Truth A FLOATING HELL.

NZ Truth, Issue 133, 17 August 1907, Page 4

Truth

A FLOATING HELL.

Published Evbbt Saturday Morn-' ING AT LUKE'S LANE (OFF MANNERSSTREET), WELLINGTON, N.Z. SUBSCRIPTION (IN ADVANCE), 13S. PER ANNUM. SATURDAY, AUGUST 17, 1907. ' '

In this glorious country, where everybody gets enough to eat, and nigger driving is a matter of such rare occurrence as to attract general attention when it is made public, the bowelless character of the average , British shipping company, is apt to occasion surprise. The greed, rapacity, and inhumanity of the British shipowner are well exemplified m the condition of the crew of the steamer Invertay, which has been detained m Wellington during the past week owing to insubordination amongst the crew. She is a vessel of 2541 tons, and left England with a crew of thirty, of whom nine were firemen. She has nine furnaces, and the British Board of Trade fixes the minimum number of firemen to be employed at nine, but these have also to act as greasers. The New Zealand maritime law places the number of firemen for a vessel ol this tonnage at fifteen, it being recognised by humane authorities that there is quite enough work m the stokehole for men up to that number. Imagine, then, the slavery to which the nine unfortunates must have been subjected when they left the Cold Country. As a matter of fact, it was found to be a physical impossibility to work the ship short-handed, and two extra men Were taken on m America. Between that country and Australia there were a number of desertions, the arduous niature of the duties being aggravated by the rotten food served out to the men ; and early this week, when the vessel was berthed at Wellington and the crew were enabled to get a decent meal ashore, several of them refused duty and flaclined to proceed to sea jHess a

full complement of firemen was provided, and food fit for human consumption was taken on board. Captain Houghton complained to the police, and Sub-Inspector O 'Donovan endeavored to induce the men to do their duty. His efforts were unavailing, and three firemen— Bailey, Mountain, and O 'Byrne— were taken before Magistrate Riddell and fined two days' pay for insubordination. ,Tne vessel sailed on Wednesday, but returned again m the evening, the three malcontents and a sick fireman named Seamont having again refused duty, and the master prudently decided not to proceed to Monte Video under such conditions. Bailey, Mountain, and O'Byrne were . again haled before the Magistrate's Court, when some startling evidence was given m justification of the mutiny. Although the vessel had eleven firemen, two of them— McKenzie and Seamont— were ill and unable to work, and the whole of the firing fell upon nine men, or, practically speaking, seven firemen, as two were told off to do the work of greasers. That is to say, the vessel, was six firemen short of the complement enforced by the New Zealand' shipping law, and the unfortunate • men who had to do the work were nothing more nor less than galley slaves. In addition to this, the men state that on the voyage between Sydney and New Caledonia the crew were literally starved. O'Byrne stated that the meat was badly cooked ; also, it was stinking, and unfit for human consumption. He offered his meal to a hungry Solomon Islander, and the savage rejected it with disgust. For two days O'Byrne subsisted on coffee and biscuits. He had been twentj'-seven years at sea, and had never before experienced such a hell afloat. Mountain corroborated this, and said that sea biscuits, dipped m f-it. was an insufficient meal on which to do four hours' work at night. The ship was grossly undermanned, and, m his opinion, there should be, at least, fifteen men down below. The character of the food was brutal and criminal. Between Honolulu and New Caledonia the crew were suffering from wholesale poisoning, and the safety of the ship was thereby endangered. He tried to work nine fires himself, but succumbed to illness. Bailey ■ stated that continual complaints were made to the master concerning the food, which was not fit for pigs, and the work for nine firemen was "horse labor, not man labor." The three men refused, point blank, m Court, ' to work on the ship until she was full-handed and proper food was supplied. Then Magistrate Riddell sentenced' them to two months' imprisonment. It is true, as remarked by his Worship, that the men signed articles to work the ship with nine firemen, but they apparent!" had no option. . One of them (Bailey) is a married man. There are also proper persons to whom complaints might be made, but these men were m, what is to them, a foreign country, and the only method of adjusting their grievances recognised by them was to secure an investigation by committing an infraction of the law. The horrors of life on the Invertay may be realised when Bailey and Mountain shook hands m the dock when they heard • the Magistrate's decision. These men would rather sacrifice a guinea and costs out of their miserable pay and do two months' with hard labor m a , foreign prison rather 'than return to the floating inferno where 'they had suffered so much. In the opinion of "Truth," the Minister for Marine should institute an inquiry' into the case of these men, with a view to mitigating their sentence. Also, it is upto our Democratic Parliament • to seriously consider an amendment of the sMppini? laws by prohibiting the use of New Zealand ports by vessels that do not conform to New Zealand maritime laws with re.snect to manning and the food supplied. ' A large number of moneyless deserters are dumped into the gaols of this dominion annually, and the sordid shipowner m Britain - collars their forfeited wages and nays nothing towards their kebp m this country. „