Page:History of merchant shipping and ancient commerce (Volume 3).djvu/656

 unclassed ships, but the latter were allowed to gradually drop out, until the 'Register' contained almost exclusively classed ships. Few particulars at that time were given of the vessels beyond the tonnage (old), the date and place of build, the captain's and owner's names, and the port of registry.

The rules as first issued for the building of wood ships were brief and general, but slight reference being made to wood steamers, which were then few in number. The first iron vessels classed in the Register Book were the Sirius, of 180 tons, built at London in 1837, and the Ironside, built at Liverpool in 1838; they had the A 1 class assigned without a term of years, and iron vessels were subsequently classed in the same way until 1854, when rules for their construction were framed, twelve A 1, nine A 1, and six A 1 classes, respectively, being assigned under those rules. In 1863 the mode of classing iron ships was altered to /Ā\ 1, /B̄\ 1, and /C̄\ 1. Rules for the building of composite ships (iron frames planked with wood) were devised in 1867, and the vessels were classed A 1 for a term of years. In 1870 new rules for the construction of iron ships were framed, based on the dimensions of vessels instead of on tonnage as formerly, and the class of iron vessels was altered from the monogram system indicated above to 100 A 1, 90 A 1, and 80 A 1; *