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tions, and for all seasons and voyages. We throughout considered that there was a wide difference between elementary principles so applied, and the fixing a hard and fast load-line to be used for all vessels in any season, and with any cargo.

Your nominees felt that the important position they had accepted, and its probable results, required that they should give every part of the subject the fullest consideration, and that they should be fully prepared, after full discussion, to bow to the decision of the majority. The nominees of Lloyd's Register, on the contrary, objected to this discussion, and to our proceeding by resolution, and proposed to withdraw when questions of spare buoyancy were touched upon, although, as was pointed out, their own tables for freeboard are expressly founded on this basis.

Mr. Tindall, on taking the chair, made some observations on the object of the Committee, and remarked that the Board of Trade, instead of aiming to get a line to which ships may be loaded, wanted rather to obtain a line beyond which ships should not be loaded. Captain Murray, in following the Chairman, said there was a range between a fair and a deep load-line, between the natural load-line for a ship and one at which she would begin to strain herself and become unseaworthy, and that some general principles were wanted to guide the surveyor to that reasonable safe draught at which a vessel may be permitted to go to sea. After such remarks as these, it was with some surprise that your nominees discovered that a limit was intended to be put to their discussion, and that they were to be precluded from considering a mode of finding a fair load-line for an ordinary flush-decked vessel, even if this step were considered as only preliminary to finding rules for determining the deep-line for a vessel which was supposed to be wanted by the Board of Trade surveyors.

While we lament the premature dissolution of the joint Committee, we fully concur in the opinion expressed in the Board of Trade letter of the 11th instant, that any further sittings of the Committee, weakened by the secession of the nominees of Lloyd's Register, would scarcely answer the purpose for which it was appointed. It remains for those who are interested in shipping to consider whether another representative Com mittee, constituted somewhat differently, and formed in equal proportions of the persons chiefly interested, might yet be appointed for the same purpose, and with a better chance of attaining the desired end. It cannot be expected that the Board of Trade should again take the initiative in forming such a Committee, but possibly they would not object to do so on the expressed wish of the general shipping com munity of the United Kingdom. We would, therefore, submit for your consideration whether the papers now placed before you should not to this end be circulated for the information of shipowners generally.

The shipping community of this kingdom have a direct interest in the solution of the questions recently submitted to the joint Committee, and will, we think, fully appreciate the advances already made by the Board of Trade to the two Registries of Shipping for this purpose, although, for the cause already stated, they have had so unfortunate a result.

Had the intentions of the Board of Trade been fairly carried out, we consider that such a general uniformity of practice would have been obtained as would have tended to bring the interference of the officers of the Board of Trade, as respects load draught, within limits which would not be objected to by that large and honourable body which constitutes the great majority of the shipowners of this country.

Your nominees trust that this Report will suffice to show that they did their utmost to carry out the intentions of the Board of Trade in appointing the Committee, and that they fully seconded your expressed wish to give the Board all the aid in your power.

(Signed) PHILIP NELSON, THOS. B. ROYDEN, W. W. RUNDELL, Nominees of the Underwriters' Registry for Iron Vessels.

(8.)—

NOT RENDERING ASSISTANCE AT SEA.-THE "JOSEPH SOMES The captain of the steamer Joseph Somes, of Hull, has been charged at the Hull Police Court with contravening two provisions of the Merchant Shipping Act-viz., for neglecting to stand by a vessel after collision therewith until he had ascertained that there was no need of assistance, or to render to her, the master, or crew, such assistance as might be necessary; also for neglecting to give the name of his vessel, her port of registry, or her destination. The defendant was also prosecuted for neglecting to make an entry of the collision in the official log after the occurrence, as required by the 328th Section of the Merchant Shipping Act, 1854. Several of the crew were called as witnesses, and they deposed to the manner in which the captain had tried to hide the fact of the collision, one of them stating that he had received orders to paint out the marks which had been made on the steamer's bow by contact with the barque. For the defence, it was stated that there was no call for assistance from the barque, the defendant had no knowledge that his steamer had seriously damaged the barque, and there was no pretence that there was any danger to the lives of those on board by reason of the collision. There would, however, have been danger in turning the steamer round. The magistrate found the defendant guilty of both offences, and fined him £10 and costs in each case.

THE SCREW-PROPELLER.

To the Editor of the "Nautical Magazine."

IR,-I have been looking through the "History of Merchant Shipping and Ancient Commerce," written by W. S. Lindsay, Esq., and you can very well understand that, through my having built the two first successful screw-steamers, my chief interest was centred upon Vol. IV., wherein is an account of the introduction of the screw as a means of propulsion; but, to my astonishment, I find errors, and also omissions as regard my services. To place before your readers a complete history of the successful application of the screw, I beg to be permitted to supplement Mr. Lindsay's valuable work with a few remarks, showing what part I took in the matter.

