The Sea: Its Stirring Story of Adventure, Peril, & Heroism Volume II Part 7

In following the progress of the screw, as applicable to the propulsion of merchant vessels,(32) and its use in other countries, we must now recur to the period when Ericsson was making his experiments on the Thames. At that time an intelligent gentleman, Captain Robert F. Stockton, of the United States' Navy, was on a visit to London; being of an inquisitive turn of mind, like most of his countrymen, he watched with great interest the trials with the screw then in progress, and having obtained an introduction to Ericsson, he accompanied him on one of his experimental expeditions on the Thames. Unlike the Lords of the British Admiralty, who allowed eight years to elapse before they built their first screw-propeller, the _Rattler_, Captain Stockton was so impressed with the value and utility of the discovery, that, although he had only made a single trip in the _Francis B. Ogden_, and that merely from London Bridge to Greenwich, he there and then gave Ericsson a commission to build for him two boats for the United States, with steam machinery and propeller as proposed by him. Stockton, impressed with its practical utility for war purposes, was undismayed by the recorded opinions of scientific men, and formed his own judgment from what he himself witnessed. He, therefore, not only ordered the two iron boats on his own account, but at once brought the subject before the Government of the United States, and caused various plans and models to be made at his own expense, explaining the fitness of the new invention for s.h.i.+ps of war. So sanguine was he, indeed, of the great importance of this new mode of propulsion, and so determined that his views should be carried out, that he encouraged Ericsson to believe that the Government of the United States would test his propeller on a large scale; Ericsson, relying upon these promises, abandoned his professional engagements in England, and took his departure for the United States. But it was not until a change in the Federal administration, two years afterwards, that Captain Stockton was able to obtain a favourable hearing. Orders were then given to make an experiment in the _Princeton_, which was successful. The propeller, as applied to this war vessel, was similar in construction to that of the _Francis B. Ogden_, as well in theory as in minute practical details. One of the boats, named after her owner, the _Robert F. Stockton_, was built by Messrs. Laird, of Birkenhead, and launched in 1838. She was 70 feet in length, 10 feet wide, and drew 6 feet 9 inches of water. Her cylinders were 16 inches diameter with 18 inches stroke, and her propellers 6 feet 4 inches in length. On her trial trip on the Thames, made in January of the following year, she accomplished a distance of nine miles in about half an hour with the tide, proving the speed through the water to be between eleven and twelve miles an hour. On her second trial, between Southwark and Waterloo Bridges, she took in tow four laden barges with upright sides and square ends, having a beam of fifteen feet each, and drawing four feet six inches of water. One of these was lashed on each side, the other two being towed astern, and though the weight of the whole must have been close upon 400 tons, and a considerable resistance was offered by their forms, the steamer towed them at the rate of 5 miles an hour in slack water, or in eleven minutes between the two bridges, a distance of one mile.

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE "ROBERT F. STOCKTON."]

These experiments having been considered in every way satisfactory, the _Robert F. Stockton_ left England for the United States in the beginning of April, 1839, under the command of Captain Cram of the American merchant service. Her crew consisted of four men and a boy; and having accomplished the voyage _under sail_ in forty days, Captain Cram was presented with the freedom of the city of New York for his daring in crossing the Atlantic in so small a craft, constructed only for river navigation.

The first steamer to cross the Atlantic was the _Savannah_, of 300 tons, which arrived in Liverpool from Savannah, Georgia, in thirty-one days, her voyage having been made partly under sail. So to America belongs the credit of having shown the practicability of employing steam power for the most difficult and dangerous voyages. The _Savannah's_ horse-power was too small for her size, and although she arrived safely, the experiment was not regarded by men of science as particularly successful. Dr. Lardner in particular, and other scientists, expressed their belief that no vessel could carry coal enough to steam the whole distance, and their discussions greatly r.e.t.a.r.ded the progress of Transatlantic steam navigation. The voyage of the _Savannah_ was made in 1819; ten years elapsed before the Atlantic traffic was renewed, so far as steam was concerned, by the dispatch of an English-built steam-s.h.i.+p, the _Curacoa_, which made several trips from Holland to the West Indies. In 1833 a steam-s.h.i.+p, named the _Royal William_, sailed from Quebec, and arrived safely at Gravesend. But it was not till 1838 that the practicability of profitably employing steam-s.h.i.+ps on the Atlantic was demonstrated by the voyages of the _Sirius_ and _Great Western_, the latter one of the finest vessels of the day. Their arrival at New York is thus described by one of the journals of that city:-

[Ill.u.s.tration: ARRIVAL OF THE "GREAT WESTERN" AT NEW YORK.]

