PREFACE.
Although familiar with most subjects relating to Merchant Ships, I have found it alike necessary and desirable to look to others for aid in collecting some of the materials for this work; and I am especially indebted to my friends Mr. Vaux, F.R.S., late of the British Museum, and Sir Patrick Colquhoun, Q.C., for much valuable assistance rendered by them in connection with the two volumes now presented to the public. By combining the learning of my friends, so far as regards the records of the ships and commerce of ancient times, with my own knowledge of the subject, I am not without hope that the work may in some respects prove useful.
I am also much indebted to Mr. T. H. Farrer, of the Board of Trade, and to his assistant, Mr. Thomas Gray, of the Marine Department, for many valuable suggestions; and in thanking them for their courtesy, I venture to express the belief that by their assistance and that of other friends I shall be able to give in the two succeeding volumes necessary to complete the work an impartial narrative of the many important events and changes which have occurred within my own time, I might say within my own experience, together with an accurate account of the ships and maritime commerce of the age in which we live.
W. S. LINDSAY.
Shepperton Manor, Middlesex.