Franklin at the forefront Franklin, launched in 1815 at the Philadelphia Navy Yard, rated as a 74 in the USA, has passed by Portsmouth to bring the new minister, Richard Rush, 37 years old, replacing John Quincy Adams to negotiate a treaty with Britain, to settle the borders with Canada in particular. It has given British officers the opportunity of examining this astonishing ship. She has made an impression, to say the least. "She is built of seasoned oak, admirably put to

Jean Maritz II, 22, continuator of his father Johannes' Work, co-inventor of the Horizontal Drilling Machine Johann Maritz, 54, is a Swiss gun-maker, established as Commissionner of the French Royal Foundry at Strasbourg. He first invented a method of vertical drilling twenty-one years ago to replace the old commonplace method of casting the gun around a core made of clay. The purpose was to improve bore accuracy and was met, but the process was rather slow. This time, the

Charles Baudin Admiral Charles Baudin, 54 years old, achieves to silence the strong fortress which defends Vera Cruz, considered as impregnable, within five hours of fire on the 28th of November. Afterwards the citadel surrenders under the threat of a resumption of bombing. This feat is even more outstanding that it is the outcome of three frigates and two bomb vessels, with some help of a corvette and of two steam tugs. The battle takes place in the Pastry War between Mexi

The Cannon Shot England has been the most advanced country on questions of ordnance for more than a century. Ordnance is even a domain reserved to specialists, organized as a distinctive body ruled by a Master from 1415 onwards. This year, William Compton, 36, general at the age of 23, praised by Lord protector Oliver Cromwell for his gallantry and his skills, a royalist though, has been appointed Master-General of Ordnance. He is not a man who takes a job as a sinecure.