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All goods, landing on any quay or wharf, shall be removed in three days from the 29 Geo. 2. landing, or the owners forfeit 12d. per ton, for every ton of goods remaining after that seet. 16, time, and likewise 12d. per ton for every forty-eight hours they shall remain there.

No person to empty any ballast, &c. into the harbour, on pain of being deemed a sect, 17. public nuisance, and their being punished accordingly.

Twenty hundred weight of scale goods, or two hundred and fifty-two gallons of liquids, Sect. 18. or forty square feet of measurable goods, to be deemed a ton. If any dispute arises as to tonnage, to be determined by the mayor and two justices, and four younger brothers of the Trinity House, or the majority of them.

The Table or Schedule of Harbour Duties, Quayage, or Wharfage, Boomage, and Ballast Duties, chargeable on the Goods, and to be paid by the Master.

For every ton of goods, imported or exported, shipped or unshipped, laden or unladen, in, on, or out of, any ship or vessel, within the limits of the harbour of Poole, the sum of 3d. per ton.

Provided it shall be lawful to import or export, &c. any goods into or from the channel leading to Wareham, to the westward of the south-west buoy, off the bulwarks of Hamkey, and near the entrance of the little channel, leading to Poole, free of the said duty neither shall any duty be paid by open boats, lighters, or barges without decks, for bringing goods from Wareham, or any part of the channel to the west of the southwest buoy, or any part of the Isle of Purbeck, within North-Haven Point to Poole, or from Poole to Wareham, or any part of the channel to the west of the said south-west buoy, or any part of the Isle of Purbeck, within North-Haven Point aforesaid; but if the goods shall be imported in decked vessels into or out of the little channel within Poole stakes, then the duties to be paid.

For boomage the following duties shall be paid, except for vessels employed in fishing or dredging.

Every decked vessel of 10 tons burthen, or under, shall

Ditto 20 tons, or above 10, 1s.

pay 6d.

Ditto 30 tons, or above 20, 2s.

Ditto 40 tons, or above 30, 3s.

Ditto 50 tons, or above 40, 4s.
Ditto 60 tons, or above 50, 5s.
Ditto 100 tons, or above 60, 6s.
Ditto above 100 tons, 7s.

For ballast the following duties shall be paid: For every ton of ballast, shipped or unshipped within Poole stakes, 6d. But it shall be lawful to ship or unship ballast in the channel leading to Wareham, to the westward of the south-west buoy, or any part of the Isle of Purbeck, within the North-Haven Point, duty free. And no more than 6d. per ton shall be paid for unshipping and shipping ballast within Poole stakes to

careen.

Tobacco-pipe clay to be exempted from all duties,

MILFORD HAVEN.-In this session of parliament 10,0001, were granted towards carry, 31 Geo. 1. ing on works for fortifying and securing the harbour of Milford Haven, on account of its convenient situation for fitting out fleets, and stationing cruizers; but as no duties were laid on shipping for perfecting this useful work, I shall omit mentioning any thing further in relation to it.

Having thus given a summary of the laws in being relative to the ports and harbours of Great Britain, with which all masters of ships, owners, and merchants should be well

