300 Communication to the Board of Trade ^ [June, 



Communication from the President and Council of the Royal Society 

 to he Board of Trade on the subject of the Magnetism of Ships*. 



" To the Right Hon. Thomas Milner Gibson, President of the Board of 

 Trade. 



"The Koyal Society, May 18, 1865. 



" SIR, The attention of the Fellows of the Royal Society has been re- 

 cently directed to the very great increase which has taken place in the 

 employment of iron in the construction and equipment of ships, and the 

 consequent augmentation of the embarrassment occasioned in their naviga- 

 tion by the action of the ship's magnetism on their compasses. 



" The inconveniences which have already made themselves felt in the 

 ships of the mercantile marine, and which threaten to be productive of 

 very serious loss of life and property, unless remedial measures be adopted 

 similar to those which have proved so advantageous to the ships of Her 

 Majesty's Navy, have induced the President and Council of the Royal 

 Society, after much consideration, to venture on the step of calling your 

 attention, as presiding over the Department of Trade, to a subject which 

 they believe to be of pressing importance. 



"In this view the accompanying Memorandum has been prepared, 

 stating, as briefly as may be, the particulars which they are desirous of 

 bringing under your consideration ; in the belief that the time has fully 

 arrived when measures of a more stringent and eifectual character are 

 required, in the direction which has-been already taken by Her Majesty's 

 Government in such legislative enactments as those contained in the 

 Merchant Shipping Act (1854), adverted to in the accompanying Memo- 

 randum. 



" I have only to add that it would afford the President and Council 

 great satisfaction if they could be of any further assistance in a matter 

 which they believe to be of so much importance. 



" I have the honour to be, 



" Your obedient Servant, 



"EDWARD SABINE, 

 " President of the Royal Society." 



"Memorandum. 



" It is believed that the time has come when it is expedient that the 

 Executive Government should exercise a more direct and systematic super- 

 vision over the adjustment of the compasses of ships of the mercantile 

 marine than it has hitherto done. The opinion that it might do so with 

 advantage is not new, as may be seen from passages in the 2nd and 3rd 

 Reports of the Liverpool Compass Committee (2nd Report, p. 30 ; 3rd 

 Report, p. 38), but it has of late been gaining strength from the following 

 among other circumstances : 



* Published in the Proceedings, by order of the Council. 



