THE SEAMEN'S PERILS.
liTEN do not generally succeed by blunders, but a mistake may In further a good man's cause. This has certainly been the case with Mr. Plimsoll. Had he been a little more guarded in his "Appeal," England had certainly not been so soon stirred to its depths, as it has been, by the recital of the seaman's sufferings. And now we have a court of public opinion thrown wide open, which must decisively shape and give its own character to the doings of any Commission whatever. In truth, when the public mind is so deeply moved, it is apt to become inquisitorial ; and as the excesses and cruelties of former times seemed only to encourage
confessions' of the very offences which were being terribly punished, so there is now, perhaps, some danger of sensational stories being concocted not only by sailors and their friends, but by those who, in self-defence, have become offenders. But the ascertained facts themselves are in this case so awful and heart- rending that we believe only the realistic imagination of Defoe could well surpass them. ' Jack Tar' is not imaginative in the main, though he is apt to brag at times, and it is astonishing with what naivete he will tell of his generous acts and his follies, his braveries and his scurvy tricks, in the self-same breath. Though his tongue is usually well kept in order, he makes a clean breast of it when he does speak. As with most of our contem- poraries, we have been made the recipients of not a few sailors" confidences. They are so unvarnished, so plain-sailing, and so thorough, that we feel called on to do our best to convey some idea of what has been confided to us, the more that the interests of truth, as we believe, can only be served by our so doing. First comes "F. S. H.," who has been master and owner for twenty- four years, and has sympathised with Mr. Plimsoll from the first, believing that he is sincere and unbiassed in all save his noble desire to do good. He sends us his jottings, saying that we can make our own deductions, and do with them what we like. His remarks are so pointed and practical that we deduct but little, for he is by no means an optimist :— "Perfection," he says, "is not attainable with shipping, any more than with mankind. The best ships I have ever seen could be shown to have defects, and if this could be said of the best of them, what may ba said of the worst? Then, if we had a perfect ship, we may get a captain who will knock her brains out, or lose her some other way, the first day at sea. The capabilities of shipmasters have much to do with the loss of ships, and from this point of view it matters little whether
the ship is good or bad The first principle I should lay down is this, that a ship should be well-built, under thorough and competent inspection ; (2) that the underwriters make a rule to insure her from the time that she is launched till her final loss or condemnation ; (3) that when she gets old and unseaworthy, competent authority by law should compel her to be stripped and ballasted, and sunk, just as we would do with a horse that has become old and unfit for service. This mode of procedure would be better for the underwriters and also for the owners, and it would be the means of saving the lives of thousands of people. However, while the ship is running, I would advise the most stringent law to keep her seaworthy and to prevent her being over-
loaded Overloading is the principal cause of the loss of ships and lives ; for even if an old rotten ship was not loaded very deep, she would swim over her voyage safely, especially if there was care taken in the distribution of the cargo. And this reminds me of Mr. Plimsoll's loading-mark to be painted on the ship's side. He means, no doubt, to put it on by the old scale of three- inches to the foot of depth of hold. This also is Lloyd's rule indiscriminately, but I should advise its being put on acoording to the well-ascertained constitution of the ship,—that is, a lower mark for an inferior ship, and vice versd. Ships are like everything else earthly,—time destroys them. There is now a practice prevailing, especially in Great Britain and America, which is the source of much mischief. The sellers of a ship will not allow the pur- chasers to bore her, or to prick the wood, in order to ascertain if she be rotten or sound. This is a great evil, and should be at once done away with. I know of a ship that was sold a month ago, and the captain would not allow the parties that purchased her to try if she were sound or not. He afterwards boasted that by what he know of her, He guessed that they would have some shovelling to do.' I once bought a 3,300-ton ship, the ' G—t R—' ; she was as rotten as a pear. There were large spaces in her broadside where all the timbers had rotted and fallen away. When I bought her, the sellers would not allow me to bore her, so I had no moans of ascertaining her real condition. I may state in carrying sail on her that she opened the first seam below her channel bolts so wide, that I had to put in a deal edgeways (flushing it off at the side and blacking it over). Here was a prospect for me in the winter season, bound to Liverpool with such a ship loaded with deals I My wife and family were on board with me, and a crew of fifty, including officers. The underwriters would not insure a penny on the vessel, so I had no temptation to proceed with her. To make her sea- worthy she required very heavy repairs, the cost of which would have been much more than she was worth. It was a terrible dilemma to be caught iu, but it is one of common occurrence. I fondly resolved to keep quiet, and strain every nerve to reach Liverpool. It was not tempting Providence, for I had told Him all about it at first, and begged Him to help me out of this very bad scrape. I then took three tug-boats and towed to sea in a snowstorm. I never sail Sundays, but I thought I would sail Sunday on this occasion, as I had great faith it would be all right, and I wanted to show my faith by my works. I soon found that the ship sailed like a shark and leaked like a sieve. We had steam pumps and hand pumps working day and night. The water gained a foot per day. In 15 days we arrived at Liverpool, having 16 feet of water in the hold, and the oakum from the seams floating round the ship's sides like kelp. She was sold, rechristened, and soon after made a hole in the water. The reason I refer to this ship is to point out a case where the purchaser was deceived in the ship's condition, and where she was not worth repairing. She should have been ballasted and sunk (after being shipped) or, at any rate, ought not to have been allowed to be exposed for sale as a sea-going ship. The law officers should have prevented it, just as they do the sale of other dangerous commodities."
