A SECOND-CLASS PASSAGE IN THE ACCRINGTON.

Lyttelton Times, Volume XX, Issue 1166, 5 December 1863, Page 5

A SECOND-CLASS PASSAGE IN THE ACCRINGTON.

| TO TIIK EDITOR OF THE LYTTELTON TIMES. Si R _My action against the master of the Accrington having called forth remarks unjustified by the circumstances of the case, I request that you will do me the justice to publish this statement, containing a part, only, of my complaints. For several months before I saw the Accrington I had agreed to come out, as a cabin passenger, in one of Messrs. Gann, Willis, and Co.'s ships, and at their call I repaired to London, to select a cabin in the Zambesi. I saw that vessel in Shadwell Dock, and on going to Messrs. Gann and Willis's office, I told them I was not satisfied with part of her rigging, which I specified ; when the negociation was curtly ended, the ship's husband, who was in the office, remarking, that the rigging complained of would be replaced by new before the vessel went to sea. From Messrs. Gann's office I went and saw the Accrington, for the first time, andfound her betweendecks accommodation superior to those of the first cabin in the Zambesi. I therefore engaged a second cabin passage in the Accrington, the agents Messrs. Shaw, Savill, and Co., telling me the second cabins would be put up as soon as possible, when " they should allot the cabins according to priority of engagements." This was a week before the ship sailed from London. The ship was appointed to sail on the sth of June, and it was not until late in the afternoon of that 'day, on the evening of which she left her moorings in the East India Dock, that I, and the other second cabin passengers, were shown our cabins, not between decks, —where light and air were both abundant, but down on the third deck, having no light or fresh air but what came down the hatchway. This secret, this fraud, was kept back until it was too late on Saturday afternoon to withdraw and retreat. Instead of being placed in the compartment subsequently occupied by single woman emigrants, as held out to us, we were entrapped into the very worst position in the ship; a place unfit for any human soul to exist in,—as presently will be The next morning, (being Sunday the 6tli of June) the ship was towed down the Thames, and anchored in the Downs; and it was in the afternoon of that day, that, having had no breakfast, nor dinner, and 110 water to be had, I went on deck, nnd enquired for the Captain. "He had not ioined " I then asked for the officer in command, and the chief mate came forward when I informed him we could get no dinner, and had had no breakfast He replied in a manner most insolent, I am not the officer in command." I asked who was He replied " the pilot," (who was standing by). I then asked the pilot for food, when he said," it was not his duty to supply food." I remained for some time considering what could be done, when the mate said " produce your contract ticket, and let us see that'you are entitled to any provisions." On this I went down,and after searching for a longtime,! found the contract ticket, and produced it to the mate who then sat down with the pilot, and they conned it over for upwards of half an hour, laughing over its several items. The mate then went to the cook, and directed him to give us some beef; but no water or anything else to drink could we get. / To pass over many other circumstances proper for a jury's estimation (the detail of which would swell this letter beyond measure) I mention, that on some of the second cabin passengers asking the purser (who was the third mate) why the emigrant passengers were served with much better food than ourselves, he replied in my presence, "You second cabin passengers must not expect to be served as well as the emigrants, because there is head money to be paid for them, but we shall receive nothing f °On°this I wrote to Messrs. Shaw, Sa-rille & Co., informing them of the aforesaid conduct of the first