"At three o'clock p.m., on Sunday the 22nd of April, the _Sirius_ first descried the land, and early on Monday morning, the 23rd, anch.o.r.ed in the North River immediately off the battery. The moment the intelligence was made known, hundreds and thousands rushed, early in the morning, to the battery. Nothing could exceed the excitement. The river was covered during the whole day with row-boats, skiffs, and yawls, carrying the wondering people out to get a close view of this extraordinary vessel. While people were yet wondering how the _Sirius_ made out to cross the rude Atlantic, it was announced, about eleven a.m. on Monday, from the telegraph, that a huge steam-s.h.i.+p was in the offing. '_The Great Western! The Great Western!_' was on everybody's tongue. About two o'clock p.m., the first curl of her ascending smoke fell on the eyes of the thousands of anxious spectators. A shout of enthusiasm rose in the air." The movements of a great steam-s.h.i.+p in and out of port are always watched with interest-why, even the arrival of the "husbands' boat" at Margate or Ramsgate is an event! One can, then, well imagine and understand the excitement caused in New York by the arrival of two fine vessels almost simultaneously from England. It meant, in some branches of commerce, a complete revolution.

These first pa.s.sages were made in seventeen and fifteen days respectively.

Almost immediately after this, the great Cunard Company commenced operations, the Admiralty awarding them the mail contract. Then came the great contest for the maritime supremacy, commercially regarded, of the Atlantic Ocean, when American enterprise came into the field, and organised a formidable rival to the English company in the Collins Line.

The history of this contest would fill a volume.

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE FIRST CUNARD STEAMER.]

The national pride of the Americans had been touched by the commercial success of British steam-s.h.i.+ps frequenting their ports, and they determined, vulgarly speaking, "to have a piece of the pie." American genius and enterprise had sent forth a fleet of steamers to trade on their coasts, lakes, and rivers, which a leading English authority considers "were marvels of naval architecture, unsurpa.s.sed in speed, and in the splendour of their equipment." Their clipper-sailing s.h.i.+ps "were the finest the world had then produced, while their perfection in the art of s.h.i.+p-building had even reached so high a point that they constructed steamers to ascend rivers where there was hardly depth of water for an Indian canoe; indeed, it was proverbially said, in honour of their skill in the art, that their vessels would traverse valleys if only moistened by the morning dews." Why should they not have a great ocean line? It was looked upon in Congress and by the country generally as almost a national question, and it resulted in a heavy mail subsidy to Mr. Collins and his colleagues. They immediately made arrangements for the construction of four large vessels. Later, the Government increased the subsidy by over one-third (from $19,250 per trip to $33,000) _but increased speed was required in return_. How much this may have had to do with the two terrible disasters about to be related will no doubt strike the reader.

The Collins Line commenced its voyages in 1850.

"A voyage across the Atlantic," says Lindsay, "must ever be attended with greater peril than almost any other ocean service of similar length and duration; arising, as this does, from the boisterous character and uncertainty of the weather, from the icebergs which float in huge ma.s.ses during spring along the northern line of pa.s.sage, and from the many vessels of every kind to be met with either employed in the Newfoundland fisheries, or in the vast and daily-increasing intercourse between Europe and America.

"In such a navigation the utmost care requires to be constantly exercised, especially by steam-s.h.i.+ps. Nevertheless, although the Collins Line of steamers performed this pa.s.sage with a speed hitherto unequalled, they encountered no accidents worthy of notice during the first four years of their career; but terrible calamities befell them soon afterwards."

