Papers Relating to the Foreign Relations of the United States, Transmitted to Congress, With the Annual Message of the President, December 1, 1873

No. 153.
General Schenck to Mr. Fish.

Legation of the United States,
London, January 23, 1873. (Received February 10.)

No. 335.]

Sir: With reference to my No. 329 I have now the honor to inclose herewith copies of a note which Lord Granville, addressed to me on the 17th instant, and of my reply, together with copies of a circular from the board of trade, and a memorandum which has been drawn up at that department, in regard to the laws in force in this country respecting the inspection of the machinery, hull, and equipments of steamships.

I am, &c.,

ROBT. C. SCHENCK.

[Inclosure No. 1.]

Earl Granville to General Schenck.

Foreign Office, January 17, 1873.

Sir: I referred to the board of trade the copy of the letter to Mr. Fish from the Treasury Department at Washington, dated the 8th of August last, which you were good enough to communicate to me on the 2d of September, 1872, requesting information in regard to the laws in force in this country for the inspection of steamships, and I now have the honor to transmit to you, for the information of the United States Government, copies of a circular issued by the board of trade to their surveyors with regard to the machinery, hull, and equipments of steam-vessels, together with a copy of a memorandum which has been drawn up at that department upon the subject.

I have, &c.,

For Earl GRANVILLE.
(S’d) TENTERDEN.

[M 2482, 1872.]

Circular No. 591, board of trade, December, 1872.

instructions to surveyors of steamships, machinery, hull, and equipments.

This circular does not contain any new order or any fresh rule; it is merely an arrangement, in a condensed form, of the substance of various orders and circulars issued by the board of trade from time to time, and of rules acted on by the surveyors.

1. The machinery and boilers must be sufficient for the service intended and in good condition.

2. All inlets and outlets in the bottom or side of a vessel, near to, at, or below the deep load water-line must have cocks or valves fitted between the pipes and the ship’s side or bottom; such cocks or valves must be attached to the skin of the ship, and be so arranged that they can be easily and expeditiously opened or closed at any time. The cocks, valves, and the whole length of the pipes should be accessible at any time.

3. Stop-valves must, in every case, be fitted between the boilers and the steam-pipes, and the whole of the steam-pipes ought to be accessible at any time.

4. Each boiler must be fitted with a safety-valve so constructed as to be out of the control of the engineer when steam is up; but lifting or easing gear must be fitted.

5. The parliamentary safety-valve is, in all cases, to be of at least the same area as the ordinary safety-valve on the same boiler, and the pressure on the ordinary safety-valve is not to be less than that on the parliamentary safety-valve, and it is extremely desirable that there should be an ordinary safety-valve in addition to the parliamentary valve. The safety-valve should have at least an area of one-half square inch per every square foot of fire-grate surface, and care should be taken that the valve has sufficient lift, and that the waste-steam pipe is sufficiently large; and in the case of lever-valves, if the lever is not bushed with brass, the pins must be of brass; iron and iron working together must not be passed.

6. The pressure to which the boiler may be worked must be fixed by the surveyor in accordance with the strength of the boiler. In flat surfaces the pressure allowed should not exceed 5,000 pounds to each effective square inch of sectional area of stay.

7. No boiler or steam-chamber is to be so constructed, fitted, or arranged as that the escape of steam from it through the safety-valve required by the act of Parliament can be wholly or partially intercepted by the action of any other valve.

8. Each boiler must be fitted with water-gauge and steam-gauges, &c.; that is to say, each boiler must be fitted with all fittings as complete as if there was only one boiler.

9. Superheaters that cannot be easily entered must have a sufficient number of doors fitted, so that a thorough inspection of all parts of the superheater can be made through the openings.

10. Donkey-boilers that are in any way attached to or connected with the main boilers, or with the machinery used for propelling the vessel, must be surveyed and fitted the same as the main boilers, and have a water and steam-gauge, and all other fittings complete, including a parliamentary safety-valve.

