The International Regulations for Preventing Collisions at Sea are of the first importance to the navigator; as Marsden puts it, they are ‘the paramount Rules of Navigation’ and it follows that any trouble taken to perfect them is well worth while. They must be comprehensive and clear, simple enough for the sailor yet precise enough for the lawyer. Considering this, the wonder is perhaps that they are as good as they are. Since they are to be discussed at the International Safety of Life at Sea and Load Line Convention this year, the subject of their revision is a topical one and worth the attention of every mariner.

The story of the Regulations is not without interest. They did not, of course, spring fully fledged into being and they are little more than one hundred years old—a very small fraction of the time that man has been navigating the seas.