ordinary vertical rudder forces a ship to one side or the other. But this is only the diving apparatus; to keep her down, there is her water ballast—the water which was taken into her main ballast tanks, when the order to submerge was given.39 These tanks contain a sufficient weight of water to counteract the normal buoyancy of the boat, by which she would naturally float upon the surface. ”