The "Rule of the Sea."
The fourth part of the Act is almost as important
as the third, which deals, as we have seen, with the
qualifications and duties of masters, officers, and
seamen. It refers to the safety and prevention of
accidents, a subject which has created much controversy
of late, and to which reference will be made
more fully hereafter. This important section of the
Merchant Shipping Act of 1854 requires all sea-*going
vessels to be provided with a certain number
of boats in proportion to their tonnage and the trade
in which they are engaged. It lays down rules as
to the meeting and passing of ships at sea, and the
use of lights and fog-signals—a regulation of daily
increasing importance and more completely carried
- [Footnote: of Trade. One occasion, when Mr. Henley was President to the
Board, I well remember. The deputation was from a great seaport on the eastern coast, and its leading spokesman was an attorney of considerable local influence and reputation. Among the various grievances brought under the notice of Mr. Henley was one which I did not expect to hear, and which has, certainly, never been conscientiously raised either before or since. It related to the law of Ship Registry as settled by the Act of 1854. One of the leading features of that law is, that the Register shall contain nothing but the names of those persons who can give an absolute title to the ship, omitting altogether the trusts and ramifying interests which make the transfer of a title to land such a complicated and expensive matter. The attorney in question, however, attempted to make out the omission to be a great grievance, arguing that all sorts of complicated interests could not be placed on the Register. Mr. Henley, whose shrewdness has now become proverbial (for I do not remember any man in the House of Commons who more readily discovered the flaws in Bills introduced for its consideration), in reply, after dealing with other grievances, in his usual pointed and clear manner, quietly remarked, 'And now we come to another grievance—that you cannot put trusts on the Register. Now, it seems to me,' he continued, 'that we have been tolerably successful in doing for ships what all the wise men are trying in vain to do for land—that is, to save them from a long lawyer's bill—there may be a grievance—I dare say some one (looking hard at the attorney) has a grievance, but I don't think it is the shipowner!'"]
