Q.-How would you secure the riding tier?
A.-By four quoins at the quarters of the casks.
Q.-How would you stow a single pipe of wine?

A.-Fore-and-aft, with bung up and bilge free, well quoined, with three inches of soft wood bed under the quarter.

Q.-How many heights of casks are you allowed to stow? A.-Three heights of pipes or butts, four heights of puncheons, and six heights of hogsheads.

Q.-How many heights of beef tierces and flour barrels?
A.-Six of tierces and eight of barrels.

Q.-How many gallons are there in a pipe, a puncheon, a hogshead, and a tun?

A.-In a pipe there are one hundred and twenty-six gallons, in a puncheon eighty-four gallons, and a hogshead sixty-three gallons, and in a tun two hundred and fifty-two gallons.

Q.-Your ground tier of puncheons is stowed, and you find one of them is damaged, how would you break it out?

A. By parbuckling it out.

Q. Where would you make your ropes fast, supposing there were no stanchions or knees near.

A.-Toggle the ropes under the ropes of another cask.

Q. What would you do to help the parbuckle over the upper tier ?

A.-Place a skid on a slant, so that a cask may roll up it. Q.-The hold is nearly full with cargo at each end, and some hogsheads of beer are to be stowed, state how you would lay the ground tier ?

A.-Bilge and bilge.

Q.-How would you stow the casks in the second tier?

A. In the cutlines of the lower tier.

Q.-On how many casks does each cask of the second tier rest? A.-Four.

Q. What do you understand by light freight?

A.-All packages, bales, and casks, not weighing more than twenty-five hundredweight to the cubic ton measurement.

Q. Where would you stow bale goods, cotton-wool, &c., and how?

A. In the after hold or amidships on their flats, marks and numbers uppermost, and on their edges with their flat to the side in the wings, marks inward.

Q.-Why the wing bales on their edges?

A.-So that in case of leakage only a part of the bale would be damaged, and not the edges of each piece of the bale.

Q.-Why have the marks inward?

A.-Because if the marks were against the ship's side any leakage occurring they may be washed out or destroyed.

Q.-What purchase would you use when taking in bales of about 2 cwt. each?

A.-A single Spanish burton.

Q.-Suppose you have an entire cargo of bale goods to stow, how would you commence ?

A.-Stow the first bale alongside the keelson, directly under the main hatch, in front of the pump-well, mark and number uppermost. The second bale on the opposite side of the keelson. The third alongside the first, and the fourth alongside the second, and so on towards the wings, fore-and-aft.

Q.-How should cases be stowed?

A.-The top of the case, which is known by the mark and number, must be stowed uppermost.

Q.-State the preparations to be made for taking in a cotton cargo?

A. It will be necessary to ballast the ship, allowing, say, about twenty-seven tons of ballast to every hundred tons of cotton, or a still larger proportion of ballast will be better. The ship being already in ballast it may be disposed of by laying it in the floor, and carrying it into the bilges under the dunnage. Leave some out for filling up the broken stowage in the ground tier.

Q. Where does the broken stowage occur?

A. In the bilges, around the masts, pump casing, stanchions, breast-hooks, transoms, and in the top of the keelson.

Q.-What dunnage do you allow for a cargo of cotton? A.-The dunnage should be at least nine inches on the floor and to the upper part of the bilge; the wing bales of the second tier to be kept six inches off the side at the lower corner, and two and a half inches in at the sides. A sharp bottomed ship I would allow one-third less dunnage in the floor and bilges.

Q.-The hold is full amidships with bale goods, and a number of casks have to be stowed, how would you commence?

A.-Place the first cask on the fore side of the bales, close to the keelson, bilge free from floor and keelson.

Q.-Is there any precaution you should take while loading sugar in casks ?

A.-Yes; molasses are apt to leak out of the casks, and if neglected they will choke the pumps. Try the pumps repeatedly. Is there any particular pre

Q.-You are about to load tar.

caution you should take?

A.—The flat of the ceiling and to the upper part of the bilges should be caulked, the limber boards taken out, and a three inch deal laid over the space and fastened to the limber strake. Spirits of tar should be provided to pour down the pumps in case they are likely to choke. Small round mouthed scrapers with long handles, to scrape the insides of the pumps, should be got. No sand ballast should be left in the ship. The pumps should be tried repeatedly.

Q.-You have an entire cargo of pitch to stow, what would you be particular about?

A. To stow the casks bung up.

Q.--Suppose your fore main hold is clear and you have a quantity of rice to take in, where would you commence to stow, and how?

A.-Begin at the main-hatch and stow forward. First tier from keelson to wings; tiers above the keelson, from wing to wing.

Q.-How do you stow machinery?

A. The heavy parts first in amidships, chocking and securing them well.

Q.-What dunnage would you place for nail rod iron?

A. -Ten inches on the floor, fifteen in the bilge, and three and a half in the sides.

Q.-You have, say 500 casks of molasses and a quantity of coffee, rice, or linseed, how would you stow them?