11. The surveyor should see boilers tested, by hydraulic pressure, up to at least double the intended working pressure, previous to the boilers being placed in the vessel, to test the workmanship, &c, but the working pressure is to be determined by the stay power, thickness of plates, and strength of riveting, &c., and not by the hydraulic test. When the boilers are in the vessel the surveyor may, at any time he thinks it necessary, before he gives a declaration, have them tested by hydraulic pressure to satisfy himself as to any doubtful part, or of places not easy of access, care being taken in the case of old boilers not to overstrain them. Surveyors should also pay particular attention to the examination and testing of steam-pipes.

12. The hull of the vessel must be properly constructed, sufficient for the service intended, and in good condition.

13. There must be a sufficient number of scuppers and relieving-ports.

14. The coamings must be sufficiently high and strong.

15. The skylights must be strong and securely fitted, and, where necessary, shutters must be fitted for bad weather.

16. The bunker-lids must be so fitted that they can be easily and securely fastened.

17. The bulwarks must be of sufficient strength and height for the service intended.

18. All ports must be properly fitted and secured, and there should be some spare blanks or dead-lights in case any of the glasses get broken.

19. There must be rudder-pendants strongly secured to the rudder at the after part, so that the vessel can be steered in case of accident to the tiller or the rudder-head.

20. There must be in each compartment a hand-pump of sufficient size which can be worked from the upper deck, with a hose or perforated box of sufficient size for each pump. There ought to be fitted at the bottom of each bulk-head a valve or cock, which can be opened and shut from the upper deck, and there ought to be means for ascertaining the depth of water in each compartment.

21. In all sea-going screw-vessels there must be a strong water-tight deck over the cast-iron tube aft, so as to make a tank around the tube, and a properly fitted man-hole at the top or fore end. Collision bulk-heads ought to be fitted in sea-going vessels, and if they are not fitted the surveyor should note the fact.

22. The masts, sails, and rigging must be good and sufficient for the vessel.

23. The anchors must be of sufficient weight and number for the vessel, and the cables of sufficient strength and length. The spare anchors ought not to bestowed below, but kept ready in case they should be required.

24. The vessel must be supplied with a sufficient number of good hawsers.

25. A suitable gun or mortar must be provided with not less than twelve charges of powder inclosed in a proper magazine, and a powder flask or horn for priming; also twelve blue lights and twelve rockets with twelve sticks, but six of Holm’s patent storm and danger signal-lights, may be substituted for six blue lights or port-fires; and there must be provided cases for the rockets, blue lights, &c.

26. A fire-hose must be provided with a goose-neck and conductor, and so fitted that the hose can be connected either with the main or the donkey engine, and used with either. It must be of sufficient length to reach any part of the vessel, and also of sufficient strength to stand the pressure when the engines are working at full speed and with the conductor connected.

27. The side lights, mast-head, and anchor lights must be according to the regulations, and ought not to be less than as follows:

Side lights.—Port and starboard with lenses 8 inches across the chord of the arc and 5 inches in height and not less than one third of a circle, and the frames 11 inches in height, exclusive of the chimney, and 9 inches back and side, and to show over an arc of 10 points at a distance of two miles. The screens for the side lights should be at least 3 feet from I he front of the light and not fixed abaft the greatest beam of the vessel, and should not be secured to the rigging. The mast-head light to show 20 points at a distance of five miles. A fork should be fixed to the mast, and the lantern should be fitted so that the guides or eyes on the sides of it shall slip on to extended prongs of the fork. Anchor-light 8 inches diameter. The wicks of the lamps should be of from If inches to 2 inches, except when paraffine is used, then the wicks should not be less than 1 inch. When paraffine is used the lamps ought to be larger than the sizes given above.

28. Leads and lines must be provided and properly marked.

29. An efficient steam-whistle at least eight feet above the deck and situated forward of the funnel or, if there be more than one funnel, forward of the foremost funnel; also a bell and fog-horn should be provided.

30. Life-buoys with lines attached and fitted with a toggle and beckets, or other method by which they can be quickly thrown overboard, if required, and they must not be lashed or seized to the rail or any other part of the vessel, but must be kept so as to be ready at a moment’s notice in case of accident. The life-buoys must be made of cork, and not merely a canvas-ring stuffed with rushes, cork-shavings, or cuttings.

