OUR readers may remember that a recent number of this Journal contained an article on the Report of the Select Committee of the House of Commons on Saving Life at Sea. The recommendations of that Committee were in due course embodied in a Bill, which passed into law in August last under the above title.

One of the recommendations made •was, that a Committee, representing all parties interested, should be appointed to frame rules for carrying out the provisions of the Act. The Act provides for a thoroughly comprehensive Committee of fifteen members, namely, three shipowners selected by the Council of the Chamber of Commerce, one shipowner by the Owners' Association of Glasgow, and one selected by the Liverpool Steam Shipowners' Association and the Liverpool Shipowners" Association conjointly, two shipbuilders selected by the Council of the Institution of Naval Architects, three persons practically acquainted with the navigation of vessels, selected by the Shipmasters' Societies recognized by the President of the Board of Trade for this purpose; three persons being, or having been, able-bodied seamen, selected by Seamen's Societies similarly recognized, and two persona selected conjointly by the Committee of Lloyd's, the Committee of Lloyd'* Register Society, and the Committee of the Institute of London Underwriters. All the members of the Committee to hold office for two years and to be eligible for re-appointment.

Their duties, as prescribed in the Act, were to be—1st, the arranging of British ships into classes having regard to the services in which they are employed, the nature of the voyage, and the number of persons carried; 2nd, the number and description of the boats, lifeboats, rafts, life-belts and life-buoys, to be carried by each class, with their equipment, means of putting into the water, &o.; and 3rd, the quantity and quality of buoyant apparatus to be carried in addition to, or in lieu of, boats, rafts, jackets, or buoys.

The Committee was organised in November, 1888, and completed their labours in April last. Their report, submitting the rules framed, contained a highly important postscript calling attention in the following words to the necessity for reform in the system of watertight bulkheads.

" We have shown some appreciation of the importance of efficient subdivision of ships in Class I, Division (AX paragraph (g) of these rules, but we consider it our duty to further express oar sense of the importance of the question, and to recommend that it should be investigated by a committee of duly qualified persons, the subject as a whole, having been held to be outside the scope of the reference to this Committee." With this view we entirely agree, and have only to remind our readers of the frequently recurring great loss of life through the immediate sinking of iron vessels after collision. Amongst others, we may mention the Kapunda, with her 311 souls on I hoard, of which 296 perished on a fine night off the coast of Brazil, whilst the colliding ship, if we mistake not, kept afloat for many hours. It is true that if the new rules respecting ships' boats lad then been in force and carried oat on board the colliding ship, her boats would have been in the water much sooner than they were, and doubtless would have saved many of the unfortunate passengers of the ill-fated Kapunda; but the collision was so sudden and so destructive that the vessel sank almost immediately, and we •very much doubt, however well-prepared the Ka/punda's boats might have been, whether time and circumstances would have admitted of their being taken advantage of as a means of rescue; but if sb£ had had efficient watertight bulkheads so placed as to provide for her floating with any two compartments (to use the words of the Committee) " in free communication with the sea," the loss of life must have been very much smaller. Another casualty, in which the loss of life was probably greatly increased by the same cause, was the loss of the large steamer belonging to the Glen line, which during the past winter was run into and sunk, with all hands, not far from Dungeness, No one having been saved, this is to a certain extent conjecture, but reasonable conjecture, because, if she had not sunk immediately, one or more boats from a large and wellfound steamer must surely have succeeded in getting away. That the dividing bulkbeads, even when put in, may prove a delusion in the hour of need, unless their construction is closely watched, seems also to be pointed at by the circumstances attending the loss of H.M.S. Sultan, when a large quantity of water certainly found its way into compartments other than those injured by the rocks she struck on. ' The composition of this Committee gives the greater force to their recommendations from the fact that they could not but be alive to the point that any action in this direction would tend to increase the expense of shipbuilding, besides possibly interfering with the facilities for loading, unloading and carrying cargo, and therefore add to the charges laid upon the British shipowner, which are already considered onerous enough, and will be increased in some cases by the rales under consideration.

Tie Committee commenced their labours by dividing all shipping into six classes, numbered from one to six. These classes being again divided into subdivisions lettered A and B, and in one case C also.

The first class comprises vessels carrying emigrants subject to all conditions of the "Passenger Acts," subdivision A being steamers, B sailing ships. Class 2, similarly subdivided, comprises foreign going and sailing ships carrying Class 3 steamers and sailing ships not certified for carrying passengers.

Class 4. included A, steam-ships certified for carrying passengers anywhere in the home trade limits, i.e., anywhere in the United Kingdom, or between the United Kingdom and ports in Europe between the river Elbe and Brest. B, steam-ships in the same trade not certified for passengers.

C, sailing ships in the same trade not carrying passengers. Class 6, steamers carrying passengers on short excursions or pleasure trips to sea, or in estuaries or mouths of rivers during daylight, or across the Straits of Dover.

Class 7 includes steamers carrying passengers on rivers or lakes, but not going to sea or into rough waters.

The Committee seem to us to have rather reversed the " usual order of things " by putting the " general rules " they had framed at the end instead of the beginning of their report. These general rules classify the different boats to be carried, the method for calculating their cubical contents, the numbers of persons each shall be deemed fit to carry, the appliances for putting the boats under davits into the "water, the equipment each boat shall be required to carry, the number of people life-raffs are to be deemed capable of carrying, also the capacity of and the rules for testing other buoyant apparatus, life-belts and lifebuoys, and the stowage of life-belts and buoys.

The boats to be carried are divided into five classes, lettered from A to E.