I will commence by a notice of the chief statements as they are given in the "History," and afterwards, as shortly as I can, I will state my version of the facts, as I know them from personal observation.

Upon page 105 the " History" runs as follows:-"Finding that his invention was likely to succeed when put into practical operation on a larger scale, Ericsson's next step was to order Mr. Gulliver, a boat-builder at Wapping to construct for him a boat of wood, which he named the Francis B. Ogden. She was 45 ft. long, and 8 ft. wide, drawing 2 ft. 3 in. water. In this vessel he fitted his engine and two propellers, each of 5 ft. 3 inches diameter. . This miniature steamer, tested first by a schooner of 140 tons burthen, towed her at the rate of 7 miles an hour during slack water on the Thames; and afterwards, by the large American packet ship Toronto, moving on with her a-stern, &c., &c."

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On page 106 is stated, "While Ericsson was making his experiments in the Francis B. Ogden, Mr. Thomas Pettit Smith, who, on the 31st of of May, 1836, had taken out a patent for a sort of screw or worm made to revolve rapidly under water. His first trial made in

a small vessel of 6 tons burthen, with an engine, the cylinder of which was 6 inches diameter and 15 inches stroke."

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On page 112: "In following the progress of the screw, as applicable to the propulsion of merchant vessels Capt. Robt. F. Stockton, of the United States Navy, was on a visit to London. Unlike the Lords of the British Admiralty,

he

was so strongly impressed with the value and utility of the discovery that, though he had made only a single trip in the Francis B. Ogden

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he there and then gave Ericsson a commission to build for him two boats for the United States Navy," and, on page 113, it is stated, "one of these boats, named after her owner, the Robt. F. Stockton,

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was built by Messrs. Laird, of Birkenhead, and launched in 1838; she was 70 ft. in length, 10 ft. wide, and drew 6 ft. 9 in. of water."

From the foregoing extracts, your readers will very clearly see that the " History" puts the merits of successfully introducing the screw, in the following order :

To Ericsson is assigned the merit of being the first man to have a boat built by Gulliver, and, with this peculiarity, that she was fitted with two propellers, each 5 ft. 3 in. in diameter, while the said boat drew 2 ft. 3 in. of water; that the same boat towed the American packet-ship, Toronto, &c.; and that it was only when these experiments were being made by Ericsson that Thomas Pettit Smith obtained his patent for a sort of screw, and built his boat of 6 tons burthen, with a cylinder of 6 in. diameter, &c.; also, that after witnessing the experiments made by Mr. Ericsson, in the Francis B. Ogden, and his towing the Toronto, Capt. Robt. F. Stockton, ordered two large vessels from Ericsson, and that the first of these was built by Messrs. Laird, in 1838, and took her

owner's name.

Now, Sir, let me bear witness to the above record, and the stated order of things, being altogether in error. The facts of the case, and I write them from an anxious, laborious, and costly experience, are as follows:

I know a boat was built by Gulliver-by the order of, and for Francis Pettit Smith-she was about the dimensions named, and drew 2 ft. 3 in. water. She had a screw of true and proper form, 2 ft. in diameter. This screw can yet be seen lying in the South Kensington Museum; she did not attempt to tow anything larger than a barge.

It was while these experiments were being carried out by Smith, in 1836 (Smith's patent for a true-formed screw, bearing date 31st May in that year), that Ericsson obtained his patent, not for a screw, but for propellers made of hollow cylinders with blades upon their circumference; two of these were to be used in each vessel, and they were to work abaft the rudder, according to his patent No. 7,149, and dated 18th July, 1836. Figs. 1 and 3 give a representation of his patented improvements, and are cut from his own specification.

The boat built to test Ericsson's propellers was the Robt. F. Stockton ; she had them fitted abaft the rudder, as shown in Fig. 4, and they were about 5 ft. 3 in. in diameter. It was this boat which towed the Toronto. But this test was not made until the year 1839, and even then not a-stern, as stated in the "History," for owing to the Robt. F. Stockton's propellers being abaft her rudder, she steered so badly, that she had to be lashed alongside of the Toronto. I was personally witness to this trial, and may therefore speak with confidence. After many other tests, and several alterations, the Robt. F. Stockton was taken under sail power to America.

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Two 16-inch Cylinders with spiral plates or threads about 5ft. 9in. diameter working abaft vessel's rudder.-See Specification 7,149, July 13th, 1836.

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