The Sun.
London, England, 1855-06-22 00:00:00

BILL.

The Earl of HARDWICKE moved the second
reading of this bill, the object of which, he said, was to
effect a system of tonnage registration. The present law
was very defective in this respect, and under it it was
impossible for the Government, in taking up merchant
steamers for the transport service, to know that they ob-
tained what they paid for. In considering the question
of tonnage, it was necessary to couple the tonnage capa-
bilities of the vessel with its power of speed. He main-
tained that in the present wate of affairs no approxima-
tion could be gained to enable a merchant to ascertain
the exact value of a vessel either for hire or purchase.
He might he asked how this could be the case, when for
so lorg a period tonnage had always been legalised by
measurement. That had certainly been the case, and
hitherto the system appeared to have been satisfac- '
tory. That fashion and mole of gaining this know- "
ledge was of very ancient date, and existed under the
system of propulsion of vessels by wind and canvas.
Bat a new era had now arrived, and people were
not satisfied now with men-of•war or merchant ships
unless the mode of conducting them was by steam
power. That had very materially changed the whole
system, and was a reason why the old plans of registra-
tion and measurement should be entirely changed. At
present tonnage was ascertained by measurement, but
measurement was not tonnage ; to measure was not to
weigh ; a ton was a weight, not a measure. People,
however, had become so familiarised with the substitu-
tion of one for the other as at last even to confound the
terms. (Hear.) The measurement of the internal part
5if...4.412-ila only .ambled a person to wee:tin how much
material it would hold within a given space; but the ques-
tion arose, What material ? Take 100 cubic feet, which
might represent a ton. If filled with iron it would hold
20 or 30 tons, if with lead a proportionate weight, and so
on ; so that it would at once be seen that this was not an
adequate representation. The other day her Majesty got
A ship called the Telegraph. No doubt she was stated to be
of a certain amount of tonnage, I.nt when that amonnt of
tonnage was put on board she was immersed, and her
cargo was spoiled. He would further illustrate the sub-
ject of tonnage and measurement by two of her Ma-
jesty's ships. He would first take the Fairy, her Ma-
jesty's yacht, a well-known and beautiful vessel. The
Fairy measured 313 t-ns, hut she would only early 176
tons: If therefore a merchant or the Government were

to hire a vessel of the form of the Fairy, and having paid
for tonnage to the extent f 313 tons, if they were to
attempt to put 313 tons into her she would sink. His
next case was that of the Cruiser, another of her Ma-
jesty's ships. She measured 540 tons according to the
preseet legal mode of regi,tering tonnage, but she would
carry 1,013 tons. If a merchant or the Government had
purchased her at her rate of measurement, the original
owner would have been a loser. (Hear) The, e illustra-
tions lie thought would serve to show that the present
mode of registration was not the true mode of representing
that which it was intended t ) eeeresent. In the next place
he would direct their lordships' attention to steam power,
for the registration of which there existed at the present
time no law whatever. There was no law that fixed
any unit of power by which a merchant or the Govern-
ment could know the power of the steam-ship, by what
speed she could be propelled, or during what period of
time she could sustain a given d Tree of propulsion. It
would be for the goo] of all par; ies that there should be
an approximation to a unit of power. James Watt laid
down the unit of horse power at 33,000 pounds to raise
fo per minute. That for a very long period of time,
and even now, by the builders of steam engines, was
supposed to be the unit of horse power. Such, however,
had been the improvements in the seam engines and
the progress of science generally that such a calculation
was perfectly useless, and could not be retained as the
proper unit as meeting the term horse power. Ho would
show that by some piac'ical examples. He would take
four of her Majesty's ships, namely, the Trident, the Re-
tri bution,the Calliope, and the Elfin. The Trident.accord-
ing to measurement was 350 horse power, but when she
came to he worked she was found to he of 492 horse power.
The Retribution, according to measurement, was 400 horse
power, but on working she vv;.s found to be 1,092. The
Calliope was nominally 350 ; when worked 1,600. The
Elfin was 40 ; when worked 244. These instances
would serve to show how very uncertain the term horse
power really was. He would take some other instances
from the official records of the Admiralty. The En-
caunter's real horse power was double that of her nomi-
nal power. The actual power of the Agamemnon was
three times that of her nominal power ; the Undine,
four times ; the Banshee, five times ; and the Elfin, six
times those of their nominal powers. The Wellington,
which was computed at 350shorse power by the con-
tractors, worked up to 800. Now, ho wished to esta-
blish a new unit which would approximate to the real
power of steam. A friend of his, a most scientific man,
had given great attention to the subject of steam capa-
bilities, and ha I put him (the noble earl) in possession
of the facts. He selected ton vessels, and took firut
their nominal horse power, then their real, and
summed them together. He deducted 15 per cent. for
friction, &c., and then divided the indicated by the
nominal horse povier. He found as the result of the
calculations that 132,000 pounds would raise one foot
per minute as the unit, and that was really the value of
the horse power. As these vessels were of a peculiar
build, he took 32,000 away, and left 100,000 as the unit.
That would give a datum to the merchant and the Go-
vernment on which they might with safety act. Having
shown the fallacy of tonnage by measurement, he would
proceed to state what he would propose. There was no
ship built in which the builder was not perfectly ac-
quainted with the displacement of that ship. What he
desired was to register the displacement of that ship as
the real tonnage, leaving the present bill as it stood, so
that they would have both the roomage and the tonnage
accurately define], and they would know what the mea-
sure and the tonnage really were. When a vessel was
on the stocks a builder was bound to make an indelible
mrrk, showing what she would draw when there was
nothing in her, and that would give the weight of her
body. If he were compelled also to place upon
her stern post what she would draw when she was
loaded, it would be sufficiently indicated what she would
carry. He had embodied in his bill a clause which
would compel, under penalties, builders to delineate
those lines. He had heard that there were objections to
this on the part of merchants and builders. He knew so
few of those gentlemen that he had not been able to
have any conversation with them upon the subject ; but
he felt assured that the more the subject was investi-
gated, the more probable were the public to demand
some definite and positive law which would enable a re-
gistry to be made such as he had described. Under the
present system it was impossible for a person taking a
vessel to say what roomage or tonnage he would be likely
to have. Take a vessel of 5,000 tons displacement, and
say that she was to go a passage of 1,000 miles at 8 miles
an hour. To propel that vessel at that speed she would
only want 172-horse power, and she would be able to
carry a cargo of 2,738 tons. Take the same vessel, re-
quired to go 10 miles an hour. She would require 336-
horse power, and would carry a cargo of 2,524 tons.
Suppose an accelerated speed—eighteen miles an hour—
required. To perform that the vessel would require
1,961 horse power, and she would carry, a cargo of only
585 tons. To propel her at 20 miles an hour she would
be unable to carry cargo at all. The whole of her must
be full of fuel for 1,000 wiled, and she would connate it