944. Coir, made from the fibrous covering of the cocoa nut, comes mostly from Ceylon, Cochin, Bombay, &c. When confined in the hold it will soon rot if wet, or if water is allowed to drop on it, especially fresh water, which decreases its strength and causes injury from which, as with oil, it never recovers. Constant immersion in

salt water is said to strengthen it. Coir junk or yarn or fibre are often injured by stowage with oil at Ceylon, &c. When hanks have been stowed at Cochin, between casks of oil, spontaneous combustion has occurred; see oil. Coir rope weighs more than one-third, but not one-half as much as hemp rope.

Freight. At Madras, a ton of coir in screwed bales is 50 cubic feet; bundles or loose 10 cwt. Madras 10 cwt. coir rope in coils. Bombay ton coir rope 10 cwt. or 50 cubic feet; a candy 588 lbs.

TABLE OF FATHOMS, FEET, OR INCHES OF A ROPE OF ANY SIZE NOT EXCEEDING 14 INCHES, WHICH MAKE A HUNDREDWEIGHT.

Use At the top of table marked inches, fathoms, feet, and inches, the first column is the thickness of a rope in inches and quarters; the other three the fathoms, feet, and inches that make up a hundredweight of such a rope.

Suppose it is required how much of a 7-inch rope will make a cwt. Find 7 in column 1, under inches or thickness of rope, and against it is 9 5 6, which shews that in a 7-inch rope, 9 fathoms 5 feet 6 inches, will be required to make a cwt.

945. Wire Rigging. Double serve the heads of all parts of the rigging, and fill the splices up with white lead or zinc white, and double parcel over. These precautions are intended to prevent the sea-water from getting to the rope. It is advisable to inspect the splices of the rigging every year or two, and to coat the splices with

paint, if necessary, to prevent rust, which is very liable here owing to the damage often done in splicing wire rope.

946. Iron Cables. By Queen's Regulations, 1862, captains of ships are instructed to attend, most carefully, to the state and preservation of the iron cables; and to guard against accident from their becoming weakened from wear or corrosion, he is to cause a survey to be held every half-year. The bolts and the pins of the joining shackles, and the chain messengers, are to be examined at the same time, care being taken that the swivels in the former are well cleaned, and warm tallow run into the sockets. All the shackles and bolts are to be rubbed over with soft tallow, and the pins with stiff white lead, in order to prevent corrosion, and to cause the cables to be unshackled more quickly when required. Whenever the shackle bolts are driven out, the greatest care is to be taken to remove from the sockets, with the chisel supplied for that purpose, every particle of the old lead pellets before providing new ones.

947. ROSIN, or resin, is the black matter which settles at the bottom when oil of turpentine is distilled. E.I.Co.'s ton 8 barrels. A barrel 2 cwt.

948. RUMMAGE, to, signifies to clear a ship's hold, in order to examine its contents, or to remove goods or luggage from one place to another. In Customs' language it means searching the ship to see that all goods liable to duty are landed, and that nothing is concealed for the purpose of evading the duty, or smuggling.

949. SAFFLOWER. Bengal, Madras, and Bombay ton 50 cubic feet in screwed bales; Bombay 50 cubic feet in cases, 10 cwt. in bags.

950. SAFFRON is the orange coloured stigma or centre part of a purple kind of crocus, which is kiln-dried and made into cakes; the plant grows chiefly in Spain, France, and Germany. E.I.Co. 14 cwt. to the ton.

951. SAGO is the inner pith of a species of palm tree growing in the Phillippines, Moluccas, and Cerain. In all seasons it is carried in its rough state in conic packages of 20 lbs. each, from Borneo and Sumatra to Singapore, where it is cleansed, manufactured, and packed in wooden boxes, ten of which contains fifteen peculs nearly; see tapioca. Bengal, Madras, and Bombay ton 50 cubic feet in cases; Singapore 14 cwt. well pressed. A bag 1 cwt.; a chest 1 cwt. The tare at Hamburg for Brazilian 4 to 6 lbs.

952. SAILS; see canvas.

bag.

953. SAL AMMONIAC, the hydrochlorate of ammonia. Bengal and Madras ton 15 cwt. in bags, Bombay 18 cwt.; Bengal, Madras, and Bombay 50 cubic feet in boxes or cases.

954. SALT cannot be kept too dry. In coasting vessels dunnage is seldom used. When ships with 'tween decks are laden with common salt in bulk, it is usual to leave open the main hatches of the lower deck and to remove some planks each side, to replenish the lower hold and relieve the beams of the weight as the cargo settles; in this case the salt in the 'tween decks should be free from the sides and extremities. For cargoes requiring shifting boards, see ballast. Specific gravity, common, 2·130.

