2. That any increase in the number of lifeboats to be carried can probably be best effected by providing for the launching of further boats from the existing davits.
3. That the table should be extended in the manner indicated below, viz.:
| Gross tonnage. | Minimum number of boats to be placed under davits. | Minimum number of additional boats to be readily available for attachment to davits. | Total minimum cubic contents of boats required by columns 2 and 3. |
| Cubic feet. | |||
| 10,000 and under 12,000 | 16 | —— | ,500 |
| 12,000 and under 20,000 | 16 | 2 | 6,200 |
| 20,000 and under 35,000 | 16 | 4 | 6,900 |
| 35,000 and under 45,000 | 16 | 6 | 7,600 |
| 45,000 and upward | 16 | 8 | 8,300 |
It is further recommended that all passenger vessels of 10,000 tons gross tonnage and upward should be required to be fitted with wireless telegraphy apparatus.
4. That the rules should be amended so as to admit of decked lifeboats of an approved type being stowed on top of one another or under an open lifeboat, subject to suitable arrangements being made for launching promptly the boats so stowed.
5. That the additional boats and rafts required under the provisions of Division A, class 1(d) of the Life-Saving Appliances Rules shall be of at least such carrying capacity that they, and the boats required by columns 2 and 3 of the above table, provide together three-fourths more than the minimum cubic contents required by column 4 of that table.
6. That vessels divided into efficient water-tight compartments to the satisfaction of the board of trade should (provided they are fitted with wireless telegraphy apparatus) be exempt from the requirement of additional boats and (or) rafts. The committee suggest, in this connection, that the board of trade should review the requirements designed to attain the standards as to water-tight compartments at present enforced by them under rule 12, having regard to the developments of shipbuilding since the report of the committee on the spacing and construction of water-tight bulkheads.
We have also had before us the board's further letter of May 17 inquiring whether, in the opinion of the advisory committee, it would be advisable to prescribe a maximum depth for lifeboats as compared with their breadth, and, if so, what that proportion should be.
In connection with this letter we have been supplied by the board of trade with reports from their principal officers in Great Britain, giving the dimensions and cubic capacities of the various kinds of boats on five typical ships in each of eight ports.
We recommend that the board should be advised to alter the Life-Saving Appliances Rules so as to provide that, in future, the depth of lifeboats supplied to a British merchant vessel shall not exceed 44 per cent. of their breadth.