machine, of Dutch invention, for raising large ships so far above the water-line as to enable them to pass over the obstruction of a bar or shallow. It consisted of two large boxes or half-ships, which were applied to each side of the hull of a large vessel, and from which a number of cables were passed under the keel and attached to horizontal windlasses on the deck of either half of the camel. When the machine was to be used, water was allowed to enter so as to sink the two parts of the machine to the requisite depth; the ropes were then cast loose, and large beams were placed horizontally through the port-holes of the ship, with their ends resting on the camel on each side. When the ropes were made fast, and the ship properly secured, the water was pumped out of the camel, which then rose and bore up the ship along with it. By this contrivance, East Indiamen drawing 15 feet could be made to draw only 11 feet; and ships of war carrying 90 or 100 guns were enabled to pass the sandbanks of the Zuider-Zee. (Beckmann's Hist. of Inventions, vol. iii. p. 338.)

This machine is also available for raising sunken vessels.

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1 The reign of Queen Elizabeth was so recent when the first volume of the annals was published, that many of the persons concerned, or their dependents, were still living. It is no wonder, therefore, that the honest historian should offend those whose actions would not bear inquiry. Some of his enemies were clamorous and troublesome, which determined him not to publish the second volume during his life; but, that posterity might be in no danger of disappointment, he deposited one copy in the Cotton Library, and transmitted another to his friend Dupuy at Paris. It was first printed at Leyden in 1625.