THE WRECK Of THE OCEANA.

Grey River Argus, 8 May 1912, Page 8

THE WRECK Of THE OCEANA.

THE LASCAR PERIL

, The wreck of -he P. and 0: liner Oceana in the .Channel, following- so closely -on the loss of the Delhi, as a blow for the great shipping line; nc so much by reason of the financial loss in which the wreck involves the company, but because of the effect Jiese 'inexplicable disasters must have on 'the travelling public's mind. Why ■two strips, sailing in a more or less open sea, on a clear night should collide will always seem unaccountable to the landsman. He may have dodged idiotically in front of a, fellow pedestrian a score of times and'finished up with bumps and 'grudging apologies, but the rules of the pavement are mere Wastepaper so far as the average pedestrian is concerned, whereas the ' 'rules of the road" at sea, we have been led to believe are most clearly laid down, and possess the fullest authority international-law can p-ive" them. It is this fact that makes such collisions inexplicable to the landsman, except on r.he supposition that tte lights of one vessel, or both, were at fault/ or the officers and look-out men on on© or tooth,' were wool-gathering. There will, of course, be a mosisearching-; inquiry nto the circumstances surrounding- the collision, and' one aspect of tbe disaster should, and no doubt will be made, the subject of a most- rigid investigation, namely the conduct of the coloured portion of : crew of the Oceana, who are lumped together under the misleading name of "Lascars.*' The term 'Lascar' covers a wide range in. the Merchant Shipping Act, and a still wider range in ' the public mind. There it pract-; ically includes any person in the Pand O. service who is not European, and is applied indiscriminately to' Pathans from the North-west Fnonter, Arabs, negroes, half-breeds and. any frreeds. The genuine Lascars: are usually deck-hands hailing, from the west coast of India, and are sailors'by instinct and heredity: They manned the Old Indian -Navy, and often fought well, and -in later times liave shown sterling qualities in 'times of stress at -sea. On the other hand, the nondescript 'Lascars" such as are to be found in the .stokehold, though not normally cowards, are very liable to panic in an emergency, or if not affected in thus way, are apt to "lie down and take what comes of them," without an effort- to save themselves, or to assist in saving ibthers. So far -as the Oceana is concerned the narrative? of those on board whose F-ps'are not sealed by official connectin with the company, do not distinguish between the real Lascars and the j nondescripts, and the descriptions giv en of the- behaviour of the ; coloured crew differ materially. Passengers roused by the cry of ,'all hands on deck at 4 a.m. are perhaps not . the best possible witnesses to the truth, but one cannot ignore altogether jtheir statements as 7 td what -occurred. Sum mcd up, 'these statements suggest that at least the -major portion, of the coloured crew behaved in a manner calculated to enhance considerably the danger of the situation. If was apparently not so much what they did i as what they refused to do, or were unable to do properly because of ,tbe mental condition to which they had been reduced iby the collision. Some undoubtedly gave way to panic, and attempted to take possession of the Goats, but the majority appear to have contented themselves with doing nothing beyond weeping and wailing, or .behaving as fatalists who . deeming the catastrophe deliberately schemed by a Higher Power, resigned themselves to the inevitable. A SERIOUS PROBLEM. . It is not the first time by an means that coloured seamen have shown themselves unreliable 'in a crisis. When the Tasmania (also a P. and O. ship) was wrecked five-and-twenty years ago, in the Straits of Bonifacio,

the panic among- the Lascars caused a heavy loss of life. When the Delhi wenjt asore under well remembered circumstances, they displayed their uselesshess in like manner, and it is only natural that, without waiting for ithe results of the official inquiry people are now raising the question of their wholesale employment on board vessels of the British mercantile marine. Time after time efforts have been made in ithe House .of Commons and elsewhere >to deal with the exceedingly difficult problem but without success. There is, of course, much to be said on "iboth sides. In the firs; place drunkenness is unknown among them, ' and, painful as it is 'to admit it, the average British stokers or deck-hands seldom go on board sober. Then the Lascars, accordingly to some authorities, can work in a stokehold that I would be intolerable to a white man. They require little food, two meals a day of curry and • rice, and they are under excellent control. In other words, they are "cheap" and will put up with -treatment which the white sailor would resent most emphatically The question of desertion also weighs with the owners. There are -continual desertions among British sailors and firemen, but the Lascar seldom takes "French" leave" from his ship./ That >is one side of the picture. There is '-.another. The bulk of the non descripts' termed "Lascars" are timorous to a fl < degree and when danger threatens are like a flock of sheep. On board a passenger boat they are, it -is now quite evident, a 'Source of grave peril, and the opinion that only a very limited proportion of "Lascars' should 1 figure in the crews _of sni-ch-vessels is very widely held. Among British seamen there is but one opinion. The men declare that there is not the .■■slightest reason why the Lascars should be employed to the exclusion of the British seaman and stokerThe heat in the 'Stokehold of a modem sip in 'the tropics, is not what it used to be, and if white men can stand the stokehold of a "tramp" the}' can stand the stokehold of a modern liner. There are practically no Lascars in "tramps'-' 'the "men point out. But there is a still wider aspect of the subject, namely, the position that will have to "be faced when the English naval authorities must look tothe mercantile marine to make good the wastage of war dn 'the Navy. On that aspect the naval expert and British opinion generally is unanimous, and.it can. be summed up 'thus: "Every trained British seaman, and stoker would be a source of strength and every Laxsar (or foreigner, for that matter) in our mercantile marine a source of weakness."