Page:History of merchant shipping and ancient commerce (Volume 3).djvu/494

 obtain anything like accuracy we ought to have before us, not merely the number of entries and clearances, but the actual number of persons conveyed by sea; for, without such data, we cannot hope to ascertain the comparative loss of life.

The Committee of 1836 had, nevertheless, sufficient information before them to arrive at certain sound conclusions; the more important of these being that the increase of disasters at sea arose, in a great measure, from the imperfect classification of ships which had existed up to 1834 (when the improved Society of Lloyd's Register was instituted) depending, as it had, almost exclusively on the age of the vessel; from the bad forms of vessels, arising from the defective system of admeasurement for tonnage dues, and from the shallow harbours where ships lay aground and were strained. The Committee likewise attributed the losses to the incompetency of masters and officers, and to their habits of intemperance, as well as to that of the crews; to the system of marine insurance; to the want of harbours of refuge; to the imperfection of charts; and, strange to add, to the "competition*