4-14 in.

Hp. 1,353 13 kts. Coal 120 tons.

Assar-i-Tewfik. Turkish battleship. (La Seyne,

1870.)

Length 272 ft. Beam 52 ft. Draught 25 ft. Displacement 4,613 tons.

Guns. 2-9.2 in.

6-6 in. 10-12 pdr.

Complement 320.

Armour.

"Steel."

8 in. Deck.

6 in. Gun shields.

Hp. 3,560 13 kts. Coal maximum 400 tons. Assets. A term for property and money in contradistinction to liabilities.

Assignment. A policy may be assigned in whole or part (31 and 32 Vict. cap. 86). This Act gives the form: "I, A.B., of etc., do hereby assign unto C.D., etc., his executors, administrators, and assigns, the within policy of assurances on the ship, freight, and the goods therein carried (or on ship, or freight, or goods as the case may be)." The adoption of this form is, however, not imperative, nor is it customary, as an assignment is usually made by indorsation in writing upon the body, margin, or back of the policy, or by delivery of the instrument with intention to assign it. (Arnould, 4th ed., pp. 103, 104.) The assignment of a policy of insurance after loss is within the Act (Lloyd v. Spence; Lloyd v. Fleming, L.R. 7 Q.B. 299), but if the interests of the assured have ceased before loss, an assignment of the policy after the loss has happened will be inoperative (North of England Pure Oilcake Co. v. Archangel Marine Co., L.R. 10 Q.B. 249. McArthur on the Contract of Marine Insurance p. 58.)

Assistance. Ship. See Arctic Exploration.

Assistance. British steam-repair ship (9,600 tons). Association. H.M. ship. 70 guns. Wrecked off the Scilly Islands, October 22, 1707, when Admiral Sir Cloudesley Shovel and 800 men perished.

ASSOCIATION

Association of Average Adjusters, Capel Court, E.C., is an association of average adjusters combining for mutual support as well as for the regulation of their practice upon approved lines; and the formation of the Association of Average Adjusters has enabled them to make progress in this direction. The objects of the association are to promote correctness of principle and uniformity of practice in the adjustment of claims. An annual meeting is held, which is attended by representatives of shipowners, merchants and underwriters, as well as by the adjusters themselves, for the discussion of questions affecting average adjustment and the formation of practical rules.

Examinations are also held, which new members of the profession have to pass before they are eligible for admission as members of the association.

Association

of

Underwriters and Insurance Brokers in Glasgow is composed of underwriters, marine insurance companies and insurance brokers, and is carried on as a centre for underwriting, marine insurance broking, and with the view to protect underwriters' and brokers' interests, both in respect to underwriting questions and salvage arrangements.

There is evidence of the Association of Underwriters in Glasgow for the purpose of underwriting as far back as 1744, and that they met at that time at the shop of one Andrew Stalker, a seller of marine policies. In 1778 there appeared an advertisement in the "Glasgow Mercury " relative to certain regulations with respect to the payment of premiums. The first recorded meeting of underwriters and marine insurance brokers was held on April 1, 1818, and in the minutes of that meeting it was stated that "for some time past an association had been formed among the underwriters and brokers frequenting the coffee room for the purpose of such directions as might appear necessary for the superintendence and protection of the property in which the members were generally interested, and also for corresponding with agents at the outports on these and other matters in which the general interests of the underwriters were concerned; but that up to that time no regular office bearers had been appointed, nor minutes of the procedure of the association preserved." A committee was elected at that meeting, consisting of a chairman and three directors, and a secretary who was to act as treasurer, and the committee was to be elected annually.

Association of Average Adjusters held annually in London.

The association is supplied daily by Lloyd's, London, with telegraphic and postal advices of shipping movements and casualties, and its library is furnished with shipping newspapers, atlases, gazetteers, underwriting text books, maritime law reports, and a classified series of charts and sailing directions, which are annually replenished by donation from the Hydrographic Department of the Admiralty.

In connection with the association, but having an independent Constitution, is the Glasgow Salvage Association (q.v.), which attends, when instructed, to the protection of Underwriters' interests in respect to wrecked and damaged property.

Assurance. See Marine Insurance; also Life As

surance.

Astay. Said of an anchor when, in heaving in, the cable forms such an angle with the surface as to appear in a line with the stays of the ship.

