BOAT SIGNALS.

The Symbols to be employed are—

1. Two square flags or pieces of cloth. Of any colour.

2.

Two wefts or strips of cloth.

3. Two balls, bundles, or hats.

By means of the above Symbols, all the Signals of the Distant Signal Code may be made as shown below. Handkerchiefs, Hats, Buckets, or Baskets may be used in making these Signals; and if no mast, pole, or spar is handy, these Signals can be made by holding the hat, bundle, or other symbol at arm's length. The Signals will be made from right to left, and be read from left to right.

EXAMPLES.

or

Equivalent to ball above pennant, and signifies: "You are running into

danger."

"Stop" or Finish after each complete Signal.

NOTE.-It is necessary, however, in using the proper means to attract attention, to avoid those which may occasion confusion.

Q. What means are there for reporting ships passing along the English coast?

A.-Signal stations have been established at many of the salient points of the coast, and on ships passing and making their names known by means of Commercial Code Signal the officers in charge of the stations forward reports to the "Shipping Gazette" for publication.

Q. How are the signal letters for reporting ship's names to be obtained for British registered ships?

A.-By application to a Registrar of Shipping at one of the Custom Houses, or to the Registrar General of Seamen, in London.

Q. How would you know an urgent signal by the distance signal?

A.-By seeing a ball and a pennant, or a ball and a flag. Q. What are the signals of distress in the daytime? A.-A gun fired at intervals of about a minute; the International Code signal NC; the distant signal, consisting of a square flag with a ball either above or below it. These signals may be used together or separately.

Q. What are the signals of distress at nighttime ?

A.-A gun fired at intervals of about a minute; flames from the ship (as from a burning tar or oil barrel, &c.); rockets or shells, of any colour or description, fired one at a time at short intervals. These signals may be used together or separately.

Q. What are the signals to be used for a pilot ?

A.-During daytime, the jack at the fore, the International Code Signal PT, together or separately. During nighttime, a blue light every fifteen minutes, a bright white light shewn at short intervals for about a minute at a time, together or separately.

BOARD OF TRADE INSTRUCTIONS

For the Guidance of Masters and Seamen when using the Mortar and Rocket apparatus for saving Life.

In the event of your vessel stranding on the coast of the United Kingdom, and the lives of the crew being placed in danger, assistance will, if possible, be rendered from the shore in the following manner, namely:

1.-A rocket or shot with a thin line attached will be fired across your vessel. Get hold of this line as soon as you can; and when you have secured it, let one of the crew be separated from the rest, and, if in the day time, wave his hat or his hand, or a flag or handkerchief; or, if at night, let a rocket, a blue light, or a gun be fired, or let a light be displayed over the side of the ship and be again concealed, as a signal to those on shore.

2.-When you see one of the men on shore separated from the rest wave a RED flag, or (if at night) show a RED light and then conceal it, you are to haul upon the rocket line until you get a tailed block with an endless fall through it.

3. -Make the tail of the block fast to the mast about fifteen feet above the deck, or if your masts are gone, to the highest secure part of the vessel. When the tail block is made fast, and the rocket line unbent from the whip, let one of the crew, separated from the rest, make the signal required by Art. 1 above.

4.-As soon as the signal is seen on shore a hawser will be bent to the whip line, and will be hauled off to the ship by those on shore.

5.-When the hawser is got on board, the crew should at once make it fast to the same part of the ship as the tailed block ismade fast to, only about eighteen inches higher, taking care that there are no turns of the whip line round the hawser.

6. When the hawser has been made fast on board, the signal directed to be made in Article I above is to be repeated.

7.-The men on shore will then pull the hawser taut, and by means of the whip line will haul off to the ship a sling life-buoy, into which the person to be hauled ashore is to get and be made fast. When he is in, and secure, one of the crew must be

separated from the rest, and again signal to the shore as directed in Article I above. The people on shore will then haul the person in the sling to the shore, and when he has landed will haul back the empty sling to the ship for others. This operation will be repeated until all persons are hauled ashore from the wrecked vessel.

8.-It may sometimes happen that the state of the weather and the condition of the ship will not admit of a hawser being set up; in such cases a sling life-buoy will be hauled off instead, and the shipwrecked persons will be hauled through the surf, instead of along a hawser.

Masters and crews of stranded vessels should bear in mind that SUCCESS in landing them in a great measure DEPENDS UPON THEIR COOLNESS AND ATTENTION TO THE RULES HERE LAID DOWN; and that by attending to them many lives are annually saved by the mortar and rocket apparatus on the coasts of the United Kingdom.

The system of signalling must be strictly adhered to; and all women, children, passengers, and helpless persons should be landed before the crew of the ship.

MANAGEMENT OF OPEN ROWING-BOATS IN A SURF.

In rowing to Seaward.

1. If sufficient command can be kept over a boat by the skill of those on board her, avoid or "dodge" the sea if possible, so as not to meet it at the moment of its breaking or curling over.

2. Against a head gale and heavy surf, get all possible speed on

a boat on the approach of every sea which cannot be avoided.

3. If more speed can be given to a boat than is sufficient to prevent her being carried back by a surf, her way may be checked on its approach, which will give her an easier passage over it.

On running before a Broken Sea, or Surf, to the Shore.

1. As far as possible avoid each sea by placing the boat were the sea will break ahead of her.

2.

If the sea be very heavy, or if the boat be small, and especially if she have a square stern, bring her bow round to seaward and back her in, rowing ahead against each heavy surf, sufficiently to allow it to pass the boat.

3. If it be considered safe to proceed to the shore bow foremost, back the oars against each sea on its approach, so as to stop the boat's way through the water as far as possible, and if there is a drogue or any other instrument in the boat which may be used as one, tow it astern to aid in keeping the boat end on to the sea, which is the chief object in view.

4. Bring the principal weights in the boat towards the end that is to seaward; but not to the extreme end.

5. If a boat worked by both sails and oars be running under sail for the land through a heavy sea, her crew should under all circumstances, unless the beach be quite steep, take down her masts and sails before entering the broken water, and take her to land under oars alone, as above described. If she have sails only, her sails should be much reduced, a half-lowered foresail or other small head-sail being sufficient.

SHIP'S LOG BOOK.

Q. What entries do you make in it while in harbour? A. All matters having any reference to cargo, employment of crew, position of ship, and state of the weather.

Q. What entry would you make in your log after anchoring? A. The time, depth of water, which anchor is down, how many fathoms of chain is out, and bearings of marks, the state of the weather.

Q. What entries would you make day by day at sea?

A.-The courses steered and distances run, winds and weather, latitude and longitude by observation and dead reckoning, sail made or taken in, and generally the work done by the people, and how many inches of water you found in the pump-well, and that you pumped it out.

Q.-You have a perishable cargo, it is bad weather, what must you do, and what entries would you make in your log book?

A.-Be careful to pump the ship and note the facts, thus:— "Ship labouring in a heavy sea, straining severely, shipping a great deal of water." Pumps sounded (so many) inches of water

in them.