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acquainted; the first, that they may duly conform thereto, and the two latter, that they may form a just estimate of all the expences to be incurred by their ships and merchandize in our home ports; it will be necessary to add some directions for the better observance of the laws and regulations of foreign ports, British masters of ships being often very negligent, or wilfully obstinate upon this subject, so that in general they pay more forfeitures or penalties in foreign ports than those of any other nation, and occa sion more trouble to their consuls, who are often obliged to interpose their good offices to save them from corporal punishment. Indeed, it is a lamentable truth, that they acquire such a contempt of legal authority from the licentiousness of the times at home, that they submit to it with great reluctance abroad, and sometimes prove refractory even to their natural protectors. In all foreign ports implicit obedience, it is expected, should be paid to the harbour or quay master, his deputy, and other assistants. A prudent captain will therefore take care to moor his ship in the part of the harbour or bason assigned him by the said officers. And his next care should be to obtain from the factor or merchant to whom he is consigned, a copy, whether printed or written, of the regulations established by the magistrates of the places for the masters of all ships and vessels entering their harbour. I am particular upon this head, because in many foreign sea ports, the harbour dues are farmed out to low people, at a rack rent, who, intending to make the most of their bargains, carefully conceal the said regulations from strangers, wishing that they should violate rather than observe them, that they may be enabled to levy fines and penalties. Sometimes also, the office of baillie, which answers to our sheriff, is purchased from the prime minister or prince of the country, by men of mean rank and avaricious principles, and the power of convicting offenders being vested in them, like English trading justices of the peace, they live by fees for commit ments and discharges. This happened to be the case while the editor was British Vice Consul at Ostend; and it was not until he had presented a strong memorial to the court of Brussels, that an order was sent to the magistrates of Ostend to print their port reA. D. 1781. gulations, and to distribute a sufficient number of them to the British and Danish Consuls, the only two then resident, and also to all masters of ships requiring copies.

The Emperor having just made Ostend a free port, by which wise commercial revolution, the oppressions under which the trade and navigation of the Austrian Netherlands laboured are mostly removed, and the port greatly resorted to by vessels of all nations, especially British, in the time of war with France, Spain and Holland, we cannot do a more acceptable service than to insert a copy of the above-mentioned regulations, which were drawn up by an eminent Flemish civilian, and founded upon those of other maritime countries.

Directions for Masters of Ships and Vessels in the Port and Key of Ostend.

I. It is forbid to all masters, pilots, sailors, fishermen, bilandermen, and others to make fire on board their ships or vessels in the quay or bason, on any pretext whatever, under a fine of ten guilders.

II. To make fast either to the piles or posts of the harbour, or to those serving to uphold or preserve the quay or bason, under the same penalty as above.

III. To throw any filth or dirt whatsoever, into the bason under the same fine.

IV. To come into the quay or bason and there to take place without the knowledge and consent of the quay master, under the same penalty.

V. To place their ships or vessels on the floor, being of oak, of the sluice at the end of the quay, idem.

VI. To change birth, or hawl their ships or vessels, either in the harbour or in the quay, without the quay master's leave, idem.

VII. To incumber or stop up the entrance of the quay or bason with their ships, vessels, and bilanders, under three guilders fine.

VIII. To land on the quay anchors, guns, carriages, masts, &c. and other such articles, without the quay master's knowledge, under a penalty of three guilders for each piece.

IX. To abuse by word or deed the quay master when he is performing his duty, under a fine of twelve guilders, besides arbitrary correction, often imprisonment.

X. It is likewise ordered that all masters, pilots, sailors, fishermen, bilandermen, and others, do put a sail betwixt the ships and the bilander, when they want to be ballasted in the quay or bason, under ten guilders fine.

XI. To hawl their ships or vessels out of the bason on the very first order of the quay master, idem.

XII. To land their gunpowder, and get it transported to the burgher's magazine immediately after the vessel is made fast in the quay or bason, under fifty guilders fine. XIII. To obey instantly and without reply to the quay master's command, either to go out of the bason, or to hawl their ships or vessels a-head or a-stern, or any other thing whatsoever, under six guilders fine; and further, to indemnify the masters of any ships that might suffer delay by his refusal, whereon credit shall be given to the quay

master.

XIV. On such or the like. occasions the quay-master is authorised to take people, at the expence of the captains refusing, to hawl away and change their births, to cut their hawsers, and act as he will judge proper, without being responsible for any damages.

XV. Every captain is obliged to hoist his colours on Sundays and holy days, saints' days innumerable, under three guilders fine: he must also hoist his colours at any time the quay-master advertizes him so to do.

XVI. Finally, every ship or vessel arriving in the harbour laden, or in her ballast, pays three stivers (pence) per last for lights, and one stiver key dues; being together four stivers per last.

