The full court, in giving judgment on the appeal for a new trial, placed a good deal of weight on the fact of the _Alert_ having passed successfully through the surveys made by the English and Victorian Marine authorities, and, further, the court was of opinion that the certificates given by these authorities were _prima facie_ evidence that the vessel was in all respects not only perfectly sea-worthy, but proof also that the owners had done everything which the law required them to do. Had I sufficient time and space at my disposal, I could cite hundreds of cases showing clearly that these surveys and certificates are more theoretical than practical. Suffice it for the present that I, as briefly as possible, relate two instances of certificated examinations which came under my own personal observation thus:— In 1863 I was an officer on board of a large ship called the _Saldanha_, which was chartered to carry sheep from Victoria to New Zealand. At Geelong we took 6000 sheep on board consigned to Port Chalmers. By way of parenthesis I may mention, what may read rather curious now-a-days, that we had ten shillings per head freight alone for every sheep we landed alive. On the passage down we lost 1000 of them; some died, but the major portion were killed by being trodden to death during the heavy lurches of the ship to leeward. We cast them overboard every day in such quantities that it would have been almost possible by means of the carcases to have tracked our ship’s way from Port Phillip to Port Chalmers! After discharging our living freight at the latter port, we sailed again for Melbourne in order to bring down another hatch, but, unfortunately, through the ship being “flying light”—she was like a balloon on the water—we got caught in a heavy squall and were driven ashore, in spite of letting go both anchors, on a sandy beach near the entrance to Port Chalmers Heads. By means of our boats we all landed safely and lived amongst Maoris for a few days until three steamers came to our assistance. By means of our united efforts, aided by a high spring tide, we got the ship off the beach and towed her back to Port Chalmers, where, with all due solemnity, an examination was held by Lloyd’s surveyors, and also by the insurance agents. The result of these, and other numerous surveys, was that the _Saldanha_ was condemned as unsea-worthy, and sold by the insurance agents for a few hundred pounds to a company who desired to make a coal hulk of her. Accordingly she was “stripped to a gantlin” and used for such purpose.