might ensue from carelessness in engaging officers and crews without ascertaining their ability to distinguish colors. He said that-

By far the largest number of casualties arise from preventable causes, among which color-blindness holds, no doubt, a prominent place. Given an element of danger so easily removed, it seems almost criminal on the part of the Government not to provide such measures as will prevent men afflicted with color-blindness from being employed as officers and sailors in the merchant service.

We are now informed that 4 per cent. of males are more or less colorblind-that is, more or less incapable of rightly reading red and green colored signals, lights, marks, buoys, &c., by day or night. Moreover, examinations of the personnel of merchant marines and navies have recently shown how frequent are dangerous defects of sight, near-sightedness, &c., among such personnel, officers and men.

Some difficulty has been experienced in getting good glass, although distinctive colored glass is so necessary for ships' lanterns. But there is at present no legal provision for this important requisite, and no international agreement in reference to the subject.

In the merchant marine, pilots licensed by the inspectors of steam vessels are tested as to their color sense by the marine-hospital surgeons. There is no required examination of power of sight. There are no requirements whatever in these directions as to masters or mates. Nor is any standard adopted for the color of the red and green lights, and much confusion and variation ensue, especially in the so called green glasses, which run from dark blue to pale or yellowish green.

The local laws of inspectors of steam vessels have placed in their hands standard red and green glasses, but no authority has been given them to enforce the use of such on vessels under their jurisdiction; and over sailing vessels they have no control.

It has been said that we are ahead of England in protecting travelers by water from the disasters that arise from defective vision. The British Board of Trade has lately made a report upon the subject which has been severely criticised by some of the medical journals.

The report referred to, which shows that the Government had, not authorized the Board of Trade to make compulsory examinations, concludes as follows:

The question remains, What is there left to be done which the Board of Trade can do in order to apply the test to sailors of any class who may be color-blind without the knowledge of it themselves or their employers? The time has certainly arrived when it should be extended to pilots. To only a small extent this has been done at present, but the Board of Trade has no legal power to extend compulsorily the color test to persons other than those applying for a certificate of competency. They can only promote as far as possible the voluntary system, and, as already stated, they have since February, 1880, offered means for a voluntary examination to all persons. This is all they can do, and if in future any accident arises from color blindness on the part of any sailor on board any ship it can not be laid to the Board of Trade.

Suramary showing the mistakes in colors made by eighty-five candidates for certificates of competency in the preliminary test examination for color-blindness.

When a candidate was unable to distinguish any one color from any one other color, red or green, for instance, he is here reckoned as having called each color by the name of the other and therefore appears as having made two mistakes.

When a candidate has made the same mistake with the cards as with the glasses of the same color, but of different shades, it is reckoned as one mistake.

The whole question of color-blindness is as yet unsettled, and the subject is so complicated as to appear to require the attention of experts. To give extended control over the matter, international agreements must be made, and the action of Congress authorizing the President to appoint commissioners to meet those of other countries for the purpose of devising means of ridding the ocean of all color-blind officials would be met with satisfaction by all parties interested.

International action and agreement have been called for by scientific men and associations and maritime organizations as well as nautical journals and magazines.

Petitions have, during the past few years, been presented to Congress calling for international action. The Naval Committee has twice reported a bill to initiate an international commission to meet and decide on the adoption of the international regulations, now legalized by an act of Congress.

The recommendations and report from the scientific, naval officers, and experts on this commission representing the several maritime nations would be of great and special value. Constant collisions (one every four hours around England), strandings, and loss of lives and property from mistakes of the rules of the road, wrong interpretation of signals, &c., have all stimulated the invention of new signal apparatus and new methods of carrying lights.

The commissioners' duty would be to report on all these points, and show what was truly feasible under the varying conditions of maritime experience.

Such reports from the best authorities would teach, especially our own community, what can and what should be done, and would recommend the necessary legal enactments.

INTERNAL ECONOMY AND RELATIONS OF OFFICERS AND SEAMEN ON

SHIPBOARD.

The matter of internal economy at sea is one that enters largely into the comparative expense of performing voyages in different ships, and consequently the profits left to the owners depend more or less upon it. The relative performance of vessels under different flags is not a question depending entirely on the number of men carried or upon the rate of wages paid. It has been found that good order and good regulations are also indispensably necessary to success at sea. The matter of provisions is also an important factor, and it is often found that ships that start on a voyage well supplied with stores often come out with less outlay in the end, although the first cost has been more. In these particulars our merchant service has always ranked comparatively high. With regard to the general regulations and internal economy of the ordinary American merchantman, although under existing statutes it is difficult for the ship-master to maintain a very strict discipline, certain customs, as to the provisions for and treatment of seamen and the conduct of affairs on shipboard, have become settled, and by long established usage have acquired the force of law, so that they are now

recognized in the courts of justice. In former times our ships were in advance of those of most other countries in respect to the discipline maintained on board, but since the passage of the merchant shipping act of England and the adoption of a system of examination of masters and mates the British service has much improved.

The persons composing a ship's company are divided into two classes, officers and men, the officers comprising the master (or captain) and his mates, of which there are always two and sometimes three or four in very large ships, or three mates and a boatswain, the latter being only a petty officer, usually living with the men. There, are besides, other privileged persons on board, such as carpenter, steward, cook, and sometimes a sailmaker; but though entitled to a certain consideration and held responsible in their lines of duty, they are not officers and cannot give any orders to the men.

