He had called the attention of two governments to this matter, and he hoped that before long there would be proposed an international congress--such as the postal, telegraph, and sanitary congresses, and the international convention to fix the common meridian--by one of the maritime powers, by which would be founded an international institution to diminish casualties at sea. He recommended a universal system of buoys. The great losses of life and property every year were worthy the devotion of £300,000 by an international institution, which would be much less than the monthly average loss in navigation.
Admiral Pim said that ships were improperly built--some were ten times longer than their beam. There was nothing in the world so ticklish as a ship; touch her in the waist, and down she goes. He believed sailing ships ought not to exceed four times their beam, and steamers certainly not more than six times. He pointed out that a fruitful cause of accidents was the stopping of steaming all at once in the case of impending collision, by which the rudder lost control of the vessel. If constructors looked more to the form of the ships, and got them to steer better, collisions would be avoided.
The Lord Advocate said it had always occurred to him that one great secret of collisions at sea was the present system of lights, which made it impossible for the vessel at once to inform another vessel what it was about. The method of signaling was very crude, and he ventured to say that it was quite out of date when vessels met each other at a rate of speed of 24 to 25 knots. He had, as an amateur, tried a method which he would attempt to explain. His idea was to fit up a lantern on deck, showing an electric light. The instrument would be controlled by the rudder, and the commanding officer of the vessel would be able so to turn it when the helm was put up or down that the light would flash at some distance in front of either bow of the vessel, and thus be a signal to a vessel coming in an opposite direction. When the helm was amidships, the light was shown straight ahead, and could not be moved until the helm was shifted. The direction in which the vessel was going could not by any possibility be mistaken, and it was plain that if the lights from two ships crossed each other, then there was danger. If the lights were clear of each other, then the ships would pass safely.