955. RUNCORN. Old salt shrinks very little. Merchants delivering to the Tyne and Dublin calculate at 2 P cent. for shrinkage of old salt, and 5 cent. for that newly manufactured. Being free from lime, Runcorn is preferred for use for curing Newfoundland fish and meat. Table or stoved is made up in lumps of 50, 55, 60, 80, and 120 to the ton; the smaller sizes occupy of course more space in the hold than the larger. The component parts of ground rock salt used for agricultural and chemical purposes are—

Four clear days are considered sufficient at Gloucester to load a cargo of 140 tons of salt.

956. A cargo of 150 tons of common coarse salt, shipped dry at Liverpool, has made out 156 tons when discharged in damp weather at Newcastle. This might have been partly occasioned by the difference in the mode of weighing in and weighing out, for the cases of turning out over at Newcastle, are very rare, and when they occur it is not usually more than 10 cwt. P cent.; and then only if the salt is old and coarse. Cases have occurred of small cargoes of new common salt shipped in Liverpool turning out 10 tons short at Newcastle; 100 tons of salt fresh from the pans at Norwich and Winsford, and conveyed in the river flats, have turned out 10 tons short at Liverpool. A salt merchant says, with salt not stoved, a vessel

will have plenty of space, and ample dunnage may be used, but with stoved salt a vessel will not stow her cargo without dunnage by 15 Pcent. Another merchant says, a vessel capable of holding 150 tons common salt will not stow more than 135 tons fine stove salt, nor even that unless it should be well made and firmly stowed. In bills of lading for salt not stoved, there is always inserted for the master's protection a clause, "natural waste excepted;" and this extends to 5 cent.; ordinarily it will not average more than 24 cent.; that is the usual weight allowed to coasting vessels. The natural waste in foreign voyages is calculated at from 2 to 7 P cent. according to circumstances.

957. Salt, from its moisture, should be divided by bulkheads from other goods; even crates should not come in contact, for the straw will rot and breakage ensue; it will draw liquids out of casks, and it is said, reduce the strength of spirits, tea, &c., and prevent port wine from fining. The evaporation from salt which settles against the under part of the decks will, when it falls, prove very injurious to some descriptions of perishable goods below-iron and machinery especially.

958. On loading salt for the Labrador trade a merchant says: broom and wash the hold, and dry it with mops or swabs. If the vessel is sharp built, sound, and perfectly tight, the risk can be run of stowing the salt without either dunnage or mats, provided also that the ceiling is tight; this would be a saving, for mats are expensive, and the cargo will work out easier when there is nothing to impede the shovel. If there is any fear of leakage, dunnage and mats ought to be used, as there will be plenty of room. Keep the cargo up high under the main hatch that the vessel may not be too stiff, and so labour heavily in a sea-way. Should the salt be old and dry it may be better to sprinkle the top sparingly with salt-water; this will crust it, and in a great measure prevent the cargo from shifting in heavy weather. When landing the salt, if the vessel is likely to be tender, and it is necessary to retain 10 or 15 tons to keep her on her legs, trim it all out under the main hatch, where it will be handy for delivery. If the hold is dunnaged it can then be broomed down and washed. Should fresh-water be convenient use it, for the hold will dry quicker and keep dry better than if with salt-water. Some merchants object to sprinkling the cargo with salt-water, or to having the hold washed after discharge, either with fresh or salt-water; they contend it is preferable to brush the hold clean without it, because by wetting a crust is formed so hard that when the cargo is discharged, the salt comes out in lumps of 4 or 5 lbs.

or even more, and they are sadly in the way when measuring, and cause much trouble to those using the salt for fishery purposes, as all the lumps have to be broken up nearly as fine as the rest before they can be used. It sometimes occurs that vessels bound to Newfoundland and Labrador, unload at out-ports where weights and scales are not at hand, and it is more convenient to discharge by the hogshead, or still more so by a tub. One can easily be made from an American pork barrel. Put it on end, with the upper head out, measure into it 17 imperial gallons of water, chalk all round on the inside at the edge of the water, and then saw the top part off. Or if no measure is at hand, say with a rule, mark off 16 inches from the inside of the bottom up, and mark it all round at this, and saw off there, if the diameter at top inside is 20 inches, and it measures from the top diagonally to the bottom opposite on the inside 241 inches, it will contain 21 old wine gallons or the one-third of a hogshead; this, according to the quality of the salt, will weigh from 158 to 165 lbs. net each. Should the inside diameter of the barrel be less than 20 inches, allow the tub to be deeper than 16 inches. Say weigh 10 tubs from top of cargo, 10 from middle, and 10 from bottom, and take the average to reckon the number of tons a vessel will turn out. These tubs come useful for discharging, as they just contain the full of a wheelbarrow, and are handy for tipping over the side into boats, &c.

959. To obtain the quantity of a cargo in tons, that in moios being given at Figuera, the following mode was adopted :

This cargo weighed out at St. John's, Newfoundland, only 118 tons. When shipped in May, it was green, the vessel had a long passage,