The Norfolk post. [volume] (Norfolk, Va.) 1865-1866, 1865-09-30

wears, and second-class those older
than this limit. Or, more precisely
they were divided into classes a, h, |,
and o, according to the age Of the hull,
and into sub-2lasses !, 9, and 5, accord
ing to the rigging. But this rude me-
thod has been superseded by one more
reasonable and discriminating, which
would take the actual present condition
of the ship into view; seeing that a
sound, substantial old ship is more wor-
thy of respect than cheaply built new
one. Surveyors are appointed by
Lloyd's Committee at all the chief ship
building ports TO report upon the ships.
AS it is optional with every ship-owner
whether he will belong to Lloyd's or
not, so it is free to him to determine
whether his ship shall undergo this
scrutiny; but he can obtain better
freights and easier insurance If his ship
ranks well ut Lioyd's, and therefore il
is usually worth his while to pay the fee
incurred for this purpose. The survey
or ascertains the age Of the vessel, the
kind Of timber mostly employed in her
construction, the style Of build, the
wear and tear she has received, the
amount and kind Of repair she has un.
dergone, and her present condition. -
All these particulars are taken into ae-
count in giving her rank or position.
The phrase or designation Al, for any
thing that is iirst.raio Of its kind, is
borrowed from the phraseology Of
LlOyd's Register. A kind of biography
Of every ship is kept up; for, as in the
natural course Of things age brings on
deterioration in a ship, the rank in 1865
may not be the same as i'll 1864. The
surveyors record their surveys suf1i-
GENTLY often to make their register
truthful as concerns tho actual condition
of the ships.
lloyd, the mysterious, becomes, then,
practically book-a register with which
tue general public has not much to do
containing items of information con-
corning ships owner, captain, port,
age, materials, state of repair, &c. Or
rather, this is one-half OF Lloyd, who
has sort OF mystical double existence.
! The other half consists of List, known
! equally by Lloyd's name. Shipping in
! teiligence is obtained from almost every
port OH the globe, by agents in cores
pondence with LlOyd's, notifying tbs
arrival and departure of ali ships, ship
spoken with" at sea, and ships wreck
| ed OF damaged. This information i
! regularly bppheu, anu rs hiLcI NdItS pto
| Iished us lloyd List. Most of the shif
from this List. LlOyds Register and
LtOyd'S List belong to and are managed
! by two different committees, but they
are both emanations OF the one great
invisible Lloyd.
SPEAKING 4 SHIP
1t Is quite impossible for n person OF
IL:
another by means of speaking trumpets
The waves are too rough and the win
carries the voice away. Talkingis, there
fore, carried on 10y means Of flags, an
the Temple Bar writer gives this eXpli
nation OF the system:
Flags of different shapes and colorsaT
hoisted and the order in which the
are shown indicates the ships name, O
any one among large number q
phrases, sentences, questions and an
sWels. A very elaborate code or voca
bulary is necessary for the working OF
OF such system. In 1854 mercantile
shipping act was passed, which, anon.
other things, required that every mer
chant ship in the British empire shoult
| have a particular number, which shoult
! belong TO it irrevOcabiy, and should b.
different from the number belonging {,
any other ship. There were -, 900 Brit
| isll merchant ships then existing ant
| as q thousand or SO are added every yea
to meet the demands of increasing com
merce and 10 replace Old ships broker
! up, the aggregate must now be greatly
over 10000. The official number 10
each ship under the control OF the Boart
! of Trade is marked ON the main beam
and written on the certificate of registry
and the owner is not allowed TO change
it. II ship No. 3G42j meets ship No
ID, 81 on the ocean, each captain wants
To know the number OF the other ship
he ascertains it, and then, by referring
to code or vocabulary prepared by the
board, he can tell the name OF the ship,
the tonnage, aud the port to which she
belongs. True, he can tell this il he as
certain the number; but there is the
difficulty. Ingenious men have devised
systems of exhibiting flags of such
modes as to denote numerals. At least
adozen such systems have been adopt
ed each invent I, of course, Insisting
that his was the best. The Board OF
Trade, in 1856, appointed committee to
examine all these systems, with Il view
to determine which was the best, or
whether new one could be devised bet
lcl LN3t any VI lfltll. bS lbiutlS iC~
suited in the preparation of CONNER
cial code of signals, which is now used
by the royal navy a. well rs the mercan-
tile Murine. The Board of Trade deter
mines what will be official number Of
each ship, but the commercial code de-
! terIiincs how 10 express this number by
| letters and flags. The Talavera, OF Liv-
erpool, q sailing vessel of 437 tons, may
| change owners or may change ports (;
! but she will always, as long rs she re-
mains OH the Register of British ship
ping, be the Talavera; she will always
have the mum Der 1899, and this number
will always be represented by the flag
signal X l. q n. The Clara, of Glouces-
ter, as another instance, whether she
changes owners and ports or not, will
continue to be the Clara, with the num-
Der II ,345, and the signal l. u K ".
Every signalling represents u letter,
and the new code has eighteen conso-
nant letters, represented by an equal
number of flags. Showing hot more
than our flags at time, there are near
ly $4,000 different permutations or ways
in which they may be arranged. school
boys will understand this when they
bear in mind their famous problem about
tue persons who sat down to dinner in
different order every day; and lock
pickers will understand it when thew
count up the millions Of ways in which
a puzzle lock may be ABDUCTED. ii we
we're to add the groups of five flags at /,
= ,.a rho ,,umbsr Of denominations yyouI "A