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June, 1921 Shipping act, a vessel must be main- tained in good condition to continue to hold a freeboard certificate. Free- board certificates, in the case of classed vessels, remain in force as long as the original class is maintained, ex- cept in the event of structural altera- tions being carried out to deck erec- tions, etc., which may have affected the freeboard assigned. In the case of unclassed vessels freeboard certificates are issued for a period not exceeding four years, depending on the age and condition of the vessel. In the event of a vessel's class be- ing canceled or alterations made to the hull structure, which affect the freeboard and where the time for which a certificate was granted has expired, the freeboard certificate must be hand- ed in for cancellation and application made for a new certificate; otherwise the board of trade officers may notify the collector. of customs, who has power to refuse clearance of a vessel on this account. A freeboard certifi- cate is issued only after the markings have been verified and permanently cut in on a vessel's sides. Particu- lars on the certificate must be entered in the official log and the freeboard certificate framed and kept aboard the ship. The 1885 load line committee's free- board tables, which in 1890 became the legal regulations, were based on Lloyd's 1882 tables modified to agree with the views of the board of trade with regard to the value of erections, provision for the height of platform in the larger vessels, and the differ- ences in freeboard, for season of the year and trade, i. e., summer, winter and winter North Atlantic. The table freeboards for flush deck steamers and sailers were based cn reserve buoy- ancy; varying from 22 per cent in the case of a steamer 120 feet in length and of standard proportions, to 35 per cent for a steamer 408 feet long, the effect of the length corrections and coefficients of. fineness given in the ta- bles being to give the same percentage of reserve buoyancy to vessels of the same length. The awning and spar deck 'table freeboards were determined on a basis of the strength of the Lloyd's rule awning and spar deck vessels of that date. Requirements Liberal The standard of strength laid down for use with the tables was Lloyd's 1885 rules, in which definite scantlings were tabulated for full scantling spar deck and awning deck vessels on a basis of numerals. Owing to the im- Provement in distribution of materials, which came into vogue about the time the first British Corp. rules were is- Sued in 1893, so-called spar deck ves- MARINE REVIEW sels were being built relatively as strong as the 1885 three-deck vessel and were assigned minimum freeboards on the basis of a strength comparison. -A similar situation exists today in the modern "shelter deck with freeboard" vessel, in which the scantlings are somewhat less than full scantling classification requirements, and_ the granting of the minimum freeboard to this type can be justified only be- cause of the lower standard of strength allowed by the freeboard regulations. Except that explanatory notes were added in later editions in order to in- sure a uniform method of calculating freeboards on the part of the assign- ing bodies, no major changes were made until 1898, when the tables were extended to include vessels of 50 feet molded depth. Methods of determin- ing the freeboards of special types, such as turret deck and shelter deck vessels, were added to the regulations at this time, and modifications were also made in the freeboards of 'Vves- sels engaged in the winter north At- lantic trade. As the publication in 1903 by the German Marine association of free- board rules, which differed appreciably from the British regulations, strength- ened the hands of those who had been urging a further revision of the Brit- ish tables, it may be desirable at this stage to draw attention to the depar- tures made from existng British prac- tice. Before the advent of load line legislation in Germany, a large num- ber of German vessels had freeboards assigned by one or the other of the British assigning bodies. But in 1900 the German Marine association, havy- ing decided that some control over the loading of vessels was desirable, issued instructions to owners to report the draft of their seagoing vessels on each voyage, together with the amount, nature and stowage of cargo carried. The results of this investigation were submitted to the Germanischer Lloyd's and in 1903 the freeboard rules pro- posed by that classification society, as amended in conference with represent- atives of the shipping interests, were finally adopted and received the ap- proval of the German government in 1904. The German freeboard tables were, in effect, the British tables improved and modified to suit the changes which had taken place in types and construc- tion of vessels since 1885. The Ger- man rules contained tables of free- boards for both full scantling steam- ers and sailers, also for awning deck vessels, but no separate table was given for spar deck vessels. The depth used with the tables was measured to the top of the deck, whether of wood or steel, and the table freeboards were 271 given from the top of the deck to the center of the disc, i. e., summer freeboards instead of winter freeboards as in the British regulations. As con- siderable improvement had taken place in the distribution of material with a corresponding increase in the strength of vessels with complete su- perstructures, the reduction in free- boards granted by the German tables to vessels of the awning deck type was justified on that account. The new German sheer standard, which was considerably above that of the British tables, was also more in line with modern practice. Germans Make Allowances While in the British tables no cor- rection is made for excess or defi- ciency of sheer in the case of awning or spar deck vessels, awning deck vessels in the German tables received an allowance for excess of sheer over the standard and were penalized for deficiency of sheer in the same way as for flush deck vessels. Detailed instructions were given for the meth- od to be adopted in assigning free- boards on the basis of strength, the standard of strength adopted for use with the tables being the 1903 Ger- manischer Lloyd's rules. Vessels car- rying wood in holds and having deck cargoes were allowed less freeboards than given by the tables provided they had sufficient stability, but no method of estimating this deduction was given. Small coasting sailers un- der 100 tons gross were allowed to load in summer deeper than given by the tables by a maximum allowance not exceeding the reduction allowed for loading in fresh water, and no addition was made to the freeboards either for steamers or sailers engaged in the north Atlantic trade in winter. Owing to the reduction in freeboard granted to awning deck vessels, it was found that the new German regula- tions gave reductions in the freeboards of vessels with long erections as com- pared with the British, which were so considerable that it was evident modi- fications would be necessary either to the British or German tables, or both, before the governments con- cerned could accept each other's regu- lations as being mutually effective. In order to meet the situation, which had arisen owing to the introduction of the German freeboard rules, the British board of trade called a con- ference of the assigning bodies, with the result drastic alterations were made to the British tables, which had the effect of allowing considerable reduc- tions in the freeboards of the majority of vessels, it being estimated that the reductions in freeboards granted represented an increased carrying ca-