On the 21st of September, 1854, the _Arctic_, according to the usual course, left Liverpool for New York. She had on board 233 pa.s.sengers, of whom 150 were first-cla.s.s, together with a crew of 135 persons and a valuable cargo. At mid-day on the 27th of that month, when about sixty miles south-east of Cape Race, and during a dense fog, she came in contact with the French steamer _Vesta_. By this collision the _Vesta_ seemed at first to be so seriously injured, that in their terror and confusion, her pa.s.sengers, amounting to 147, and a crew of fifty men, conceived she was about to sink, and that their only chance of safety lay in their getting quickly into the _Arctic_. Impressed with this idea many of them rushed into the boats, of which, as too frequently happens, one sank immediately, and the other, containing thirteen persons, was swamped under the quarter of the s.h.i.+p, all on board of her peris.h.i.+ng. When, however, the captain of the _Vesta_ more carefully examined his injuries, he found that though the bows of his vessel were partially stove in, the foremost bulk-head had not started. He therefore at once lightened his s.h.i.+p by the head, strengthening the part.i.tion by every means in his power, and by great exertions, courage, forethought, and seamans.h.i.+p, brought his shattered vessel, without further loss, into the harbour of St. John's.

In the meantime a frightful catastrophe befell the _Arctic_, and was so little antic.i.p.ated that the persons on board of her supposing that she had only sustained a slight injury by the collision, had launched a boat for the rescue of the pa.s.sengers and crew of the _Vesta_. It was soon, however, discovered that their own s.h.i.+p had sustained fatal injuries, and the sea was rus.h.i.+ng in so fast through three holes which had been pierced in the hull below the water-line, that the engine fires would soon be extinguished. The _Arctic's_ head was therefore immediately laid for Cape Race, the nearest point of land; but within four hours of the collision the water reached the furnaces, and soon afterwards she foundered. As it was blowing a strong gale at the time, some of the boats into which the pa.s.sengers and crew rushed were destroyed in launching; others which got clear of the sinking s.h.i.+p were never again heard of, and only two, with thirty-one of the crew and fourteen pa.s.sengers, reached Newfoundland.

Among those who perished were the wife of Mr. Collins, and their son and daughter; but the captain, who remained on board to the last, and the first as well as the second and fourth officers, were saved. Seventy-two men and four females sought refuge on a raft, which the seamen, when they found the s.h.i.+p sinking, had hastily constructed; but one by one they were swept away-every wave as it washed over the raft claiming one or more victims as its prey; and at eight o'clock on the following morning _one_ human being alone was left out of the seventy-six persons, who only twelve or fifteen hours before had hoped to save their lives on this temporary structure. The solitary occupant of this fragile raft must have had a brave heart and a strong nerve to have retained his place on it for a day and a half after all his companions had perished, for it was not until that time had elapsed that he was saved by a pa.s.sing vessel. His tale of how he and they parted was of the most heart-rending description.(33)

As a large portion of the first-cla.s.s pa.s.sengers of the _Arctic_ consisted of persons of wealth and extensive commercial relations in the United States, as well as in England and the colonies, and besides more than one member of her aristocracy, the loss of the _Arctic_, and the terrible incidents in connection with her fate, caused an unusual amount of grief and consternation on both sides of the Atlantic.

Within little more than twelve months from this time another great calamity befell the Collins Company, and the sad loss of their steamer _Pacific_-from the mystery in which it was shrouded, if not as lamentable as that of the _Arctic_ (for the soul of man has never been harrowed with its details)-was equally deplorable. Although the ocean in this instance has left no record of its ravages, the stern fact announced in the brief words, "_she was never heard of_," tells itself the sad, sad tale that a great s.h.i.+p, with all her living inmates, in infancy, in manhood and old age, and it may be full of hope and joy, had been engulfed in the blue waters of the Atlantic-summoned, perhaps in a moment, to an eternity more mysterious than that which surrounded their melancholy fate.

The splendid but unfortunate s.h.i.+p left Liverpool on the 23rd of January, 1856, having on board twenty-five first-cla.s.s pa.s.sengers, twenty second-cla.s.s pa.s.sengers, and a crew of 141 persons, almost all of whom were Americans. She carried the mails and a valuable cargo, the insurances effected on her being 2,000,000 dollars. But no living soul ever returned to tell where or how she was lost, nor were any articles belonging to her ever found to afford a clue to her melancholy fate; it can only be supposed that she sprang an overflowing leak, or more probably struck suddenly when at full speed on an iceberg, and instantly foundered.

The Collins Line ceased to exist a few years after these serious disasters, but the Cunard became more firmly established than ever, and entered on that career of prosperity which has been the most remarkable of any in the long list of steam-s.h.i.+p lines. Its fleet consisted of forty-nine vessels in 1875, running not merely on the Atlantic service, but to Mediterranean and other ports. A competent authority puts the money value of the s.h.i.+ps at about seven millions sterling. In the ocean line the crews are engaged for a single voyage out and home. The company s.h.i.+pped and discharged during the year ending July 1st, 1872, 43,000 men, which means that they continuously employed about 8,600 persons on their s.h.i.+ps.

