PREFACE. THAT two editions of this Book have been sold encourages me in the belief that my book is really useful to the Shipping world. I have ventured to enlarge this edition by adding such of the Local Rules of navigation now in force as I have been able to obtain. This I have been induced to do in the hope that shipmasters may be saved the trouble involved in obtaining the Local Rules. The first part of the book relating to the Collision Regulations, 1897, has been augmented by the insertion of the cases which have been decided since the Regulations came into force. The notes to the rules, which will be found to be in a different type, are intended to assist the reader in understanding such points of difficulty in the construction of the rules as have been dealt with by decisions of the Courts. I have thought that these notes would enable mariners more readily to grasp the effect of the alterations which were made in 1897, and guide them when deciding upon the manœuvres necessary to be performed for the purpose of avoiding collisions. With regard to my remarks upon the Regulations, when they are not either quotations or deductions from decided cases, I wish to disclaim any intention of being supposed to lay down the law as to their construction. I have merely endeavoured, by the aid of decided cases, to explain the Regulations, and to give a few obvious illustrations of the manner in which they may work or be construed in the future. Of the Local Rules I have only printed so much as seems to be necessary to guide a shipmaster in bringing his vessel to a safe berth in the port. Those rules relating to discharge of cargo, ballast, police, &c. have been omitted. The Index is divided into two parts, the first relating entirely to the Collision Regulations, 1897, the second to the Local Rules. In this latter portion I have endeavoured to show at a glance the principal subjects dealt with in each particular set of rules. In considering the Local Rules it should be remembered that in some cases, notably the Ouse, the Avon, the Suir, two sets of rules made by different authorities are, apparently, in force over the same locality. I do not wish to be thought to sncer at the blessings, or supposed blessings, of local self-government, of which these Local Rules are the outcome. But seeing that the interest of the Shipping world of a great nation such as this is of far higher importance than the particular views of local authorities, it would be of advantage to the community at large if some central authority might be empowered by Parliament to revise all the Local Rules, and bring them as far as possible into harmony, as has been done in the United States, instead of leaving them to be approved and confirmed, some by the Admiralty and Board of Trade, some by IIer Majesty's Judges, and others by Recorders and Justices of the Peace at Quarter Sessions. 6, KING'S BENCH WALK, TEMPLE, November, 1900. H. STUART MOORE. |