obtain anything like accuracy we ought to have before us, not merely the number of entries and clearances,[1] but the actual number of persons conveyed by sea; for, without such data, we cannot hope to ascertain the comparative loss of life.
Recommendations of the Committee. The Committee of 1836 had, nevertheless, sufficient information before them to arrive at certain sound conclusions; the more important of these being that the increase of disasters at sea arose, in a great measure, from the imperfect classification of ships which had existed up to 1834 (when the improved Society of Lloyd's Register was instituted) depending, as it had, almost exclusively on the age of the vessel; from the bad forms of vessels, arising from the defective system of admeasurement for tonnage dues, and from the shallow harbours where ships lay aground and were strained. The Committee likewise attributed the losses to the incompetency of masters and officers, and to their habits of intemperance, as well as to that of the crews; to the system of marine insurance; to the want of harbours of refuge; to the imperfection of charts;[2] and, strange to add, to the "competition*
- ↑ The entries and clearances of British vessels engaged in the Foreign trade during the years 1816-18 averaged annually 21,735 vessels, of 3,180,472 tons; while for the three years previous to 1836 they averaged 27,390 vessels, of 4,628,450 tons, and, on the accuracy of these returns at both periods, we can depend.
- ↑ "Imperfect charts" were often then made to cover, as I fear may be the case to some extent now, incompetency, drunkenness, or carelessness. Indeed, about that period, they frequently served as excuses when other objects were in view. I remember a ludicrous instance of this. When a boy at school in Ayr I used to accompany my uncle to "the meeting of owners" of the brig Eclipse, in which he held some eight or ten 64th-shares. Every spring, the owners met on board to discuss matters relating to her affairs, and to dispose of what I recollect best, a round of salt beef, sea-biscuits, and rum-and-water. The Eclipse had hitherto been invariably employed during the summer season in the
