Page:History of merchant shipping and ancient commerce (Volume 2).djvu/459

 *priated for the discharge and stowage of timber; and all cotton and other merchandise (not being wooden goods) must be removed from the quays of most of the docks within forty-eight hours from the time of discharge. The bye-laws further embrace the conditions on which fires, exclusively confined to the consumption of coal or coke, may be used on board vessels in the docks, and all lights must consist of "oil lamps or candles contained in glass lanterns or globes."

The pilots, who still maintain an exclusive monopoly, are under the control of a Pilotage Committee elected from the members of the Mersey Board. Subject to the orders of this committee there is a superintendent of pilots, whose duties are of an arduous and responsible character. He has to see that full reports of all occurrences affecting this important service are furnished to him; that the Acts of Parliament and bye-laws are duly observed at the respective stations; and it is his especial duty to arrange that the pilot-boats at these stations are effectively occupied by day and night. He is required to visit occasionally, as time and circumstances admit, the whole of the stations, and record the particulars of his inspection. He is also required to make a strict and careful survey of every pilot-boat at least once every year, reporting upon her condition and equipment, as required by the bye-laws. It is further his duty every five years to visit and survey all the ports and anchorages, lights and lighthouses, buoys, beacons, and seamarks, a thorough knowledge of which is required from pilots on passing their