A signifies a life-boat with extra buoyancy by air-cases equal to nearly of its cubical contents and placed inside the boat. B, a life-boat with the same extra buoyancy, at least one-half of which must be attached to the outside of the boat. C is styled a life-boat, bat is required to have only one half of the additional buoyancy prescribed for A and B, and it may be inside or outside the boat, provided at least one-half is outside. D is an ordinary ship's boat without any additional buoyancy. E is a collapsible boat of an approved pattern.

The somber of persons each boat is to carry is to be computed by finding the boat's cubical contents by a simple rule given, and dividing that amount by 10 in the case of boats coming under section A, and by 8 in. that of those coming under B, 0, D and E. Then follow clear and precise rules for fitting the boat's davits and lowering gear, also the outfit or equipment for each boat. The equipment is divided into two parts, 1st, that which is compulsory in all boats, and comprises oars, thole pins or crutches, two plugs for each plug-hole, a sea anchor, a baler, rudder and tiller or yoke, a boat-hook, and a " vessel .to be kept filled with fresh water for each boat." The 2nd or additional equipment for boats of section A and B, comprises two hatchets or tomahawks, mast or masts with at least one good sail, and proper gear for each, a lifeline in loops round the boat outside, an efficient compass, one gallon, of oil in a vessel of approved pattern for distributing it in the water in rough weather, and a lanthern ready trimmed to bora eight hours.

The items enumerated in these equipments appear well chosen and to include all first necessities, but there are two provisions that strike us as being at least peculiar. 1st, That such items as a mast and sail, a lanthern trimmed to burn eight hours, and oil for reducing the force of the sea, should be included in the second or additional equipment, and not in the first or general ones, and that this additional equipment should be considered necessary for the life-boats only, and not for all of them, but a fixed number which in the largest ships comprises little more than half.

Nor can we see the object in supplying only the boats most able to contend with the force of a rough sea—viz. the lifeboats —with the now generally accepted powerful auxiliary of oil, for reducing-the power of the waves. "We should have thought, that if a selection was to be made, it would have been the weakest boats for resisting this force that would have been, chosen for additional help to enable them to do so, but why not all? The whole apparatus need cost but little, and would last for years without deteriorating or becoming unserviceable when wanted.

The following Table shows generally the number-of boats under davits required to be carried by vessels of different sizes, and the average number of men they are computed to carry. This is only an average, because it will vary by the reason of the option being given of carrying A or B boats, the former of which being allotted one-tenth of their cubical contents, and the latter one-eighth per man.

Gross Tonnage.

Tons.

9,000 8,000 7,000 6,000 5,000 4,000 3,000 2,000 1,000 500 150 Number of Boats under Davits.

14 14 12 12 10 8 8 6 4 4 2 Average Number of Persons to carry.

620 580 530 470 420 340 280 210 130 90 33 All steamers in the various classes carrying passengers are required to comply absolutely with the above Table, and if these boats are not enough to carry all the people on board they must carry additional wood, metal, collapsible, or other boate or life-rafts, all of approved pattern, as conveniently placed for putting into the water as the ship's arrangements admit of. If necessary to provide for all on board, these additional boats must equal in cubical capacity those under davits. They are also obliged to carry a life-buoy for each boat under davits, and a life-belt of approved pattern for each person in the ship.

Sailing ships carrying passengers must possess the same amount of boat accommodation as steamers, except, where they cannot be placed under davits they are to be carried so that they can easily be got into the water to the satisfaction of the Board of Trade officer.

Steamers (foreign going) not carrying passengers are required to carry on each side sufficient boats to accommodate all persons on board, one of which is to be a life-boat.

Sailing ships (foreign going) not carrying passengers are required to carry boats enough for all on board up to the conditions of the Table, and one additional " good serviceable boat of section D." Steamers carrying passengers within the " Home Trade limits " are required to carry the same boat accommodation as other passenger steamers; but when it is not practicable for them to carry the additional boats or life-rafts, they may substitute buoyant deck seats or other fittings of an approved pattern.

Steamers in the home trade not carrying passengers come under the same conditions as similar vessels in the foreign trade.

Sailing vessels in the home trade must carry sufficient boats for all on board, and each boat shall be provided with one gallon of oil for distributing in the water in rough weather.

The conditions for steamers carrying passengers from one part of the United Kingdom to another, and steamers carrying passengers on short excursions to sea by daylight, or across the Straits of Dover, are similar to those for other passenger steamers.

In addition to the above boat accommodation, every vessel is required to carry a sufficient number of life-buoys and an approved life-belt "or other similar" approved article of equal buoyancy suitable for being worn on the person" for every person on board.

All life-buoys and life-belts shall be so placed as to be readily accessible to the persons on board, and so that their position may be known to those for whom they are intended.

This is a very short paragraph, but one of vital importance, and laying down conditions very difficult to comply with.

We think compliance with them will frequently tax the ingenuity and readiness of resource of some of those responsible for carrying them out in our large passenger and emigrant ships. At any rate, we hope the position referred to in our previous article on this subject will not be considered to comply with them, viz., "sewn up in canvas bags and placed on battens between the beams of the sleeping cabins." It appears to us that the success of this very important* legislation for the prevention of loss of life at sea depends in a very great measure on its receiving the hearty assent of the shipowners and officers of the mercantile marine, as well as the energetic attention of the Board of Trade and its officers.

Unless the different appliances are always kept in thorough readiness an immediate more or less partial failure-will often be the result on an emergency. This readiness can only be relied on as the result of thorough'periodical working inspection, as well as constant watchfulness on the part of the officers of ships..