Table 18 A.-Table showing the manner in which the summaries in preceding table are obtained.

Table 19.-Return of the particulars of the dimensions of the Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company's steamship Mooltan,' with tabulated statement showing the results of her performance as compared with six other vessels in the same service.

Table 20.-Table of the results of the performances of 68 vessels of the Austrian Lloyds' Steamship Company.

Table 21.-Return of experiments with H.M.S. 'Stork,' 'Shannon,' and 'Psyche,' with different kinds of screw propellers.

Table 22.-Seven logs of voyages of the Great Eastern' for 1861-62.

Table 23.-Statement showing the summary of the performances of the Pacific Steam Navigation Company's new vessels 'Peru' and 'Talca.'

Table 24.-Abstract log of, and notes upon, the performance of the African Royal Mail Company's steamship 'McGregor Laird.'"

Table 25.-Notes on the performance of the North German Lloyds' Company's steamship Hansa.'

Table 26.-Log of the Earl of Durham's sailing-yacht 'Beatrix,' on her recent Mediterranean voyage.

REPORT.

["The object of the Committee is to make public such recorded facts through the medium of the Association, and being accessible to the public in that manner, to bring the greatest amount of science to the solution of the difficulties now existing to the scientific improvement of the forms of vessels and the qualities of marine engines. They will especially endeavour to guard against information so furnished to them being used in any other way, and they trust they may look for the cooperation of members of Yacht Clubs having steam-yachts, of shipowners, as well as of steamship-builders and engineers."Third Report, 1861, p. 16.]

Ar the meeting of the British Association held at Manchester in September 1861, the Committee were reappointed in the following terms:

"That the Committee on Steamship Performance be reappointed.

"That the attention of the Committee be also directed to the obtaining of information regarding the performance of vessels under sail, with a view to comparing the result of the two powers of wind and steam, in order to their more effectual and economical combination; with £150 at their disposal." The following noblemen and gentlemen were nominated to serve on the Committee:

The Duke of Sutherland.
The Earl of Gifford, M.P.
The Earl of Caithness.
The Lord Dufferin,

W. Fairbairn, Esq., LL.D., F.R.S.
J. Scott Russell, Esq., F.R.S.
Admiral E. Paris, C.B. (Imperial
French Navy).

The Hon. Capt. Egerton, R.N.
The Hon. Leopold Agar Ellis,M.P.
J. E. McConnell, Esq., C.E.
Wm. Smith, Esq., C.E.
Prof. J. M. Rankine, LL.D.
J. R. Napier, Esq.

R. Roberts, Esq., C.E.

Henry Wright, Esq., Secretary.

With power to add to their number.

The following noblemen and gentlemen, having consented to assist your Committee, were, during the present year, elected as corresponding members;

Lord C. Paget, M.P., C.B.

The Earl of Durham.

The Marquis of Hartington, M.P.
Viscount Hill.

Lord John Hay.

Admiral Elliott.

Captain Hope, R.N.

Captain Ryder, R.N.

Robert Dalglish, Esq., M.P.

Captain Robertson, R.N.
Captain Sulivan, R.N., C.B.
Captain Mangles.

T. R. Tufnell, Esq.
Wm. Froude, Esq.
W. Just, Esq.
John Elder, Esq.
David Rowan, Esq.
J. Mc F. Gray, Esq.

Your Committee have the pleasure of stating that, at the unanimous request of the members of the Committee, his Grace the Duke of Sutherland undertook the office of Chairman. The Committee have, since February last, held monthly meetings, and intermediate meetings of a sub-Committee.

Your Committee have pleasure in reporting very satisfactory progress, and that they have had an increasing amount of useful information placed at their disposal. Much greater interest is now taken in the objects of the inquiry, and a still increasing number of observers have adopted the forms of the Committee, for recording the performances of vessels.

The importance of the information collected by your Committee is attracting the attention of steamship-owners, as well as scientific investigators; and it is hoped the result of greater efficiency and economy in the application of steam, as well as improvements in the construction of steam-vessels, will be the result of these Reports; and your Committee have reason to believe that considerable advantages have already been derived from their labours by steamship-owners.

The Royal Navy.-Your Committee, in their Third Annual Report, stated the results of their communications with the Admiralty, and have now to report that the objects of your Committee continue to meet with the approval of the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty, and of the intelligent scientific officers in that branch of Her Majesty's service; that your Committee have been furnished from time to time with accurate returns of the performances of the more important steamships in Her Majesty's service which have been tried at the measured mile during the last twelve months, and also some similar returns, received too late for insertion in the Report of last year. In the Appendix will be found a selection from these returns, preference having been given to the returns of vessels of which the future steam performances at sea have been promised.

