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were £13; freight is usually paid in a lump sum. The apples weighed three to ten pounds each, and were brought off in boats to the anchorage. One day was occupied loading; the time occupied in discharging is somewhat governed by the state of the market. The season for shipment of pine apples at Eleuthia is from 1st June to 15th July. When ripe they are liable to decomposition on the passage, and they are therefore shipped in a green state and ripen on board. Sometimes on arrival, if not sufficiently ripe, they are placed in warming rooms. Rainy and damp weather is very injurious to pine apples, and if combined with a long passage will render them worthless. Those for the London market are called sugar-loaf pines; for New York the scarlet pine is shipped; it is much heavier, and the passage being shorter, the pines are taken in bulk; no ballast or fittings; hatchways opened. Chief export of pine apples in that part is from Eleuthia; a few cargoes are shipped at Nassau.

874. An experienced merchant says-Pine apples are grown and shipped from the Bahama Islands, West Indies. Vessels leave there during the months of June and July, and the average passage to London is 31 to 35 days. The number of cargoes usually arriving each season is nine to eleven, and they contain 48,000 pine apples each, which would weigh about 1,850 pines to a ton. There is of course a great difference in some of the cargoes. When a shipper prefers sending a very fine cargo, and selects the fruit, there would be a smaller number to the same weight.

875. The hold of each vessel is fitted with three or four racks, viz., battens of wood, supported by upright posts, thus forming three or four shelves or platforms, the entire length and depth of the hold with the exception of the centre, where a passage is left from stem to stern for admission; the fruit is then placed with a portion of its foliage on (to protect it from bruising) in layers of about five pines deep upon the racks, which are built to prevent the great pressure that would otherwise be upon the lower portion of fruit.

876. Pine apples are likewise grown, and in superior quality, at some of the other West India islands, such as Jamaica, &c., but the distance is too great to admit of the fruit being in sound condition, by sailing vessels, and the expense by steamer is more than this article will bear. Some twelve years since a cargo was sent from the island of St. Bartholomew, but the quality was much inferior to those grown in the Bahamas, hence prices were low, and the speculation proved unprofitable and was not repeated. A few pine apples are grown under glass in St. Michaels (Azores), and sent to England

during the months from December to May, in the schooners bringing oranges, but the quantity being very small, perhaps six to ten in each vessel; they are brought in large flower pots with original earth, and generally in the master's cabin. Pine apples are brought in the clipper fruit schooners which are built expressly for that trade, chiefly at Salcombe, in Devonshire; they are of a very superior class for speed, &c. The importation of pine apple is a great venture, and is usually attended either with a large remuneration, or else a severe loss.

877. PITCH is properly the juice of the wild pine or pitch tree; and is conceived to be the oil inspissated and turned black further than in the balsam. The best is that from Sweden and Norway; its goodness consists in its being of a glossy black colour, dry and brittle. It is also described as a substance made by melting coarse hard resin with tar; the proportion of tar is generally one-half the quantity of resin, but it is regulated according to the consistency of the tar; for stowage see tar. In Bombay masters are not allowed to boil pitch on board ship, but may do so in a boat alongside or astern. In Charlestown the boat must be anchored in the stream and have a tub of sand in it. Such boilings are not permitted within the limits of the city of Philadelphia. Burgundy pitch or resin from the Norway spruce fir, is imported in the form of tears or small masses, packed in casks containing from one to two cwt. The schooner Fairy, dimensions of which can be seen in oil-cake, loaded coal tar tub pitch off Limehouse, London, in September, and discharged the same at Marseilles in November, 1864. The cakes, say 112 lbs. each, were placed in the hold in bulk. The Fairy took in 225 tons, when she drew 13 feet 8 inches aft and 11 feet forward. This pitch is cast in half-barrels previously lime-washed inside; when dry the barrels are removed. Pit pitch is more liable to amalgamate than tub pitch. Pit pitch is cast in pits or long trenches, and when dry is dug out with a pick-axe. Both sorts are made of gas-tar, from which the oil is previously extracted; it is used for pickling railway sleepers.

878. In 1865 an English owner chartered his vessel (which he says could carry 200 tons dead weight, or 940 quarters of wheat) through a broker in Holland, to load tar or pitch in Archangel at 9s. barrel for Leghorn. As the proportionate rates make "97 quarters of wheat equal to 100 barrels of tar," he calculated that she would take at least 1,000 barrels including deck load, but learnt from his master that owing to the unusual size of the barrels, the merchant had put only 664 below and 36 on deck. Nothing was

mentioned in the charter about size, but it was stated that she could load about 900 barrels. The master, unfortunately, did not note protest. Under the circumstances it was considered that the owner had a right to demand freight according to the rate for 940 quarters of wheat, or for dead freight. The master should have protested, but the omission does not bar the owner's claim.

Tonnage, Freight, &c. 100 barrels of Archangel pitch, 20 tons, admeasure 850 cubic feet or one keel of coal, or 97 quarters of wheat. E.I.Co. six barrels to a ton freight; New York the same. A stand of Burgundy pitch weighs 1 cwt.; a last consists of 12 barrels; at Rotterdam 12 barrels. An allowance to be made for tare on pitch, of 50 lbs. on Archangel casks, 36 lbs. on Swedish, and 56 lbs. on American.

