SHIPS AND THE SEA.

Evening Post, Volume LXX, Issue 37, 12 August 1905, Page 12

SHIPS AND THE SEA.

Maddened by his real or fancied grievances, a Lascar seaman belonging to the Asia, then in the Albert Docks, London, climbed to the head of the foremast on a recent Saturday and defied for six hours all attempts to j dislodge 'him. Gassim Hadji was the bnly Bombay lascar on board during the Asia's passage from India, the rest being Calcutta lascars. A fierce rivalry exists between the two sections, and Cassim apparently had rather a had time. He was perfectly quiet, however, until the ship reached her berth, and then, after attacking one of his alleged tormentors, he ran to the chains and swung himself up to the foremast head with monkey-like agility. From this position he hurled down curses and gesticulated wildly. Chief Officer Williams held' a council of war with the eecond and third officers. Men were sent up to the adjacent rigging, whence they attempted to lasso the madman. This was a failure, and Cassim laughed as 'he dodged the ropes. Darkness was stealing over this strange scene, when the officers ascended the rigging and managed to get hoisted up to them a large cargo basket. The madman saw that his time had come, seized the signal halyards, and twisted them into a noose round his neck. The next moment he had dived downwards, and his writhing body was silhouetted against the evening sky. A fierce fight in mid-air followed. The officers seized the rope and the basket was hoisted up under him. But he fought so furiously against rescue that the rope broke and he •fell with a thud to the deck. He was taken to the -hospital. We have been accustomed to regard the "wooden walls" of a former genera/, tion of fighting craft as finding fit occupation for their declining years in service as stationary training-ships. So usual, indeed, has it been for this type of vessel to be available for the purpose that the fact has (says an English paper) apparently been overlooked that the supply of old line-of-battle ships was bound some day or other to come to an end. Whether the Admiralty is at the limit of its resources in this respect is not quite clear, but the probability is suggested by the circumstance that the new Exmouth, intended to replace the training-ship of that name which has so long been moored off Grays, represents quite a new departure. .She will not come to the Thames full of years and of honours, but as a brand new vessel from the yards of Messrs. Vickers, Maxim and Co. at Barrow, where she has just been launched. While a melancholy procession of obsolete warships of the more modern type is wending its way. to an anchorage somewhere off the Scottish coast, quietly to await, maybe, the day of breaking-up, Barrow has produced a replica in steel of the "hearts of oak" of a former age, and has done it, be it noted, in the year of the Nelson centenary. The sentimental aspects of the proceeding will, of course, properly be overshadowed by a consideration of the utilitarian view of the enterprise. One or two things it seems at least to prove. One is that our training-ship authorities are disinclined to follow the example of the Admiralty, whicli has constructed the new Britanni" not only on dry ground, but on the top of a hill. It has been asserted that boys of training-ships like the Exmouth find confinement more or less irksome, and fchat that is why a comparatively large number of them eventually fail to follow a seafaring life. That, however, is evidently not the opinion of the authorities in this case, and after some 35 years' experience their view must be admitted to have some weight. There is, too, the undoubted fact that it would cost more to house the Exmouth's five or six hundred lads ashore than it does afloat, and this although' a new ship which will cost upwards of £60,000 has had to be provided. Besides, a young sailor needs to smell the water, even if it be only Thames water, and a home ashore would somehow not seem quite conducive to the sense of comradeship. The other important point which the new Exmouth appears to settle is that the type of vessel which is now reproduced in her is probably about aa good as any that can be designed' for the purpose. Chief Officer Bell, oi the ship Colonial Empire, was fined £5, with £2 costs, in the Newcastle Police Court lately for assaulting a seaman named August Anderson, of the same vessel. Accused pleaded guilty. The evidence showed that he had pulled Anderson out of his bunk, struck him several times in the face, knocked him r'-wn on the deck, and kicked him. He then ordered 'him to leave the ship. Bell had been summoned to appear at the Cpurt at 10 a.m., and the vessel was leaving the harbour at the time. The Magistrate issued a war-j-ant for Bell's arrest, and the police launch Nemesis chased the vessel, and succeeded ,in overhauling her off the Nobbys Be.l was then arrested, and the ship put back. The shipping authority Fairplay recently to hand gives particulars of some heavy reinsurances overdue vessels. Amongst these appears the ship Ikhona, which left Singapore on 24th May for Yokohama, Rangoon, and on which 50 guineas per cent, has been paid. The fear that the vessel had shared the same fate as the St. Kilda, which was sunk by a Russian warship, accounts for tho high rate. She is a steel screw steamer of 3383 tons, built in 1900 by Messrs. J. Inglia anrt Co., Glasgow, and owned by the British-India S.N. Company. On the steel barque Clipper Kyle, 1592, built in 1892 by Barclay, Curie, and Co., Glasgow, and owned by J. Rae and Co., Liverpool, 20 guineas per cent, has been accepted. The vessel left Newcastle, New South Wales, for Valparaiso with a cargo of Duckenfield coal. On tho barque Pitcairn Island, 1320 tons, which left Adelaide for the United Kingdom fivo months ago ? reinsurances have been started, and 5 guineas per cent, has been paid. She was built 27 years ago for Messrs. Stuart Bros., of Glasgow, by Russel and Co., Greenock. Interviewed by the Unwera. Star, Mr. James Kowin snid the prospects for tho coming dairying season were undoubtedly good — better than they wero at the commencoment of last year. Ho would not bo surprised if it proved a lecord season aa regards prices.