OUR LITERARY CORNER

Press, Volume LXIII, Issue 12897, 31 August 1907, Page 7

OUR LITERARY CORNER

ORIGINAL AND SELECTED MATTER,

ABOVE THE WATER-LINE. No. 7. (By '• Seafakeb."; THE SHIPOWNER. i_._i ;• _o.me on Iho ocean: ' "*"" 3h«e y°«r »">' OSIM w»«J>-portly Mil.tt«*'.!n h £_ end rirh lm .her, on tho flood, U* a ?sV** tho p.. K «.n_ of the s«_- <*• *• ** J.« tho pcltt trafficker*. Pa « VW C,7 to theru, dn them reverence *_._! flvb. them with their woven wings. £i they fly "J —Shakespeare. ' The "water-line," above which the ._.___• may bo said to permanently : *_"*_rS water mark." Though r'SofnScU on seafarers, the j ". a !r has from the earliest historic ,I, 'Co mrimo progress been such Fr iaatCinn^ c ' for ° r " conditions of life at ■"• __«!_. With seafarers, there is b " 'lonal'it,-who is regarded with n personaiuy character. revere and admire v those who consider him «a " atnr . S Sa-se they think that he prejudiced^fc*a Mr Dodoy r , ? , nr ds the ,» he 9aid t r WBfMntl ideas, the.r experi- ' Z. .S{_«l»ri«WM; sometimes to •SfnfaaS and weaknesses but .filing in their minds' eye. The So" "commanders" was concluded ritha pathetic appeal to shipowners t 0 timber that tiie "commander" l\JlZan; nnd now for the purpose ■iinrth »«d impartially dealing with i'cHaracter under review, the searcr must bo requested to remember Int the shipowner, too, v human-

Character sketches of various types of shipowners would bo easy. A general pourtrayal of a ™"«» I ™' Composite character, clothed with nU Ss wried attributes and pecnl.anties tands of dend and living men „d presented as "The .Shipowner is . ipoLible. Only as a type of ;W Li man" connected with a special inErt and in his dealings, rosponsi- ' Sr d by the conduct of that inhe be depicted. In modern ZmWvA to-day, the trouble « to findhim. "Whoishe? :. *». us blankly in the face, and is nnaniwernble unless wo can find some penality who will he generally nc- _ rrpted in his proprietorships and dnties.«« the bona fide fw™? of to-day. The shipowner of the Middle Am and of tho eighteenth century we hnve rend of; and those of the middle .'•' period of tho nineteenth cwitiiry i inme of m can yefc' remember. ''''.'' Tn the dnvs of link-boys and laces, knee breeches, wigs, powder and patches on shore, an* of hempen cables. j." • hem lantern*, stinking water-casks. . ond the scurvy at sea, wo can in our I imaginations pick out the vigorous but ':' _ picturesque personality who put Ins / own money, and often his own cargo, '■i into his own ships, and in, or beforo • tho early days of marine insurance, .;_ Mk. his own risks, and carried :,■■•.;'• on his own business, in spite of land- . ttt* and water-rats, pirates, the King's ,£':;-:-«wn.ie«, Act* °f God, and the Inquisi- ',' tion, in his own way, with a mingled :s.•;'. spirit of tho keenest commercial enter- %'. pri*e.and the truest sense of patriotism. §i; His ships were often peaceful traders : : l"r.'-when international quietness prevails '$/ cd. Mid privateers in time of war, and, «.|v_' in the times of Good Queen Bess and Ip Philip of Spain, solved international M'f' diioulties arising from the undecideu :| pblioy of the maiden Queen, by com■h'.':-' : hjning tho two characters, and by wagvf ing private war and piracy on tne 1?;, Spanish Main. His anxieties, worries, hopes and fears, as wo read of them, ■% cjm bo realistically pourtrayed in our V; - imagination- The local weather-cock ;, was an object of regular morning obj:. wrvation. Be watched for an east or West wind with as much daily interest as the whole of London did when . William of Orange was expected, or the Dutch fleet wero threatening the mouth of Father Thames. Ho ■■■';. litTtd a full life so far as strong amotions wero concerned. Good or bad news was often long delayed, but «mc sharp and quickly. Thero was «« "Lloyd's List," or "Shipping Gaiotte," no cablegrams, no signal statioai. The overdue ships, whose loss to him meant ruin, might be stranded ■ <»-S'oom] reef, washed as helplessdere- :■ ;''«• by the ocean swell, or lying full *, ; forty fathoms deep'mid tho sunken .. . tbe Irish coast, for all he , ' kttswj and ignorance to him was not *.\W_». They might be rotting in : ■■:, foreign ports, while his crews wero im- -. prisoned, or being tortured, or burned :,'/: *. tho familiars of the Inquisition; be .; captured by the French, and perhaps •V.■-:. recaptured, and sailed into pott with such heavy salvago and prize . jnoney to bo paid, as to leave him only :■;'.■". .JI*'Mtiohal1 *'Mtiohal prido to solace him for >■..■'■" b* m Pty pocket. : .'"till, the shipowner of those days .•:•■*.*!* *ome advantages and compensa- ':':-'•». p a !.', Th° shipping laws gave the Cttgl_h owner a form of national monopoly which placed Scotland and Ito''•*d n under the same disabilities as tho .• , , other foreign nations. Ho ; '.: . .•-!!** also less hampered-and controlled :\n the conduct of his business. Tho , humanity which inspired tho f: .•:'.■!?'" ,e tive factoryand shipping legislaV V _' rood**™ times had not com;A;.; j»*nt*d to ripple the surface oP public ;x ; |WUttg. Democracy was then in tho '.; \ *°™b of time. There were no sea- ■; : wens unions, no labour members, no i V' ; 'OT.*l PHmsoll, no Havelock Wilson, :r" ? r, Btty Honse wasinemhrvo, therewas '>':■•:-,?» Board of Trade, no Lloyd-George; and » A__. M '? n ' delegntrs present at ship- : .-.owners councils to disturb his peace ' V, P ,n d. So he prospered and fought ;. .■ :.W settling his own difficulties, |; sLW ow n way. Yet he planned ox- ■ ' Ik? j M of discovery. nnd what in ■ .'•:£2™* days would be called piracy, and £ ; *l?,, m . the money for wild adventures; ;; :; *'"' ,n common with the bold-hearted v ' ; __j en w "° co-operntod in his schemes -'*■''■ anS S eceMfnll T carried them out. ho H-- »___. th *yTtbo shipowners and ship- •.,' ™«.n of the Middle Ages—stand ;t . ____ ln 2 nt , ly oufc in tho historic re- • * _«S? j past - ns two of the most ¥' ___V * nd strenuous participators in # ; vfcJP°S w, J 8 b ? which, from the Little V-i i)«S__ _~<" _, times has been $i? ** tho British Empire of today.

