146 KEPORT — 1875. 



would have been had the conduct of the officer in charge been governed by 

 the laws laid down in this paj^er. 



Mr. Deacon says : — 



" I have been reading your communication to the ' Engineer ' of the 4th 

 inst. about the ' Bessemer's ' steering, and think the following narrative may 

 have some interest for you. A friend of mine came from Philadelphia, U. S., 

 early in May to Liverpool in the S.S. ' Ohio.' To avoid ice the vessel went 

 out of her coiu'se 160 or 170 miles, and encountered very bad weather. The 

 captain spent one or two days without taking off his clothes ; and whilst 

 laying down one day, leaving the chief officer in command of the deck, 

 amongst fogs and rain, an iceberg was sighted right ahead and quite close 

 when seen. The officer stopped and reversed the engines, and put the helm 

 hard round. The cessation of motioji awoke the captain, who rushed up 

 the bridge. The excitement had spread, the officer's orders had been strictly 

 obeyed. The captain took all in at a glance, put the engines on ahead at 

 fuU speed, and the ' Ohio,' breaking through the thin ice always skirting 

 the icebergs, passed so close to the solid mass, that my American friend, who 

 is fond of horses and was on deck, says he could have struck the ice from the 

 ship with a tandem whip. The captain afterwards explained the matter 

 thus : — the steering-gear was the now usual parallel screws, i. e. exerting 

 the least force when the rudder is most moved, but of course retaining the 

 rudder in any position with little or no effort. To put the rudder hard 

 round when the ship is under full way and the engines working is an almost 

 physical impossibility ; but to put it hard round when the engines are stopped, 

 and especially to put it round when they are reversed, is comparatively easy. 

 The chief officer's order, therefore, enabled the rudder to be put round to the 

 utmost ; he both stopped and reversed the engines. The captain's arrival 

 and comprehension completed the manoeuvre. The ' way ' was but slightly 

 interrupted, but the helm was put hard round and the ship turned from her 

 course in the shortest possible distance. 



" I have all this at second hand from my friend ; but this fact of the easy 

 movement of the helm whilst the ship was under way with the engines 

 reversed appeared to bo one well understood ; and of course if no power be 

 required to move the helm, no power can be exerted in steering the vessel ; 

 and the whole tale seems to me so illustrative of your remarks on the 

 ' Bessemer,' that I venture to trouble you with it." 



Second Report of the Committee on Combinations of Capital and Labour, 

 consisting of Lord HoubnTON, D.C.L., F.R.S. {Chairman) , Jacob 

 Behrens, Thomas Brassey, M.P., Frank P. Fellows, Archibald 

 Hamilton, Professor Leone Levi, A. J. Mundella, M.P., Wm. 

 Newmarch, F.R.S,, Lord O'Hagan, R. J. Inglis Palgrave, Pro- 

 fessor Thorold Rogers. Drawn up by Professor Leone Levi, 

 F.S.A., F.S.S. 



Your Committee appointed to inquire into the economic effects of combi- 

 nations of labourers or capitalists, and into the laws of economic science 

 bearing on the principles on which such combinations are founded, have 

 already stated in their preliminary Beport, made last year, the course they 