31. The accommodation for the passengers must be sufficiently lighted and ventilated.

32. There must be a sufficient number of properly adjusted compasses and deviation cards for the same.

33. The boats must be efficient and at least equal in cubic contents to the following table, fitted with a complete set of oars and some spare ones, two boat-hooks, two plugs, a proper and serviceable bailer, a set and a half of thole-pins or crutches. All of the plugs, bailers, and thole-pins must be made fast with lanyards and kept in the boats ready for use. Life-lines should be fitted to the davits long enough to reach the water when the vessel is light, and allowance made for the extreme roll of the ship, Lanyards should be fitted to the rudders of all the boats. The buoy and apparatus must go along the sides and into the ends of the life-boats and must be sufficient and properly secured. All boats should be hung in davits and kept ready for service at any moment.

Table of the dimensions of boats required to be earned by passenger-steamers. The measurement is taken outside for length and breadth, and inside for depth, measuring from top of gunwale.

Number of tons register.	EITHER—									OR—
	No. of boats.*	Dimensions.						Cubic contents.		No. of boats.†	Dimensions.						Cubic contents.
		Length		Breadth.		Depth					Length		Breadth.		Depth
		Ft.	in.	Ft.	in.	Ft.	in.	Ft.	in.		Ft.	in.	Ft.	in.	Ft.	in.	Ft.	in.
1,000 and upwards.	1	18	0	5	6	2	3	222	9	1	18	0	5	6	2	3	222	9
	2	24	0	5	6	2	6	660	0	2	24	0	5	6	2	6	660	0
	1	27	0	8	6	3	8	841	6	2	22	0	5	6	2	6	605	0
								1,724	3								1,487	9
	2‡	28	0	8	6	3	6	1,666	0	2‡	28	0	8	6	3	6	1,666	0
				Boats of									Boats of
	6							3,390	3	7							3,153	9
800 to 1,000	1	18	0	5	6	2	3	222	9	1	18	0	5	6	2	3	222	9
	2	26	0	6	6	2	8	901	4	2	26	0	6	6	2	8	901	4
	1‡	26	0	8	0	3	8	762	8	2	22	0	5	6	2	6	605	0
				Boats of									Boats of
	4							1,886	9	5							1,729	9
500 to 800	1	18	0	5	6	2	3	222	9	1	18	0	5	6	2	3	222	9
	2	24	0	5	6	2	6	660	0	2	24	0	5	6	2	6	660	0
	1‡	26	0	8	0	3	8	762	8	2	22	0	5	6	2	6	605	0
				Boats of									Boats of
	4							1,645	5	5							1,487	9
360 to 500	1	16	0	5	6	2	3	198	0	1	16	0	5	6	2	3	198	0
	2	24	0	5	6	2	6	660	0	2	24	0	5	6	2	6	660	0
	1‡	25	0	7	0	3	6	612	6	2	22	0	5	6	2	6	605	0
				Boats of									Boats of
	4							1,470	6	5							1,463	0
240 to 360	1	16	0	5	6	2	3	198	0	1	16	0	5	6	2	3	198	0
	1	22	0	5	6	2	5	292	5	1	22	0	5	6	2	5	292	5
	1‡	22	0	6	6	3	3	464	9	2	22	0	5	6	2	6	605	0
				Boats of									Boats of
	3							955	2	4							1,095	5
120 to 240	1	14	0	5	0	2	2	151	8	1	14	0	5	0	2	2	151	8
	1‡	20	0	6	0	3	0	360	0	2	22	0	5	6	2	6	605	0
				Boats of									Boats of
	2							511	8	3							756	8
60 to 120	1	14	0	5	0	2	2	151	8	1	14	0	5	0	2	2	151	8
	1‡	16	0	5	6	2	9	242	0	2	18	0	5	6	2	4	462	0
				Boats of
	2							393	8	3							613	8
Under 60	1‡	14	0	5	0	2	2	151	8

34. Builders, owners, and others would save themselves much trouble if they would, when in doubt, refer at an early moment to the Board of Trade; by neglecting to do so much valuable time or money may be unnecessarily expended. Surveyors should point out, as far as possible, when inspecting a vessel which is intended for the passenger trade, any defects or alterations they may deem necessary, so as to prevent delay to owners afterwards.

