154 ANNUAL OP SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY. 



result of his inspection was, that he found that the compasses of iron, as a 

 whole, were quite as correct as the compasses of the same number of 

 wooden ships. He (Mr. Grantham) had been employed by the Admiralty 

 to examine the place where the Tayleur was lost ; and his impression was, 

 that she was not lost through any error in her compasses. He believed 

 that no prudent captain, knowing the Channel, would venture to beat 

 about in it for three or four days during a heavy gale without using the 

 lead ; and it was proved that Capt. Noble had neglected this precaution. 

 As to the loss of the Birkeiihead, was there 110 ship ever before run upon 

 the point of a reef by " cutting it too fine " ? In his experience for twenty 

 years, in close connection with the building and management of iron ships 

 and steamers, he was confirmed in the belief that there was nothing to 

 prevent them from being navigated as safely as wooden ships. And he 

 believed that, in general, the compasses of iron ships were more correct 

 than the compasses in ordinary wooden ships, simply because more atten- 

 tion was paid to them. Under these circumstances, he wished to caution 

 the mercantile community not to allow themselves to be influenced by 

 particular and striking cases such as had been alluded to, but to look at 

 the whole subject to look at the mass of iron ships that had been built 

 and worked, safely worked, for years and years and then see whether the 

 combined information to be derived from ail that were properly managed 

 at all bore out the inferences likely to be drawn from the statements which 

 had unfortunately, he thought, been so elaborately made. 



Mr. Towson said that he had, equally with Mr. Grantham, had the 

 opportunity of observing the workings of compasses in iron ships, and he 

 had never found that after going a long voyage they were in a proper state 

 of adjustment. No one believed more than himself in the importance of 

 the progress of iron ships to the mercantile progress of the country, but he 

 considered it impossible at present to obtain a correct compass in an iron 

 ship. 



In the course of the discussion which followed, Admiral Beechy ex- 

 pressed a belief that the best precautions against accident would be the use 

 on board every ship of an azimuth compass, and the taking of frequent 

 observations. 



Dr. Scoresby, in reply, owned that the subject he had chosen involved a 

 considerable shock to the feelings, as it affected Liverpool and iron ships. 

 But they ought not to be afraid of the truth, or to shirk it for fear of the 

 consequences. By going to the root of the thing, they might be in hopes 

 of arriving in time at a practical remedy. 



OPINIONS OF PROF. AIRY, ASTRONOMER. ROYAL, ON THE DEVIA- 

 TION OF COMPASSES IN IRON VESSELS. 



The above paper of Dr. Scoresby, and the discussion and attention it 

 excited in the British Association and among the maritime public, have 

 called forth a communication from Prof. Airy, the Astronomer lloyal of 