Astern. Behind the after part of a ship.

Asteroids. The name by which Sir W. Herschel proposed to distinguish the minor planets circulating between the orbits of Jupiter and Mars. They are all small bodies, and have been discovered since the commencement of the nineteenth century. The first asteroid was discovered on January 1, 1801, and at the present time the known number is about 600. The largest has a diameter of 500, and the smallest of probably less than 20, miles, and there may be multitudes beyond the range of perception. Their detection has been accelerated by the use of the photographic method introduced by Dr. M. Woolf.

Twin screw. Hp. natural 7,000 9,000 19.5 kts. Coal maximum 1,000 tons. Approximate cost £250,000.

This ship-name was introduced into the Navy in 1739, and commemorates the capture of the Spanish Astræa at Porto Bello. It is associated with the capture of the Gloire, 1795; the action off L'Orient, the capture of Barbadoes, 1796; Egypt, 1801; Schomberg's victory off Madagascar, 1810.

Astrea. Frigate. On May 23, 1808, this vessel was lost on the Anagada Coast.

ASTRONOMER

Astronomer Royal. The official title of the head of Greenwich Observatory. The appointment is given by the Prime Minister, and the office held by warrant under the royal sign manual. Sir W. H. M. Christie, K.C.B., is the present Astronomer Royal, the eighth holder of this office since its establishment in 1675. In Scotland the Astronomer Royal is Professor R. Copeland, Director of the Royal Observatory, Edinburgh, and in Ireland Professor C. J. Jolly.

Astronomical Day is measured by the apparent motion of the sun; but for the convenience of Astronomical Computations it is taken to begin at noon, that is 12 hours after the beginning of the Civil Day, and end at noon of the following day. Astronomers generally reckon the hours of this day up to 24 hours, without any distinction of ante or post meridian, which they call astronomical time; hence the first 12 hours, of which are p.m. hours, of the Civil Day on which it begins; and the last 12 hours of it are a.m. hours, of the day on which it ends.

Astronomy. The sublime science which treats of the distances, magnitudes, masses, composition, motions, and all that is discoverable regarding the heavenly bodies, meaning the sun, the earth, the moon, the planets, the fixed stars, the comets, the meteorites, the nebulæ, and all other material bodies really or apparently moving in infinite space. The science first took definite shape in Babylonia, where in the third millennium B.C. the sphere began to be measured, and the zodiac was delimited and divided. The vault of heaven being visible in all its glory alternately by day and night in every portion of the world, absolute ignorance regarding celestial phenomena cannot have existed in any place or at any time. The people belonging to some nations were, however, more observant in this respect than others, and claims to early proficiency in astronomy have been preferred in favour of the Chinese, Chaldeans, Egyptians and the Hindoos. Hipparchus, between B.C. 160-125, catalogued the stars visible above the horizon, noting down 1,180. Among his numerous discoveries may be reckoned the procession of the equinoxes, trigonometry, and apparently the stereographic projection of the sphere. The next great name was that of Ptolemy, a geographer and astronomer of Alexandria, who discovered lunar evection. In 1543 Copernicus, just before he died, published his great work," On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Bodies," compiled some 13 years previously. next great name is that of Tycho Brahé, a Dane by birth, who died in 1601. Though not accepting the Copernican system, but holding views partly borrowed from Copernicus and partly from Ptolemy, his extensive and accurate observations gave a great impulse to astronomy. Kepler, a pupil of Tycho, will for ever be remembered for the discovery of the three laws which bear his name, the first and second made known in 1609, and the third in 1618. Galileo, having constructed a telescope in 1610, subsequently

The

"

ASTRONOMY

discovered the satellites of Jupiter, the phases of Venus, the mountains of the moon and other new truths. The year in which he died Sir Isaac Newton was born, and in 1687 he published his immortal 'Principia," in which the law of gravitation was announced, thus constituting an epoch in the history of science which probably will never be paralleled at any future time. The year that Newton died, 1727, was the one in which the discovery was made by Bradley of the aberration of light, which proved the motion of the earth, and gave the death-blow to all Ptolemiac and Tychonic systems, both of which were founded on the hypothesis that it was stationary. Sir Wm. Herschel, 1738, before he died, among other great discoveries, added nine new members to the Solar system (one of them the planet Uranus) to the eighteen previously known. He was one of the first to originate a systematic study of stars and nebulæ, which prescribes the leading methods of modern astronomy. A profound change has been brought about in the scope, no less than in the methods, of astronomy, by the adoption of the camera as an instrument of precision. Much progress has already been made with the preparation, at eighteen observatories, of a catalogue likely to embrace some four million stars; and the corresponding chart of the sky will secure the identification of possibly 30 million.

