Gulf. During the period of their continuance, and for some time afterwards, a person may feel himself secure from an attack of yellow fever, as they drive away, with hurricane-like violence, the mass of stagnant air hovering over the city, and charged with miasmata throwing in a volume of the fresh sea - breeze to occupy its place, and in its turn also to become corrupted. A person is somewhat at a loss, in ranging through the town, to conceive, during the first few days of his residence, the cause of this deadly distemper; but on searching farther, he discovers that, in addition to the dirtiness which characterises the interior economy of the less respectable houses, the various pools of stagnant water lying in the vicinity of the town have a strong tendency, from the rank steam exhaled under the fervid sun of the tropics, to produce the effect.

MEANS PROPOSED FOR MANNING THE NAVY.

To the Editor of the Nautical Magazine.

MUCH has been said, and much written, on the means of manning the navy little (I think nothing) has been done (notwithstanding Sir James Graham's bill,) towards this desirable end-an end absolutely necessary to attain, before impressment can be dispensed with.

Now, although I really believe that the British navy is rapidly becoming the service, of all others, which good, orderly, seamen will prefer, yet this opinion, though I think pretty general amongst those who have the means of observation, will not, however, justify a Government in relying too much upon voluntary service; which, though it probably will always in future man our navy, will certainly not do it in that prompt manner absolutely necessary in times of war, or threatened danger. Indeed, this is apparent from the collecting of a crew for a king's ship at present. When a pendant is hoisted, it is probable there are at the port where the ship is, and in London, ten times the number of men the ship wants, and of men perhaps intending to enter his Majesty's service, yet they must have time to spend their money; and they have a spree of John Bull, which pleases them, in strutting about, and shewing their independence for a time, before the very officers under whom they have probably determined to serve. All this will not do in times of war and emergency.

Therefore I beg, through your pages, Mr. Editor, to suggest a plan for effectually manning the navy; every man for which (strange as the assertion may appear) shall join it with his own deliberate and recorded consent. It is simply this :--

Let every seaman, before he can be admitted (by law) eligible to demand the pay of such, on board any merchant ship, or be

admitted to be counted as an able seaman in any such ship's crew, be obliged to serve an apprenticeship for a certain number of years, not less than five, concluding with his 21st year; let it be a condition of such indenture of apprenticeship (and more solemnly entered into than at present) that he then joins his Majesty's service for three years, into which he is to be received with the rating and pay of an able seaman. A substitute may be allowed here, to enable superior education and abilities to get on direct in the merchant service, for to such the service in the navy would be an unnecessary loss of time; after which the man (as well he who has found a substitute as the one who has served, provided he can satisfactorily shew that he has been serving in the merchant service, and then as something more than before the mast) is to be admitted an able seaman; his indenture of apprenticeship endorsed, with his subsequent services then registered: he is then a free young fellow of twenty-four years, never to be subject to serve again, either in the navy or any public service whatever, short of that which demands every one--a levy en masse. What will not this sort of training produce? The man-after his servitude in the merchant service has laid the foundation, upon which three years' practice and discipline in the navy have operated to make him a good, orderly, and obedient sailor-will then become, when rejoining the merchant service, what is rarely to be found now, a seaman who has learnt to respect his superiors, one who has had such a training as will in all probability restrain him from evil habits for the rest of his life, without having been adrift amongst crimps and sea lawyers.

Here is the great bulk (sufficient old hands will always be found in it) of the seamen provided for the navy, without bounty, and discharged not only without pension, but they have probably been made good and useful members of society, (a credit to the navy somewhat new,) from their being obliged to extend their apprenticeship as it were (between the two services it must be contrived that there be no interval) till twenty-four years of age; indeed they do not become, properly speaking, of age till that time. Years of discretion are postponed till that period of life; and it will readily be admitted that such rare period in the life of man is more likely to be attained by this seaman of twenty-four, than with those boys cast adrift at the end of their sea apprenticeship ever reaching it, during their natural existence.

Now, I can see no possible hardship in this regulation. The state has an undoubted right to the service of every man; it can ballot the man on shore, in time of war, for the militia; (for which I have paid £20 for a substitute;) it may select the gentleman for a sheriff; also, for the grand jury and constable of the parish, in both which latter capacities I have myself been obliged to serve; as a petty juryman; a witness, prosecutor, &c. And, what hard

ships are we proposing to inflict upon a young man who intends to make the sea his pursuit ? why, a condition on our part (the public) to provide him, first, the knowledge of a seaman; next, a certainty of three years' good pay and service, when he has completed the first part of his duties to the public, his apprenticeship; next, clean comfortable quarters, good and abundant food, medical care, (the attendance as on a child when sick,) habits of order and personal cleanliness, example, and means enforced of attendance on divine worship, the conscious pride of a man who has served his country; and, last, by the completion of a service which, coupled with the continuance of the sober and good habits he will have learnt, will enable him to earn a living for the remainder of his life as a free sailor, with credit to himself, and exempt from all compulsory service as long as he lives.

