Two Petitions.

I. FROM SEAMEN FOR HELP AGAINST THE DANGERS OF THE SEA.

II. FROM THE "SHIPPING INTEREST" OF MONTREAL.

(handwritten, is the year 1890 but this was not printed on the paper.)

The following petitions, which have been presented to the Hon. The Minister of Marine, are now printed, with the signatures, for general circulation, in the hope of exciting a much needed public interest in a matter of the greatest practical usefulness to seamen, passengers, merchants and all interested in the shipping a commerce of Canada, directly or indirectly; and in the hope, further, that the publication may aid in obtaining from Parliament, the money grant necessary for securing the aids against the dangers to navigation pointed out by the petitioners.

Petitions having the same object have been presented by Boards of Trade also and other public bodies.

The first petition, signed by nearly 400 (the exact number is 393) of the most experienced navigators, points out the cause of a large number of shipwrecks, and of a great loss of life and property to Canada-and it shows that in the opinion of those best qualified to judge, it is to a large extent preventable. It shows that:--

(a) The information concerning currents in Canadian water supplied to mariners is utterly insufficient for safe navigation.

(b) That, in their opinion, a sufficient knowledge of the currents can be procured by Government efforts.

(c) That they believe that they will be able to use the knowledge so obtained to diminish the dangers of the sea.

The second petition points out the special form which the desired information might take, viz., Tide-tables for Canadian waters, and shows that similar practical information is supplied for the waters surrounding the British Islands.

A short explanation of the dangers may be useful. In clear weather, a vessel near the coast, in daylight, has the coast itself as a guide in avoiding the dangers of shoals, hidden rocks, &c.,; at night time, the light-houses serve the same purpose.

Of the necessity of lights for safe navigation no one doubts. Yet the lights are practically extinguished by fogs or hazy weather.

As a partial remedy in such cases, fog-horns, steam-whistles, guns, &c., are placed at stations along the coasts. These are unquestionably often useful; but they cannot be relied on; they are not, and from the nature of the case they cannot be, efficient substitutes for the lighthouses.

A shipmaster on hearing a fog signal has to judge the position of his vessel by estimating the distance of the source of sound, which may be two or ten or twenty miles away. On his success in this estimate often depends the safety of the ship. But his task is complicated by the well established fact that the fog-signal which in some conditions of the air may be heard at a distance of twenty miles, may in another condition not be heard at the distance of four miles or three, or even two miles. The faintness of a sound is therefore no proof that the signal station is far off; it may be close at hand. Often, too, the signal is not heard at all, though the station is comparatively near. Moreover, it appears that these facts are not as yet generally know to shipmasters, though the knowledge is spreading. Hence, estimating the distance of the coast by fog signals is, to too a large extent, guess work.

The use of the sounding line as a check may give uncertain results also. The soundings for example, may be similar for many miles round the position of the ship.

The unknown currents are the great cause of danger. Were it not for these, the shipmaster might direct his course by the compass and log-line. But for want of the information which should be supplied to him by the State, he cannot tell in what direction or what rate these currents are carrying him from his course. If this knowledge be supplied to him by the Government, he can, by merely drawing three lines on his chart, tell the direction in which he ought to steer, in order that his ship should travel along the desired course, and he can tell her rate in that course.

A ship in a fog may be roughly pictured as having

A GAME OF BLINDMAN'S-BUFF AT SEA

In the children's game, the boy who is blinded guides himself in a large room by touching the furniture; this corresponds to the sounding-line of the ship touching bottom; or else, the voices of his friends warn him if he is in danger, these correspond to the fog-horns, &c., (with the drawbacks to the latter spoken of above). But in the children's game there is no source of danger corresponding to the unknown currents. To picture this we should have to imagine some contrivance by which the whole floor should slide away in some unknown direction, carrying the boy with it, while the walls and furniture remain in their places.

But what is a slight shock for the boy who mistakes his course, may be destruction for the ship.

With a proper knowledge of the currents, however, (for which an accurate knowledge of the rise and fall of the tide along the coast is indispensable) the ship would be better off than the boy. For with this, the captain could depend on his compass and log to give him a safe course to his port. It is earnestly hoped that the Parliament of the Dominion may make a sufficient grant to provide this, which the seamen of the Dominion so anxiously pray for.

ALEXANDER JOHNSON, Secretary, Committee of Royal Society of Canada.
Chairman, Committee of British Association,
for the promotion of Tidal observations in Canada.
Montreal, February, 1890.

For

HELP AGAINST THE DANGERS OF THE SEA.

To the Hon. The Minister of Marine of Canada;

We, the undersigned Masters and Officers of vessels engaged in the navigation of the Gulf of St. Lawrence, and of the waters on the Atlantic coast of the Dominion of Canada and Newfoundland, desire earnestly and respectfully to petition the Government and Parliament of Canada, that they would promptly take such steps as they may deem advisable to obtain as thorough a knowledge as possible of the currents in these waters, whether due to the tides or to any other cause, and to distribute amongst mariners the information obtained.

We believe that the serious loss of life and property due to shipwrecks attributable to "unknown currents" during fogs or hazy weather, may thus be greatly diminished. In such weather these currents are a cause of great anxiety and danger.

PETITION
OF THE "SHIPPING INTEREST" OF MONTREAL

To the Hon. C.H. Tupper, Minister of marine:--

We, the undersigned, representing the shipping interest of Montreal, desire earnestly and respectfully to draw the attention of the Dominion Government to the urgent need for additional provision for the safe navigation of the Gulf and River St. Lawrence and the neighboring waters.

We respectfully submit that all such aids as have been provided by governments elsewhere ought to be provided here, and we would on the present occasion point out one special deficiency in Canada, namely, the absence of such information to mariners as is supplied by the Imperial Government through the Lords of the Admiralty in the Tide-tables of British and Irish ports. These tables, published annually, give not only the important facts connected with the change in the depth of water, due to the rise and fall of the tide at numerous points on the coasts, but also supply very full information about the currents in the waters surrounding the British Islands, whether due to the action of the tides, or influenced by atmospheric causes. Of the urgent need of similar information for Canadian waters, the annual wreck list published by the Government is sufficient proof. The losses caused by the want of adequate knowledge of the tides and currents in foggy or hazy weather are very great. Shipmasters are unanimous, as far as has been ascertained, in their anxious desire for information on the subject.

We would further respectfully urge, not only that action be taken in the matter, but that the action should be immediate; for, although one year's observations at fixed stations will, as we are informed, supply sufficient information to permit tables to be published for high and low water which shall be tolerably correct, yet the necessary observations on the currents will occupy some years, and every year before their completion will show its list of preventable wrecks.

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