&.,;_____!_» n °. mi ? an political. The perW?Srt- * 0l tU ownor oi 8h 'P« be « Bn

" NOTES ON BOOKS AND AUTHORS.

to fade, the proprietorship to be less centred in one or a few individuals. Tho partnership commenced to include many persons. Tho firm, which nominally appeared as owners, but worked largely on the borrowed money of sleeping partners, began to be in the ascendant, and lingers on to the present day. but is best remembered in its fullest developments in the middle oi tho nineteenth century. The Greenes, Tyndales, Soames, Cunards, Bates, and hundreds of well-known names then indicated living, vigorous, personal identities as owners of ships. Contemporary with the earlier changes was the birth of the Chartered Company, which grew and prospered, ruled territory and governed ; marie its factors into governors, and its clerks into conquerors, till it usurped the functions of the State and trenched upon tho prerogatives of and so lived its time and passed out. The unlimited liability company, tho incorporated and unincorporated shining company followed, and in 1800 legislation opened the way for tho limited liability company, which brings us within measurable distance of present conditions. The point to be noticed is that the personality of the ideal owner of chips has leen steadily passing to obscurity, while the shipowner to be rovir-w _1 to-day, is, in the case of the world's big shipping ventures, only visible in the representative of shareholders, with or without any degree of real proprietorship. Survivals of the individual shipowner exist only in the proprietors of small trad in a; bnrqites and schooners, and a few tramp steamers and frrivitnte downward., to tha class of the English "billy boy." the Australian "sixty-mfler," and the Auckland scow.

