wail 
ON SHIPPING STATISTICS. 945 
and sea performances of ships, as above shown, will give the capabilities for 
speed ; and the consumption of fuel per hour corresponding thereto will be 
known from the counting-house ledger. 
It is, therefore, suggested that the registration records of every ship give 
the displacement when the ship is immersed down to some definite line, which 
may be denominated the constructor’s load line. 
The assignment of the constructor’s load line draught forward and aft, and 
the corresponding displacement, are all the statistical data that are required to 
be registered in addition to the details of registration already enforced under 
the Merchant Shipping Act of 1854, in order to determine the comparative 
coefficients, and put the system of practical rivalry hereby suggested into 
operation, as being the most effective system for inducing improvement in 
naval architecture. 
As regards the existing system of shipping statistics and shipping registra- 
tion, with reference to its affording data available for promoting shipping 
improvement, this Committee has to observe that, although the aggregate 
register tonnage of mercantile shipping appears to be a very close approxi- 
mation to the aggregate weight-carrying capability of the entire mercantile 
navy, still, when considered in detail with reference to particular ships, it 
is found that the register tonnage of a ship affords no approximate criterion 
whatever either of the load displacement or of the weight-carrying capabili- 
ties of ships respectively; for, by reference to Appendix No. 2, it will be found 
that ships are frequently loaded with dead weight of cargo to the extent of 
double their register tonnage, and the statement (Appendix No. 2) shows 
the following extreme cases of weight-carrying capability with reference to 
register tonnage :— 
Country traded Weight of | Register | Ratio of 
with. Veszels. Cargo. | Tonnage. | Cargo to 
Tonnage. 
tons. 
Morocco assesses 34 11,576 4,075 2°8 to 1 
Tunis — seosceeeeees 1 780 259 3 tol 
Bolivia .esseesesees 2 2,391 455 5°2 to 1 
These cases appeared so remarkable, that the Committee were anxious to 
prosecute inquiries with reference to the build and sea performances of those 
particular ships, and with that view they addressed a letter to the Custom 
House for the purpose of identifying the vessels thus referred to; but the 
official fees demanded for responding to such inquiries, put it out of the 
power of the Committee to avail themselves to any useful purpose of the 
shipping statistics of Government. 
Another difficulty which greatly obstructs the collecting of statistics on 
the sea performances of mercantile shipping, is the great number of vessels 
bearing the same name. In many cases, there are scores of vessels bearing 
the same name, thus rendering it extremely difficult to trace and scrutinize 
the performance of a vessel of any name with certainty as to her identity ; 
for, in publishing the arrivals and departures of shipping in mercantile navy 
records, the registered number of a ship, which constitutes the only means 
of identification, is not generally given in connection with her name. 