A. Half the casks of molasses at each end, the coffee, rice, or linseed in the middle.

400

Q.-Suppose you have 200 tons of molasses, 400 tons of rice, of sugar, and 200 of saltpetre, how would you stow them? A.-Stow the molasses at each end, rice in the fore hold, sugar in the main hold, and saltpetre in the after hold.

Q.-State your reason for stowing them so?

A. The saltpetre is placed in the after hold to trim the ship, sugar in the main hold so that the steam from it could not penetrate the cabin.

Q.-Lay dunnage for tea.

A. Small dry stones are taken in for ballast and they are used for dunnage; they are levelled fore-and-aft, and laid to correspond with the shape of the beams athwartship.

Q.-In laying ballast for a cargo of tea what precaution would you take to prevent broken stowage?

A. To measure from ballast to beams.

Q.-If sand ballast, gravel, rattans, brushwood, firewood, &c., are used for dunnage, how should they be laid?

A.-Sand, ballast, gravel, or anything that will damage the cargo ought to be covered with boards. Rattans, firewood, &c., should be laid no closer than is necessary to support the cargo, so that there may be room for water, if any get on the ceiling. Avoid horn shavings as dunnage from Calcutta.

Q.-State the stowage of general cargo?

A.-Select the strongest casks, such as tallow, beer, &c., for the ground tier, reserving wines, spirits, molasses, oils, &c., for the second or third tier, in order to reduce the pressure. All dry goods, if possible, in the after part of the ship; iron amidships; pitch, rosin, and tar in the fore peak; rough goods not liable to be injured by water, in the other parts of the ship.

Special attention should be directed to prevent dry goods, in bags or bales, being placed near goods liable to leak, or to moist goods, as for example, bales of bacon, salted hides, butter, &c. When iron forms part of the cargo, place a dunnage of three and a half inches (deals) over it for bale goods, in order to keep off the chafe of the iron.

Q.-You are loading a general cargo, consisting partly of rough and hard goods, such as coals, grindstones, metals, bundles of sheet iron, iron rods, pipes of copper or iron, &c., and partly of goods in bags or bales which are liable to be chafed or damaged by contact with rough goods; how would you stow the goods?

A.-Place the rough goods, in general, underneath and foreward of the fine ones, and separated from them by boards or dunnage.

Q.-How would you stow goods such as glass, bottles, earthenware, &c.?

A. In a place by themselves, with plenty of straw.

Q.-There is a cask, bale, or package, in the hold damaged, what will you do with it?

It

A.-I will not move it until I call the master's attention to it.

may be necessary to have a survey upon it.

Q.-How would you stow goods liable to damage from leakage of the casks?

A. Keep the goods liable to damage above the casks, or forward or aft of them.

Q.-In loading timber, where do you stow the heaviest ?
A.-At the bottom of the ship.

Q.-You are taking mast pieces in?

A.-Take them in with a strop, and pinch them with handspikes. If dogs and crowbars are used they will damage the masts.

Q.-You are taking in very long mast pieces for China junks at Singapore. You have only one bow port.

A.-It may be necessary to lift the foremast in order to get some of the long spars to the other side of the ship.

Q.-What general direction does the air between the decks take?

A.-It takes the opposite direction to that of the wind. The more the ship is battened down the more sure is this the rule. Q.-You are loading coals for a distant port. There is gas from the coals.

A. They should, if possible, be lowered into the hold to prevent breakage, which conduces to heating; it must be stowed solid, without through ventilation, but ample surface ventilation must be provided by means of ventilators fixed in the deck in such a manner that they can be kept open at all times.

To prevent fire or explosion during the voyage, the surface ventilators must be carefully attended to at all times, and the hatches kept open whenever it is possible. A thermometer should be fixed in the hold out of draught, and a record kept of its reading at regular intervals; this will indicate if the cargo is heating.

Q. Where should ventilators be put?

A.-There should be two, one forward and one aft, for each

A.-The weather one, for the time being.

Q. Are the ventilators protected?

A. Yes, with cowls.

Q.-How do you stow pig iron?

A.-Cross bar and solid forward and aft and in the sides, solid amidships, and brought up to the main hatch.

Q.-How would you stow lead?

A.-If pig-lead only is taken, dunnage with coal and rubbish until the keelson is completely covered, in order to keep the lead well up, and make the ship easy in a seaway. Next lay planks, and stow in the middle in stacks, placing the pigs three or four inches apart, and crossing at the same distance.

Q.-How would you stow copper, iron, or lead ore?

A.-Build up a trunk in the middle of the hold, to keep the ore from shifting. If the ship is not already adapted to the trade by having a trunk built up, raise the cargo well up, and bring it towards the main hatch way; keep the ends of the ship clear. Q.-How would you stow grindstones, cog-wheels, or plateglass?

A. On their edges.