Astronomical enterprise tends more and more to assume an international character. England commands both hemispheres, through the establishments at Greenwich and the Cape. In the United States of America the organisation centred at Harvard College has been extended from Pole to Pole by the foundation of a post at Arequipa. Among astronomical societies at present in existence may be mentioned the British Astronomical Association, the Société Astronomique de France, the Urania Gesellschaft in Berlin, the Russian Astronomical Society, the Astronomical Societies of the Pacific and Toronto, Canada, the Astronomical and Astrophysical Society of America, the Società degli Spettroscopisti, Italy, catering for the wants of the general public interested in this science.

Among historical works connected with astronomy, see Grant's "History of Physical Astronomy (1852), which is of standard authority; Lewis's "Astronomy of the Ancients" (1862), Berry's "Short History" (1898), Clerke's "Popular History of Astronomy during the Nineteenth Century" (1902), Madler's " Geschichte der Himmelkunde" (1873), Wolf's" Geschichte der Astronomie" (1877), Chauvenet's "Manual of Spherical and Practical Astronomy (1893), Loomis's "Introduction to Practical Astronomy" (1894), Campbell's "Handbook of Practical Astronomy" (1891), Barlow and Bryan's "Elementary and Mathematical Astronomy" (1892), Young's "Manual on Astronomy" (1902), Chambers' Handbook of Descriptive and Practical Astronomy" (1889-90), Comstock's "Textbook of Astronomy" (1901), Ball's

"

At and From. From covers only from the time of the sailing of the vessel. "At and from "includes (in a home port) the risk immediately the insurance is effected; (in a foreign port) from the moment of her arrival there-of course, seaworthy.

The clause" Risk not to attach before the expiring of the previous policies" is generally added. There must be no undue delay "at" the port without reference to underwriters (Houghton v. Empire, 1 L.R., I Ex. 206).

In a policy" at and from " a port, it is an implied agreement that the vessel shall be there within such a time that the risk shall not be materially varied; otherwise the policy does not attach (De Wolf v. Archangel Mar. Bank, 2 Asp. Mar. L.C. 273). Refer to Deviation; also Leave to call.

Athenian.

British subsidised merchant ship. (1881). Canada-Pacific Railway Co. (q.v.). Dimensions, 365 x 48 x 29 ft.; gross tonnage, 3,882; passenger accommodation, 102; Hp., 4,600-17 kts.

Athenien. 64 guns. On October 27, 1806, this vessel was lost near Tunis, when 347 perished.

Atherina. Genus of small fishes, from four to five inches long, taken in great numbers in the Mediterranean. They are carnivorous, live in shoals, and are valued as food, and also used in the manufacture of artificial pearls.

Atherton, William Henry (b. Preston, Lancashire, November 15, 1867). Mechanical engineer. Served apprenticeship in works of Messrs. Craven Brothers, Ltd., Manchester, and was for six years evening

ATLANTIC

student of the Manchester Technical School; a Whitworth Exhibitioner and Royal Exhibitioner in Science. Served from 1890 to 1893 in the Elswick Drawing Office of Messrs. Armstrong, Whitworth and Co., Ltd. From 1893-97 at the Armstrong College, Newcastle-on-Tyne, and subsequently for seven years with Messrs. Mather and Platt, Ltd., Manchester. Represented that firm at the Glasgow International Exhibition of 1901. For a few months on the engineering staff of the London County Council. Since January, 1905, general manager of the Chain-Belt Engineering Co., Derby, the conveying and elevating machinery of Ley's Malleable Castings Co., Ltd. Member of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, the Manchester Association of Engineers, and the North-East Coast Institution of Engineers and Shipbuilders.

Publications: "The Design of Beams and Girders," "The Resistance and Power of Steamships' (jointly with A. L. Mellanby, M.Sc.), paper on the "Fouling of Ships," and numerous articles.

