1. That the newly appointed bulkhead committee should inquire and
report, among other matters, on the desirability and practicability of
providing ships with (_a_) a double skin carried up above the water
line, or, as an alternative, with (_b_) a longitudinal, vertical,
water-tight bulkhead on each side of the ship, extending as far forward
and aft as convenient, or (_c_) with a combination of (_a_) and (_b_).
Any one of the three (_a_), (_b_), and (_c_) to be in addition to
water-tight transverse bulkheads.
2. That the committee should also inquire and report as to the
desirability and practicability of fitting ships with (_a_) a deck or
decks at a convenient distance or distances above the water line which
shall be water-tight throughout a part or the whole of the ship's
length; and should in this connection report upon (_b_) the means by
which the necessary openings in such deck or decks should be made
water-tight, whether by water-tight doors or water-tight trunks or by
any other and what means.
3. That the committee should consider and report generally on the
practicability of increasing the protection given by subdivision, the
object being to secure that the ship shall remain afloat with the
greatest practicable proportion of her length in free communication with
the sea.
4. That when the committee has reported upon the matters before
mentioned, the board of trade should take the report into their
consideration and to the extent to which they approve of it should seek
statutory powers to enforce it in all newly built ships, but with a
discretion to relax the requirements in special cases where it may seem
right to them to do so.
5. That the board of trade should be empowered by the legislature to
require the production of the designs and specifications of all ships in
their early stages of construction and to direct such amendments of the
same as may be thought necessary and practicable for the safety of life
at sea in ships. (This should apply to all passenger-carrying ships.)