THREE-MASTED TELESCOPES.

South Canterbury Times, Issue 2164, 24 February 1880, Page 2

THREE-MASTED TELESCOPES.

[to the editor.] Sir, —May I, through the medium of your paper, draw the attention of the promoters of harbor regulations to the fact that a ship does not look very graceful sitting on her heel all day of a Sunday and out of sailing trim ? I have noticed it at times, and it suggests to me that there will he another shameful case of shipwreck in comparative fine weather if there is not some harbor regulations brought to bear on the matter. It is not very safe to send a ship to sea if first the question has not been asked from the signal station ready? ” or to.'say—“ Get ready for sea.” In a case of shipwreck that occurred at this port not long since, it was proved that the ship had been laying for days out of sailing trim. I think every night, if it is seen that a ship is not in sailing trim, she ought to be signalled —“Trim your ship ; ” and it would not be out of the way to get a reply to the question—- “ Are you ready for lifting the anchor?” or “Weigh anchor.” The officer in charge could answer those questions before dark. My next suggestion is that someone ought to know whether the ship is fitted with hatchways for proper discharging, or if they arc arranged for keeping the ship in trim while they are discharging in an open roadstead, because it is an unpleasant thing to ask men to trim ship after they have done a day’s work discharging. The owner may be a “ greenhorn ” and may neither know or care what it is to be caught in a gale of wind after a day’s work is done, with a ship out of trim, hatchways to secure, boats to lash, anchor to pick up, make sail,and keep the wind on at the same time. Now and then a ship may .be seen in a kind of trim that makes her appear as if she were looking out for the sea serpent, or star gazing like a telescope above the horizon. After an accident it is impossible to tell who is the responsible cause of a ship being so much out of a level keel. An error may be described this way. If the Landing Service refuses to stack the cargo boat aft, and they take 25 tons of coals out of the fore-hat chwa}', it necessitates the removal of 12A- tons from the after-hatchway to be dragged along the deck to the fore-hatching, in order to trim ship, so as to be able without risk to face an underway gale of wind. Perhaps a photograph in a dead calm may answer the purpose for all the above signals.—l am, &c. SALT.