Your Committee have received several returns of performances of Her Majesty's ships at sea, the publication of which, owing to their being incomplete in some important particulars, and to the lateness of the time at which they were received, is necessarily postponed.

Your Committee call attention to the selection they have made, which will be found in the Appendix.

As numerous inquiries have, from time to time, been made of your Committee as to the particulars of certain of Her Majesty's steamships, the performances of which were noticed in previous Reports, your Committee, with a view to avoid unnecessary correspondence, and to give the required information more fully than can be done by written communications, determined to include in the present Report three sets of tables of trials of H.M.'s ships, which were officially tabulated by the Admiralty, but not issued by them to the public.

The reprinting of those tables, and the textual information accompanying them, in the Appendix to the present Report will now supply those who possess the previous Reports of your Committee with the means of comparing the results obtained upon the trials of nearly the entire of the steamships of war composing the British Navy, and will also enable them to compare with the results of such trials the performances whilst at sea of very many of the vessels included in the complete and extensive lists to be found in the three Reports previously published, and in the present Report of your Committee, without the necessity, which before existed, of searching elsewhere for the information.

The publication of the three Admiralty Tables will also render it un

necessary hereafter to repeat many particulars as to the dimensions, &c., of the ships, and the power and other details of the engines of such of H.M.'s ships of which your Committee may, from time to time, receive returns of performances at sea.

In the previous Reports, the records of special trials with propellers of various kinds, in the steamships Flying Fish,' Bullfinch,' 'Doris,' &c., were given; and the Committee are now enabled to furnish another series of experiments with Her Majesty's gunboat Stork,' which are very interesting, and to which is added a short abstract of the trials of the Shannon' and Psyche.'

The Steam Transport Service.-A series of tables, prepared by Mr. G. Murdoch, Superintending Engineer at Constantinople during the Crimean War, and now Inspecting Engineer of Her Majesty's Steam Reserve at Portsmouth, having been carefully calculated for the purpose of showing the respective values of the several steamships, classified according to the nature of the employment or the special character of the duties required to be performed, have been placed at the disposal of your Committee. These tables, besides giving the expense of moving each ship 1000 miles, and the cost of conveying sick and wounded officers and troops, cavalry, cattle, and cargo, over the same distance, give the daily coal-consumption and the distance run for each ton of coal consumed. They have also the additional value arising from contrasting the different results obtained, and costs incurred, when propelling the same vessels at different speeds.

Royal Mail Service.-Your Committee have been favoured with a copy of the Engine Register kept by the West India Royal Mail Steam Packet Company, showing the exact performances of some of their largest steamships. The tabulated statement, which will be found appended to this Report, is for the twelve months ending June last, and has reference only to the steamers employed on the West India Transatlantic route between Southampton and St. Thomas.

To this Form of Return your Committee would invite special attention, as they are not aware that such is kept by any of the other large Steam Packet Companies or steamship-owners; and the great value of the information it affords, as also the very complete form in which that information is rendered, will, it is thought, be admitted by every one who is conversant with such matters. The importance of such a record to a corporation like the Royal Mail Company can hardly be over-estimated, when it is considered that they have no less than nine distinct routes of steamers in the West Indies and the Brazils, and that exactly the same system is adopted in regard to all these; so that the performance of every vessel engaged on these lines is, on the completion of each succeeding voyage, thus carefully analysed and brought under the immediate notice of the managers.

In addition to the above, indicator diagrams are taken from the engines on every voyage, and sent home for inspection; the particulars of these are further entered in a register kept for that purpose. The Royal Mail Company have kindly furnished your Committee with a copy of their register of the diagrams taken on all the voyages comprised in the first-mentioned table, thus affording a complete synopsis of the working both of their ships and engines on the West India Transatlantic route, during the twelve months referred to.

Your Committee have included also the dimensions and other particulars

of the Mooltan,' a new vessel belonging to the Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company, with returns of a voyage from Southampton to Alexandria and back, showing the results of the performance of this vessel, as compared with some other vessels in the same service. It is to be regretted that the Peninsular and Oriental Company found they were unable to give a continuance of the reports of the performances of the vessels composing their fleet of ships this year in time for the publication of this Report. The Committee have reason to believe that next year full reports of the performances of these vessels for this and next year will be forthcoming.

