§ CAPTAIN PRICE (Devonport)asked the Secretary to the Board of Trade, Whether it is the case that, under the present Regulations, a passenger ship of 1,000 tons burthen, carrying 300 passengers, is not compelled to carry so many boats as a cargo ship of 2,000 tons, with a crew of 30; and, whether, in the Regulations as to boat accommodation, there is any reference whatever to the number of passengers carried?
§ THE SECRETARY (Baron HENRY DE WORMS) (Liverpool, East Toxteth)The boats of passenger ships are regulated by the Passengers' Acts of 1855 and 1863, and the boats of cargo ships by the Merchant Shipping Act, 1854, and Acts amending it. In both cases the boats are regulated by the net registered tonnage of the ships carrying them, and not by the number of persons carried in the ships. The boats required by law to be carried by a passenger ship of 1,000 tons register are six, of the total cubic capacity of 2,545 cubic feet, of which 900 cubic feet must be in life-boats. The boats required to be carried by a cargo ship of 2,000 tons register are either six boats of 2,034 cubic feet capacity, of which two must be life-boats of 999.6 cubic feet capacity, or seven boats of 1,892 cubic feet capacity, of which two must be lifeboats of 999.6 cubic feet capacity. I would add, however, that the Board of Trade are not in a position to deal with the subject until the Report of the Royal Commission on Loss of Life at Sea has been received, after which the subject will be early considered.