Registration Associations.
Lloyd's Register, its great importance.
There are very easy means of ascertaining the
seaworthiness of a ship, when first sent afloat, already
at our disposal, as those of my readers, who are not
conversant with this subject, will find by referring to
the Appendix,[1] where a history of Lloyd's Register
of British and Foreign Shipping will be found. That
association has a well-organised and extensive staff of
surveyors, through whom, at a very small cost, this
fact could be ascertained. My readers will also there
see the immense advantage that association has
afforded in the improvement of our ships and the
power it possesses of rendering still greater public
service. But while rivalry amongst associations for
classification is unquestionably injurious,[2] it may not
be considered advisable that Lloyd's Register alone
should issue certificates of seaworthiness. There are
other similar associations whose certificates would
answer the object in view equally well, and it is for
Government to decide (should an attempt be made to
carry this principle into practice) what associations
shall be empowered to issue the requisite certificates.
But while I cannot ignore the principle that no unseaworthy vessel should be allowed to leave our
- ↑ Appendix No. 12, p. 624.
- ↑ The writer of a letter which appeared in the 'Nautical Magazine,' headed "'Lloyd's Register' and the Great Steam Lines," and which was afterwards published separately (Pewtress & Co. London. 1872), says, "It is very remarkable that the classing of large steamers with Lloyd's was nearly wholly omitted until 1870;" arising, I may add, from the fact that the 'Liverpool Register' allowed, in such ships, scantlings and arrangements of which Lloyd's surveyors disapproved. "But," continues the same writer a little further on, "it is much more remarkable that February 1870 is the date of Lloyd's new rules, which are, it is supposed, an abandonment of the principle and scantlings of the old rules." We have here exemplified in the most forcible manner the evils of competing classification associations.
