WITHOUT PREJUDICE

Dominion, Volume 19, Issue 44, 16 November 1925, Page 8

WITHOUT PREJUDICE

NOTES AT RANDOM

(By

T.D.H.)

The waters around Start Point on the coast of Devon where the Navy’s biggun submarine Ml has come to grief has been the grave of many a stout ship. The point is an important landmark for shipping coming up Channel, and during the war more merchant vessels probably were sunk off it by enemy submarines than at any other single spot. None of the reference books at hand shows the exact number lost in this particular vicinity, but it is at least as high, and probably a good deal higher, than at Old Kinsale Head on the south coast of Ireland, where the Lusitania was torpedoed. At Old Kinsale Head the losses by submarines totalled over 90 vessels.

The Lusitania lies at a depth of 294 ft., too great for salvage work. Modern salvage methods are said to be equal to the ta=k of raising a vessel which does not lie in more than 20 fathoms (120 ft. of water. Cargo, however, can be recovered at st ; ll deeper water, and useful work has been done at a depth of 182 ft. After the war American divers set what was a new record by lifting a submarine in Hawaiian waters from a depth of more than 200 ft. An American diver, Benjamin F. Leavitt, has even gone down to 301 ft. in Grand Traversee Bay, Lake Michigan, and remained there for 55 minutes at one time and nearly two hours at another.

The total number of British and Allied merchant vessels lost by submarine action during the war was 4867, and it has been estimated that it would be feasible from an engineering point of view to salvage a thousand of these. Actually how many have been salvaged does not appear from the figures at hand, but the total seems to be a long wav short of the thousand mark. The number of British ships lost by enemy action on or near tne coasts of the United Kingdom, was 3781, and the loss of life in them totalled 21,886 50u15—15,555 being members of ships’ crews and 6331 passengers. Britain began the war with 20 million tons of merchant shipping, and during it she lost nine million tons. The blackest month of the war in the submarine campaign was April. 1917, during which no less than 373 ships were lost. The position in that month was that one skip in every four that left British ports did not return. The British seaman has been in fractious disposition of late a* the size of his pay envelope, but the cheerful wav he carried on in face of such odds as these was one of the finest features of the war.

“X” writes;—“Dear T.D.H., —Can you help me at all? I have recently taken up golf and I find that after the second hole I have used up all the swear words I know, and there is nothing to go on with for the other sixteen, except an unsatisfying repetition. Is there any manual giving lists of good cuss-words not in general use ? I have taken every opportunity to extend my vocabulary, but the average range is very limited, and so far I have not heard one new worth-while swear word that I did not know before, although frequenting the most mixed company for the express purpose of increasing my knowledge. No fewer than 145 persons died last year from apoplexy manv of them golfers, I have no doubt and from my own experience I feel sure many valuable lives would be saved if you, from your encyclopaedic knowledge, would publish a list of high-pres-sure swear words to be reserved tor special occasions.”* ■* We are sorrv not to be able to oblige our correspondent. There are several obstacles in the way. In the first place we have been censured already for printing "d nin this column, with the two middle letters left in, thereby leading the innocent astray—though most of the innocents of our acquaintance seem to have had knowledge of the middle letters long before they took to reading our column. The second reason is that we feel that words such as our correspondent requires should not be placed at the disposal of all and sundry and degraded from their high standing by indiscriminate use on totally unworthy occasions. The third reason is that, unhappily, we don’t know of any such words. « * •

Major Fitzurse informs us that the theory of profanity—towards the indiscriminate waste of which by low persons he has always had the greatest repugnance—is that the intensity of an oath depends upon the degree of sacredness of the thing by which a man swears. This theory, however, appears to be an inadequate explanation, for > recent higher criticism has directed attention to the fact that whereas gold is a most sacred thing to modern civilised man, yet a single experiment on the golf course will convince even the most hopeful of the total lack of satisfaction in the words, “By gold.”

The Major’s advice is that the <mly x solution of this difficult problem is the conservation of profanity. The Major has, in fact, been thinking of founding a League for the Conservation of Profanity, all the members of which would pledge themselves not to waste their vocabularies oh inadequate occasion and so have nothing worth while left in hand when a real emergency arises. The Major says it is in the highest degree painful to hear quite good words wasted in the embellishment of ordinary conversation. If the persons addicted to this habit had something better up their sleeves it might be excusable, but in order to test this point bv practical the Major has on occasiooti trodden on the corns of such people in tramcars and other places, only to find that they had nothing better left in hand except an increase of pitch in voice. The most awe-inspinng swear the Major has ever heard was during his boyhood in the Knockmealdown Mountains when Father Healey said “D—n!”

We informed the Major we had heard of Father Healey’s swear from Mr. Dooley, an Irish-American gentleman who used to keep a saloon in Chicago when they had such things there, and whose autobiography we had read. The Major assures us that the incident really occurred long before Mr. Dooley’s time, and Mr. Dooley only heard of it through it being the sensation of the countryside for months. "Well, my young lad,” said the facetious man to the lift boy, “I see in your position you have a chance to rise.” , "Oh, ves,” growled the boy, "but I get called down every time I do it.” CERTAINTIES. Whether you dwell by hut or throne. Whether your feet tread silk or grass, Conies the one lad you shall never own, Or the one lass. Whether you’ve pence to spend, or gold; Whether you’ve toil or time to weep, / Conies the ’ one pain that may never be told And may never sleep. Whether you weep or mock in pride, ■ Whether vou tell or still deny, Comes the one scar that your heart must hide Till the day you die. —Margaret Widdemew .