The Nautical Magazine and Naval Chronicle: A Journal of Papers on Subjects ...

together with the evidence they will obtain, will recommend a Court of Inquiry in cases of Shipwreck; such as all parties connected with the mercantile marine must feel an interest in seeing established.

The wide field now open to our merchant shipping, and the increased and increasing amount of emigration, render it almost imperative, for the sake of humanity, that those persons who are put in command of ships, in which the lives of thousands are risked, should be men of education, and thoroughly qualified in every respect, to the efficient discharge of the duty imposed upon them. For this reason, the examination of mates, which has hitherto been very limited, should be more strictly enforced; so that as they rise in their profession, they may find no difficulty when the time arrives, in proving their qualifications for a command. We cannot too strongly recommend this point to the serious consideration of shipowners. There can be no excuse for a young man's not desiring to avail himself of the existing voluntary system; and in times like these, when education has made, and is still making, such strides, there ought to be no difficulty in finding youths who should feel it their interest, as well as their duty, to make themselves competent to undergo the examination required.

To the masters, also, it is due that every encouragement should be given. In our number for February last, we inserted a letter from a Correspondent at Bristol, in which he spoke of the inconvenience and expense to which the candidates belonging to that port would be exposed, from the necessity of their coming to London or going to Gloucester to be examined, owing to the Board of Trade not having established a Board of Examiners at Bristol. We now publish another letter* which we have received from him on the subject. He suggests, that the " Society of Merchants," at Bristol, should be entrusted with the examination of Masters and Mates. We cannot, of course, give any opinion upon the propriety, or otherwise, of the proposed measure, not having any knowledge whatever of the ability or fitness of the society alluded to, to determine the qualifications of officers who are to navigate ships all over the world; but we think it right to give publicity to our correspondent's suggestion, in hope that it may attract the notice of the Board of Trade, and lead to the establishment of a court for the examination of Masters and Mates at Bristol, an important port, which certainly ought not to be left without one.

We have noticed, with much pleasure, that the Committee for Managing the Affairs of "Lloyd's Register Book," have, in furtherance of the object which they have so laudably promoted, advertised, that upon the production of the certificate of qualification by masters in command, they will cause the Class, for which they may have qualified, to be inserted against their names in the "Register," as shewn against the ships they command. This will, no doubt, prove an incalculable benefit both to shipowners and underwriters, as well as to the masters themselves.

* See page 201.