Besides a due attention to the regulations of ports, masters of trading vessels should be careful not to give offence to the military governors, or the officers on guard, in garrisons. To avoid it they should inquire what military orders are given out with respect to the harbour, and oblige their crews to observe them. As they vary in different places, it is impossible to enumerate them; but one instance may serve to explain this hint. Firing a musquet, or even a pocket pistol, on board a ship or on shore, without leave obtained from the commanding officer, or giving previous notice of the intention in firing it, is an offence liable to punishment by imprisonment. In the month of November, 1765, a boy on board an English collier fired at a bird flying across the bason; the officer on the quay-guard was alarmed, sent a file of soldiers on board, and demanded the boy the master concealed him, and refusing to deliver him up, was himself carried on shore, and kept in custody till the matter was compromised by the intercession of the British Vice Consul. But it may so happen, that no such protector is on the spot, in which case great inconveniences may arise from ignorance of the established customs in sea ports which are garrison towns.

Heavy forfeitures and penalties are likewise often incurred by purchasing spirituous liquors and wines, in retail quantities, at improper places, and of improper persons. At Ostend, and in other foreign ports, publicans are only allowed to sell liquors to their guests in their own houses; and if a sailor carries a bottle of ale, spirits, or wine from an inn or ale-house, he may be fined or imprisoned for defrauding the Cantein, an office appointed by the magistrates for the sale of such liquors, in any quantity under a gallon, annually farmed out to the highest bidder.

In a word, no care or circumspection can be too great on the part of masters of trad ing ships, to keep themselves and their crews free from all molestation in the ports to which their cargoes are consigned.

LIGHT-
HOUSES.

26 Geo. 3.
c. 101.

c. 52.

OF LIGHT-HOUSES.

A LIGHT-HOUSE is a marine term for a tower, commonly advantageously situated on an eminence near the sea coast, or at the entrance of some port or river, for the guidance of ships in dark nights, by the illumination of a fire or candles burnt on the top 29 Geo. 3. of them. The first we read of was called Pharos, from the Greek word Phos, in Latin Lumen, light, and Orao, Latin Videre, to see; and this was so superb a fabric, as to be reckoned one of the seven wonders of the world, and to give a general name to all successive ones: it was built by Ptolemy Philadelphus, on a small island at the mouth of the Nile, near Alexandria in Egypt, and is said to have cost that King 800 talents. It is recorded to have been built square, upon four pillars of glass resembling crabs, 300 cubits high, on which a fire was nightly burnt to warn approaching pilots of those dangerous coasts, and by this means direct them to shun the risks they were exposed to: but though this was so justly celebrated both for its use and magnificence, it was equalled, if not exceeded, in fame by the renowned Colossus of Rhodes, which served for the same purpose. This inanimate monster was a brazen statue of Apollo, set up at the entrance of that island's harbour, with its feet resting on the two shores; it was about fortytwo yards high, and its stride so great that the largest ships sailed into the port between its legs this gigantic figure was dedicated to the Sun, and its prodigious size may be ascertained by the dimensions of its little finger, which it is said few men were able to embrace. It was the work of Chares, a disciple of the celebrated sculptor Lysippo, who was twelve years in perfecting it, and it is reported to have cost about 44,000l. sterling; though I should imagine this to be very far short of its value, as, when broken to pieces, it loaded 900 camels. It remained erect for the space of 1360 years, and was then thrown down by an earthquake, in which prostration it continued for a long time, till the Saracens became masters of the isle, and sold it to a Jew, who quickly destroyed this master piece of art, to accommodate his removing it by the means of the afore-mentioned animals.

The tower of Cordon on the river Bourdeaux, the Pharo of Messina, the lanthorns at Genoa, Barcelona, &c. are respectively serviceable to the ships using those parts; as ours on Scilly, the Eddystone, Caskets, Portland, Dungeness Forelands, Skerries, &c. besides the floating light at the Nore, are to navigation, in a more extensive

manner.

