all the more necessary that it should be undertaken at a later stage, for if ever there was a case where simplicity, clearness, and precision were necessary, it is in a code of rules which are to be translated into a great number of different languages, and are to be used by seamen of every nationality of the civilized world.

If there was any part of the Rules of the Road which it was generally felt inexpedient to change, it was the steering and sailing rules.' They have been the subject of numberless decisions in the Courts, and their phraseology is so well known, and sanctioned by such long usage, that it seemed almost like sacrilege to touch them. Were it not for this reason, the existing 15th article providing for steamers meeting end on, with the three explanatory clauses attached to it, could not possibly have run the gauntlet of any conference determined to avoid unnecessary repetitions and to make the articles as short as possible.' To attach explanations to a rule is an admission that the rule is not worded clearly enough to do without them, and that it should therefore be re-cast; but to leave explanations which are clumsy and inordinately long, tacked on to a rule so badly framed as to need explanation, is not to do work, but to leave it undone. This is what has happened in the case of the existing 15th, left as a model of what a rule should not be.

Although the steering and sailing rules were left as far as possible unaltered, a new preliminary clause was added which affects all of them in an essential manner. Many members of the Conference felt the advisability of insisting on the importance of taking compass-bearings, and also that some attempt should be made to solve the old difficulty of deciding when risk of collision begins. A preliminary clause had been drawn up by the British Delegates in consultation, and was presented in print to every member of the Conference, together with other amendments. This clause, as originally drawn, ran as follows:-'Risk of collision may, for the purposes of these Rules, be deemed to exist when there is not absolute certainty that if the ships keep their respective courses and speeds they will pass clear of each other. Such risk can best be ascertained by carefully watching the compass-bearing of an approaching vessel. If the bearing does not appreciably change, such risk should be deemed to exist.' This clause was however seen to be too clearly an attempt to define the undefinable, and was modified before and during debate until, ultimately, it ran as follows:-Risk of collision can, when circumstances permit, be ascertained by carefully watching the compass-bearing of an approaching vessel. If the compass-bearing does not appreciably change, such risk should be deemed to exist.' In this form it passed the Conference. The importance of this clause arises from

the fact that as soon as 'risk of collision' is 'involved,' from that moment the steering and sailing rules come into operation. Indeed, according to recent decisions, the right construction of the steering and sailing rules is that they are to come into operation, and a ship is bound to manœuvre even before risk of collision is actually incurred, and in time to avoid it. Up to this time it has been agreed on all sides that Dr. Lushington was right in saying that it is impossible by any general rule to determine when risk of collision commences in each special case. The responsibility of determining this rests with the captain of the ship, who is to decide when it is advisable to manœuvre either to avoid collision or to provide against risk of it. Under the proposed new clause the same duty of manoeuvring is incumbent on him, but he is now told for the first time that 'risk of collision should be deemed to exist' when the compass-bearing of an approaching vessel does not appreciably change. The objections to this clause are many. In the first place we have the expression 'approaching vessel,' which, standing alone as it does here, unqualified by the context, is very ambiguous. Is a vessel seven or eight miles away meeting another end on an 'approaching vessel'? If not, when does she become one within the meaning of the clause? Is a vessel nine or ten miles astern of another, and gradually overhauling her, an 'approaching vessel,' and is it really meant that risk of collision should be deemed to exist' as soon as it is observed that the compass-bearing between the two does not appreciably change? Such an expression as this, if finally adopted, will be the text for many a discussion in the Admiralty Courts. The words 'should be deemed to exist' are very suggestive. It is not that there is, or will be, a risk of collision. which may be avoided, but that there is a fictitious risk of collision introduced into a set of rules which should deal clearly with facts, not obscurely with fictions. And it is very obscure, because by watching compass-bearings of approaching vessels which do not appreciably change, a captain may bring on this fictitious risk of collision sooner or later, just as he pleases; and perhaps the strangest part of the whole clause is that, although it was evidently intended to encourage sailors to take compass-bearings, it is so worded as to caution a captain who does not want to bring on a fictitious. risk of collision against taking compass-bearings too soon or too often.

It ought not to be impossible to frame a rule ordering that compass-bearings of other ships should be taken without introducing any definition of risk of collision. Perhaps some such words as these would answer the purpose-The compass-bearing of any vessel which appears to be approaching so as to involve risk of

collision should, when circumstances permit, be carefully watched. If it does not appreciably change, special caution is necessary.'

To show the effect of this 'preliminary clause,' let us take it in connection with one of the articles that follow-say, the newlyproposed 21st article Where by any of these rules one of two vessels is to keep out of the way, the other shall keep her course and speed.' Of two ships one is an overtaking ship gradually overhauling the other, but miles astern of her. The compassbearing between the two is not appreciably changing, and 'risk of collision is to be deemed to exist.' This brings the sailing and steering rules into operation. The leading ship happens to go dead slow for some passing obstruction. From that moment, if the 21st rule is to be obeyed, and she is to keep her speed, she may not go ahead again until the overtaking ship has passed clear of her. The confusion which would result in a crowded fairway from obedience to such rules as these can easily be imagined. It would practically stop navigation altogether.

The thirteenth of the existing Rules of the Road provides that every ship shall go at a moderate speed in fog, mist, or falling snow.

