connection with the naval service has been terminated, but his
professional and scientific standing has been fully maintained, and his
energies have found scope in the conduct of the great and growing business
of the _Forges et Chantiers_ Company. In him France has undoubtedly lost
her greatest naval architect.

The son of a naval officer, M. Dupuy was born in October, 1816, near
L'Orient, and entered _L'Ecole Polytechnique_ when nineteen years of age.
In that famous establishment he received the thorough preliminary training
which France has so long and wisely provided for those who are to become
the designers of her war-ships. After finishing his professional
education, he came to England about 1842, and made a thorough study of
iron shipbuilding and steam navigation, in both of which we then held a
long lead of France. His report, subsequently published under the title of
"Memoire sur la Construction des Batiments en Fer"--Paris, 1844--is
probably the best account given to the world of the state of iron
shipbuilding forty years ago: and its perusal not merely enables one to
gauge the progress since made, but to form an estimate of the great
ability and clear style of the writer. We may assume that this visit to
England, coming after the thorough education received in Francem did much
toward forming the views to which expression was soon given in designs and
reports on new types of war ships.

[Illustration: M. DUPUY DE LOME.]

When the young constructor settled down to his work in the arsenal at
Toulon, on his return from England, the only armed steamships in the
French Navy were propelled by paddle-wheels, and there was great
opposition to the introduction of steam power into line-of-battle ships.
The paddle-wheel was seen to be unsuited to such large fighting vessels,