mate, and of what the third mate said of the treaty ment we were to look for. The Accrington called at Plymouth and stopped there some days. Mr. Shaw came down to Plymouth and, calling me aside, informed me that the first and third mates had received, at his request, a severe reprimand in the captain's cabin for their conduct to me; and Mr. Shaw assured me that it was his desire and express direction, the second cabin passengers should be treated next, in every : respect, to the first cabin passengers. Far from this proving the case, however, every class in the ship received better treatment thai! tlie second cabin. • The petty officers' compartment was situated, directly above us on the second deck, their entry being half-way down our hatchway, through which hatchway alone we derived light or any fresh air. The third mate and his companions, the petty officers, objected to our having a windsail to bring fresh air down to our compartment (containing 16 souls) because, they said, "it blew the foul air of our cabin up the hatchway, when some of it passed into their cabin, half-way uy." So at night they dragged our windsail up into their cabin, making it there fast and receiving all its fresh air, although they had two scupper-lights in their compartment. Under these circumstances I went rapidly out of health, and lost two stone iu weight; frequently awaking at night in a state of suffocation, beating the air for several minutes before I could raise myself and scramble, gasping for fresh air, oa deck. I complained to the captain many times, when he invariably jeered me with the question," how came you to go down into such a place." " Because I was entrapped into it." On one occasion, however, after so jeering me, he said, " Mr. Shaw, at Plymouth, wanted me to exchange my petty officers berths with the second cabin passengers. But I refused, and told him I should then have all my officers ill, and be unable to navigate the ship.". The captain gave himself no more trouble about us than about a bale of goods. The day after I had complained to the captain about our windsail being dragged up, at night, into the petty officers' compartment, the third mate came down to us, and addressing me, said, "You have again made a complaint to the captain. I have a great mind to give you a severe thrashing; and if you venture to complain again, though you are an old man, I will do so." Of course I made no reply. With frequent importunity for a windsail, the oftenest I could get one was, on the average, not oftener than one day in a week; when it was always contrived to be the shortest windsail in the ship, so as never to come near the floor of our cabin, where, alone, it could be effective in driving out the foul air. The captain only studied to please his petty officers (of whom he was as much afraid as of the sailors in the forecastle), and he never would trouble himself to look after our comfort, or even our necessities. It was under these circumstances that I happened to go up the rigging, a few steps only, when the crew, instigated by the mates, made a tie of my limbs, which, without the slightest resistance on my part, was done with such brutal violence as to drag the skin from my limbs, no request for " money " being made to me, whilst the mates stood looking on, laughing at their revengeful success. The captain kept discreetly out of sight; but that he knew what was going on I am morally certain, because had it not been so he would have rushed oil deck to learn what the uproar was about, the uproar being made by the ship's company to prevent my voice being heard. On being released, or rather releasing myself, for I got at my knife and cut the ratlines, I went to the captain and reminded him of the action at law, 25 years ago, against a ship's master at Calcutta, by the parents of a cadet, for suffering the youth to be " shaved" on the Line, when the jury did their duty by giving £500 damages against the captain; and " shaving" on the Line was thenceforth extinguished. "Yes," was Captain Christie's answer, " and you can make me pay £500 for tying you in the rigging." I made no reply, for I am a man of action and not words. For the first three weeks of the voyage we had no salt; nor could we obtain any. And so with many other articles specified in the contract ticket. As to soup, instead of having it supplied to us weekly, it was never forthcoming until the last week of the voyage. But beyond all this, on passing through the tropics, in place of having the water as surveyed by the Government officer in England, according to the Act of Parliament, for the particular use of the passengers and crew on the voyage, we had throughout the tropics, water distilled from the sea daily served out to us, always as warm as new milk, and twice brackish; whilst the English water was denied to us. The consequence being, as I believe, that obstinate diseases of the neck and throat were general, being allied in their origin to goitre, in the Alps, produced by snow water, which contains neither lime nor any of the many other "salts" found in the best spring and river waters. Let it never be forgotten that ten pounds of human bone contain nine pounds of lime. One week longer on board the Accrington, and I believe I must have quitted it a corpse. My naturally strong constitution struggled for two months with the sickness I acquired in that ' black hole' of the Accrington. With frequent relapses, my life has several times appeared not worth a week's purchase. Under such circumstances, Sir, was I to presume that I should live to see the end of an action in the Supreme Court against the Captain and Charterers of the Accringtou ? Suffice it to say, I did not so presume. Herein, I have been the sole guide of my own conduct. I have not asked or sought advice, either in this case, or in another memorable instance in this Colony in which my course was distinct. I never have used bad or insulting language to anj r one, whether in the Supreme Court of New Zealand, or on any other arena. I know how to behave myself, as becomes a seven-fold Plantaganet. Had my actions gone before a clear-headed and resolute jury, future emigrants would have derived immeasurable good from it. As it is, I shall seek their benefit, by making known their wrongs and grievances to the highest authority at home. I remain, Sir, Your obedient servant, ROBERT D'OYLY.