4o8 INTERNATIONAL LAWS FOR THE 



or numbers commenced from the second cloth from the 

 leech of the sail and to be painted on at right angles to 

 the cloths, and the number on one side of the sail to 

 be immediately below that on the other, the measured dis- 

 tance of two-thirds of the sail being the centre (Fig. I, red), 

 as very often when numbers are painted one over the 

 other, though on opposite sides of the sail, they show 

 through and cause both sides to be an illegible mass 

 (Fig. 2). They should also always be put on so as to read 

 from right to left, as, sometimes, they are simply painted 

 over on one side, the reverse of the other, to save trouble. 

 If these suggestions were carried out the number would 

 always be in one prominent position, and not on all parts 

 of the sail, depending on the reefs, which vary so much 

 in different classes of vessels ; and in the case of vessels 

 in a heavy sea would be discernible, whereas, if it were as 

 low as the close reef most likely it would not be. A 

 Dutch bomschuit has only two reefs of three feet each in 

 her mainsail which is about forty feet on the leech, so that 

 if the number was only placed immediately above the 

 close reef it would be only nine feet from the deck instead 

 of about thirty feet under the above proposal. The same 

 also applies to a great extent to French chasse-marfe 

 trawlers ; as well as to many of our own lug-rigged 

 fishing vessels. The fashion now is to have only one reef HI 

 the foresail and that would be about six feet from the deck. 

 If more reefs are required the large mizen is set on the fore- 

 mast and the second or drift mizen on the mizen-mast. This 

 class of vessel has no mainsail, and so, strictly speaking, is 

 not included in the Convention. This is another practical 

 omission, as it leaves it optional for luggers to have their 

 letters and numbers on foresail or mizen, which should 

 not be. There is here also an omission to provide against 



