Launch of a Richmond vessel.
--The ship
Virginia Dare, built in
Baltimore for the
Richmond and
Liverpool line, was launched on Friday morning last.
She will sail in a few days for this city.
She is of 850 tons burthen, and the following is a description of her:
Length between perpendiculars, 160 feet; breadth of beam extreme, 33 feet 6 inches; depth of hold, 21 feet; average depth of hold, 22 feet. Her keel is sided 15 inches and moulded 16 inches, with a five-inch shoe frame, composed of white oak, locust and cedar; sided 9, 10 and 11 inches; moulded at heel, and 7 inches at the plank shears.
Floors sided 11, 12 and 13 inches. Kelsons 15 inches square, bolted through the floors and keel with one and one-eighth inch yellow metal.
Rider 14 inches square, well bolted through main kelson, first futtock, heels, and the keel.
She is square-fastened throughout, and copper-fastened to the load-line.
She has a half-poop, 46 feet long, and the cabin rising out of the poop 23 feet long, having seven fine staterooms for the accommodation of passengers, with a large pantry and mates' room in the forward part, and a well arranged captain's room; bathroom and water-closet in the after part.
She has a large midship-house for the accommodation of the crew; boys' room and a galley 29 feet long.
The stern is embellished with a richly carved moulding, with the
Virginia coat of arms as a centre piece.
She has a light and symmetrical cutwater, finished with a billet and, in fact, the finish throughout combines utility, beauty and strength.
She has been named the
Virginia Dare, after the first white child born in
Virginia, and of which birth
Capt. John Smith, the leader of the settlers in that colony, make particular mention in his history of the events connected with the settlement of
Virginia, in these words:--‘"And on the 18th, Ellinor, the
Governor's daughter, and wife to Ananias Dare, was delivered of a daughter, in
Roanoke, which, being the first Christian there born, was called
Virginia."’ She was constructed to the order of
Messrs. David J. Burr,
John Purcell and
Wm. G. Paine, the building committee on the part of the company of merchants of
Richmond, Va. 
