XXXVIii INTRODUCTORY PROCEEDINGS. 
I do not say a word against building bigger ships if they can be worked and make 
a profit; but to-day we are not considering the commercial side of shipbuilding, 
but the commercial side of shipowning. 
In paragraph IV, after the words “‘Has been relatively small’’—I need not 
say a word to this assemblage about what the disproportionate increase has been 
or what it has involved. Many of the largest ships now in service cannot load to 
the draught to which they are capable of being laden safely, and a singular result 
of that fact is that in published statistical statements of ships one sometimes sees 
recorded load-displacements which are only obtainable if the ships are taken out 
to sea into deep water and laden there. Published displacements do not always 
correspond to working conditions of draught and very often laymen have been led 
thereby to form singular conclusions. In one case the President of a great English 
Engineering Society named the length, breadth and depth of a ship, and associated 
with these dimensions a displacement which was greater than the ship would have 
had, if she had been laden down to 4o feet, that is, to her statutory maximum 
draught, whereas in practice the ship was only laden to about 30 feet. The result 
was ridiculous, but the speaker had accepted figures given to him by shipbuilders 
without proper explanation. 
Paragraph VI. ‘The Kiel Canal is a case in point. The German Government 
is spending $55,000,000 on reconstructing that canal. The main purpose under- 
lying that work is strategical, to enable the German fleet to move speedily and 
safely from the Baltic to the North Sea. I presume the construction of the Panama 
Canal is also not altogether without relation to strategical advantages which will 
result therefrom. Considerations such as these are special; they affect the whole 
nation, and have not to do only with the welfare or working of the mercantile 
marine, considered as a money-making proposition. 
As to the limit of depth of water likely to be reached, I am of opinion that it 
is improbable that it will exceed 40 feet in most of the ports of the world. In 
British seaports we have a great advantage in the considerable rise of tide which 
occurs. The statements given in the paper, as to actual depth, must be associated 
with that condition, as, at high water, we enjoy a much greater depth than would 
be true in many other parts of the world. 
Paragraph VII. These decisions represent conclusions reached by the various 
authorities after conference with those men who are supposed to have the right 
to give an opinion as to probable increase in dimensions of ships during, say, the 
next quarter of a century. I have been myself repeatedly consulted by these 
authorities and my recommendations have had an influence on the work undertaken 
in harbors, docks, and approach channels. 
In paragraph IX, after “‘caution is required’—I dare say some of you have 
seen what may happen with an almost imperceptible velocity of approach, when 
one of these great ships strikes against some other ship or the wharf. We have 
had cases in England where attempts to get these long ships into the dock entrances, 
under tidal conditions which were unfavorable to the ship. In one case the 
