History of merchant shipping and ancient commerce, Volume 3 (of 4)

by W. S. Lindsay

As these returns[260] too clearly showed, that by far the largest proportion of losses and other casualties were due to preventible causes, other than faulty construction, insufficient repair, or overloading, the Commissioners directed their attention to a rigid examination of these causes and to the most effectual means of finding a remedy for the evil. With regard to the vexed question of a fixed load-line, which Mr. Plimsoll had recommended as a means of lessening, if not of removing altogether, the losses occasioned by overloading, they were unable to recommend any enactment for establishing a fixed line, founded on the proportion of freeboard to the depth of the hold of the vessel, remarking that the information they had obtained led “to the conclusion that the settlement of a load-line should be mainly guided by the consideration of the reserved buoyancy, that is to say, of the proportion which the capacity of the water-tight and solidly constructed part of the ship which is above water bears to the capacity of the part immersed.”

Load-line.

Analysing various schemes prepared for their consideration, they remarked that the rough rule of three inches of freeboard to every foot of hold, hitherto considered as the measure of safety, while practically convenient, was not adapted for regulating the loading of all vessels, and, consequently, could not be recommended as a law to be enforced. The model of the ship, the character of her cargo, the method in which it is stowed, the nature and length of the proposed voyage, and the season of the year when engaged, were all matters requiring consideration, and which it would be quite impossible to embrace by any fixed rule applicable to every ship, whatever might be her form or the nature of her employment. Indeed, they remark with great force, “These circumstances must continually vary, and, under a charter, this mode of marking would have the dangerous tendency of inducing the charterer to insist on the vessels being laden up to the line of deepest immersion, and thus imperilling the safety of the ship; while the suggestion, from various instances, that there should be an elasticity in the law to be left to the discretion of the surveyor only shows the inexpediency of legislating either to secure freeboard in proportion to the depth of hold, or to provide some fixed percentage of spare buoyancy in every description of vessel.”

Under all these circumstances, the Commission considered it desirable to leave the discretion as to the proper loading of his ship to the Shipowner himself, holding him responsible, as the law has ever done, for sending his ship to sea in an unseaworthy condition, instead of lessening his responsibility by transferring a duty, which properly rests on himself, to any official surveyor. But to render the responsibility of the Shipowner more complete, they recommended that a vertical scale of feet should be marked on each side of the vessel, and that, immediately before the time of her leaving or starting on her voyage, this measure should be entered in her log-book and should, wherever practicable, be left with the officer of Customs or with the British Consul, by whom the draught of water should also be recorded.

Deck-loads.

Having offered a few suggestions with regard to deck loads and other matters of minor importance, the Commissioners next investigated with great care the practicability of instituting a survey of all British merchant ships. In their opinion, the policy of having a Government survey for the purpose of securing the seaworthiness of ships was more than questionable. Any such measure, while tending to remove responsibility from those on whom it ought to rest, would render Government nominally responsible for the form, the materials, and the whole construction of our merchant ships, and, consequently, could not be seriously entertained.

Government survey.

As there is now an official survey of emigrant and passenger ships, a few witnesses proposed that a similar survey should be extended to all merchant vessels. Others went so far as to recommend that the Board of Trade, already overburdened with work, should also superintend the construction, the periodical inspection, the repair, and the loading of the vessels. But the Commissioners very properly repudiated all such recommendations.

There are great complaints, the Commissioners remark, against the interference of Government, whose surveyors are now not unfrequently accused of forcing on Shipowners and marine engineers special views of their own which are not always in accordance with the best judgment of the two professions, and that to extend the power of such men would produce “mischievous consequences to the future progress of shipbuilding, and would be actually calamitous.” “Ships,” they add, “would be built and repaired so as to pass the examination of the official surveyor, and any additional outlay beyond what was indispensable to secure a certificate would be rejected as useless. Under the present enactments, Shipowners justly complain that their business is seriously inconvenienced, and that foreign ships are already gaining the trade which the British Shipowners are being compelled to relinquish.”[261]

Its extension undesirable.