1831.] Steam-Packet Regulations. 359 



visited by an inspector, bound to make a full report of the state of the 

 vessel, as to its general fitness, the state of its boiler and engine, the 

 sobriety of its crew and captain, with all other necessary cii'cunistances. 



That no steam-vessel going to sea should be permitted to take in any 

 greater number of passengers, than she has boats on board to provide for 

 their security in case of accident. And this regulation ought to be most 

 strictly adhered to ; as indispensable in all cases, except in rivers like 

 the Thames, where, from the nearness of the shore, escape is easy. — 

 That also, every steam-vessel going to sea should be provided with 

 cork-jackets or swimming-belts, equal to the greatest number of pas- 

 sengers which she is licensed to carry : a precaution, which, however 

 apparently slight, would have saved the lives of the whole one hundred 

 and twenty-tvvo lost on board the Rothsay. — The precautions of ringing 

 bells in fogs, and hoisting lights in the night, have been of late use, and 

 compelled only by the experience of dreadful losses ; for of all men the 

 sailor is least alive to precavition, and most disposed to trust to luck. 

 Those ought to be strictly enforced. 



The objection to creating a new band of officers for this work might 

 be easily obviated by putting it in the hands of the custom-house, and 

 paying the superintendants' daily trouble by a trifle from the fare of the 

 passengers, who would most gladly contribute, if they could have the 

 additional security. A penny a head, would in general form an ample 

 recompense. The steam-boats require those regulations peculiarly ; 

 from the pecuhar carelessness of the captains and crews, who look upon 

 steam as taking all the trouble off their hands, and who in general have 

 but little to do, but lounge along the decks, tell stories, and smoke their 

 pipes. Another necessity for official superintendance lies in the proverb, 

 that " what is every body's business is no body's business." The pro- 

 prietors, in nine instances out of ten, know nothing of the property, but 

 whether it gains or loses them ten per cent, at the end of the season. 

 An idle agent, an idle ship-owner, or a vulgar skipper, is the responsible 

 personage, and boiler and ship may be on the point of blowing up, 

 without their troubling their heads upon the subject. Yet the blowing 

 up may blow with it four or five hundred lives in a moment. The crowds 

 that load the steam-boats during all the finer months, and in all the 

 more stirring parts of the island, make it of infinitely more importance 

 to legislate for them, than for the common sailing-vessels. One of the 

 Liverpool steamers will bring two or three hundred people at a trip, 

 and this happens every day for six months together. The steamers on 

 the Thames last year, carried upwards of two hundred thousand people 

 from London, and of course as many back — five hundred on board at a 

 time being by no means an unusual cargo. The danger is naturally 

 diminished, while the steamers continue within the river-banks, and the 

 boats might probably be dispensed with in similar instances. But an 

 engine will blow up as well within a river's-banks as on the ocean, and 

 the inspection of those vessels and their machinery cannot be too fre- 

 quent, nor too exact for public safety. In America, there are capital 

 boats, plenty of proprietors, smart captains, and machinery made from 

 the very forges of Solxo. Yet, as republicanism disdains inspection, 

 there are no inspectors, and the consequence is, tliat accidents on the^ 

 American lakes and rivers arc perpetually occurring, and accidents of 

 tlic most horrid and sweeping nature. The American captain drinks 

 his rum uncontrolled by the slavish fear of authority, the engineer does 



