The first of the above inventions was a temporary rudder, which might be applied, under any circumstances, in a short space of time, by means of a resource highly approved of by H.R.H. the Duke of Clarence, as being also well adapted to Pakenham’s rudder. The second was a machine occupying little space, and easily placed so as to pump out ships by the power of their way through the water. Captain Ricketts was indebted to the kindness of Sir Richard Bickerton for an order for the latter to be tried on board the Clyde, whose commander reported favorably of its merits; but at last, worn out by ill Health, the apathy of others, and accumulating expenses, he ceased to prosecute an invention that might have been of incalculable advantage to the navy and ships in general. The apparatus, we believe, is still to be seen in Portsmouth dockyard.
The copy of an interesting paper on the subject of waterspouts, transmitted by Captain Ricketts to Sir Joseph Banks, in 1802, and afterwards deposited in the archives of the Royal Society, will be found in the Naval Chronicle, Vol. xx, p. 392 et seq. Several letters from its assiduous author, containing the description of a nipper invented by him for the purpose of facilitating the weighing of an anchor in cases where it may be necessary, either from the weakness of the messenger, or the insufficiency of the capstan’s power, to apply an additional purchase; and various valuable suggestions on other subjects also appear in the same rich repository, at Vol. xx, p. 446; Vol. xxi, pp. 38, 212, 398; and Vol. xxiii, p. 292. Their great length, and our scanty limits, prevent us from giving them a place in this work, which we should otherwise have felt great pleasure in doing.
Agent.– ___ M‘Inerheny, Esq.
ALEXANDER SKENE, Esq
[Post-Captain of 1802.]
This officer was made a Lieutenant in 1793; and obtained the rank of Commander, in the Lynx sloop of war, on the Halifax station, Nov. 18, 1799. His post commission bears date April 29, 1802. At the commencement of the late war he commanded the Lapwing of 28 guns; and subsequently