It is therefore evident that for the purposes of any descriptive sketch, tho directors and controlling representatives, in whom executive power is vested by the shareholders, must bo partially considered ac tho shipowners of tho present day. It may be said—it has been said—that the severance and distance between the real owners and tho employee has had harmful results by preventing close human relations: and that it has been inimical to the public weal. This applies equally to all industries operating under the joint stock system, but if any evil ha* cropped up from this cause, it has been, or can be mitigated, partly by; the growing political power of tho masses but moro so by ; the broadening 6ense of humanity and • fair play of all classes of shipowners, and tho public. When tho position is fairly summed up, seafarers, and let us hope- shipowners too, are much bettor off than in the past. The conduct of all human affairs, of a corporate nature, from a trust to a tennis club, and from the management of a tiny galvanised iron chapel in a back-block settlement, to tho ruling of an empire, seems to need a controlling mind and a central human figure in whom trust is placed, and to whom power ia given. In shipping affairs economic changes have given us THE SHIPPING MAGNATE, who in considerable numbers appears on tho world's stage as tht- successor of the shipowner of the middle ages and the head of the private firm of the eighteenth and nineteenth centurie. So far as "steam" is concerned, he, as a groat or little, man, is tho visable and dominating human personality who is best entitled to be called the shipowner of to-day. Look where yoa will, from the tiniest little harbour i ferry company to the colossal internai tional steamship combinations of England and America, that figure is omnipresent. Like chief engineers, commanders or any other humble chari aetera described in our previous articles, tho personality varies, but all I shipping magnates have many points I of resemblance. Their business mI stincta and acumen are generally keen, but are frequently tempered with a spirit of philosophio diplomacy, acquired by a wide and thorough knowledge of tho world and men. Their constant necessities to deal promptly with the multitude of great and little business and technical problems anu complications inherent tn tho very nature of steam shipping ventures, mii dueo and develop a decisiveness of character which cannot bo concealed. They aro also Bimilar in their onergy, determination, close attention to business, and their senses of responsibility to the shareholders and th© /public; and their quick perception, which enables theri. to pick out "the wheat from the chaff,' r in tho suggestions of thfeir counsellors, or to discriminate wieely, on tho broadest 1 ines of expediency amidst the frequent-ly-conflicting opinions and ideas of experts and departmental officers, is too generally recognised to need much comment. There is in them all the same i power to rule and govern, perhaps exercised in different ways, but generally with "the gloved hand," unless "the mailed fist" Becomes necessary, and among their colleagues on almost every directorate their foroe of character and their personal influence are generally manifested. The pesition is one for a strong man. Tho wenk man dees not get there. Tho points of similarity m modern steamship magnates are innumerable, and might, by exemplification, be made wearisome. They are, however, "captains of industry," Kings whom economic changes have given birth to, and whom tho democracy that was to dethrone Kings is substituting for territorial and hereditary monarch?. They move, live, and operate among the "big things of the economic worla, and their placo and power in tne political world is not a mean one. The work of a modern shipping magnate has an absorbing interest and a charm. Apart from the power with which the position is necessarily invested, and which it is but human to liko and enjoy, there comes to most of them an affection for ships which rises far abov.e the ordinary interest that men can feel for inanimate things; and this is perhaps only surpassed by the soul-engrossing love for the great or little maritime businesses they aro conducting. To manage and develop theso successfully becomes their one aim in life, and no work i& too hard, or no sacrifice of time or personal convenience too great to make for the furtherance of this ever dominant idea. Seated in his office, in touch with the world of shipping md shipping interests, saturated with a comprelionsivo general knowlodgo oj tho huge variety of technical, scientific, and business work of every department of shipping life, the ship Eing magnate must be regarded as a ighly-educated man. The world hw> been his university, experience his teacher. Surrounded by a little army of executive, and advisory subordinates, selected with the greatest care, he becomes cognisant of everything, and his his finger on the pulse of tne great living business organism he is controlling. His scope of action—thoueh execution may be delegated_ to subordinates—may, so far as his business is concerned, be described as universal. Negotiating for the mail contracts of the world, or for transport services in time of war, planning extensions of trade, guarding against foreign or home competition, treating with rival companies, selling, buying, building and chartering, keenly watching for improvements, economies, safeguards, and conveniences, both in the building and running of ships, considering

' 'Mffltions," mixing with the "many- W*I r men of the world, and big and the world's biggest movi .? * m Z t w ith all this to engage operational' 'keeping a watchful ej<= K« progress oi t„e world, eeonoon the / D olitical, from the miking mc * _~_ national treaty to the passfl f an Board by-law, lest i. Dg £,ild be outstripped or hampered. Jj® 6n ,;" t of matters which the modem __• «__> maznate has to be alive to P i_ be interminable. Suffice it to W_- that he is a live man, living a _7renuous Kfo in one of the most imnortant businesses of modern times What the ehan_.es of the near or distant future in the shipping world will be it is nart * to 6ay « """hitover they are. and however they may affect the welfare of the British Empire, the shipping magnate of to-day will be recognised in the future as having played a part as his early prototype of tho middle ages did in speeding on tho course of progress.