IS BRITISH SEAMANSHIP INFERIOR TO GERMAN?

Pelorus Guardian and Miners' Advocate., Volume 18, Issue 11, 5 February 1907, Page 2

IS BRITISH SEAMANSHIP INFERIOR TO GERMAN?

—* — ( Mr. Frank T. Bullen, writing in “The Standard,” says : Among British seamen in days only just passed away, it was held to be the supreme test of a man’s ability, to handle a ship that he made not one, but several, smart passages to westward around Cape Horn. The explanation is easy, even to landfoilk. That southern apex of the great American Continent reaches down into the stormiest ocean on the globo so far, that, while rounding it, a ship comes within five or six hundred miles of the Antartic circle, with all its terrors. And not only must the westward-bound ship face, fresh as she is from tho heat of the tropics, the terrible cold of that stern region, but the gales with which she must contend are, in five cases out of six, westerly, that is, as a sailor would say, right in her teeth, And, by the very irony of fate, all these vessels that thus make the outward passage of the Horn are sailing vessels. The steamers can, and do, pass, owing to their motive power, through the dangerous and tortuous \vays of the Magellan Straits, between Tierra del Fuego and the mainland of South America, shortening the voyage by several hundred miles iu distance, and avoiding entirely the awful backthrust of the westerly gales. This easement is absolutely prohibited to the sailing ship. For many years the blue riband of this achievement, the outward-bound passage round the Horn, was held by, the masters of quite small vessels, of two or three hundred tons, barquentinos or three-masted schooners belonging to Swansea, and engaged in bringing copper ore from SouthWest American ports. But they have passed away, never to return ; have gone, as it appears that British seamen and seamanship is going altogether under our peculiar system laissez faire. It is of no use blinking the fact, unpleasant reading as it may, nay, it must, he to most of us that, not content with having beaten us in the speed of Alla He liners, the Germans are proving every day their superiority to us iu jam* seamanship of the highest type. Incur own oft-reiterated admission, that is, in the western passage of the Horn. For the last two years there has been a tremendous series of disasters to British sailing ships essaying to get westward round the Horn, and iu two or three cases the masters of those ships have actually turned lull and run their ships right round the world to jthoir destination, feeling that to get westward was an impossibility. There have also been several cases of disaster to French ships. Meanwhile the painstaking and enterprising Germans of Hamburg, having established a line of huge sailing ships to the West Coast of South America, for the carriage of nitrate mainly, have been beating all the records, not merely, for this particular voyage, but for any longer voyages made by sailing ships In fact, so wonderful have been their performances that, many old sailors take refuge in utter disbelief and the dictum that such performances are, must lie, impossible. But that consolation is denied those of us who seek for truth, for tiie facts are too well established to be disbelieved. Entrance and clearance dates cannot lie. Well then ; the German barque Potosi has made dleveu consecutive voyages from Hamburg to Valjiaraiso or Callao, that is the round journey out and home, in the almost incredible average time of five month# and twelve days per voyage. Her shortest vqyage was four months and twenty-eight days, her longest live months and twenty-four days, Which means .that for the whole of that period of about four years, this vessel, by favour of the wind alone, must have averaged over ten knots per hour, or about a knot more than tho average of the ordinary tramp steamer. It is safe to say that nothing in the annals of seafaring has ever even approached such magnificent seamanship as this, for the finest sailing vessel ever built and rigged can do little without a thorough seaman to handle her. Now what does all this mean ? I believe that on the German side it is the natural logical result of the splondod training given to German boys intended for sea life, and sending them to sea in ships where they do not merely learn theory but practice, which, again, is the result of the whole-hearted interest taken in the German mercantile marine by the whole nation, headed by the Kaiser. Comj%ircd with the absolute apaihy and neglect shown by the British people to tho greatest of all British industries and tiie one absolute essential of our national existence, this is a very striking object lesson if we would only heed it. Secondly, there is an immense advantage iu having a homogeneous crew amenable to naval discipline, an advantage no British shipmaster can hope to enjoy Thirdly, and here I am casting no asperions, those German ships are built, rigged, and kept up in th# most perfect fashion, and who know* like a sailor what it is to have gear that y,ou can absolutely depend upon to face any weather ? And lastly we must admit, and should admit freely that tho masters and officers of these German sailors must show sujierlutive seamanship in their ability to get out and home while out ships are Ijeing battered about trying to get round the Horn.