cause altogether distinct from the danger attendant upon a shifting of
cargo. A load of cotton, for example, tightly screwed while in certain
conditions, has been known, through the expansion of its bulk, to rend a
vessel asunder at sea. There can be no doubt either that the same result
would ensue in the case of tobacco, while undergoing its usual course
of fermentation, were it not for the interstices consequent upon the
rotundity of the hogsheads.

It is when a partial cargo is received that danger is chiefly to be
apprehended from shifting, and that precautions should be always taken
to guard against such misfortune. Only those who have encountered a
violent gale of wind, or rather who have experienced the rolling of
a vessel in a sudden calm after the gale, can form an idea of the
tremendous force of the plunges, and of the consequent terrible impetus
given to all loose articles in the vessel. It is then that the necessity
of a cautious stowage, when there is a partial cargo, becomes obvious.
When lying-to (especially with a small bead sail), a vessel which is not
properly modelled in the bows is frequently thrown upon her beam-ends;
this occurring even every fifteen or twenty minutes upon an average, yet
without any serious consequences resulting, provided there be a proper
stowage. If this, however, has not been strictly attended to, in the
first of these heavy lurches the whole of the cargo tumbles over to the
side of the vessel which lies upon the water, and, being thus prevented
from regaining her equilibrium, as she would otherwise necessarily do,
she is certain to fill in a few seconds and go down. It is not too much
to say that at least one-half of the instances in which vessels have
foundered in heavy gales at sea may be attributed to a shifting of cargo
or of ballast.

When a partial cargo of any kind is taken on board, the whole, after
being first stowed as compactly as may be, should be covered with a
layer of stout shifting-boards, extending completely across the vessel.
Upon these boards strong temporary stanchions should be erected,
reaching to the timbers above, and thus securing every thing in its
place. In cargoes consisting of grain, or any similar matter, additional
precautions are requisite. A hold filled entirely with grain upon
leaving port will be found not more than three fourths full upon
reaching its destination--this, too, although the freight, when measured
bushel by bushel by the con