879. PLANTS and small trees are planted in Wardian cases, with sloping glass covers, hermetically sealed, and are usually carried on deck.

880. PLASTER OF PARIS or gypsum, is alabaster heated till it becomes a soft white powder, which when mixed with water forms the paste called plaster of Paris; specific gravity 1.872 to 2.288. It will, especially when dry, absorb all ammonia from chloride of lime, manures, &c.

881. PLUMBAGO, a carburet of iron, known as black lead, (which see) called also graphite; specific gravity 1.987 to 2.400. Bombay ton 20 cwt. in bags.

882. Colombo. An experienced master who traded here in 1860, says-That of plumbago one tier is frequently taken as dead weight; this is not sufficient stiffening for a crank-built ship; stone or other heavy ballast should be used with it. Ships built with beams placed for the West India sugar trade, have not sufficient space between for the large-sized coffee casks, therefore masters of such vessels should look out for this in time, by putting aside all the casks suitable for beam fillings; by using this precaution a larger cargo can be stowed. A ship will, if well stowed with a mixed Colombo cargo, carry a little over her dead-weight capacity. When stowing coffee in ships with 16 or 17 feet depth of hold, a ground tier of cocoa-nut oil should be avoided, or there will be considerable loss of space in the heights of coffee; but ships of 17 feet 8 or 9 inches, or over, will stow coffee to advantage by taking one tier of oil in the bottom. No master should engage deer horns unless he is allowed to cut the bundles when on board for use as broken stowage; the bills of lading should state "not accountable for horns cut or broken; all on board to be delivered." Never engage horns for two separate

merchants. Ships arriving off Colombo are generally boarded by a pilot, who places in the master's hands a paper headed "Port Regulations," in which the port captain recommends the use of iron pins for the chain shackles clinched at each end. This recommendation I followed for one or two voyages, but each time my chains became unshackled. I therefore recommend pins made of hard wood, with an iron scupper-nail drove in over each end; this plan was adopted on my last voyage there and found to be a safe one, as I rode out the whole of the south-west monsoon season without accident to the shackles or pins.

883. POISONOUS SUBSTANCES; common articles of freight:

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884. POONAC OR POONACK, is cocoa-nut oilcake, and is used in Colombo to feed horses, &c. It is somewhat similar to linseed cake, and is seldom imported into Great Britain. Two casks of poonac transhipped at the Cape of Good Hope, in October, 1869, on board the Union Co.'s mail steamer Cambrian, measured 33 × 21 × 21 inches, and weighed 2 cwt. 2 qrs. 11 lbs., and 2 cwt. 0 qr. 23 lbs. gross; probably they weighed heavier at the original port of shipment.

885. PORT OF CALL. Ports of Call are ports at which a charterer requires that a vessel shall call for the purpose of receiving orders for the discharge of cargo at the port for which she is finally destined. The custom has much increased of late years to direct great numbers of vessels, especially those which are grain-laden, to a port of call in the first place, in order that facilities may be given for the sale and resale of cargoes at any market in the United Kingdom or the Continent which may offer the greatest advantages up to the latest period. This custom is fast extending, but is now chiefly practised in the grain, seed, and sugar trades. Those engaged in any particular trade generally agree on a form of charter-party

which may be best suited to the peculiar circumstances of the case, the most convenient ports of call are Queenstown, Falmouth, and Plymouth. Masters of vessels will do well to be careful that all three of these ports are included in their charter-party as ports of call. If Plymouth, for example, be omitted, and the vessel be by accident driven past Falmouth, in case the markets are not favourable the consignees would, and do, cause the masters to go to Falmouth, or to sacrifice a few days by giving more "lay-days," in order to gain time (see ADAMS v. ANSALDO in the article grain). The custom of causing vessels to call at ports for orders has given rise to the insertion of an increased number of lay-days in the charter-party. The lay-days usually commence to run when vessels are at ports of call, from the time of the return of post from the consignees (usually London) after the arrival of the vessel. The consignees are however invariably advised by telegraph. They employ at the ports of call agents who are skilled in the art of examining a cargo and reporting on its condition. The master should require from the agent, who presents himself for the purpose of examining a cargo, a written order from the consignees. He should offer every facility for the examination of the cargo throughout, and render all the assistance that he can, as the loss of a post or train may cost him many day's delay. He should call the particular attention of the agent to the state of the hatches before they are removed, and if circumstances render it necessary he should have the hatches surveyed by a professional surveyor. The lay-days run until the day on which orders to proceed to port of discharge are delivered to the master, or on board his vessel; and the days are reckoned from 12 o'clock at night, as the days of the month. It would be well for masters to ascertain at their port of loading to whom the cargo will be consigned, as delay is sometimes caused at the port of call by their being unable to name the consignees. There are also ports of call on an outward voyage to which the masters of vessels are directed by charter-party to proceed for the purpose of receiving orders as to the loading port.

886. POTASH is a salt or alkali obtained from vegetable substances by burning them. Pearlash is potash burnt red hot; see ashes. New York ton 20 cwt., a barrel 200 lbs., a last 12 barrels.

887. POTATOES stowed in bulk require great care, the hold ventholes should be freed, and, when practicable, either the fore or after hatchways should be kept open; this applies more especially to vessels constantly in the trade, as the vapour is very injurious to

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