The New York herald., 1869-01-20
The Tcchu,calities Of Tonnage.

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The Tcchnicalities Of Tonnage.
Apparently everything in measuring the
tonnage of ship is fictitious. Measurements
OF tonnage have the least possible relation to
the number of tons that boat can actually
carry. The yacht Dauntless measures some
thing over three hundred Tons, according to
what is called Thames measurement" she is
rated in the record Of the Yacht Club at two
hundred and sixty-two tons, and her latest
Custom House measurement is one hundred
and eight tons. Whence is the difference?
The size put down in the Yacht Club record
is by carpenters measurement" This Kind
of measurement is an invention of the builders.
Yachts are paid for by the ton, and this mea-
surement, being the one on which the carpenter
is to base his bill, represents the effort to ex-
tort from the figures Of ships dimensions the
highest possible result in nominal TONS Hence
the great difference bstwesc .vaiss rrTs. rssss,., g.
measurement by the carpenters method and
tiSe ti Custom HOUSE Measurement, which is an
approximation to the real power Of the ship.
Tonnage measurement is of some interest just
now, in view of the mooted international ocean
yacht race. Mr.. Ashbury, the owner of the
yacht Cambria, made challenge for an ocean
race, which was Immediately taken up by the
owner of the Dauntless; whereupon the chal-
lenger claimed that the Dauntless was ruled out
by the terms Of the challenge, which declared
limit in size. He furthermore de-
clared that the Dauntless was very nearly
twice as large as the Cambria. Here arises,
then, the question, how do you ascertain the
size of ship? In our Custom House the
Dauntless is recorded as a vessel of one hun
dred and eight tons, and in the record else
where given of the races of the Cambria she
is rated as vessel of one hundred and eighty
eight tons; and one or the other Of these is
ridiculous if the Dauntless is twice as large as
the Cambria. On deck the Dauntless is nine
teen feet longer than the Cambria and five feet
wider. These differences certainly do not
account for such discrepancy as the English
challenger would figure out, especially as in at
least one dimension (depth) the Cambria is
the larger boat of the two.
We are inclined to believe that the Dauntless
Is nothing like SO much larger than the Cam
bria as the owner of the latter boat supposes,
and we deem it quite possible that on any fair
principle Of measurement the Dauntless would
be within the terms as to size. Mr.. Ashbury,
however, has opposed bar to this in specify
ing that the size of the yachts shall be found
by s'Thames measurement" Thames measure
ment, is in its way, thing analogous to those
ancient canons of Egyptian art to which we
owe the airy, though angular, grace Of the
figures on the Pyramids. An artist of Egypt,
ages and ages ago, happened on exactly that
kind of grace in his figures that Wilkinson
has made familiar. An Egyptian king con-
ceived that this was perfection, and fearing
that other artists in their efforts to do better
would do lamentably worse, and that thus this
faultless style would be lost to the world, he
decreed that no painter should ever dare to
invent, or conceive, or put forth, or pretend
any new style, manner, method, fashion or
way of presenting the human figure to the eye,
and thus he perpetuatcd those angular and
inevitable profles.
Thames measurement is the application of a
similar theory to boats. 1t is conceived that
the present British model is the point at which
shipbuildng genius must stop, and this model
is assumed as the starting point of measure
ment. Then they take ships length and her
width and find her tons. They do not take
her depth. Why not? Because the other
dimensions give that; for, according to the ext
gencies Of Thames measurement" if ship is
of a certain width and length she must be of
another certain depth. She cannot venture to
differ in this respect, for she would then violate
the lines Of the British model-that most per-
feet Of human marine things This Thames
measurement takes the width Of the Dauntless,
and gives her arbitrarily depth which Eng
lishmen fancy proper to that width, and on
these imaginary figures finds the size Of the
yacht The requiring this plan Of measuring
assumes in favor Of the Cambria the whole diff
ference between American and English yachts,
and makes the American enter the race paying
forfeit for her model
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