About 1,500 men find regular employment in loading and unloading the steam-s.h.i.+ps, and from 500 to 1,500 more are engaged at the docks of the company in Liverpool in fitting and refitting these vessels. "Hence the company, although a private enterprise in the hands of only three families, is ent.i.tled to rank with the great railway and other public companies as an employer of labour."(34) The Cunard Company, in 1861, enrolled a regiment of Volunteer Artillery (the 11th Lancas.h.i.+re) 500 strong, composed entirely of their own _employes_, and they have always shown much public spirit in Liverpool in the promotion of schools, asylums, and other provident and charitable inst.i.tutions for the seamen's benefit. During the Crimean war, and in 1861, when the friendly relations between Great Britain and America were put in jeopardy by the forcible arrest of Messrs. Mason and Slidell, when on board the Royal Mail steamer _Trent_, the resources of the company were put into requisition for the conveyance of troops and stores. Their two largest s.h.i.+ps, the _Bothnia_ and _Scythia_, each of 4,535 tons burden, have saloons where 300 persons can dine at one time, while their decks afford an unbroken promenade, for pa.s.sengers, of 425 feet.

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE CUNARD SCREW STEAM-s.h.i.+P "BOTHNIA."]

The wonderful exemption from s.h.i.+pwreck and casualties, which is the just pride of this company, is due to the admirable discipline and order enforced. Take the following description of life on the _Bothnia_ as detailed in the columns of our leading journal:-"The _Bothnia_ carries ten boats, which are capable of containing her full complement of people; and she has a crew of 150 officers and men, all told, divided into the three cla.s.ses of seamen, engineers and firemen, and stewards. It has always been part of the Cunard Company's system that every man, whatever his duties on board the s.h.i.+p, should be a member of some particular boat's crew, and that the crew of each boat should be formed from all three of the cla.s.ses which have been mentioned.... As soon as all are on board, each man is informed to which boat he is attached, and who is the commanding officer of that boat, and each boat's officer is expected to know every member of his boat's crew. In order to prevent mistakes, each man wears a metal badge, with a brooch-fastening, which bears the number of his boat," and so forth. Before the pa.s.sengers are on board, there is an inspection, the crew being drawn up in two lines, each man being expected to answer to his name. The muster-roll having been called, orders are given to prepare for boat service; and the men break up into the necessary number of crews.

After the order "Boats out!" is given, the men fall to work with a will, and the ten boats, each containing a keg of water, oars, spars, sails, an axe, &c., are in three minutes properly launched into the water, the captain from his place of vantage on the bridge looking sharply after laziness or awkwardness. The same organisation of crews is applied to fire duty. Some have charge of the buckets; others fetch and join the hose, or take care of the jets; others are ready with wet blankets to throw over the flames; but the essential matter is that each man has his place and his duty. So for manning the pumps and other essential matters. These drills over, the inspecting party proceeds to make a complete tour of the vessel. The store-rooms are visited, and the steward cautioned never to use any other light than a closed and locked lamp. The supply of rockets and other signals is examined, the steering and signalling apparatus tried, and only after everything has been found in order is the word given for the s.h.i.+p to embark her pa.s.sengers and proceed on her course. "If the smallest defect," says the _Times_, before quoted, "is discovered in any part of a s.h.i.+p, no question is raised whether it will bear one voyage or two voyages more, but the order, 'Out with it!' is given at once." The reign of order is as complete as on board a well-regulated man-of-war. On the many other great steam-s.h.i.+p lines more or less of the same inspection occurs, and on some, no doubt, the precautions taken are nearly as careful. The Cunard Line is generally admitted to be, however, pre-eminent in the care taken of life and property on board, the fact being that the company has never lost a s.h.i.+p on the Atlantic. The ill.u.s.tration on page 109 shows one of their finest s.h.i.+ps, the _Scotia_.

[Ill.u.s.tration: CUNARD PADDLE STEAM-s.h.i.+P "SCOTIA."]

