Written by Frederick Engels about October 5, 1857, and published unsigned in The New American Cyclopædia (New York: D. Appleton and Company), vol. III, 1858, p. 452. Text of the Cyclopædia, from the public-domain scans in the Internet Archive (newamericancycl21danagoog), with the OCR corrected against the page images; collated with the German version in Marx/Engels, Werke, vol. 14 (Berlin, 1961), p. 146, and found complete. Misprints of the Cyclopædia are kept and pointed out in the notes of the translation. Traducción al español
BOMB KETCH is now generally used to designate the more old-fashioned sort of mortar vessels (galiotes à bombes). They were built strong enough to resist the shock caused by the recoil of the mortar, 60 to 70 feet long, 100 to 150 tons burden; they drew from 8 to 9 feet water, and were rigged usually with 2 masts. They used to carry 2 mortars and some guns. The sailing qualities of these vessels were naturally very inferior. A tender, generally a brig, was attached to them, which carried the artillerymen and the greater part of the ammunition, until the action commenced.