Page:History of merchant shipping and ancient commerce (Volume 3).djvu/519

 given to the Board of Trade to detain any ship for the purpose of survey, to impose conditions as to her repair, and to enforce alterations in loading. The Commissioners do not consider it necessary or desirable to extend these already stringent and arbitrary powers, in order to prevent unseaworthy vessels from leaving any port in the United Kingdom. On the,contrary, they suggest certain modifications of those powers, so as to make ''their action more prompt than it is at present'', in which all differences must be referred to the Board of Trade in the case of detention, the owner having power of appeal in England to any court having Admiralty jurisdiction, and in Scotland to the Sheriffs' Court; they further recommend that the master or owner of the vessel thus detained may be permitted to appeal to the shipping master or collector of customs, who should be vested with authority, when necessary, to appoint two or more competent shipmasters, to constitute a court whose decision should be final. They at the same time express the hope, that, when these modifications are adopted, "the detention of vessels notoriously overladen or otherwise unseaworthy will gradually compel negligent Shipowners to be more attentive or to abandon the trade; worthless ships will be broken up, and the eventual weeding out of such ships will not only add to the safety of a seafaring