THE CAPTAIN'S ANXIETIES.

Press, Volume LV, Issue 10096, 23 July 1898, Page 3

THE CAPTAIN'S ANXIETIES.

•» Fbom "At the Top of.thk Tbbb," By J. A. Barry, in the Town and Country Journal. Nowhere in the world, perhaps, within such a confined space could be found a man to whom attaches more responsibility than there does to the captain of a great passenger st<-amer, nor one who lives a life of more constant anxiety, nor one of whom so many incongruous and exacting qualifications are demanded if he hopes to be a success. Of course a great many of these men don't fill the bill. But it may be safely said that the majority of them do, and tihat the master of one of our modern 8000 or 10,000 ton liners must take rank amongst the highest of the skilled human products of the age, not even excepting the so-often quoted captain of a battleship. True, the latter's vessel costs more, and he has more men. permanently under his care, but then he hasn't to run to time -with almost the exactness of a railway train, and, in spite of wind or sea, take part in social functions tihat worry him, or make himself agreeable to people he doesn't care a dump for; also, tlte navy man possesses a whole crowd of highly trained subordinates, in two at least of whom he can place as implicit confidence as he can in himself. This, of course, should be equally hue of the commiinder of the big liner. XJnfortui.ately, however, it is often not so, and, probably, one of the very worst moments of a captain's life is the one in whicth he discovers that his first or second are not to be relied upon. His yigUance,-great before, must now be ceaseless", and his presence on the bridga continuous during the incompetent man's watch on deck. Worried and harassed "thousli he may be, hs is obliged to keep a cheerful face for his pas&engers, and courteously reply to their often inane questionings, for a JiscourtPOtis mptain in these days as soon lacks a ship as an unlncky one. Afsa, because, a, .scaadal' does,a chip' a* much harm as it does a parson; therefore the captain at most can but privately remonstrate with his officers, and take their share of the work upen his own slready overburdened shoulders.' Oaee, th 6. captain of one great liiter'found' his chief solemnly drunk, anrVice. al) around the ship; another night he caught the second mate nslerp hard :ind fast in the lee corner of the bridge under the dodgers. And these men were in charge of six hundred people, and over a half aTmillion of specie! But there was no sciudal No one but those concerned guessed that there was anything wrong amongst the executive. for - three v.eeks the rap tain, through all the bitter Atlantic nights of fog and ice and snow, kept the deck almost without rest, appearing at his accustomed hours amongst the passengers taking part in' their ipastimes, and ever the same urbane, suave gentleman, -apparently as free from care or worry as any of themselves, collapsing only'when the pilot took charge. And there ran be no doubt that, even when everything goes smoothly, the responsibility of their position weighs heavily on most of these men—even to those of them inured to it by many years of experience. That this is a recognised fact, the propositions every now and mooted for a dual control, i.e., two captains to each ship, will show. The scheme has never been tried, probably would not work if it were. And, although with theso boats, happily very seldom, now and then comes a smash. Years ! go by, perhaps, and the big steamer running to her table through calm and storm alike, suddenly dashes on seme rock and makes dismal wreck. In similar weather sine has passed the same spot a thousand times in perfect safety. Her-e<romanrier knows every feature of it, as well as he knows his own. stateroom; knows the depth of water around it, the trend of all currents, bordering it, the exact distance |o a, foot within which safety lies. And yet, somehow, on this occasion he. a≤ likely as not in charge himself at the time, piles "his splendid ship right on top of the reef, almost as if it were the very thing he was trying to do. Time after time has this happened in all the world's seas, and probably it .will, go on happening until we can manage to substitute machinery for that wonderful lump of "grey matter" and convoluted tissue to which scientists have given the name of brain, and which is the organ solely responsible for the catastrophe. Experts, of course, talk learnedly of variations and deviations and unsuspected currents, magnetic at&Ttction'Xrom the object even, and. attempt generally to discover some abnormal conditions in earth, sea, or air that might be made accountable 'for. such an unaccountable business. Sometimes the captain himself offers similar excuses. At others, and more truly, he says he cannot understand at all how the affair occurred. How is he to know that that particular brain-cell upon which the safety of the ship depended was temporarily closed and rendered useless by the pressure, perhaps, of a solitary drop of blood generated by the refusal of one of its valves to perform its usual duty? Without a doubt something of the kind happened to" Tryon, when, quite deliberately ,ne sent his great warship and her company to the bottom of the Mediterranean. In normal health he would have seen at a glance that there was no room to turn. Everybody else saw it. But at the time his "manoeuvre cell," so to speak, was out of order for the moment; hence a terrible naval disaster. Towards the end of the eighties a fine big steamer, the City of Macao, was coming down through the China seas, homeward bound, with nearly a w&ble regiment of troops on board. t)ne morning, steering an E. by S. course to clear Pulo Ultong, the second, relieving the first, found that the captain had altered the course to S.E. m by S., and then, giving orders that he should not be disturbed, had turned in. For a few minutes the second, sleepy and sulky, as most men coming on watch at 4 a.m. are, paid little attention to anything. Then the full significance of the change all at once burst iipott him. Either he was a lunatic, or they were going at a fourteen-knot speed straight on to the perpendicular rocks of Pulo Ultong, now, if his midday work had been correct, not more, thai six miles distant. Pushing into the chart-room, he soon verified his suspicions.. And still he hesitated. A coarse once given by the captain may not bo lightly altered; nor do second officers waken captains, in defiance of orders,: without being able to show better cause J than a captain's suspected error. And time I was going fearfully fast as the 3000 tons ! of steel, wit2t her sleeping hundreds roared i along to her doom" . The second peered desperately into the black night ahead* But

tho tropical blackness was too thick to nake out the loom of any land. And Pulo Ultong must be very close.indeed, now! "Let her come up S. "by E., quarterniaster," he exclaimed at last: "I can't stand this any longer 5" Hardly had the steamer got steadied on her new course, when a yell arose from the lookout'man on the. forward bridge, and the island leapt out of the gloom to meet them, so close ahead that the second swore afterwards he could hear the "City's" fore-topsail yard knocking the nuts off the coco palms. Ten minutes later the captain came on to the bridge, and made, for «—c binnacle. "Passed Ultong, Mr Jarvis?" he asked, in shaky tones. "Just passed, sir," replied the second, quite as nervously. "Had a damned bad dream/ remarked the skipper; "and it awoke mc. I dreamt that you'd altered the course, and that we were smack into the island!" And nobody said anything more; but the point of the incident lies in the fact that for three years the captain and the "City" and the second had been passing Ultong, and never had the former interfered with the course; nor for two more years during which the" second was in the ship, although you may depend he kept a bright lookout, did he ever experience such another "hairraiser." You see, just for moment, perhaps, the minute brain-cell (there are, it is said, billions of them) in which the course to clear the island was stowed had stopped working, and the captain had altered the course to the correct one to be steered after leaving Ultong. "Unconscious celebral derangement" scientists call it. Only the disease is not recognised by marine boards.