No. 144.] 101 



and should be, the safest on the globe-, and in order that an achieve- 

 ment so well worthy the latter half of the 19th century may be 

 accomplished, we shall announce a catalogue of requirements as 

 the precursor to the induction of a glorious era of safety to hu- 

 man life. Let Congress appoint a committee of practical men to 

 frame a wholesome code of laws for the admeasurement of vessels, 

 such as could be rendered available as an international tonnage 

 law, and the time for the meeting of the committee to be during 

 the recess of Congress ; and let the law of 1852 for the safety of 

 travellers on steam vessels be referred for revision to the same 

 committee ; next let the ship owner refrain from a truckling policy, 

 which calls for cheap ships, assuming that the cheapest ship is the 

 best, instead of that taught by experience, which shows the best 

 to be the cheapest. Let the board of underwriters appoint me- 

 chanics instead of superannuated shipmasters as surveyors ; and in 

 train, let a Marine Architectural Institute be established by an 

 act of Congress, or become a State institution. The necessity of 

 such an organization will hardly fail to be understood when it is 

 known, that first class mechanics in nautical mechanism are much 

 more rarely obtained than seamen of similar stamp ; and although 

 there is an abundant supply of those who are ready to assume the 

 condition and receive the pay, there is not more than one in forty 

 who can render the service which belongs to the character. The 

 necessity of a school of Marine Architecture will be rendered still 

 more apparent when it is remembered that the developments of 

 neither scientific nor yet practical knowledge are within the reach 

 of patent laws, and as a consequence, the exclusive benefit of pro- 

 gressive science is not the property of him who makes the discovery. 



Any improvement in the model of vessels is common to all; 

 can it then be a matter of surprise, that the model of ships is not 

 rapidly improved? Whatever discoveries may have been made 

 by the practical man, will not be known until an opportunity is 

 afforded him of developing the same, and, if that opportunity is 

 never afforded him during his life time, the improvement dies 

 with him. Then again we have the ship owner (whose mecha- 

 nical perceptions are generally obtuse) to oppose improvement in 

 models, and if he suspects that the vessel upon which an improve- 

 ment is proposed would carry one bale of cotton less by its intro- 



