have determined to discontinue this practice entirely for the future. Surveyors are therefore informed that all applications made by owners to have their vessels surveyed for seaworthiness should be refused. This, however, will not interfere with surveys under Section 6 of the Merchant Shipping Act, 1873, with surveys required by this department in cases of change of name, nor with surveys under the 4th part of the Merchant Shipping Act, 1854, or the Passengers' Acts.-Edward Stanhope, Secretary; Thomas Gray, Assistant-Secretary.-Circular, No. 44. February, 1876.

INSTRUCTIONS TO SURVEYORS OF STEAMSHIPS.-SCREW TUNNELS.— The surveyors are informed that from and after the 1st January, 1877, no declaration for an iron sea-going passenger steamship, whether old or new, should be granted unless the vessel is fitted with a water-tight screw tunnel, and with a properly constructed water-tight door to such tunnel, in accordance with paragraph 27 of the "Instructions to Surveyors of Steamships."-Edward Stanhope, Secretary; Thomas Gray, Assistant-Secretary.-Circular, No. 43. January, 1876.

INSTRUCTIONS TO SURVEYORS OF STEAMSHIPS.-The attention of the Board of Trade has been called to the fact that the directions contained in paragraph 173 of the Instructions, "that surveyors should fill up and deliver, or send to the owners, master, or agent, a Certificate of Inspection (Stm. 21 b.)," are not always complied with. The Surveyors and Inspectors of Lights are therefore requested to note that this must invariably be done when a vessel's lights are inspected, and are found to be in accordance with the regulations.-Edward Stanhope, Secretary; Thomas Gray, Assistant Secretary.-Circular, No. 42. January, 1876. NOTICE TO MARINERS.-EAST INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO, STRAITS OF MALACCA. -According to a notification, received through the Foreign Office by the Board of Trade, from the Ministry of Marine at the Hague, the second light at the above position was exhibited on the 1st of January, 1876, on the "Willemstoren," at Pulo Bras, at the north-west point of Sumatra, at the northern entrance of the Straits of Malacca. It is under the Great light to warn mariners of the North-West Island, and of the dangers of the north-west of Pulos Bras. It is a fixed red light, 26 feet from the foundation, 431 feet above high water, visible at a distance of eight sea miles, an illuminating an arc of 90° to the further sides of the "North-West Island," in N. 15° W. to S. 75° W. Light, fourth magnitude. Position, 5° 45′ 0′′ N. latitude, 95° 4′ 20′′ E. longitude-the longitude of Batavia being 106° 48′ 75" E. (true bearings).

DEATH OF REAR-ADMIRAL A. B. BECHER.

At the ripe age of eighty years, our good old friend Rear-Admiral A. B. Becher has departed this life. Many of our readers will remember him as the editor of the Nautical Magazine prior to 1871, but perhaps few are aware that for forty years previously the deceased officer, while an assistant in the Hydrographic Office of the Admiralty, had been the guiding spirit of the Magazine, and had obtained for it a justly-deserved reputation. In the later years of his editorship, although the spirit was very willing the flesh became weak, and failing health compelled him to give up most reluctantly the labour of love which, as he stated in his farewell address, had been the mainspring of all his exertions in conducting the work. The labour of love referred to was by means of the Nautical Magazine to aid anything which might contribute to the seaman's benefit; and that the late Admiral's efforts were not fruitless may readily be seen by turning over the pages of the former series. Peace to his ashes! say we. He was a kind friend, a good man, and a hard-working officer, an ornament to his profession, and a valuable public servant. His life was worth living, and his last hours may perhaps have been made more peaceful by the inward satisfaction of knowing that he had done a good life's work.

THE

NAUTICAL MAGAZINE.

VOLUME XLV.- No. IV.

APRIL, 1876.

A MERCHANT SEAMAN'S PENSION FUND.

NY one who proposes that merchant seamen shall have a pension, and be provided for in their old age, at once puts in a claim as a would be benefactor to the seaman in particular, and to the country in general; but why a person who makes such a proposition is thereupon at once regarded as being. superior to the generality of his fellow men in far-sightedness, nobility of soul, and largeness of heart is a problem for which we have never been able to find a solution. Indeed we venture to ask whether any one who is capable of thinking out for himself the simplest of problems in political economy, has yet been able to discover why there should be a pension fund for sailors who man merchant ships, any more than for tailors who man merchant shops ?

It is generally assumed, but why, we have never been able to discover, that Mercantile Jack, the sailor, possesses in his own proper person by virtue of his method of earning his daily bread, some claim for State aid, which Mercantile Bill, the tailor, or miner, in his own proper person, does not, and never can possess.

It is a pure fallacy. A mercantile sailor has by virtue of his occupation on board a trading merchant ship, no more claim on the State, either for training him when young to be a merchant sailor, or pensioning him when an old merchant sailor, than a mercantile tailor.

Every British citizen feels that he is free to earn his living in the occupation he chooses for himself, and to spend his earnings as he pleases. A citizen who selects his own occupation, retains his liberty

VOL. XLV.

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