Survey of Ships for Classification," an interesting paper sponsored by the China Branch of the Institution. of Mechanieal Engineers, was read before the Engineering Society of China on Monday at the Henry Lester Institute of Medical Research, 1320 Avenue Road, by Mr. G. Pickering, M. I. Mech, E, M. I. Mar, E, with Mr. F. J. Hookham, B.Se., M. Inst. C.B., A. M. I. Mech. E, in the chair. Mà r. Pickering said that ship classification meant grading in conformity with some recognized or preconceived standard, and was used mainly in connection with the classification of mercantile shipping, and might be said to be a direct development of the Ship's Lists which were posted by Edward Lloyd in his Coffee House in Lombard Street, London, for the information of his customers, towards the end of the 17th century.
The customers of Lloyd's Coffee House were business men engaged in shipping, viz., ship owners, charterers, shippers and insurers of marine risks, and in 1770, those who specialized in marine insurance established themselves elsewhere as an exclusive Society for the sole purpose of prosecute ing marine insurance business. They were granted a Chatter of Incorporation, by the Crown, for the conduct of marine insurance business in 1871, and in 1911 this Charter was amended to include non-marine business.
Lioyd's Register of Shipping, on the other hand, was solely a classification society. It was founded in 1760, and reconstituted in 1834 to meet the need of these underwriters and others for faithful and accurate information regarding the ship they might wish to insure or be otherwise interested in. Lloyd's Register was the original Society, and while there were several others now in existence, their general purpose and functions were similar, although many of them had a National, rather than an International purpose, since they were especially to further the maritime interests of their own particular country.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.