the bottom; so many, indeed, that it became a common saying among seamen who were employed in the Baltic trade that if the North Sea were to dry up it would resemble a green field, because of the quantity of green steamers that had perished there.  Perhaps the phrase was merely a picturesque figure of speech, as the North Sea makes no distinction as to the claim it has on its victims, and the colour of paint does neither attract nor repel its favour.  Notwithstanding the startling evidence which proved that there was something radically wrong in the design and construction of what was known as the “three-deck rule” type, Lloyds’ Classification and the Board of Trade officials adhered to the idea of their superiority over every other class.  The Hartlepool Well-decker became the object of hostility.  It was pronounced by dignified theorists to be unsafe.  The long wells combined with a low freeboard lacerated their imaginations.  They could not speak of it without exhibiting strong emotion.  “Suppose,” said they, “a sea were to break into the fore well and fill it, the vessel would obviously become overburdened.  Her buoyancy would be nil, and she would succumb to the elements.”

But practical minds had provided against such an eventuality.  These objects of aversion had what is called a raised quarter-deck; two ends which stood boldly out of the water, and of course a big “sheer.”  Heavy seas rarely came over their bows or sterns, and when they did the bulk of the water did not remain or seem to affect their buoyancy.  The heaviest water was taken aboard amidship, when they were running with a beam sea or scudding before a gale; but owing to their great sheer it gravitated in a small space against the bridge bulkhead, the structure of which was strong enough to stand excessive pressure.  They were considered to be the finest and safest tramps afloat by men who sailed in them.  Vessels of two thousand tons deadweight, with only eighteen to twenty-four inches freeboard, would make winter Atlantic passages without losing a rope-yarn, while many of the three-deckers with six or seven feet freeboard never reached their destination.  Still the theorists kept up their unreasoning opposition to the Well-deckers, and the Hartlepool men were driven to take the matter up vigorously.  They would have no indefinite, haughty assertions.  They demanded investigation; and the result of it proved that the theorists were wrong, and the men of practical ideas were right.  It was proved that there were singularly few cases of foundering among these vessels, and that fewer lives were lost in them than in any others.  This is not the only instance in which Lloyds’ Classification Committee have been proved wrong in their opinions.  They refused in the same way, for some time, to class Turrets.  I was obliged to give up a conditional contract which I had made with Messrs. Doxford and Sons, of Sunderland, for the first built of these, in consequence of their refusal to class.  But Turrets have now been well tested, and prove very superior sea-boats.  Underwriters, indeed, could not have better risks; and, what is as good a test as any of a vessel’s seagoing qualities, is the readiness of seamen to join and their reluctance to leave it.