Page:History of merchant shipping and ancient commerce (Volume 3).djvu/652

 APPENDIX No. 12.

Lloyd's Register of British and Foreign Shipping.

Although no records have been preserved—what a mass of knowledge must have been lost during the "dark ages"!—there can be no doubt that from the earliest period, at least during the plenitude of the Maritime Power of the Phœnicians, some means must have been adopted to show that a ship was seaworthy, and, as little doubt, that the relative qualities of ships, in this respect, were classified, and, if not recorded in any public documents, were, at least, well known to all persons interested in shipping. However much the world may have changed, human nature remains the same; and the merchants and Shipowners of ancient times must have desired, as they do now, to know if the vessel in which they embarked, or in which they shipped their goods, was fit to carry them safely: from this desire would, naturally, arise the competition of one Shipowner to have a better vessel than his neighbour, so that he might secure a preference. Nor can I suppose that this natural rivalry was confined, any more then than it is now, to the superiority in strength of hull, but was extended to equipment and speed. Indeed, that such was the case is established by the unquestioned records handed down to us of ancient vessels, including that in which St. Paul made his celebrated voyage of which I have given an account in the early portions of this work.

That the Italian Republics had some sort of classification for their vessels we may feel even more certain, although, unfortunately, throughout all time, no historians seem to have considered shipping worthy of their pen—how strange, considering the part it has played in the history of the world! for we find that they went so far as to stipulate by law that no vessel should be laden beyond a certain depth. It is, therefore, reasonable to conclude that they had means of ascertaining the relative qualities of vessels, and that records of these were kept and made public for the guidance of underwriters, whom we know then existed, and of all persons who required to entrust their lives or goods in them. It would, therefore, be absurd to deny the existence of institutions, till a very recent period, of some sort or another which had for their object the classification of ships, because no account of them has been written or preserved.

I dare say the Ancient Britons knew, among themselves, per