" F. S. H." is surely worth quoting for the anecdote he gives,—his practical application of the whole. He goes to the root of the matter when he says that available tests in the way of " boring " should be made legal. No man will buy a bad ship for a good one if he knows it, but there are so many ways of dressing-up "slop" ships, that men are often tempted into buying rotten ones, and then they try, by running vast risks (as " F. S. H." did, though seldom so successfully,) to retrieve themselves. Perhaps it may have struck the reader as odd that " F. S.-11." should be so firm on the sinking of old ships, when the timber might at least be dried and used for firewood. But if he only knew the arts of the " slop " ship trade, he would not wonder at this. Ships are mended up and pieced together in the most marvellous ways at some ports, and the only guarantee for pieces of old timber not being used again in construction is to sink,the vessels,—a fact which any one conversant with the matter knows quitewell. It is within the writer's knowledge that old wooden ships have been patched till it was almost doubtful what of the original remained, and he knows of iron ships that, with the view of carryinglmore cargo, have been twice lengthened amidships, and so extensively re-plated with the better plates from condemned vessels that but:one-third of the fabric was really of the original structure. If sufficient bulkheads, and work, and material were given, ships might perhaps be lengthened safely ; but to lengthen vessels, as matters go just now, is frequently to make them more and more in shape the " coffins " which they really are. " F. S. H.," according to all the rules of " honest trading," was justified in getting rid of this old " half- box, half-basket of a ship" as best he could ; but surely it says much for him that he can add, "When I sold her, the whole of Liverpool saw what she was ; for I left her with her beams yawning." He adds:—
"After the cargo was all out, the ship seemed quite tight. This is always the case with old ships; they droop at each end and at the turn of the bilges after the cargo is out, and so they close up their leaky seams, like an oyster. So, after the ship had lain three months for sale, people began to forget that she was so leaky, and to my delight I get an offer of a low price for her. The purchasers, who had been free to bore or examine her as they liked, laid out an immense sum on her; but did not dare to open her ceiling or planking, and so could not got her classed. She ran for some two years, always in trouble, and at last foundered, the crew narrowly escaping in their boats."
He certainly pulled along bravely, presenting such a combination of trust in Providence and dry powder as is perhaps more fre- quently found among seamen than landsmen ! This anecdote is perhaps as good an illustration as we have met with of the almost incongruous mixture of sincere religious feeling with an almost irrerevent rashness, which we may say distinguishes the better
clam of sailors. Batas concerns the rechristening of rotten vessels, it is a thing so heinous that doubtless an end will soon be made of it. Another point on which " F. S. H." is admirably clear is the terrible risks which are run through bad stowage. Perhaps more of easily preventible loss of life has arisen from the founder- ing of timber ships, deck laden, and of carelessly-stowed grain and coal-carrying ships, than any one would credit, though it is difficult just now to get at the exact statistics.
