SIR FREDERIC SMITHsaid, he wished to ask the Secretary to the Admiralty, Whether there is any truth in the report that it is contemplated, in the event of the resignation of Mr. Isaac Watts, C.B., Chief Constructor of the Navy, to appoint to that important office a gentleman over the heads of Mr. Abethell, Mr. Oliver Lang, and other distinguished and talented master shipwrights of longstanding in Her Majesty's service?
§ LORD CLARENCE PAGETsaid, in reply, that it was the intention of the Admiralty to appoint Mr. Reed as Chief Constructor of the Navy. That gentleman had recently been employed in the 573 construction of a vessel according to his own invention, and had done his work extremely well. He was originally brought up in the School of Naval Architecture, and would be, in every respect, a proper successor to Mr. Watts. No reflection was intended to be cast upon the character and ability of the excellent officers to whom his hon. and gallant Friend had alluded. The duties of the Chief Constructor required for their performance a man of very active habits, and those gentlemen, although very eminent, were rather old.