the length, which often were in error as much as one foot in a
hundred, as was found by investigation of various classes of vessels.
Because of inherent difficulties in measuring to the required points,
this condition lasted even after steel tapes were introduced late in
the 19th century.

The Museum's researchers next turned their attention to examination of
the Marestier work, a French report on early American steam vessels
that had become known to some American marine historians in the
1920's. The author was a French naval constructor who, on orders from
his government, had spent two years in the United States between 1819
and 1822 studying American steam vessels, schooners, and naval
vessels. The published report contained only material on steam vessels
and schooners. The portion dealing with naval vessels was not
published, and the manuscript has not been found to the present time
(1960). The publication, a rare book, was available in only a few
collectors' libraries or public institutions in the United States. In
1930 the writer translated the chapter on schooners,[6] and in 1957
Sidney Withington translated most of the remainder.[7] As a result of
these publications and earlier published references, the Marestier
material became widely known to persons interested in ships.

[Illustration: Figure 3.--Marestier's sketch of the _Savannah_ (from
plate 8 in Withington's translation of the Marestier report). Heights
of lower masts are excessive by all known American masting rules; and,
according to Marestier's drawing of the engine (see figure 4), the
deckhouse is too short.]

Withington's translation states that the _Savannah_ measured 30.48
meters (100 feet) in length and 7.92 meters (26 feet) in beam and that
she drew 3.66 meters (12 feet) in port and 4.27 meters (14 feet)
loaded. Marestier's sketch (see fig. 3) of the outboard of the
_Savannah_ shows a ship-rigged, flush-decked vessel with a small
deckhouse forward of the mainmast and nearly abreast of the side
paddle wheels. The stack is a little forward of the deckhouse and has
an elbow at its top. Netting quarter-deck rail is shown and a bust
figurehead is indicated. The position of the hawse pipe shown at the
bow indicates the wheel shaft to have been at or about deck level. For
structural reasons, and in compliance with the sketch, the wheel shaft
would have been just above the deck.

[Illustration: Figure 4.--Marestier's drawings of the _Savannah's_
en