670 



The Review of Reviews. 



SHIPS AND SEAMEN. 



THE CRUX OF NAVAL DISCIPLINE. 



The third of Fred T, Jane's articles, telling 

 the plain truth about our Navy, appears in the 

 December issue of the London Magazine, and 

 has for its subject Naval Discipline. Mr. Jane 

 finds it impossible to tell the truth about Naval 

 Discipline and at one and the same time give 

 the point of view of those who attack and seek 

 lo subvert Naval discipline. He maintains that 

 it were better to flog every man in the Navy 

 daily than to do anything to weaken Naval 

 discipline by so much as a hair's breadth. The 

 Navy is for war, and so far as war is concerned 

 Mr. Jane is afraid that there is but one answer 

 to the Naval Discipline question, and that is that 

 it is the rankest insanity for the public to 

 attempt to modify one jot or tittle of what 

 '- Naval Custom " may lay down : — 



Punishments out of all proportion to civil law will 

 still continue unless the public interferes, and does harm 

 in about equal ratio to the goodness of its intentioas. 

 For certain offences it retains its modified and more or 

 less (generally less) up-to-date edition of Richard the 

 First's old Sea Laws. But to these through the cen- 

 turies it has added a number of war-laws to which it still 

 clings limpet-like so far as it may. 



No admiral ever did more for the men of the Navy 

 or showed a kindlier feeling towards them than Lord 

 Charles Beresford. But Beresford never yet stood for 

 Parliament but someone waved a cat-o'-nine-tails and 

 shouted. "This is what he advocated." Nor has Beres- 

 ford ever denied the accusation. 



GOOD TO AMERICAN SEAMEN 

 FROM THE "TITANIC." 



Mr. J. H. Longford writes in the Nineteenth 

 Century on the manning of our mercantile 

 marine, and points out that the percentage of 

 aliens, exclusive of Lascars, rose from over lo 

 per cent, in 1870 to 22 per cent, in 1903, though 

 it has since sunk to 15 per cent, in 1910. He 

 says that the proposals that have been made for 

 the bettering of the condition of the mercantile 

 marine fell into utter abeyance until the national 

 conscience was roused by the Titanic disaster. 

 The Chancellor of the Exchequer has promised 

 financial support for the technical education of 

 boys wishing to become merchant sailors. While 

 we are still hesitating in preparing men for 

 competent seamanship, and while 20,000 men of 

 all classes annually forsake the mercantile sea 

 life, our American cousins have been going 

 ahead with characteristic despatch : — 



In the United States the lessons of the Titanic have 

 not been wasted. A new Shipping Act has already 

 passed the House of Representatives, and now only 

 awaits the sanction of the Senate to become law. By it 

 a limit is placed on the working hours of seamen, and 

 re§t from all unnecessary work is secured to them on 

 Sundnys and legal holidays while in harbour. It entitles 

 them to claim at any time as an absolute right the pay- 



ment of one-half of the wages that are already earned. 

 It provides that the steerages appropriated to the crew 

 must be duly constructed, lighted, heated, and ventilated, 

 that every vessel having a deck-crew of more than twenty 

 men must have at least one light, cleap washing-place, 

 properly heated, with one washing-outfit for every two 

 men : and that a separate washing-place must be pro- 

 vided for firemen large enough to accommodate one-sixth 

 of them at the same time, and equipped with a hot and 

 cold water supply and with washtubs, sinks, and shower- 

 baths. It also provides that every passenger ship must 

 have a sufficient crew to man each lifeboat, and that 

 every ship, whether steam or sailing, must carry in her 

 crew a boy or boys who are citizens of the United States. 

 The food in United States ships is already so good and 

 varied that no legislation for its improvement is neces- 

 sary. These quotations do not exhaust the provisions of 

 the new Act. 



THE CORRUGATED SHIP. 



The latest idea in naval architecture is the cor- 

 rugated ship, and credit is due for the discovery 

 to Mr. Arthur H. Haver, of the Monitor Cor- 

 poration. Captain G. S. Macllwaine, R. N., in 

 an article on corrugated ships in The Journal of 

 the Royal United Service Institution, says that 

 if he is right the birth of the corrugated idea 

 means nothing short of a revolution in the build- 

 ing of the ship, whether pleasure, life saving, 

 mercantile, or Imperial. 



The corrugated ship differs from the plain ship 

 in that she has two corrugations, or projections, 

 running in a fore and aft direction below the 

 load line. From the top of the upper corrugation 

 to the bottom of the lower is thirteen feet three, 

 the groove between may be said to be of similar 

 dimensions to the corrugations. From the inner 

 edges of the frames the corrugations project 

 twenty-two inches ; they taper forward and aft 

 until they merge into the normal form of the 

 ship's ends. It is not to be understood that any 

 sort of corrugations will suit any ship, or that no 

 more than two will be carried ; experiments are 

 necessary until the most suitable form is dis- 

 covered. The claims of the corrugated ship 

 have been tested and proved. Boats are afloat 

 designed on this principle. The claims are: (i) 

 That she is stronger than the plain ship. (2) 

 That she is steadier at sea and that her stability 

 is greater. {3) That vibration Is much reduced. 

 (4) That though her tonnage remains the same 

 her capacity for cargo, both bulk and weight, 

 has increased ; that her construction facilitates 

 the handling of cargo in her holds : that her cost 

 of construction is no greater, and in time will 

 probably be less, than that of a plain ship. (5) 

 That she is handier, answers her helm more 

 quickly. (6) That she is faster for the same 

 horse-power, or more economical in fuel for the 

 same speed. 