From the Mersey alone there are ten distinct fleets sailing to America, including such magnificent steam-s.h.i.+ps as those of the White Star and Inman Lines. In the former the luxurious saloons are placed amids.h.i.+ps, the motion being less felt there. The Inman Line has made the quickest pa.s.sages across the Atlantic on record, and has carried as many as 50,000 steerage pa.s.sengers in one year. In 1856 and 1857 this line carried 85,000 pa.s.sengers, of both cla.s.ses, to and from the United States, or about one-third of all those crossing "the Great Ferry" for those years. The shortness of time to which the Inman steamers have reduced the pa.s.sage across the Atlantic was conspicuously shown by the voyage of Prince Arthur in 1869, who attended service at Queenstown on the Sunday morning of his departure, and was landed at Halifax in time to attend morning service at that place on the Sunday following. Their s.h.i.+p, the _City of Berlin_, of 5,500 tons, is the largest vessel afloat except the _Great Eastern_, and has accommodation for 1,700 pa.s.sengers. The White Star Line has two vessels of 5,004 tons each, the _Britannic_ and _Germanic_. These few facts will indicate-although we may not be able to grasp them in their entirety-the immense growth of the ocean steam navigation in a period so short as that which has elapsed from the first steam-voyage across the Atlantic.

[Ill.u.s.tration: MR. PLIMSOLL.]

CHAPTER VII.

THE HISTORY OF s.h.i.+PS AND s.h.i.+PPING INTERESTS (_continued_).

A Contrast-Floating Palaces and "Coffin-s.h.i.+ps"-Mr. Plimsoll's Appeal-His Philanthropic Efforts-Use of Old Charts-Badly Constructed s.h.i.+ps-A Doomed s.h.i.+p-Owner's Gains by her Loss-A Sensible Deserter-Overloading-The Widows and Fatherless-Other Risks of the Sailor's Life-Scurvy-Improper Cargoes-"Uncla.s.sed Vessels"-"Lloyd's," and its History.

Turning by way of that contrast which our subject so abundantly presents, let us pa.s.s from the consideration of well-regulated, well-found steam-s.h.i.+p lines, to a different cla.s.s of vessels-those "coffin-s.h.i.+ps" of which we heard so much a few years since. As we all know, the term has been lately used to signify unseaworthy s.h.i.+ps of all kinds-such as that mentioned by Mr. Plimsoll, which was loaded at Newcastle with nearly twice her proper tonnage, and dispatched to the Baltic in mid-winter, _with her main-deck two feet two inches below the level of the water_. She foundered eighteen miles from the coast. We are told of one man who had in six years lost twelve rotten s.h.i.+ps, and 105 men; and of the _Elizabeth_, a vessel so weak and leaky, that it was necessary to pump her every hour when floating empty in harbour, but which was sent to sea with 180 tons of coal to founder with three out of five hands. It was certainly time for legislation when the statement could be made truly that a s.h.i.+p which had been refused a cla.s.s by Lloyd's Committee, and had been declared utterly unfit to go to sea by Lloyd's surveyor, was dispatched across the Atlantic, or rather to the bottom of the Atlantic, there to lie with one crew, while another was safe in an English prison for refusing to proceed in her.

In 1870, Mr. Samuel Plimsoll first commenced, so far as Parliament is concerned, those benevolent efforts for the amelioration of the sailor's hard life, which must always place him among the highest ranks of philanthropists. Moved evidently by the purest motives, there are one or two mistakes to be recorded against him, but they were of the head, not of the heart. Government was at the time endeavouring, as far as can be seen, to accomplish nearly the same ends, but was hampered by the pressure of Parliamentary business. Lindsay, who was somewhat opposed to the views expressed by Plimsoll, and it is rather unfortunate that he was so, having been so long a s.h.i.+p-owner himself, yet endorses the remarks of a friend-a Vice-Admiral of Her Majesty's service-who wrote to him: "Should there not be some more stringent provisions with respect to the inspection of sailing vessels? It is an old proverb, 'Who ever saw a dead donkey?' But who ever saw an old sailing-s.h.i.+p broken up? I am inclined to think that it is more to the interest of small owners to let an old tub go on sh.o.r.e than to bring her safe into port. This works two evils:-1, the danger to human life; 2, the greater rate of insurance on honest owners to make up an average for the dishonest." The evil had become a most terrible one, and, in spite of some little reform, it is to be feared, goes on to-day with only partially-abated vigour.

