loose sugar from being wasted among the dunnage; see dunnage. To get two or three heights of hogsheads in low-decked vessels, the dunnage is sometimes diminished, but this is at the ship's risk. When the entire shipment consists of sugar, the hogsheads of the ground tier are placed close together, fore and aft, with strips of board up and down the ceiling; after which every hogshead is duly bedded and chocked with billets of wood, and the riding tiers stowed in the same manner. Not unfrequently, where a third height cannot be had, it is usual to make up the balance of cargo with bags, barrels, or boxes this, however, must depend upon the manner in which the sugar is shipped from the port of loading. When logwood is cut in the hold for dunnage, the saw-dust should be carefully removed; if wetted, its colour will seriously injure sugars and other goods. When coker-nuts, logwood, sapan wood, piassava, canes, &c., are used as dunnage, and carried at a low freight in consequence, care should be taken to have the words "may be used as dunnage ' inserted on the bill of lading, or the ship will be liable for any damage sustained by such articles.

1092. Sugars in casks are mostly Muscovado sugar, i.e. partially drained of their syrups; by drainage in transit they not unfrequently lose 16 cent. of their weight. Clayed sugars are packed in boxes, cases, and chests, principally in boxes; the syrups having been more perfectly separated from them they are but little liable to loss of weight in transit. Some unclayed sugars, such as unclayed Manillas, low Bengals, Madras, and Khaurs, are packed in mats and bags; khaur is an inferior article, little better than molasses, and may lose 30 cent. through drainage. Syrup sugars should be stowed below. every other part of the cargo, and as near the pump-well as possible, that the drainage may be drawn off more freely from the ceiling. With all sugar cargoes, some provision is necessary for the ready access of drainage to the limbers; experienced masters open the lower part of the pump-casing full a quarter of an inch, and bore holes in the skin, but not in the shoulders, for the bilge-waters there would fly up when the ship lurched, and do serious injury to cargo. Some wooden ships belonging to Messrs. SCRUTTON, SONS, & Co., of London, are provided with two tanks, each about a foot square, formed of lead, and fitted usually near the pump-well. One is placed each side the keelson, between which and the keel is a pipe communicating with both wells, which are fitted so as to admit a free run of bilge-water below them. The lead forming the sides is brought out over the skin on which it is fastened. The ship's skin is caulked, and thus all the drainage runs to the wells, which are

provided with lead pipes running up to a copper pump (sometimes two) screwed into the deck. By this means all the leakage of the sugar is brought up and deposited in spare puncheons; in a ship of 371 tons register, laden at St. Vincents, as much as would fill 30 puncheons has been thus saved; 15 to 20 puncheons is the average. The heels of iron pumps are soon destroyed by sugar drainage; they should be of lead or metal in preference to iron or copper. Crystallized sugars sometimes occupy less space in the packages at the end of the voyage than at the commencement, thereby giving the impression that the packages were not full on shipment; this operates against the weight stowed in a ship, and masters should act accordingly. With sugars in bags the tiers between the beams should be carried well up before crossing, or the top pressure will burst the cro sing bags when they come down to the beams, by the settlement of the cargo. With a hold 14 feet deep, cargoes have settled 3 feet 4 inches on the passage home. Natal sugars are in bags 1 to 2 cwt.; the crushing season is from 1st November, to 28th February, but the climate being variable, it is carried on by the farmers, to a limited extent, throughout the year. Sandwich Islands sugars in bags and barrels, 2 to 4 cwt., are sent chiefly to California and British Columbia. Whenever sugar liable to drainage has to be shipped, care should be taken to provide a means for the drainage to get to the pump-well. Where this has not been done, the drainage has accumulated on the ceiling and destroyed the ground tier of hogsheads. To prevent this some masters bore holes in the ceiling; this is a bad plan, because if the vessel rolls the bilge-water may be forced up through these holes. A better plan is to lift a limber board on each side, before the pump-well, and having put a small batten under each end lay it down again; by this means the drainage will run under the limber board, while the bilge-water cannot wash up. Vessels that have not good large limbers (unless they have a platform) are unsuitable to carry green sugar. The pumps should be jigged out every hour, even in a tight ship, for the tighter the ship the more chance of damage by drainage. For molasses, see the article molasses; and for jaggery, see East Indies-colonial, in this article.

1093. Capt. PARISH, E.I.Co., says-Some officers prefer stowing bags of sugar and saltpetre "on end," but more is required for pounding down if done so, or a large breakage will be left beneath them; generally speaking, time and space may be gained by stowing them on their flats, lifting up the ends and corners of adjoining bags, and launching them well home. The ground tiers should not be pounded, as it would displace them; but in stowing the other heights

a party, with commanders, should follow the stevedores, and beat all the bags down level. Sugar and saltpetre cannot be too much pounded; but the roller should merely be drawn over bags of rice, grain, or seeds, so as to level the contents. In granting shipping orders, "fine dry" should be specified, and care taken that one bag every now and then is examined. Instances have occurred where a shipping order for fine dry sugar having been taken, moist has been sent instead—an extra bag being sewn over it just before shipping, that the sweating through might not be observed.

