Note 140 — Chapter XI

The rule is to measure the length of the ship in a straight line along the deck, deducting from the length what is due to the rake of the bow, as also to the stern timber, and to divide the length thus taken into from four to twelve equal parts, according to the size of the ship. At each of these divisions the breadth is taken and the depth at each point of the division, and by making certain allowances, which the Act specifies in minute detail, the capacity of each section or compartment is thus accurately obtained. When the products of these are ascertained, the register tonnage is obtained by means of an easy mode of calculation, alike applicable, and equitably applicable, I must add, to ships of any size and every conceivable form. Of course this tonnage is subject to additions or deductions (which have sometimes been the cause of much controversy) for poops, top-gallant forecastles, houses, and other enclosed spaces on deck, which are all additions to the tonnage, while the large spaces occupied by engines, boilers, and coal-bunkers in steamers are deductions from it. Altogether it would not be easy to concoct a more just and wise mode of ascertaining the register tonnage of merchant vessels than that which Mr. Moorson, a man of remarkable genius, after years of labour, submitted for the consideration of Government, and which, through the instrumentality of Mr. Farrer, was in a great measure, adopted and embodied into the Merchant Shipping Act of 1854. I look back, as one of the pleasing reminiscences of my public life, to the hours I spent with Mr. Moorson in going through the details of his scheme before it was submitted to the public; but, though I may have ventured to offer an amendment here and there, as others may have done, the merit of the scheme belongs to him alone. It is now adopted by nearly all maritime nations. Mr. Moorson was the most modest of men; and I have the greatest pleasure in adding my humble testimony to the public labours of this most excellent and unassuming man.