The mates are often called the first, second, and third officers, instead of first, second, and third mates, and by an early decision it was held that the mates were included in the term "crew."

The master has a right to displace his officers, but only on strong and evident grounds of manifest unfitness, disobedience, &c., and he may appoint temporary officers in their places, but these stand on a different footing from those originally shipped and may be removed without cause. The men-which term includes all seafaring persons before the masthave been divided into three classes: (1) able seamen; (2) ordinary seamen; (3) boys or green hands.

To be able to hand, reef, and steer, and understand the hoisting machinery on a steamer, constitute a sailor as to the usual qualifications now required; but something more than these mere routine duties was formerly expected of an able seaman.

Able seamen. The duties on board of the ordinary steamer are not so manifold or difficult as in a sailing ship, although the seamen there are required to drive a steam-winch and understand other mechanical appliances about decks, but in a sailing vessel, besides knowing how to hand, reef, and steer, which constitute the qualifications of an ordinary seaman, the able seaman of to-day should be able to cast the lead and give the accurate soundings, splice hemp or wire rigging, put a cloth into a sail when required, or make a mastcoat, turn in a shroud and pass a seizing, as also to make all the knots known to the seaman's vocabulary. He should understand all about boats and boating, and even an ordinary seaman is expected to know how to row. The modern freighting steamer is a poor place to learn seamanship, and hence, as steamers will probably be more numerous than sailing ships in the future, the great need of increasing the number of training-ships for the merchant service. In taking in and making sail and working ship generally, any duty may be required of an able seaman; but as there are certain places requiring more strength or greater skill, he is assigned to such positions, while the ordinaries perform the lighter work. Thus in reefing topsails the able seamen lay out on the yardarms and the ordinaries take the slings; while in furling, the positions are reversed, the light hands taking the yard-arms and the able seamen the bunt. The able seamen seldom go above the topgallant yard, the boys and ordinaries generally furling the royals.

Ordinary seamen or those who ship as such should have at least the experience of one voyage at sea and have learned the ropes. They are expected to be able to "box the compass" and to know how to steer, at least in fine weather. The ordinary seamen are expected to loose and furl the light sails, but if there are any green hands on board they have

a certain preference over them, just as the able seamen are favored in the choice of jobs over the ordinaries; but the distinction between the ordinary seamen and boys is not very nicely drawn, they being called on indiscriminately for all kinds of light work.

The "Boys" or "green hands" are terms embracing all persons before the mast who are inferior in point of seamanship to ordinary seamen, and may include grown men on their first voyage as well as youngsters and apprentices who have been several voyages to sea, but who are not stout enough to rate as ordinary seamen. It is a sailor's saying that "a boy does not ship to know the ropes," and so if one engages upon boys' wages he cannot be blamed, although he don't know the stem from the

stern.

The boys should be put to work with the old seamen, so as to have an opportunity to learn the regular sailor's duty. They should also be allowed to take the helm in light weather, and sent aloft as soon as they get over their first attack of sea sickness, so as to become accustomed to the motion of the vessel by moving about in the rigging.

In most ships it is customary to keep the boys employed at inferior kind of work, and they are expected to do the sweeping, coil up the running rigging, slush the masts, &c. They stand their watches with the rest of the crew, and are called with all hands to reef and work ship, when they are most usually placed at the lighter duties as, if in a ship, at the mizzen-topsail and cross-jack braces. Boys are generally called upon to loose and furl the light sails.

Formerly, if a man was found to be incapable of doing the duty of the position in which he shipped, his wages were not only cut down to those of the grade he was adapted to fill, but something more was deducted to compensate for the loss occasioned by the deception he had practiced. But the loss of the services of one able seaman does not in such a case fall upon the ship alone, as the whole ship's company have to perform the extra work that the delinquent is unable to do. If, for example, six men bad signed the articles as able seamen, and it was found that one of them was unable to steer, his tricks at the helm must of necessity be performed by the other five, and other work neglected, leaving the vessel short-handed for the entire voyage. The man who perpetrates this kind of imposition on a ship's company would, as may be imagined, have an unpleasant time of it. His shipmates are sure to resent the injury done them and bear down upon him, while the officers feel at liberty to punish him, and are apt to put every disagreeable job in his way; besides, he is treated as a "lubber" fore and aft.

It has been said that under the present system of the engagement of seamen at our large seaports, for foreign voyages, except to the British North American Possessions, the West India Islands, or the Republic of Mexico, the crew must be shipped before a United States shipping commissioner as provided for by law.

In the shipping articles it is expressly stipulated that—

The said crew agree to conduct themselves in an orderly, faithful, honest, and sober manner, and to be at all times diligent in their respective duties, and to be obedient to the lawful commands of the said master, or of any person who shall lawfully succeed him, and of their superior officers in everything relating to the vessel and the stores and cargo thereof, whether on board, in boats, or on shore, and in consideration of which service to be duly performed the said master hereby agrees to pay to the said crew, as wages, the sums against their name respectively expressed, and to supply them with provisions according to the annexed scale. And it is hereby agreed, that any embezzlement or willful or negligent destruction of any part of the vessel's cargo or stores shall be made good to the owner out of the wages of the person guilty of the same. And if any person enters himself as qualified for a duty which ke