The Pacific Royal Mail Company have furnished your Committee with the dimensions and abstract of the performances of their last additions to their fleet (see Appendix). The particulars of the other vessels have been given in previous Reports.

It is worthy of remark that the vessels belonging to this Company fitted with double-cylinder expansion engines, specially noticed by your Committee in previous Reports as remarkable for their economy, have continued to perform in the same economical manner; and, under the circumstances, it has not been considered necessary to furnish a continuation of the logs previously given.

The City of Dublin Company's Returns for the past year are omitted; and your Committee regret that the log of the Munster,' and the results attained by working out her performances, although the calculations have involved considerable trouble to the Committee in their preparation,—have also to be omitted.

Your Committee have received from the Royal African Mail Company an abstract of the log of the screw steamship McGregor Laird' on her first voyage from Liverpool to Madeira, and the particulars of the vessel and her machinery. To the performances of this ship your Committee call especial attention, on account of the great economy exhibited in the consumption of fuel.

Foreign Mail Service.-Your Committee would call attention to the returns supplied of the performances of the steamships belonging to the Austrian Lloyds' Steamship Company; and although they are to some extent incomplete (which arises from no systematic recording having previously been adopted), this, it is promised, will be remedied in future by the adoption of the forms supplied by your Committee.

The Mercantile Marine Service.-Your Committee have been occupied principally in effecting arrangements by which a more thorough and extended organization of the means of obtaining returns of the performances of mercantile steamships employed in ocean navigation can be secured, and also in making personal application to many of the largest steamship-owners at the principal ports of Great Britain. They have succeeded in enlisting the active cooperation of many proprietors of steamships. In some cases the owners of mercantile marine ships, upon being called on by members of this Committee, at once requested their superintending engineers to adopt the "forms of returns" prepared by this Committee, and in other cases the result of such personal communication has been the suggestions of modifications in the "forms;" but, in all instances, or nearly so, the engineers have undertaken that, in future, a more perfect and systematic recording of the performance at sea shall be adopted, and that the results shall be regularly placed at the disposal of your Committee.

With a view of obtaining, with greater facility than heretofore, returns of performances, as well as the dimensions and particulars, of ships, engines, and machinery, your Committee have adopted a form of pocket-book, or "Engineers' Pocket Log," which contains a greater number of details than were included in their previous "forms of returns." This log is so arranged that the returns can be removed from the case when filled up, and the blank form inserted. Each book is furnished with a pocket to receive and preserve the indicator diagrams or "cards."

Although these books have only recently been issued, considerable numbers of them are in course of being filled up by the engineers of ocean-going steamships; and arrangements have been made for the regular transmission of these returns from each ship during the next twelve months. Since the issuing of these Pocket Logs, your Committee have received particulars of between 30 and 40 first-class ocean-going screw steamships, which were, however, received too late to be properly tabulated so as to accompany the present Report. These returns are being examined and arranged for publication. The Engineers' Pocket Logs have been freely circulated and well received, and they promise to yield a large amount of valuable information to the Association.

A list of the particulars asked for will be found in the Appendix.

The particulars of the Great Eastern' having been already published, the logs of her performances on her Transatlantic voyages have been regularly supplied to your Committee since she has been refitted and placed upon the North American service.

These logs have been collected, and are given in the Appendix to the present Report.

Performances of Vessels under Sail.-In compliance with the recommendation of the Council of the Association, your Committee have succeeded in obtaining promises of copies of the logs or returns of the performances of several of the largest sailing-ships belonging to the Australian, India, and China Packet Services, and to this end special observations are being made; and it is hoped that the results of the labours of those who have undertaken the duty of supplying your Committee with these returns may be included in the next Report in such a form as will render them available for comparison with the performances of full-powered and auxiliary steamships performing similar voyages.

Your Committee have received from the Earl of Durham the logs of the sailing schooner-yacht Beatrix,' on her Mediterranean voyages. The dimensions and particulars of this vessel, together with scale of displacement, have also been received, but not in time to be included in the Report.

Your Committee have been promised the particulars of some auxiliarypowered ocean steamships.

The Committee purpose to act upon a suggestion made to them, of forming a list of the Engineers of the several classes employed in the mercantile steam service, who have, with the sanction of the owners, supplied your Committee with returns of the performances of ships under their charge, to which reference may be had by such members of your Association as are interested in the subject, and with a view to afford opportunities for the advancement of such Engineers as have shown the greatest amount of scientific ability in connexion with their calling.

Your Committee have determined to act upon a suggestion by which the