The register already provided by Sir James Graham's bill will serve to record every indenture; and there can be no difficulty in devising other means to oblige the youth to complete what he has agreed to at the outset, amongst which might be enumerated an obligation on the part of the master to retain a portion of the wages of the apprentice, to so far ensure his being forthcoming; an application on the part of the register office six months before the expiration of the indenture to the master, to render an account of where the boy is, where his parents live, (if any,) or his guardians; notice to them that his services are expected, and will be looked after; repetition of such notice in three months; and again at the expiration of the period. At which time, if the young man is not forthcoming voluntarily, take him by any means, and put him on board a man-of-war going on a foreign station. If this latter measure is required, (which I think will seldom be the case,) it is doing a great good to the young man, in the first place, and next to the public; it will teach him that a solemn engagement is not to be broken with impunity, and it will save the public against the probable consequence of such a one as thinks so, being allowed at that period of life to choose his own pursuits, in defiance of right, and of power.

Many other methods might be added to carry effectually into execution this measure, adding fine on both master and parents if they obstructed it; it is however my firm belief, that, long before the period could arrive that would bring the measure into operation, the confirmed opinion of seamen in favour of the public naval service, would render all but forms unnecessary, in carrying into execution this measure. And thus I think may be turned into account the machinery already prepared by Sir James Graham's bill, and in a much more efficacious manner than he ever contemplated. I am, Sir, your obedient servant, A SKIPPER.

TABLE XXVII.

For reducing French Fathoms to English, and English Fathoms to French.

36 31.973

40.534

37 32.861

41.660

38

39

88

33.749

42.786

34-637

43.912

78 69.275

34 30.197 38.282 73 64.834 35 31.085 39.408 74 65.722 83.320 66.610 84.446 67.499 85.572 850 754-917 957.059 68.387 86.698 900 799-324 1013-356 87.824 1000 888-138 1125.951

82.194

600 532-883 675.571 650 577-290 731.868 700 621-697 788-166 750 666.103 844-463

800 710-510 900-761

MARINE INSURANCE.

To the Editor of the Nautical Magazine.

18th December, 1835.

SIR,-Some months back I had the pleasure of addressing a letter to you, in which I slightly alluded to the communication of Mr. Ballingall, expressing my disagreement from his propositions; since that time I have been actively engaged in the actual business of ship-owning, and have had but little time at my command to write upon the subject. However, I have always contrived to steal leisure to peruse your publication, in which I have been sorry to observe continual attacks (for I must call them attacks) on the order of society in which I am included, founded on, as it seems to me, shear ignorance of the subject. Perhaps, under this view, it is not worth while to reply to them, as most persons reading the Nautical must be aware of the errors. However, as I find that papers, to which you have given wings, light in societies not conversant with the subject, I beg leave to intrude so far on your pages as to give you the facts of the case, so far at least as a London ship-owner of some thirty years' standing can comprehend them, and upon which he has acted in such his occupation. I am sorry to even offer to make your pages the arena for an argumentative combat, as I had rather see them more usefully occupied with practical, hydrographical, and nautical information; but when I see mistatements and false deductions repeated monthly, I think it is no more than a debt to such part of the community who may not be informed in these affairs, for some one to give them the real facts. I deprecate all contradiction of Mr. Ballingall, or his adherents; I presume we both have the same object, viz. the best mode of conducting the mercantile marine of Britain, which, as in every other business under the sun, must eventually be that mode most consonant with straight-forward honesty.

From the letters and papers I have seen scattered through the periodicals lately, it appears to me that the principal positions of the writers are these First, that the mode of calculating the tonnage of vessels is a primary cause that merchant-ships are misconstructed.

This is I believe originally a bantling of Captain Symonds; but whence its importance as a deteriorating cause in merchant building I cannot tell, except that some collector of the customs, in whose eye the 4d. or 5d. per ton is all-powerful, has suggested the idea.

The only imports I know of charged directly, and dependent on the registered tonnage, are the tonnage duties and the lighthouse dues. Now, suppose a vessel of two hundred registered tons make short over-sea voyages, say two returns to England in a NO. 49.-VOL. V.

X