Athwart. Across anything extended in the line of a ship's course.

Atkinson, John Joseph (b. Liverpool, 1850). Marine engineer. Served apprenticeship with Messrs. George Forrester and Co., Liverpool, and for some years was engaged in the construction of engines. Joined the National Line of Atlantic Liners, and obtained a Board of Trade's Certificate as first-class

engineer in 1877. In 1889 acted as consulting engineer to the late Thomas Irwin, Esq., in which firm he became a partner. He has been connected with the construction of many new vessels, and structural alterations and repairs on behalf of the leading underwriters and ship owners. Member of the North-East Coast Institution of Engineers and Shipbuilders, 1891.

Atkinson-Willes, Rear-Admiral George Lambart (b. July 13, 1847). Educated Leamington College; Royal Naval Academy, Gosport; entered Navy 1861; lieutenant, 1866. Served in Abyssinian War in Naval Brigade, 1868, and mentioned in despatches. As Commodore commanded Training Squadron, 1895-97; Dockyard Reserve, Chatham, 1898A.D.C. to H.M. Queen Victoria, 1899-1901; Rear-Admiral Home Squadron and Second-in-Command Home Fleet, 1903.

1900.

Atlantic Ocean stretches from the Arctic Ocean on the north, to the Antarctic Ocean on the south, and is that great ocean between Europe and Africa on the one side and America on the other, divided into the Northern, the Intertropical and the Southern, or simply into the Northern and Southern Atlantic. The length of the Atlantic basin is nearly 8,000 geographical miles. The depth has been more carefully and systematically examined than that of any other oceanic basin, and there is scarcely any portion of its floor that has a depth exceeding 3,000 fathoms, or about 34 miles. The greatest depth determined by the Challenger sounding was that of a limited depression about 100 miles to the north of St. Thomas, where 3,870 fathoms, or about 4.4 miles, was determined. The surface temperature over the greater part of the North Atlantic averages 40° F., increasing to 50° F. near the shores of Europe. The heat equator lies a little to the north of the geographical, and the surface temperature there averages from 80 to 90°. Over the greater portion of the Southern Atlantic the bottom water varies between 35 and 40°, but in the North Atlantic the temperature averages 2° higher. The water is relatively salter than that of the other oceans, its salinity being greater in the region of the Trade winds and least in the region of Equatorial calms.

Atlantic Shipping Trust. See International Mercantile Marine Co.

Atlantic Transport Co., Ltd. Originated in London 1886, and in 1896 purchased the controlling interest in the International Steamship Co. (a line which dates back to 1863), and two years later it absorbed the fleet and American business of the Wilson's and Furness-Leyland Lines. The company maintains a regular service from London to Baltimore, Philadelphia and New York, and its steamers are built principally for the purpose of carrying cargoes of refrigerated meat and live stock, although on some of their larger steamers excellent passenger accommodation is provided, and the three latest vessels can carry up to 250 passengers.

ATTWOOD

air, or thin elastic fluid, which surrounds the globe, and gradually diminishing in gravity rises to an unknown height, yet by gravitation partakes of all its motions. It is a mechanical mixture of about 78 volumes of nitrogen, with 21 of oxygen, and one of argon, and also contains a variable, but all important, proportion of water vapour. Sir John Herschel has calculated that the total weight of atmosphere, averaging 30 inches of pressure, is about 11 trillion of pounds, and that, making allowance for the space occupied by the land above the sea, it is about 1000 part of the solid globe. It exerts a pressure when the barometer stands at 29.905 of nearly 14 pounds avoirdupois to the square inch, and it is calculated that a man of ordinary size sustains a constant pressure of about 14 tons.

I

Twin screw. Hp. 17,000-25 kts. Coal maximum 380 tons. Approximate cost £275,000.

Attwood, Edward Lewis (b. 1871). Professor of Naval Architecture. Served apprenticeship with Messrs. Green, of Blackwall. On being granted a scholarship of the Worshipful Company of Shipwrights, he went through the Royal Naval College as a private student, obtaining the Professional certificate at the final examination. Appointed a member of the Royal Corps of Naval Construction, 1895; instructor of Naval Architecture of Royal Naval College, 1901-04; Professor, 1904.