UNION COMPANY'S NAVIGATION.

Patea Mail, Volume XII, Issue 14, 19 May 1886, Page 2

UNION COMPANY'S NAVIGATION.

And'So the ITiiioh Ship Coxier pany has put in another claim for the Champion Belt of careless navigation. This time the S.S. Taupq goes prancing np a rock. What is me ’ nmtter l It cannot be that the Company's Captains are not acquainted yritij the navigation of oiir seas, for most ef havej one would think, at various epochs of their history bumped a large majority of the rocks, and. scraped most of .the shoals op ourepastk It appears, however; that "iinmbdiatefy an JJ.S.S. uq. skipper hss tp resign. Th,is ( a mistakej.be/sauaewhen a man has knocked the bottom out of his ship on any rock he; \yill . possibly know the rock again, t and» r h e is hardly likely to go there,second jtjina Tbps, at the expense ,pf a feyr, , thousand ships, more or less, the Company would in process pf;.time, be enabled ,to raise a breed of hardy mariners wh<?; - would’ knpw the position, vof ? every sandbank, reef, and rock around New Zealand. Is it a fact, as the,past generation of searwolves are hpt to say,; that \ the race ?of British seamen is dying, out .with ships and whple topsaps,.an4, ; that. the presept marine/:', is pply a brassTbocb-4; copper-fastened, gaudy variety of stoker? Bp that as, it may, we,.again, ash the Tlnion.X&mpany., whether. each of its commanders is supplied, with a,chart on which the Cpmpany y s .chosen course fop every voyage, is. distinctly , markqd, and if not, why mot ?,,. further d?sire to know whether there are any rpeksin the plumb-.centrp,of the Copipany's courses, and if so •vyhy it does, not fa, ■ captain’s ordqrs to. jump.them, aud.':.not to straddle,their vpsselp on.itop p£.them f .Will the company also remember that, it is a common (arrien. and as, such, ; lia|)le for hymegl ligehce 'and carelessness ?