Edward James, Esq., the late Swedish consul, has translated it into Swedes: Mr. Fowler, the French consul, into French; Mr. Vildosola, the Spanish consul, into Spanish; and Mr. St. George D'Arcy Irvine, into Italian. Finland claims you and Mr. Spoof for its sons; but henceforth you are citizens of the world. All nations are interested in the brave, the intrepid, the humane. Let your future conduct evidence a life devoted to the cause of benevolence to the whole family of man, and you will secure not only the approbation of men, but of your own consciences, and of your God. Cultivate the knowledge of the English language; it will open to you its stores of arts, sciences, literature, and theology. Acknowledge God in all your ways, and he will direct your paths through this wilderness world to mansions of eternal blessedness. Study daily the bibles which have been presented to you, they will make you wise unto salvation. Let brotherly love continue between you and Mr. Spoof; you are calculated to aid and assist each other through life; there is no foreseeing to what honour and respectability you may attain; take large and liberal views; let nothing prevent your harmony and friendship; be true to each other, and look upward for a divine blessing on your exertions for each other's welfare. The prayers and the blessings of Britons attend you.” Similar cases of extreme suffering have within the last few years occurred to a most alarming extent. Not less than fifty ships became waterlogged during the month of November, 1835, and the sufferings of their crews baffled all description. Several during the same and following month in 1836; and, although there are not so many wrecks on record during the past year, it may fairly be asked, from whence all this destruction of lives and property arises? Is it, or is it not, practicable to construct and send ships to sea in a state sufficient to contend with the weather invariably met with at such a season of the year in those latitudes? If it be not, then they ought not to be sent out at so late a season. If it be, then why is such loss both of lives

and property, annually to be found on record?

The Caledonian, as stated by the master of her, was in good condition when she left Quebec, and was stated to have had no deck load, and which is no doubt correct.

It is a lamentable fact, that the greater part of losses and sufferings as those of the Caledonian, are occasioned by the defective state and worn-out condition of the vessels employed in the North American timber trade, which are in many cases over-laden, half-manned, and having all the provisions, and water stowed upon deck. The few hands they have on board, are weakened from constant inebriety and excesses while in port; for, it is well known, that ships in this trade can seldom get a man on board until the day of sailing; and then with much difficulty, and too frequently in a drunken, insensible condition. No effectual assistance can be obtained from the civil authorities. The crews of ships desert, and take up their abodes in the lowest description of liquor shops, and lodging-houses, where the nightly

scenes of drunkenness, riot, and confusion, is disgraceful to a sea-port under the government of a nation like England. They abound with dissipation in all its frightful shapes, where murders and other crimes are committed with impunity in the quarrels which nightly take place among raftmen, labourers, and deserters from the ships, all in a state of wild excitement. How many of these, it may be asked, have assisted in the present disturbance in Canada, who, leaving the sea-ports after the close of the shipping season, go into the back settlements, ready to become willing instruments in the hands of those men who have raised the standard of revolt against their legitimate government? They would think as little of doing so as of joining in riots in the seaports. Such characters cannot fail, from their very habits, to accelerate the many melancholy losses of timber ships, and the excessive sufferings of the crews.

The crews of waterlogged ships, of all other wrecks at sea, suffer the most. It is oftener their fate, than the crews of any others vessels, to speak

"Of lots for flesh and blood,

And who should die, to be his fellow's food?"

driven to the same dreadful alternative as the survivors of the Caledonian, and perishing one after the other in a manner too shocking to dwell on. It is not to be denied, that ships are employed in the timber trade, when too old and crazy for any others, under the impression, that although they may fill with water, they will not sink. Proving there are men who have the hardihood to send such ships to sea after all the sufferings which have been undergone, arising from those causes,-causes which ought no longer to exist. Men, who are the authors of this suffering, if placed in the perilous situations which their cupidity occasions, would be the first to show fear, for it is a well-known principle, that those who evince less feeling for the sufferings of others, are, in times of danger, the greatest cowards. These men, although they have the temerity to send ships to sea plastered up with lime and mortar, and who flourish, and increase their wealth, regardless of the sufferings of others, would not venture as far as the Scilly Islands in them, much less across the Atlantic in the month of November, over-laden with timber from a port in North America.

While these men, grasping at every farthing which it is possible to obtain, place others in command who are incompetent to navigate a ship; and who, to meet their avaricious views, and thus gain the favour of their employers, would stow the salt junk in the fore-top, and water in the main, and turn the crew out of their comfortless berths below, to more comfortless ones on deck, dreaming of nothing but applause for loading a ship above her rough-tree-nails, and having filled up every space below, so that a rat could scarcely find an entrance, and taking nothing to account, but what will return a profit to their masters, they make themselves quite easy on the subject, and free their own property from all risk of loss by insurance.

The existing evils are deep rooted, and made up of a combination of causes; which, until removed, the same effects will always follow. Many a bad system has been put down, when every other means have failed, by that powerful engine, the public press; and so must this. Public attention has been now more particularly drawn to the sufferings of the crews of waterlogged ships by the proceedings at Bristol, and this, it is hoped, will lead to enquiry: when that enquiry takes place, it will be found that the principal causes of the extensive loss, both of lives and property, in the mercantile marine of this country, and more particularly in the timber trade, may be classed under the following heads:

First. The cheap system of ship-building, introduced at some of the out-ports, and also in the North American colonial ports.

Second. The system pursued in purchasing worn-out ships, and sending them for cargoes of timber, without the slightest repair, or examination; some of them from 300 to 400 tons, purchased for a few hundred pounds.