35. Delays and inconvenience may to a great extent be prevented if notice is given when a vessel which requires a certificate is undergoing repairs, or is in dry-dock for any other purpose; as this notice might obviate the occasional necessity of re-docking a vessel at an inconvenient time and at great expense, for the surveyors to examine the outside of the hull. In order to prevent delays at least three clear days’ notice in writing should be given when a survey is required. A form of application can be obtained at any mercantile marine office. The surveyors will attend to surveys in the order in which the applications are received. The application for survey should contain an explicit statement of the place where the ship will be lying for survey or inspection at the time named.

The application should not be addressed to a surveyor by name, but to the surveyor or surveyors collectively for the district. It should state the exact place where the vessel will be lying, and the time when she will be ready for survey or inspection.

36. If, when a surveyor is requested to survey a vessel, the owners are careful to give orders that things shall be in readiness as pointed out below, delay will be prevented.

(1.) Certificate of register.	}	On board at the time of survey.
(2.) Master’s certificate.
(3.) Mate’s certificates.
(4.) Engineer’s certificates.
(5.) Last passenger certificate.
(6.) Compass-adjustment certificate or certificate signed by master and mate and attested by owners.
(7.) Boats uncovered and ready to lower with all gear and spare gear in.
(8.) Pumps rigged in their places.
(9.) Spare tiller shipped in its place.
10.) Side lamps, mast-head light, and anchor-light on deck, ready to be put into their places if necessary.
(11.) Life-buoys in readiness with lines attached.
(12.) Leads and lines on deck.
(13.) Cartridges, blue lights, rockets, and signal-gun or mortar ready for inspection.
(14.) Fire-hose connected and coupled and stretched along the deck; the conductor connected.
(15.) Decks, cabins, steerages, and all other passenger spaces clean and clear and in a fit state for measurement.
(16.) The holds empty, the limber-boards up, bilges clean, cocks and valves at the bottom of the bulk-heads exposed for examination; a safe and proper ladder for going up and down the holds.
(17.) Boilers, including the donkey-boiler, if connected with the main boiler or engine, empty, clean, and quite cool, and the man and mud-hole doors off the boilers and superheaters.
(18.) Furnace-bars out of each boiler and the bridges down.
(19.) Furnaces, flues, smoke-boxes, and tube-plates, scraped and swept clean.
(20.) The safety-valves and weights out of each boiler, and a means on board for weighing them. A correct spring-balance should be provided when the valves are fitted with levers.
(21.) All pipes and cocks at the ship’s side or bottom accessible to the surveyor.
(22.) Shaft-tunnel clean and clear for the proper examination of the plummer-blocks, bearings, and stuffing-box.
(23.) Chain cables on deck and properly ranged at least once a year, so that the length can be accurately obtained as well as the condition of the cable. The pins and bolts should be knocked out and put in again before finishing the survey.
(24.) When vessels are in dry dock or on a slip, which they must be at least once in twelve months, the examination will be made by the surveyor after the bottom is cleaned but before it is painted or coated.

THOMAS GREY,
Assistant Secretary.

[Inclosure No. 2.]

London, September 13, 1872.

No. 11726.]

The following is submitted for approval in reply to queries from United States Government:

1. The surveyors of the board of trade do not take notice of iron to be worked into boilers, but only of boilers after they are constructed.

The brand is the surveyor’s guide as to the qualities of the iron, and the average strength of such brand as given in the many tables of reliable experiments, especially those of Fairbairn and of Kirkaldy, forms the basis of the surveyor’s calculations.

The quality of homogeneity being most essential in those plates that are exposed to repeated heating and cooling, it is required that the plates of the furnaces, the flame-boxes, and the back tube plates shall be of Yorkshire iron, such as “Bowling Lowmoor,” or “Farmley,” and if each of such plates bears the stamp of the maker, this is always deemed sufficient evidence of their quality, unless on inspection they show blisters.