"Imperfect charts," says Lindsay, "were often made to cover, as I fear may be the case to some extent now, incompetency, drunkenness, or carelessness. Indeed, about that period, they frequently served as excuses when other objects were in view. I remember a ludicrous example of this.

When a boy at school at Ayr, I used to accompany my uncle to 'the meeting of owners' of the brig _Eclipse_, in which he held some eight or ten 64th shares. Every spring the owners met on board to discuss matters relating to her affairs, and to dispose of what I recollect best, a round of salt beef, sea-biscuits, and rum and water. The _Eclipse_ had hitherto been invariably employed during the summer season in the conveyance of timber from some one or other of the ports of New Brunswick for Ayr. On one occasion, a tempting freight had been offered for her to proceed to Quebec, and the owners in conclave a.s.sembled, had all but unanimously decided to send her to that port. While, however, the discussion was going on, her skipper, Garratt, or, 'old Garratty,' as he was called, seemed very uneasy, and gulping down an extra tumbler of rum and water, he at last said, 'Weel, gentlemen, should you send the _Eclipse_ to Quebec, I'll not be answerable for her safety.' 'How so?' asked one of the owners.

'Ah,' said Garratty, drawing his breath, '_the charts are a'wrang in the St. Lawrence_. Ye'll ne'er see the _Eclipse_ again gin ye send her to Quebec.' The skipper carried the day.

"It is much to be regretted that s.h.i.+p-owners, when they leave their captains to provide their own charts (instead of supplying them) do not stipulate that they are to be the best and the _latest_. I remember a s.h.i.+p and cargo (numerous other instances could be produced), valued at 70,000, lost near Boulogne from the master mistaking the two lights at Etaples for the South Foreland lights; and this, as appeared from the Board of Trade inquiry, because his Channel chart, which was thirty years old, had not the Etaples lights marked on it." The terrible wreck of the _Deutschland_ steam-s.h.i.+p, on the 30th December, 1875, was caused, with hardly the shadow of a doubt, from the use of an old chart.

Mr. Plimsoll in a most remarkable and vigorous book,(35) published in 1873, puts the matter of "coffin-s.h.i.+ps" forcibly before his readers. He says, "No means are neglected by Parliament to provide for the safety of life ash.o.r.e; and yet, as I said before, you may build a s.h.i.+p in any way you please, you may use timber utterly unfit, you may use it in quant.i.ty utterly inadequate, but no one has any authority to interfere with you.

"You may even buy an old s.h.i.+p 250 tons burden by auction for 50, sold to be broken up, because extremely old and rotten; she had had a narrow escape on her last voyage, and had suffered so severely that she was quite unfit to go to sea again without more being spent in repairs upon her than she would be worth when done. Instead of breaking up this old s.h.i.+p, bought for 4s. per ton (the cost of a new s.h.i.+p being from 10 to 14 per ton), as was expected, you may give her a coat of paint-she is too rotten for caulking-and to the dismay of her late owners, you may prepare to send her to sea. You may be remonstrated with, in the strongest terms, against doing so, even to being told that if you persist, and the men are lost, you deserve to be tried for manslaughter.

"You may engage men in another port, and they, having signed articles without seeing the s.h.i.+p, you may send them to the port where the s.h.i.+p lies in the custody of a mariner. You may then (after re-christening the s.h.i.+p, which ought not to be allowed), if you have managed to insure her heavily, load her until the main deck is within two feet of the water amids.h.i.+ps, and send her to sea. n.o.body can prevent you. Nay, more, if the men become riotous, you may arrest them without a magistrate's warrant, and take them to prison, and the magistrates, who have no choice (they have not to make, but only to administer the law), will commit them to prison for twelve weeks with hard labour, or, better still for you, you may send for a policeman on board to overawe the mutineers, and induce them to do their duty! And then, if the s.h.i.+p is lost with all hands, you will gain a large sum of money and you will be asked no questions, as no inquiry will ever be held over those unfortunate men, unless (which has only happened once, I think) some member of the House asks for inquiry.

"The river policeman who in one case threatened a refractory crew with imprisonment, and urged them to do their duty (!) told me afterwards (when they were all drowned) that he and his colleagues at the river-side station had spoken to each other about the s.h.i.+p being dreadfully overloaded as she pa.s.sed their station on the river, before he went on board to urge duty (!) and that he then, when he saw me, 'rued badly that he had not locked 'em up without talk, as then they wouldn't have been drowned.'"

