3-052-492 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

A Shifted Cargo, 1880. 'A political and popular subject just now is the safety of ships laden with grain. When America is sending some twenty million quarters of wheat alone from her ports to this country and to the Continent, the question of its cost and safety, and the safety of the brave men who form the crews of the vessels, is one of vital interest to our shipowners and the public...Mr. Plimsoll asserts there is much improvement to be made, and doubtless the appointment of a Select Committee of the House of Commons has been made not too soon...According to the popular belief, grain, which must be considered as a fluid when in bulk, has only to be put in bags, and safety will be ensured...Sailing-ships, with their dimensions vastly different from long steam-vessels, having a very broad beam in proportion to their length, are reckoned decidedly safest for grain cargoes, and, being loaded more slowly, shifting of their cargoes is not common'. From "Illustrated London News", 1880.