1094. If possible, brown sugar should be stowed under white to prevent damage from drainage; damp sugars should be refused. Avoid those packed in a green state, as the moisture which results will be attributed to the ship, and deducted from the freight. After loading, one hatch ought always to be kept open, when practicable, to allow the steam to escape, as confinement without circulation is injurious; besides which, when leakage exists, the water will to a certain extent be warmed by the fermentation, and will consequently melt the cargo more. The bilge water of sugar ships is very offensive. In the West Indies large bamboos are let down into the cargo, leaving two or three feet above the level of the deck, to allow the steam to come up and fly off. All sugars are liable to steam, those in a green state especially, they are therefore never carried by first-class passenger ships, which take only fine dry sugars of the best quality. Ships carrying steaming sugars should use zinc paint, which remains unchanged while white lead turns black. painted with lead, discolouration may be white-wash of slaked lime before loading. is occasioned by sulphuretted hydrogen, which is very injurious to health; moistened lime or white-wash will absorb this gas and prevent such injury. Cargoes of sugar have been known to injure lead pumps, and to create leakage; all lead in pipes, &c., should be protected from sugar, which will by contact injure cutlery, marble, rope-coir especially, and other goods; by its heat fermentation and leakage from bottles and casks of ale, beer, wine, spirits, &c., will be created; and by its steam, which settles under the decks and drops on bales or chests below, teas and other delicate articles will be greatly deteriorated. Sugar has been known to "unsweeten" coffee and diminish its value; all sugars are liable to depredations from rats, and it should be well covered with mats to receive bales or cases of rice, &c. ; see vermin.

If the ship be already avoided by covering with The injury from steaming

1095. Some American-built ships are heavily masted, and their hulls, especially if of soft wood, which is often the case, are more

liable to become leaky in the wake of the channels. Masters so circumstanced, box off that part of the hold abreast of the channels, in order to secure the dryness of sugars or any other similar article.

1096. West India. After some West India sugars are boiled at the plantations, they are thrown into hogsheads (or tierces) the bottoms of which are pierced with holes to allow of the drainage of the syrup from the sugar, into the molasses' cistern, over which they are placed. Frequently the hogsheads are packed before the drainage is complete, and the remainder runs off on board the ship, causing a loss of weight which amounts occasionally to 16 cent. At Jamaica, after 200 hogsheads or more are on board, and the vessel is tight, the merchant or his overseer sends off to the ship for the molasses drainage, for which in return he gives the master a small cask of rum. When the vessel is leaky the drainage is not worth the cost of extraction. While the drainage at the plantations may amount to 25 cent. of the weight, the reduction of the bulk of the sugar may not reach 10 cent., and this loss of stowage, coupled with defective packing, will sometimes admit the loose contents of five hogsheads, when shaken by conveyance to the wharf, to be packed into three. St. Vincent hogsheads are generally well filled, and although rather smaller, weigh more than those of Jamaica, and much more than those of Berbice or Demerara. St. Kitts and Nevis hogsheads, of 40 inches truss, hold if full 20 cwt.; 30 inches 15 cwt.; tierces 9 cwt.; barrels 2 cwt.; 9 barrels usually go to a hogshead. Where proper attention is not paid when screwing hogsheads in the hold, hoops are cut through and more loss occurs by wastage, when unloading, than is gained by additional freight. The lowest tier is most liable to be crushed, and more so if the casks are not full or the sugar not sufficiently cured. The screw-jack is used too freely when driving in the upper tiers-the last especially. Some shippers hasten cargo on board to entitle them to draw bills on the consignee; this is one of the causes of casks not being filled, and of their contents being only half cured. The bilge water of tight ships in the West India trade has been sold there for conversion into rum; for the stowage of sugar and other West India produce see also general cargoes; and for seasons of shipment, see rum. West Indias are usually packed in hogsheads, tierces, and barrels; the tierces 10 to 12 cwt., hogsheads 15 to 22 cwt., averaging about 16 cwt. gross; tares about 16 cent. The hogsheads from Porto Rico are the smallest, those from Trinidad and Barbadoes the largest. Cubas in hogsheads and tierces, commonly termed Cubas; a Cuba bocoy is a cask containing 50 to 54 arrobas; disputes have arisen through

stowing cases of sugar with hogsheads, in a cargo from Cuba. Havannah boxes are frapped with strips of hide; they measure on an average 34 feet long, 2 broad, and 1 foot 8 inches deep-say 11 cubic feet; and five of them generally make a ton gross weight; a hogshead usually weighs 1,300 lbs.; the average loss on Havannah cargoes is 2 to 2 cent.

1097. Some islands are so mountainous that the sugars in many districts, are necessarily packed in hogsheads of only 38-inch truss, or in tierces, which on several estates contain 11 cwt. only. The lesser packages are used in the hilly districts of most of the islands. In Dominica and St. Vincent there are a variety of packages suited to the different altitudes. Trinidad and Demerara are flat; here the trusses of the hogshead are 40 and sometimes 42 inches. The packages used in Demerara are generally very large. On the south side of Dominica the planters use skids from 400 to 500 feet long. A canoe having four men to pull and one to steer, with one tierce or two, according to the state of the weather, is allowed to slide down into the sea; if she escapes, well; if not, the men swim for their lives. The canoes convey the tierces to a drogher, which goes round to the north side of the island where the ship is moored in some safe place. At Trinidad, when a vessel has a full and complete cargo of sugar and molasses packed in puncheons and hogsheads, though room for other packages is left, it is the custom to consider it a full and complete cargo. As considerable doubts exist regarding the weights of the various packages of sugars exported from the West Indies, the following extract from the Export Duties' Act, 29th November, 1860, may be of some assistance.

SUGAR. Hogsheads of 42-in. truss not exceeding 2,000 lbs.

s. d.

6 8

Rum is exported from the West Indies in puncheons, hogsheads,

quarter-casks, or demi-johns.

1098. At Barbadoes it is brought from the plantations into Bridgetown in cars drawn by bullocks, and then rolled on the wharf for shipment, where it is lowered into lighters or ships' boats by a small crane. Every shipper of produce has a crane, for the use of which each ship is charged.