Here Mr. Plimsoll indicates another risk for the poor sailor: "There is, I fear, great reason to think that s.h.i.+ps are occasionally lost from the very imperfect manner in which some of them are built; in some cases, I think you will see that something worse ought to be said. I do not say the cases are many; still, they exist, and we have done nothing to prevent it. The first time I introduced a bill to prevent overloading, I alluded (mentioning no names) to the case of one s.h.i.+p-owner who, trading to the West Indies for sugar (a good voyage, deep water, and plenty of sea room all the way) had, out of a fleet of twenty-one vessels, lost no less than ten of them in less than three years.

"After I had concluded my speech in moving the second reading, a member accosted me in the lobby and said: 'Mr. Plimsoll, you were mistaken in that statement of yours.' 'What statement?' I answered. 'Oh, that when you said a s.h.i.+p-owner had lost ten s.h.i.+ps in less than three years from overloading.' 'I mentioned no names,' I said. 'No, but I know who you meant. He is one of my const.i.tuents, and a very respectable man indeed. It is not his fault; it is the fault of the man who built his s.h.i.+ps, for one of them was surveyed in London and was found to be put together with devils. He knew nothing about it, I a.s.sure you.' 'Devils?' I said. 'Yes.'

'I don't know what you mean.' 'Oh, devils are sham bolts, you know; that is, when they ought to be copper, the head and about an inch of the shaft are copper, and the rest is iron.'

"I have since found there are other and different sham bolts used, where merely a bolthead (without any shaft at all) is driven in, and only as many real bolts used as will keep the timbers in their places. Now these bolts are used to go through the outside planking, the upright timber, not the inner planking (ceiling) of a s.h.i.+p, and through the vertical or drooping part of a piece of iron called a knee, on the upper part of which the deck-beams rest, and to which the deck-beams are also bolted from above. These bolts, therefore, are from thirteen to eighteen inches in length."

The following examples will speak for themselves. Mr. Plimsoll says:-"On the occasion of one of my visits to a port in the north, I was met by a gentleman who knew what my errand there was likely to be, and he said, 'Oh, Mr. Plimsoll, you should have been here yesterday: a vessel went down the river so deeply loaded, that everybody who saw her expects to hear of her being lost. She was loaded under the personal directions of her owner, and the captain himself said to me, "Isn't it shameful to send men with families to sea in a vessel loaded like that?" Poor fellow, it is much if ever he reaches port.' Half a dozen others confirmed this statement. The captain 'was greatly depressed in spirits,' and a friend-not the owner, mark you!-gave him some rockets-'in case of the worst.' Two men averred that they would not go if the owner gave them the s.h.i.+p.

"She was sent. The men were some of them threatened, and one at least had a promise of 10s. extra per month if he would go. As she went away, the police-boat left her; the police had been on board to overawe the men with going. As the police-boat left her side, two of the men, deciding that they would rather be taken to prison, hailed the police, and begged to be taken by them. The police said, 'they could not interfere,' and the s.h.i.+p sailed. My friend was in great anxiety, and told me that if the wind came on to blow, the _s.h.i.+p could not live_.

[Ill.u.s.tration: MR. PLIMSOLL SPEAKING IN THE HOUSE OF COMMONS.]

"It did blow a good half-gale all the day after Sunday-the s.h.i.+p sailed on Friday. I was looking seaward from the promontory on which the ruins of T-- Castle stand, with a heavy heart; the wind was not above force 7-nothing to hurt a well-found and properly-loaded vessel: I had often been out in much worse weather; but then this vessel was not properly loaded (and her owner stood to gain over 2,000 clear if she went down, by over insurance), and I knew that there were many others almost as unfit as she was to encounter rough weather-s.h.i.+ps so rotten that if they struck they would go to pieces at once; s.h.i.+ps so overloaded that every sea would make a clean sweep over her, sending tons and tons of water into her hold every time, until the end came.

"On Monday we heard of a s.h.i.+p in distress having been seen, rockets had been sent up by her; it was feared she was lost. On Tuesday the nameboard of a boat was picked up, and this was all that ever we heard of her."

Some cases seemed to be looked on as matters of course, and a gentleman as he saw his wife reading the newspaper, said to her, "Look out, for the -- in a day or two; I saw her go out of the river. She is sure to be lost."

She was lost, and nearly twenty men returned home never more.