That on the Eddystone was begun by its ingenious projector, Mr. Henry Winstan ley, of Littlebury in the county of Essex, gent. in the year 1696, and, after great labour and expence, was finished in something more than four years, though a much less space of time would have sufficed, had not the many difficulties of stormy weather, hardness of the rock, tides, and other impediments he had to struggle with, protracted the work, and rendered the first lodgment, or foundation of the building, very hazardous and troublesome; however, a person of Mr. Winstanley's enterprizing genius was not to be intimidated by the impediments that presented to obstruct the prosecution of his intended fabric; but he watched every spurt of fair weather, and ebb of the sea, as well to commence as to carry it on, and happily ran through his toils by concluding it in the aforesaid time, though the light was put up on the 14th of November, 1698, and it thenceforward was inhabited: it stood till the 27th of November, 1703; when Mr.

Winstanley, unfortunately being in it, found he had been building his tomb, as that dreadful storm laid the rock once more bare, and buried both him and his works in the sea; a plain proof of the deficiency of human contrivance, and of the insecurity of the best projected fabrics, when Providence interferes. Its re-building was begun in July, 1706, by John Rudyerd, gent. a light put up therein, and made useful, July 28, 1708, and finished completely in 1709; since which it hath withstood the tempests it is exposed to, firm and secure.

This light-house bears from Plymouth, or the entrance of the sound, S. and by W. and from Ram-head S. and half a point eastwardly, and is distant from the anchoring in the aforesaid sound four leagues, and from Ram-point about three leagues and a half, this being the nearest shore to the said house; and the Isle of Maystone bears from the light-house about N. E. and is also four leagues distant south. All ships, coming from the east or west to Plymouth, have much the same advantage of the light: all the rocks near this house are on the eastwardly side, and stretching north, but most southerly, and all are covered at high water; but on the west side any ship may sail close by the house, there being twelve or thirteen fathoms water, and no hidden rock; though. towards the E. and by N. about a quarter of a mile distant from the house, there lies one that never appears but at low spring tides, and is the more dangerous as it is little known.

The sea ebbs and flows at this rock on spring tides 19 feet, and then at high water all the rocks are covered, though a smooth sea; and it is high water at the same time as at Plymouth; but it runs tide and half tide; so that it runs east three hours after it is high water, and yet the sea falls lower; and it runs west three hours after it is low water, and yet the sea riseth.

At low tides, especially spring tides, three great ranges of rocks appear very high,. and lie almost parallel, stretching towards the S. E. and N. W. the house standing the westernmost of all. The afore-mentioned hidden rock is a full cable's length from all these others, and lies as aforesaid.

There is always a family living in it, to tend its light; and the following acts have been made for its management and support, viz.

cap. 23,

From the time of placing a light useful for shipping in Eddystone light-house, there 4 & 5 Ang shall be paid to the master, wardens, and assistants of Trinity-house of Deptford Strond, by the masters and owners of all English ships and barks which shall pass by the said light-house, except coasters, 1d. per ton outward bound, and 1d. per ton inward bound, viz. of the merchants one moiety, and of the owner the other moiety; and, of all such aliens' ships as shall pass by the said light-house 2d. for every ton of the burden of the ship; and every coaster passing by the said light-house shall pay 2s. for each time: the said duties to be collected by such persons as the said master, &c. shall appoint, in such port whence such ship shall set forth, or where such ship shall arrive, before they lade or unlade; the said duties to be recovered by action of debt, &c.

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The duties in the act 4 and 5 Anne, cap. 20. directed to be paid by any ship passing 8 Annc by Eddystone light-house, shall be paid for every such ship, as well. those belonging to 17. s. 1. her Majesty's subjects as strangers, which shall pass by the said light-house, from or to any port, and shall be received of the master of such ship in any part of Great Britain or Ireland, and may be recovered in any of her Majesty's courts of law.

No custom-house officer shall make out any cocket, or other discharge, or take any report outwards, for any ship, until the duties granted by the said act, and payable by the master of such ship, shall be paid; and that such master produces a light-bill, testifying the receipt thereof.

It shall be lawful for every person authorized by the Trinity-house to go on board. any foreign ship to receive the duties, and, for non-payment, to distrain any tackle be-

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