NO. 15.] COLLECTIVE DESCRIPTION. 



influenced by the currents, so that the vessel loses her steerage. Another of 

 my correspondents has advanced an explanation somewhat more correct. (See 

 the end of Account No. 12). Mr. M. Leegaard, harbour engineer, explains the 

 phenomenon as owing to the turning effect of currents on the ship's body 

 itself, and, as already mentioned, this is sometimes the case. (See further 

 account No. 15). 



With a view to removing the dead-water, seamen have ' made use of 

 all sorts of odd means, which they believed would "loosen" or "rub away" 

 the "dead-water crust", that is, the fresh water. Such means are: 



Sheering off from the course, 



Running the whole crew forward and aft on deck, 



Pumping violently, 



Scooping up a quantity of water on deck, 



Pouring out petroleum ahead of the ship, 



Dragging a hawser under the ship's bottom from stem to stern, 



Working the rudder rapidly, 



Firing guns into the water (on men of war), 



Cutting and beating the water alongside with oars or handspikes etc., 



Dragging a seine along the ship's side, and so on. 



Sometimes the two last mentioned methods are said to have been success- 

 ful, but in most cases all of them are by the narrators themselves, declared 

 to have been of no use. I may mention now, that on account of the ex- 

 planation of the phenomenon which will be given later they must be expected 

 to be of no appreciable effect, although several of them are not quite un- 

 reasonable. 



Tug-boats, when their vessels in tow get into dead-water, have more 

 effective means of getting them loose again, and these are said to often 

 succeed (see Accounts Nos. 3 and 26). The simplest method is to let the 

 tug stop for a while, until the dead-water stripes have passed by, and then 

 to go full speed ahead again. Another effective way is said to be, to 

 have the tow-rope as short as possible so that the screw violently stirs up 

 the water around the towed vessel: or for the tug-boat to go to and fro 

 along the sides of the ship and then to make full speed again. It is a sin- 

 gular experience, recorded by several observers, that a ship in dead-water may 

 get free if passed by a steamer, even at a distance of several ship's lengths. 



