Manchester Memoirs, Vol. Ivii. (19 12), No. JJ. 5 



The brief statements in the Report on the provision 

 and use of search-h'ghts on large passenger vessels are 

 singularly inaccurate, and biased to a degree that deprives 

 them of all value. The utility of search-lights in picking 

 up rock, land, iceberg, or in passing through a canal is 

 only mentioned as " possible," and ignores the fact that 

 search-lights have been in constant use for many years on 

 the Suez Canal and in the Royal Navy. It is a notable 

 circumstance that these important applications of search- 

 lights find no place in the elaborate Reports of both 

 Committees. 



Before the advent of the search-light, all vessels 

 navigating the Suez Canal were required to lay up during 

 the night to avoid grounding and collisions. The navi- 

 gation is now continuous, and the capacity of the Canal, 

 consequently, nearly doubled. 



The first objection in the Report to the use of search- 

 lights is : — " Dazzling the observers on board the ship 

 making use of the lights, especially if the lights are badly 

 placed." The wilful ignorance of those who advanced 

 this objection will be evident to every one who has 

 attended a lantern picture exhibition, and is still more 

 emphatic in the case of a search-light where the beam of 

 light as it issues from the projector is nearly parallel for 

 some distance outside the ship. This is well seen in the 

 annexed photo-plate from the " Illustrated London News" 

 of the search-light on H.M.S. " Agincourt," in the Sea of 

 Marmora, during the Russo-Tuikish War, 1878. This 

 battleship was one of those equipped with search-lights 

 under my direction, as referred to in my former paper. 



Considerable extensions have been made during 

 recent years in search-light equipment in the Royal 

 Navy ; the new flagship " Neptune " having no less than 

 six of them on raised platforms. 