None of the Rules of the Road was more vigorously debated than this. It was shown to bristle with ambiguities, some of them intentional, and with difficulties, many of them unavoidable. Captains of various kinds of sailing and steamships had been asked by a member of the Conference what meaning they severally put upon the expression moderate speed'; and the answers varied according to the maximum speed of each ship. For instance, sixteen knots an hour was considered a 'moderate speed' for a vessel that could go twenty knots, and twelve knots an hour for a vessel that could go sixteen knots, and seven knots an hour for a vessel whose full speed was ten knots.

This was the kind of way in which some sailors have laid down a rough rule for their own guidance. Lawyers take an entirely different rule of construction of the expression moderate speed.'

In the Law Courts it has been held that if a vessel is going at such a speed that she cannot avoid another, that speed, whatever it may be, is not 'moderate.' And when a fog is so dense that it is. impossible for a ship to see others in time to avoid them, she is not justified in being under way at all, except from necessity.

But if the question of what is or is not 'moderate speed' for any particular ship depends upon her power of avoiding another, then the complicated problem arises as to the effect of speed in steering a vessel, and at what point the diminished risk of a lower rate of speed is balanced by the increased risk of less control by the action of the rudder.

There is this further complication. A permanently reduced rate of speed generally means a reduction of steam pressure in the boilers, as there are reasons which make it unadvisable to run at a moderate speed under high pressure for any considerable time. But a low pressure of steam naturally weakens the reverse action of the engines and makes it as impossible to go full speed astern as full speed ahead, and this just at the critical moment, when a few yards less or more may make the whole difference between safety and destruction. With plenty of 'spare pressure' of steam in the boilers, a ship going slow can stop in a much shorter distance than when, with the same pressure, she is going full speed; but with every pound reduction of steam pressure the power to stop is also reduced, and the distance increased within which the ship can be brought to a standstill. The Conference was indebted to Admiral Bowden Smith of the British Navy for the record of some interesting experiments recently undertaken by the Admiralty in reference to this subject, and to Captain Sampson of the American Navy, who, in one of his terse and lucid speeches, supplemented them from his own practical experience and knowledge.

It

It is therefore a fact that a ship, by taking the precaution she is bound by law to take, of slowing down in thick weather (which no one suggests is an unnecessary one), incurs the double risk of being less under the control of her rudder and of her engines. may be said that this is a sacrifice of her own safety necessary for that of other ships. This is by no means invariably true; for if reduction in speed has made a ship unable to steer easily, and reduction of steam pressure has made her unable to stop quickly, the result may be an end-on blow delivered by a vessel of several thousand tons going at a slow rate of speed, which is far more deadly than a side-long collision when she is going at a much higher rate of speed. If the captain of every big steamer had to think merely of the safety of his own ship, he probably would go full speed ahead in the thickest weather where he did not fear rocks or icebergs, trusting to his helm to avoid everything he could, and to his engines to smash through anything he could not. That this principle is too well understood by some captains was the confirmed opinion of certain members of the Conference, and found a grim expression in the formula quoted by one of them given him by the captain of an Atlantic liner, Heaven, Hell, or New York in seven days!'

There can be no denying the fact that enormous pressure is put upon shipowners and captains of ships by that large section of the travelling public, which grows larger every year, who, on a sea voyage, have only one desire, to get to the end of it as soon as possible.

There is, moreover, this additional element of selfish safety in speed in thick weather, that, as to be in a fog at sea is to be in danger, by shortening the time in a fog the danger is lessened. One day full speed in a fog on board a big steamer means perhaps less risk to those on board than two days in the same fog at half speed.

It was shown during the discussion on this thirteenth rule that 'moderate speed' meant a different rate of speed in a fair way, where many ships were navigating, from that which it might safely mean in the open sea, and that the way that a ship was built, and rigged, and whether she was light in ballast or heavily laden, together with many other circumstances, must all be considered in determining in certain cases whether her speed was moderate' or not.

It was practically admitted on all sides that to frame an exact rule suitable for every case was impossible, and, after a series of debates, in which hardly a word in the rule escaped discussion, the following was agreed to by the Conference :

Every vessel shall, in a fog, mist, falling snow or heavy rainstorms, go at a moderate speed, having careful regard to existing circumstances and conditions.'

This new clause was also added: A steam vessel hearing, apparently forward of her beam, the fog signal of a vessel the position of which is not ascertained, shall, so far as the circumstances of the case admit, stop her engines, and then navigate with caution until danger of collision is over.'

There has been a great increase to the bulk of the existing rules in those which provide for lights at night and sound signals in thick weather. The demand was irresistible, and the problem how to supply night signals and sound signals easily used and readily understood, for all the cases where they were required, was difficult enough to test the ingenuity of any man. It is impossible, within the limits of a short article, to enumerate the changes proposed, and the contingencies they are designed to meet. There can be little doubt that, when these rules have been through the chambers of a practised draftsman, they will gain in brevity and simplicity. To show the need of such a process it is enough to mention the fact that of sound signal blasts on the steam-whistle, siren, or fog-horn, there are five different kinds inserted in the proposed rules, namely, 'long blasts' undefined in length, 'prolonged blasts defined in length, short blasts' undefined in length and 'short blasts' defined in length, and 'blasts' undefined in length. The difficulty of framing satisfactory sound signal rules was increased by the imperfection of the old-fashioned fog-horns, which are however being replaced by those of a better pattern. Some of the