WITHOUT PREJUDICE

Dominion, Volume 21, Issue 86, 10 January 1928, Page 8

WITHOUT PREJUDICE

NOTES AT RANDOM

(Bv

T.D.H.)

No insurance is payable on motorcars damaged in Britain’s flood as the insurance companies claim it is au “act of God.” —We wonder how the insurance companies get on in Russia since thev abolished God there. Under British law where pilotage is compulsory the pilot takes command of the ship: in most other countries it is otherwise, however. The findings in the inquiry into the Tahiti-Greyeliffe collision is an interesting reminder of this fact. At the time of the collision the Tahiti was being taken out by the pilot, and the decision is that the Tahiti’s speed was higher than is prescribed by the Sydney harbour regulations. According to the English-law, a pilot compulsorilv in charge of. a ship has supreme control of her navigation, superseding the master for The time being ; and if she is a tow he also has control of the navigation of her tug. Judicial decisions have ruled that it is within the province ot the pilot to decide whether the ship shall get under way, the time and place for her to anchor, the orders for her helm, her rate of speed, and whether the statutory rules of navigation shall be complied with.

While under English law the master and crew of a ship, in case of compulsory pilotage, must not interfere with the pilot’s control, they remain liable for the proper execution of the pilot’s orders, and the trim and general efficiency as to look-out, etc. Moreover, the master is bound to supersede the pilot in case of his intoxication or manifest incapacity, and, according to legal authorities, he must also interfere if there is “a clear and plain prospect of danger to the ship in following the pilot’s directions,” as, for example, in getting under way in a thick fog. The pilot is also entitled to have his attention called to anything which a competent mariner would see that he ought to know. According to the “Encyclopaedia Britannica,” the Admiralty, the Board of Trade, and Trinity House all take the view that the captain or master is bound, to keep a vigilant eye on the navigation of the vessel, and insist on all proper precautions being taken. Where pilotage is not compulsory by law, a pilot taken voluntarily is merely the servant of the shipowner, who has to bear the liability for any damage to third parties resulting from the pilot’s actions. « » *

It will thus be seen that the British rule that a compulsory pilot is in supreme command of a ship by no means totally removes liability from the master of the ship. In most foreign countries the pilotage law differs from the English law in that while a pilot may be compulsory, he is not in supreme command of the ship, but is merely an adviser to the master, or a “living chart,” so as to speak. In some British territories this rule may also apply under local legislation. Some authoiities on 'maritime law consider the foreign rule the more satisfactory. At one time the trend in Britain eyas to extend the principle that the pilot is a State official in complete charge of the ship as widely as possible for the benefit of commerce and the safety ot seamen’s lives. In more recent years the tendency has been to restrict it within as narrow limits as possible, as, for example, in holding that the presence of a compulsory pilot on a tow directing the navigation of the tug 'does not protect the master of the tug from liability for negligent navigation.

It may interest readers to know that the word “boot-legger” much heard m the United States since the drought set in is older than is commonly supposed. It appears that it was used long before prohibition was established by the Volstead Act eight years ago. A Kentucky correspondent of the “American Mercury” has given tins account“ The word ‘bootlegger long antedates its use in Kansas m Lbba. More than half a century ago we (then) young bloods in Kentucky used to relv on the local ‘bootlegger’ for appropriate refreshment at Fourth of July picnics. The ‘bootlegger’ of those happv davs was not the soulless harpy of to-day. He dispensed joy at reasonable rates. Usually he sold his corn-juice for two bits a half-pin , sold legitimate tax-paid red hkker at a slight advance over current saloon prices. In those days in old kaintuck £ost of us wore knee-high boots, here is your etvmologv of the word. Inside his wide bootlegs the ‘bootlegger carried his flasks of good stuff which both cheered and inebriated.

At the Court Theatre in London Messrs. Barker and Vadrenne used to present some very high-brow plays. One evening a gentleman, who had obviously dined well, sought a ticke at the box office, but the. attendant politely but firmly refused him adnnsSl °The gentleman looked very hurt at th “Why won’t you sell me a seat?’ he demanded, indignantly. , , r >» “Frankly, because you re not sober, explained the attendant. From protest the applicant’s attitude changed to one of immense Pr "Do you think lam drunk?” he >! I was sober?”

“Mama, can I borrow father’s trous-efs-press?” “I V want e to play Spanish Inquisition with Helen 1”

"There goes the old rascal who swindled me out of £40,000.” “How did he do it? “He refused to let me* marry hi» daughter.” ■ , - NOT HERE. What mockery is this? How many 1 start to see you looking down on me I Perhaps it is some trick of light that mimes ( , Your face so truthfully? Perhaps distorted fancy fashions you Darkly, gigantically, behind that c bair; So that you stand, just as you used d °’ With that calm resolute airSetting the old emotions which have Dormant, through long repression, suddenly free; Oh! for the cool firm touch of your hands again . Quietly possessing me! I reach towards you—and your outlines To empty formless shadows, and your Disintegrates, and all your features go Into the depths of space. I am alone now; and the still, still room Fills me with sudden undetermined . fear. . How strange 1.1 could have sworn that through the gloom— Yet there is no one here. —D. S. Leonard in the London “Spectator.”