128 RULES AND REGULATIONS FOR FREEBOARD. 
practice of adding to the freeboards of vessels engaged in the winter North Atlantic 
trade was adopted, and the special consideration previously given to wood cargo 
vessels and small coasting sailers was cancelled. The flush deck and awning deck 
tables were both extended, and increases were made to the table freeboards in the 
case of the larger sized sailers. In 1910 the German awning deck table was modified 
as shown in Fig. 4, Plate 58. 
The latest British Load Line Committee was appointed in 1913 to advise the 
Board of Trade on the attitude to be adopted by the British representatives at a 
forthcoming international conference on load lines, and also to investigate and 
report as to whether the 1906 revised tables required further revision in the light 
of experience. Owing to the outbreak of the war, however, this conference was 
never called, and for the same reason the issue of the committee’s report was 
delayed until the end of 1915. The decisions given by Courts of Inquiry into the 
loss in 1912 of two vessels whose freeboards had been reduced in 1906 caused 
considerable comment and probably had something to do with the terms of refer- 
ence. In one case the court had found that the primary cause of the loss of the ship 
and lives was her insufficient freeboard, and in the other, while the loss of the ship 
was not attributed to lack of freeboard, the opinion was expressed that the free- 
board granted under the revised regulations was dangerously small. It is not the 
purpose of this paper to go into detail with regard to the findings of the committee, 
as copies of the report (published in 1916) are easily obtainable, but anyone who has 
studied it will agree that the report is outstanding in respect to the importance 
of the recommendations made, and somewhat unique from the fact that underlying 
reasons on which the recommendations were based are stated in detail. 
In investigating the effect of the 1916 revision of the freeboard tables, every 
consideration was given to the record of shipping casualties and to the experience 
of shipowners and masters as to the behavior of their vessels since they were marked 
with the new load lines, the classification societies being also consulted as to the 
practical working of the revised freeboards over a period of seven years and their 
effect upon the number and nature of actual damages sustained to classed vessels. 
The Load Line Committee, after reviewing the evidence in the two Courts of Inquiry 
mentioned above, decided that insufficient freeboard had nothing to do with the 
loss of either vessel and came to the conclusion that there was no foundation in 
fact for the allegation that the 1906 revision of the freeboard tables had caused a 
considerable increase in the number of losses of vessels. The opinion was expressed, 
however, that although the freeboards allowed by the revised tables were quite 
sufficient to insure the safety of vessels, the reduction in freeboard in some cases 
had had the effect of making the ships less comfortable, owing to the greater liability 
for water to come on board the weather decks. 
The subcommittee which was appointed to deal with the highly technical 
questions involved in freeboard, having decided that the present British regulations 
were not adapted for an international standard, proceeded with their investigations 
with a view to evolving new freeboard rules and regulations suitable for submis- 
sion to an international conference. The existing British rules, owing to the many 
