Finally, the commander’s attention must be devoted exclusively to the general management of the whole system under his control, and his attention must not be diverted by frivolous pursuits and unimportant occupations. I believe that even in the present large steamers much advantage would result from relieving the captain from all care of the passengers and cargo; but in our case, where we may have to provide for thousands instead of hundreds, and arranged in different classes, and living in completely separate saloons and compartments, the present system of a captain dining at the table and associating with the passengers would be impracticable, even if it were desirable. But for much more important reasons, and on general grounds, I think that while the commander is of course supreme over every department, he should not be embarrassed by undertaking any one, still less should he have his mind occupied with the troublesome and frivolous concerns of a vast hotel, nor should he be hampered by the necessity of attending to the hours and the forms of a large society. Moreover, I consider it essential that he should by his presence and control keep up the position and the sense of responsibility of the chief officers under him, by living and messing with them; the commander and those acting immediately under him must occupy a more dignified position than they now do. The result of all these general views is, that the command of this ship must be considered to consist mainly in the superintending and keeping up in a high state of order the perfect working of a highly methodical pre-arranged system, by means of which the ship is to be made to go like a piece of very accurate machinery, precisely in the course which has been pre-arranged, and precisely at the speed, and with the consumption of power, which has been ascertained to be the highest attainable with the requisite economy; and there must be a proper establishment of assistants, competent to control each department of this system. As regards the constitution of this establishment, I consider the commander should have a staff of chief officers or captains. I believe three will be necessary, with a fourth performing general duties and ready to take the place of any one of the three; that one of them should always be in command of the ship (under the commander); that, besides these chief officers, there should be a master, corresponding to a master in a Queen’s ship, who would have assistants and calculators or clerks, whose duties would be to keep the ship’s reckoning, to keep up perfect and continuous observations, to calculate with precision and set from hour to hour the exact course by compass which has to be followed, to keep in the course determined upon by the captain,