ON THE MEASUREMENT OF SHIPS FOR TONNAGE. 93 
8. We agree that neither internal nor external measurement does, of itself, 
provide any security against the construction of weak thin-sided ships. 
4. We agree with the remarks in Mr. Moorsom’s Treatise on Tonnage, in 
regard to the great advantages of the registration of displacement, or outward 
measurement between the light and load water-lines, as showing the actual 
weight which any vessel will carry. 
These advantages cannot be more distinctly stated than they are by Mr. 
Moorsom, in the following remarks on the measurement of keels, and the 
method of marking the load water-line with nails, according to weights 
actually placed on board, as prescribed by 6 and 7 William and Mary, a.p. 
1694, and by 15 George III. c. 27. 
“ This being a measure of pure and unerring displacement, free from the 
possibility of evasion, and giving the exact dead weight of the cargo shipped, 
whatever may be the form or construction of the vessel, it offers no induce- 
ment to the building of one kind of form more than another; and the conse- 
quence is, that many of these peculiar vessels are remarkable for their sailing 
capabilities. 
** Although the process of ‘admeasuring and marking,’ to which these 
vessels are still legally directed to be submitted, involve neither the taking 
of measurements nor computation, and can therefore, it may be supposed, 
scarcely be termed a mode of admeasurement in the usual acceptation of the 
operation ; yet it is, nevertheless, essentially and absolutely, the most correct 
measurement possible of the displacement, or external cubature of that part 
of the vessel which lies, or is contained, between the light and load lines of 
floatation, that is, of the cargo shipped; and is, therefore, not only an assu- 
rance of the security of the public revenue to be derived from the export of 
coals, but is found also to tend greatly to the general accommodation of the 
trade in which these vessels are engaged; and from what has been already 
predicated of their sailing capabilities, the process is, moreodver, an eminent 
and satisfactory, though it may appear an humble example, that an operation 
founded on truth, without the possibility of evasion, is an operation without 
influence in the formation of ill-formed vessels*.” 
In a subsequent chapter, Mr. Moorsom treats with great ability the sub- 
ject of displacement, showing how it is in practice calculated by Sterling’s 
rule, and with how great advantage this registration of displacement may be 
applied to merchant ships, as is already done in men-of-war by recording the 
scale of displacement of all ships in the Royal Navy. See ch. V., p. 113- 
148. These statements of Mr. Moorsom clearly establish the practicability 
of ascertaining the weight that ships will carry as based on the measurement 
of displacement, and recording the same, together with the measurement of 
internal roomage. 
5. Another principle of the utmost importance, in which, I trust, we are 
agreed, and with the statement of which I shall conclude these remarks, is, 
that the measurement of tonnage should be international, in other words, 
that, as far as possible, it should be the same for all nations, and adopted 
with the consent of all. Mr. Moorsom asserts the value of the principle, and 
quotes an American author, Griffiths, a ship-builder of great experience, 
who entertains the same cosmopolitan views. He quotes that admirable 
memorial of the Council of the Society for the Encouragement of Arts, 
Manufactures, and Commerce, which recommends to the Lords of the Trea- 
sury, A.D. 1853, the consideration of the best means of promoting the adop- 
tion throughout the world of a uniform decimal system of measures, weights, 
* ‘A Brief Review and Analysis of the Laws for the Admeasurement of Tonnage,’ by G. 
Moorsom. 2nd edition, London, 1853, pp. 15, 16, 