" J. G. R." tells us that he has sailed almost every sea of the world as common sailor, as mate, and as master, in bad ships and good ships, audfor bad owners and good ones. He has been twice wrecked—once on the coast of Ireland and once on the North- East coast—and once, owing to the failure of owners, he returned from a long voyage to be docked of all his pay. He declares that this is a most grievous wrong, as we certainly think it is ; and he further urges that, since the owner has the use of the sailor's money whilst he is on a long voyage, the sailor ought to be credited with interest for it, an advantage of which the labouring laudsman now takes care to avail himself in savings-banks and friendly societies. " Mr. Plimsoll, I am certain, is right in the main," be says, and he goes on :- "I wish I could have given him a case or two. When I was some years younger than I am now, I shipped aboard a coaster at Liverpool, though she did not hail from that port. I had been engaged for the 'good ship' in Sunderland, and signed articles there. She was terribly overloaded with easks—I think they were mostly colour casks, loosely lashed on deck—and though she had been painted flash, we soon found she was beastly dirty, and ill found every way. We took notice of it to each other, but I knew it was no nee to make any words about that. We had scarcely cleared the Mersey when she began to leak, and before night two or three men were told off to the pumps. We had good weather for the first two days, and would have made fair way if it had not been for the state the ship was loaded ; and on the third day a squall caught us, and as the ship strained ill-lashed casks loosed away and rolled about the deck, so that we were driven out of our course before we could shorten sail. It is a wonder the ship did not founder with the first lurch. By working with all our might, we got some of the casks thrown overboard. But reckoning was lost when darkness came on, and the ship refused to answer the helm, and we seemed to be doomed men.' If the captain had not been a good sea- man and got to be well liked by the crew, I believe we should all have been lost, for before leaving port there had boon a good deal of grum- bling about the provisions being bad. He had seen this himself, and put aboard one or two articles, and our good-will was gained by a promise we should share them. We did all we could; but the gale in- creased, and we were driven ashore ou the coast of Ireland, at dawn. The ship's broadside was stove in, and she broke up—parted wholly— in a few hours. Thanks to the skill of the lifeboat crew at that place, we were luckily taken off the wreck, with only the loss of the cabin boy. But if it had not been that the ship was so overloaded and un- workable, we might easily have made port before the gale came on."
Then "J. G. R." proceeds to tell us how, when mate of a vessel bound for Calcutta, the crew suffered so severely from bad pro- visions supplied, and the bravado and cruelty of the captain, that he believes the men would have actually mutinied, had he not by good fortune managed to conciliate them by kindly words. Sailors are sometimes unmanageable, as well as other men, but hesays little kindly attentions are sure to master English seamen, though he is not quite so sure of the coolies and Malays, who are now found form- ing so large a proportion of many of the crews of our sea-going ships. In this case, the crew got so indifferent, so depressed and nerveless, that they did not care for anything. And certainly this is a point which demands very special attention. While the crews of passen- ger ships share the advantage of the Government inspection of food with the passengers, owners of carrying ships may put on board almost what they like wherewith to feed the men. Even accord- ing to articles the fare is by no means varied. Salt pork and salt beef are the staple, with peas, flour, bread, tea and coffee. These are often bad, and there is no change or extra allowed, save at the owner's goodwill. The better owners, be it said, do supply raisins and currants, and bring the allowance almost up to what it is in the Navy. But why should not these things be made compulsory, and why should the sailor's food not be as rigorously inspected as the landeman's? There can be no doubt whatever that at present a certain class of shipowners and dealers work to each other's hands, so that unmarketable commodities often find their way on board ship, to the sailor's sad disadvantage.
A third correspondent, " J. H.," declares that " anyone can build a ship without getting her classed ; she may be a mere basket, and yet he may send her to sea, loaded down according to Lloyd's rules with only three inches to the foot depth of hold, and this vessel may not cost one-quarter of what a good vessel would." He is very anxious to combat the inference that has been drawn from the comparative rates of death on sea and laud, and says it is a false one. The Board of Trade returns give it as 1+ per cent. of sailors lost at sea, whereas the loss is 3 per cent. on land." But he says, "You will understand this is not a fair way to put it,
since the land has all the old, and the young, and the sickly dying from many diseases, whereas on the sea there is only the prime in age and constitution, and therefore the deduction will not hold."
These three letters we have chosen out of several as being truly typical. They show the interest that seafaring men of all classes are themselves taking in the matter ; and, since it is not impossible that sailors may be stirred to something of union by these discus- sions, we had better speedily grant them all the protection that law can give, lest they be driven to union by coercion, which assuredly might give us as much trouble, if not even more, than the recent strikes of colliers and miners have done.
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