The New York herald., 1872-07-07

These six steamers carry the English flag, and are
not amenable TO American laws or regulations. If
they were, perhaps they would not be allowed to
naons % SO Of the Board Of Trade each @ ger ship
is expected to carry boats in numbers pro-
portionate to the tonnage Of the vessel,
Of the United States, strict in words but
tax in application need not be quoted here for they
late the law. A fact well known to our marine re-
pOrters. They carry more passengers than they
have TO Is
pected to make up in care for the neglect Of the
owners of the vessels SO, in the same way, Provi-
sSe e Of the c Of oston
dict Of 'the visitation Of Cod" &C., is returned,
and no inquiry is made as to
THE MEANS FOR SAVING LIFE
board the Inflated ship when she left port on her
Now, by English law, each steamship of the car
rying capacity Of the Main, Abyssinia, California.
City of Antwerp and City Of Limerick is com
discover where the Baltic, much larger ship, had
when leaving port yesterday afternoon. Per-
haps she had as many as the law required. suppose
she had ten. What Of it? Let us examine the fig
nres and comment on the facts. The Main took
out 252 passengers and had eight boats; with the
same number or boats of the same regulation size
the Abyssnia had 252 passengers the California 242
the City Of Antwerp 24o, the CITY OF Lin Lin,
Of either OF these ships is capable of holding safely
| in q seaway, more than fifteen or twenty persons
without imminent danger of being swamped. In
case Of wreck, a leak or collision, what would be
the result on board the Main, for instance with
forty-fve to fifty OF a crew, including officers and
262 passengers 11S OF them steerage), making In
Ill 3O2 souls there would be an uncertain means OF
escape for say l6O souls What would become OF
and 90 down. In case Of the Baltic the conditions
would be little better, for the proportion OF boats
70 passengers is about the same.
SHIPS RATED AND NOT RATED.
Ut Is well worth the consideration of those
NO go down to , the sea in ships Of ro TINS TINS
tht the ships of all the lines except
thS Anchor are not "rated." Being rated means
betg responsible In certain sense. II a ship Is
rat6 at Lloyds' and meets with an accident
tnroRh defective machinery, msmanagement, lack
or bots, ignorance OF officers or from whatever
canseShc Is liable to lose stripe and be classed
below Yer proper position This has long since been
discoveed by the TRANSATLANTIC steamship compa-
ships areD0t rated at ALL except, already stated.
the Ancny line. These last are rated second class.
In former years the form OF classification for sea-
..AI AT LbOYD's"
10r 80 manyyears or Az, as the case might be; but
tnat systemwas not found to work by the Board OF
Trade, and ven Iloyds' objected to 1t. Then the
classincatioIIwas altered. Vessels that were duly
examined ard properly certified as capable Of
Scd as ioliowsEe ' M S'''''
Tippecans and Horace Greeley 4
Even this did mt give satisfaction, and another
change was made The several classes of steam
snlps were given tnder new designation, as fol-
FIRST. Second. Third.
100. 80. 80.
me ships of the Ahchor line stand about ninety,
as the writer Ia itf0rmed. In all probability the
vessels running on he other lines would not rate u
d0t nlgner, they tlid rate and register. In all
eases tnere seems I'd be lamentable lack Of conf
ucnce IN tneir STEAMERS the part Of the re-
epcctive cOmpanles and Keen desire to keep
Lneir business rom the prying eyes Of reporters Of
the press. This willhOt avail in the least as thev
will In time discover
After an exhaustivs-in more senses than ono
examination or the steamers that left port
yesterday for Europe, the writer called upop one
Of the most eminent merchants of Our city-n
gentleman thoroughly versed IN the shipping b,isi-
ness of New York Bling asked what he Thought
OF the means for the preservation of life on board
the transatlantic steamers he readily replied, and
-the 10llOwing conversation occurred
'Tnen, sir, as q merchant, and as one fully un-
derstanding the passenger traffic
BBrwEEN THE EUROPEAN AND OUR PORTS,
YOU 90 not think the number Of boats on board the
passenger steamers sufficient ~
- do not, sir. But II Is difficult matter to de-
Cade what number OF boats should be carried by %
passenger steamboat. For instance, steamer
leaves this port with 300 passengers. Obviously
eight p0ats would bt as many as she could carry
and pr0DaDly tnat number would be enough. But
see. That same ste4mer returning from Hamburg
Bremen or Liverpool may bring out 1000 people
men, women and children. The eight boats she
required TO have are totally inadequate
In case OF collision. rap against noating ice
Berg Or wreck, upon coast. The cabin pas