Third. Inattention to the stowage of timber cargoes, by which a great part of the weight is brought to bear on the ends of the ship, or the beam fastenings loosened.

Fourth. Ships whose frames are defective, carrying heavy deckloads.

Fifth. No protection being afforded to the commanders of vessels against the impositions practised, which prevents them from paying attention to the general arrangements necessary to insure the safety of a ship previous to her proceeding to sea.

Sixth. The existing loose manner in which both officers and crews are at present placed, in reference to each other, occasioning the entire absence of either order or discipline, as are evidenced by the daily complaints at the Thames Police office in London, and other sea-ports, on this head.

Seventh. The half-manned way in which ships leave a port; instead of a muster being enforced, and a certificate produced to show she is properly manned on the clearing papers being signed.

Eighth. The want of placing all officers in the merchant service on a more respectable footing, and holding them more responsible for the duties they engage to perform, classing them agreeably to their character and qualification on a register at the port to which they belong, and from which they should be warranted.

Ninth. A want of proper attention to the victualling and lodgings of the crews, and their general comfort while on a voyage, now left to the caprice of a single individual, and not established by law, as in government ships!

Tenth. The want of a fixed establishment in the colonial ports to insure qualified and respectable men to superintend the stowage of cargoes.

ENLARGED SERIES.-NO. 4.-VOL. FOR 1838.

2 H

Eleventh. The construction, fastening, and other necessary considerations, without which, a ship should not be considered seaworthy. A ship may be so constructed, as to bring a cargo of timber from America, across the Atlantic, at any season of the year; and, it is no less certain, that it is the very defective state, both of framing, planking, and fastenings, bad stowage of cargoes, &c., which occasion the numerous losses of ships, and the heart-rending sufferings that annually take place in ships employed in the North American timber trade. If ships are bought for, and employed in, this trade, after running off their first letter A 1, in others, to ensure their safety, it is necessary to re-fasten them throughout; to introduce a seven-inch plank outside the framing, to secure the lower beam fastenings through; to cut down the overhanging of the stern, and build it up solid, leaving only two hanging ports; and to appropriate a portion of the ship altogether clear of the cargo for the crew to lodge in, a measure too often entirely lost sight of, as also a secure place for a proportion of the provisions and water.

Great care is necessary in stowing a timber cargo, not to let any part of the weight rest on the ends of the ship, or on the beams, neither should the wedging under the beams be too heavy, as the beam fastenings are frequently started by that means, occasioning the first commencement of leaking at sea.

The whole weight of a timber cargo should be brought to bear as near as possible on the centre flooring of a ship, and the heaviest woods kept in a midships, and as low as possible; that is, if the cargo is to consist of hard woods and fir, the former should be stowed between the fore and after-hatchways, and kept in the centre; while the light woods should be stowed at the ends and in the wings, care being taken to keep every tier at least three to four inches short of the skin of the vessel, both forward, and abaft; resting the ends of the timber on the skin in those parts of the ship, particularly if it comes in the way of a butt-end, may prove fatal; as timber, when a ship is labouring heavily, will work fore and aft. Heavy logs have been known to have shifted their position considerably during a passage. The working of the stapling of deals or timber athwart, will always take place in heavy weather, but this is not of so much importance, provided it does not rest on the beams. If it does, it will in all probability break them, or loosen the fastenings. There is no cargo that requires so much attention in stowing (with the exception of iron and other dead weights) for the safety of a ship, as a timber cargo. Many ships, returning with mahogany cargos, have become waterlogged, occasioned by the cargo being improperly stowed; and, in the North American trade, no regulations are established; in order to ensure cargos being properly stowed for the safety of ship and crews. That such regulations may shortly be made, and the whole system of our mercantile marine looked into, is the sincere wish of RODMOND.

REFRIGERATING STEAM ENGINE CONDENSEMENT.

Bowlingbay, Glasgow, 17th February, 1838. MR. EDITOR,-I observe in your number for this month, a drawing and description of a method for condensing by outward application, on board of steam vessels, called "Symington's plan for Refrigerating Steam Engine Condensement."

Without wishing in any way to detract from Mr. Symington's merits, I now beg to send you a drawing of a method for condensing on board of steam vessels, which I invented, and submitted to several engineers in this quarter, about four or five years ago, but which was never put into actual practice, although several experiments on it were made.

You will observe that it is different from Mr. Symington's method, inasmuch, that instead of taking the condensing pipes outside of the vessel, they are confined to the unoccupied space betwixt the keelsons, thereby rendering them perfectly safe from all external injury, which is not the case with Mr. Symington's plan; and, indeed, I cannot see how that gentleman can even put his method to effectual use, owing to their great liability to be injured, should the vessel take the ground, or otherwise come in contact with external substances.

Referring to the drawing, I will now give the following explanation of its mode of operation. The above figures are different sections of a steam vessel. A A are two long boxes, made of iron, placed between the keelsons, and passing below the engines, boilers, &c.; in these boxes are contained small copper tubes, connected with the eduction pipes, ranging fore and aft the vessel. B B, holes through the vessel's bows, into which, as the vessel moves, water will naturally rush, and make its exit at C C, holes through the runs of the vessel. The water in passing through the vessel, will effectually condense, or distil, the steam from the cylinder, and will be pumped back to the boilers, which will thus be kept free from salt and other incrustations.

Should any of your readers be induced to make trial of this method, or have any improvements to suggest, I hope they will make the same known through the medium of your journal, as I feel confident that the method of condensing by outward application, on board of steam vessels, will soon become universal.

I am, Sir, your most obedient servant,

GEORGE MILLS, Shipbuilder.