[SCHOOL OF NAVAL ARCHITECTURE AT PARIS.]
The construction of ships and engines in the French naval service is intrusted to the Corps of Marine Engineering, (Corps du Génie Maritime,) consisting of 121 officers, viz., 1 inspector-general, 10 directors of naval construction, 40 marine engineers, and 70 assistant engineers.
This corps is recruited from the graduates of the Polytechnic, and having passed satisfactorily the required examination for the public service, are sent to the School of Application of Naval Engineering at Paris, and to the dockyards, to learn their special business. The usual number in attendance is 30, and the annual cost of the school is about 100,000 francs.
The course occupies two years and a-half—three winters in Paris and two summers in the dockyards. The pupils having a good general education and a complete special knowledge of mathematics and geometrical drawing, the courses are from the start eminently practical.
The instruction in Paris during the first session consists of: 1, a course on construction; 2, on displacement and stability; 3, on strength of materials; 4, English; 5, free-hand drawing; 6, plan-drawing of vessels. During the second session it consists of: 1, a practical course on steam-engines; 2, a theoretical course on steam; 3, applied mechanics, machines in general; 4, English; 5, accounts; 6, plan-drawing, ships and engines; 7, pictorial drawing. During the third session: 1, course on stability, (2d part;) 2, on naval architecture; 3, naval artillery; 4, technology of workshops, special to the navy; 5, accounts; 6, English; 7, plan-drawing, projects for ships; 8, free-hand drawing.
In the first year ship-building is taken up; in the second, the steam-engine, and in the third the two are combined and completed. When in the dockyards, the pupils are placed under the order of the engineer in charge of works in execution, who sees that they are attentive to their duty, and have proper instruction. He also examines and certifies the journals which the pupils have to keep. The director of the school gives each pupil detailed instruction to guide him in the choice of the practical work he shall attend to. The first summer is devoted to the construction of ships, the second to that of engines. The pupils select the ports to which they will go, according to their standing in their class.
At the end of two years and a half, the pupils are examined by a board, and if found qualified, they are appointed assistant engineers of the third class. If they fail to pass, they may be allowed another year—but failing in that, they are definitely rejected.
The private pupils, natives or foreigners, who to the number of eight are allowed to attend the course in Paris, may obtain permission to go through the whole practical course in one of the imperial dockyards, but are not subjected to the same discipline as the regular pupils. On leaving, they receive from the director a certificate of the course gone through, their talent and diligence.
The school is under the immediate orders of a Director of Naval Construction, who is also one of the professors, and is assisted in the several branches taught by other professors, who are marine engineers, and a special teacher of drawing, and another of the English language.