ther, on the sea, on the casualties; and the discovery by experiment
of new apparatus and appliances to diminish maritime disaster.

He had called the attention of two governments to this matter, and he
hoped that before long there would be proposed an international
congress--such as the postal, telegraph, and sanitary congresses, and
the international convention to fix the common meridian--by one of the
maritime powers, by which would be founded an international institution
to diminish casualties at sea. He recommended a universal system of
buoys. The great losses of life and property every year were worthy the
devotion of L300,000 by an international institution, which would be
much less than the monthly average loss in navigation.

Admiral Pim said that ships were improperly built--some were ten times
longer than their beam. There was nothing in the world so ticklish as a
ship; touch her in the waist, and down she goes. He believed sailing
ships ought not to exceed four times their beam, and steamers certainly
not more than six times. He pointed out that a fruitful cause of
accidents was the stopping of steaming all at once in the case of
impending collision, by which the rudder lost control of the vessel. If
constructors looked more to the form of the ships, and got them to steer
better, collisions would be avoided.

The Lord Advocate said it had always occurred to him that one great
secret of collisions at sea was the present system of lights, which made
it impossible for the vessel at once to inform another vessel what it
was about. The method of signaling was very crude, and he ventured to
say that it was quite out of date when vessels met each other at a rate
of speed of 24 to 25 knots. He had, as an amateur, tried a method which
he would attempt to explain. His idea was to fit up a lantern on deck,
showing an electric light. The instrument would be controlled by the
rudder, and the commanding officer of the vessel would be able so to
turn it when the helm was put up or down that the light would flash at
some distance in front of either bow of the vessel, and thus be a signal
to a vessel coming in an opposite direction. When the helm was
amidships, the light was shown straight ahead, and could not be moved
until the helm was shifted. The direction in which the vessel was going
could not by any possibility be mistaken, and it was plain that if the
lights from two ships crossed each other, then there was danger.