While the law does not define or demand any testing of materials of boiler construction, this department sanctions the attendance of their surveyors to witness such experiments as the builder may be wishful to bring under their notice.

In particular cases the manufacturer may claim to be using a material of exceptional excellence, and requests that a proportionally higher pressure may be granted. In addition to the usual bending tests and the test of tensile strength, and surveyors are directed in such cases to note the behavior of the material when under steam, the amount of yielding within, and the steam at the limit of elasticity, and the degree of ductility of the material, as shown by the amount of stretch before breaking.

2. The unit of maximum pressure allowed as a working power in Britain, is “one-sixth of the bursting pressure of the boiler.” This is not the same as one-sixth of the tensile strength of the material. Aiming at this proportion, surveyors are instructed to use a factor of safety of 8 for ordinary workmanship, and that in cases where the workmanship is exceptionally excellent and all rivet-holes are drilled, 7 may be taken as the factor of safety, when calculating from the strength of the unworked plates. This refers to the strength of shell only.

Stays, as being liable to be subjected to unequal distribution of the strain of pressure, and to rapid decay, are at the maximum working pressure to bear not more than 5,000 pounds per square inch of section, unless where special means are introduced to insure that each stay shall only have its own proportionate share of the load, and then the stress must not exceed 6,000 pounds per square inch of stay sections.

3. The board of trade directs that their surveyors will take note of hydraulic tests as evidence of workmanship in new boilers, and as a means of discovering weak places in inaccessible parts of worn boilers.

The practice is to test up to double the pressure that has been fixed by calculation and inspection to be the proper working pressure. The surveyor is directed in every case to determine the amount of pressure to be given by the strength of the boiler as ascertained by measurement and inspection, and not in any case to give a pressure merely because the boiler has stood a certain hydraulic test.

4. There is no classification of “high “and “low” pressure boilers. They differ only in degree.

Practically, therefore, a double-rivet boiler is fifteen per cent, stronger per square inch of section than single-riveted boilers. The double-riveted boiler is supposed to be one made of thick plates, the single-riveted, of thin plates.

This subject is at present receiving much attention, and is the object of new experiments by Sir William Fairbairn and others.

5. There is one safety-valve on each boiler out of the control of the engineer except for easing it. Where there is only one safety-valve on a boiler, that valve must be loaded direct, and have no working surfaces under pressure only guides, or if not loaded direct the centers must be of knife-edge construction throughout. Where more than one valve is applied to each boiler, the valves may be lever-valves. In no safety-valve is it allowed to have two iron surfaces working together.

The safety-valve area is ½-inch opening to every foot of fire-grate. It may be in one or two valves.

6. Recording-gauges are not prescribed.

7. Solid cork. Form or buoyancy not specified, but to be to the satisfaction of the surveyor.

[Inclosure No. 4.]

General Schenek to Earl Granville.

Legation of the United States,
London, January 23, 1873.

My Lord: I have had the honor to receive your lordship’s note of the 17th instant, touching the letter to Mr. Fish from the Treasury Department of the United States of the 8th of August last, which I communicated to you on the 2d of September, 1872, requesting certain information for the use of my Government in regard to the laws in force in this country for the inspection of steamships; and I have much pleasure in expressing to you my thanks for the copies of a circular issued by the board of trade to their surveyors with regard to the machinery, hull, and equipments of steam-vessels, and the copy of a memorandum which has been drawn up at that department upon the subject, which you have been so good as to forward to me in your above-mentioned note.

I am, &c., &c., my lord, &c., &c.,

ROBERT C. SCHENCK.

1. If the number of boats in this column are carried, one of them must be a launch of at least the capacity named.
2. If the number of boats in this column are carried, the cubic contents (equal in their aggregate to the cubic contents required) may be spread in any way over the whole number of boats. The life-boat or life-boats must be the largest boats.
3. Life-boats.
4. Life-boats.
5. Life-boats.
6. Life-boats.
7. Life-boats.
8. Life-boats.
9. Life-boats.
10. Life-boats.
11. Life-boats.