THE COLONIST PUBLISHED TUESDAYS, THURSDAYS, AND SATURDAYS. NELSON, THURSDAY, OCTOBER 21,1875. "MISSING."

Colonist, Volume XVII, Issue 1982, 21 October 1875, Page 3

THE COLONIST PUBLISHED TUESDAYS, THURSDAYS, AND SATURDAYS. NELSON, THURSDAY, OCTOBER 21,1875. "MISSING."

! Under this head one hundred and fifty British ships are classed in the Wreck Register for the year 1873-4 —as the • Nautical Magazine puts it, " disappeared, ; clean gone, wiped out like a grease spot, never heard of after leaving port." One hundred aud fifty ships missing—leaving not a thread to hang a conjecture on as to their fate ; and carrying with them to their death two thousand three hundred and eighty-one souls. With all the improvements modern science has given to navigation, to shipbuilding, and to maritime machinery, one hundred and fifty missing vessels, out of a total of three hundred and thirty-eight wrecks, is a uumber that gives cause for alarm; and various are the speculations of \ naval men of high standing as to the reason of such a large number of vessels and seamen dropping, without a word, as it were, from the register and the muster rolls. iSamuel Plimsol), M.P., ,is juet now carrying on, in the British House of Commons, a crusade against unseaworthy ships ; and we are glad to learn that great success has attended his persistent and enthusiastic philanthropy. Never before were the Board of Trade regulations as to survey previous to leaving port so rigorously carried out. The load-line of every vessel putting to sea from any British seaport is now fixed by the Board of Trade "Surveyor, and is not left as formerly to the owner or shipper to be regulated as his cupidity or business exigencies may prompt. The " rule of the road " is an inexorable law, and no master is allowed to put to sea without the lamps necessary to this law's due observance. Every beam and plank in the vessel must be sound and firm; every piece of rigging gear safe; every boat required by the regulations seaworthy, and launchable at a moment's notice—so that Jack's safety is properly looked after, so far, at least, as a staunch and sound craft is concerned. iet with all this the Wreck liegisler shows for the year one hundred and fifty vessels missing. JNearly sixty per cent of these missing vessels —and the finest of them, too—^.'ere classed at Lloyd's or at Liverpool, so that in addition to a Board of Trade) survey they must of necessity have undergone a survey in the interests of the underwriters. Whither, then, are we to look for the . cause ofthese wholesale disasters ? Seamen can now join a vessel in the lull assurance that, from the builder's point of view, she is, in the poet's words, Staunch and strong, a goodly vessel, That ahall laugh at each disaster, Aod with wave and whirlwind wrestle. Butnautical writers of the present day say that the fault is not with the ships so much as with the men. Even Mr Plimsoll is satisfied that men are protected in most vessels now—protected at least as far as human foresight and skill can protect them —and only contends for a rigid continuance of this protective system, and an amelioration of Jack's condition at sea. Let us see what the Nautical Magazine Bays of Jack himself:— " In one of the north-eastern ports the crimps have a large shed, a manufactory of sailors. They get dock laborers, any refuse of tlie population, which, a few years ago, would nob have been admitted on board any ship. Each of I hese they equip in a sailor's jacket, and take him to the shed, where there is a cart wheel, by means of which they teach them to steer. In the centre of the shed there is a cow's horn on a pedestal, round which they march, in order , that if any questions are asked, they may say they ' have been round the horn. But, we asked, How are they taught to heave the lead ? That, our informant assured us, was too antiquated an idea altogether. " The story of tho Cospatrick will not be forgotten ; and we have evidence since then of two ships where the crew had burrowed down through the coals below the forcastle, and broke open the bulkhead, and with naked lights had plundered the cargo. When remonstrated with by the captain, they refused to give up their plunder and broke out into a state of mutiny, so that he was obliged to put firearms into the hands of the passengers ; and in another case the captain, shortly aftor heaving the lead, in a gale of wind, discovered that he had got a crew, not one man of whom was a sailor, and he went below and took a dose of laudanum."

These instances we,have quoted are from an authority that can be relied upon ; and our Colony is perhaps at this moment more interested than any other country in the matter, not only of efficient, but disciplined seamen manning the vessels which bring to our shores the immigrants we are presently importing. "We are now, under our free system of immigration, doing an exceedingly large passenger traffic over blue water; and it is well that we should see that the souls who take ship for our Colony are entrusted to the care, not only of qualified officers, but of men who are lonafide sailors, and not the miserable off-scouringa of London " hells" and Liverpool slums. That the Nautical Magazine is correct in its statement we have not a shadow of a doubt, for only a few days ago the second mate and a seaman were found guilty of broaching the car^o of the ship City of Aucldaiid, aad were sentenced, the mate to six months, and the seaman to three months' imprisonment. To get at the liquor they were in quest of, it was neeessarv for them to crawl over fwenty-five tons of gunpowder! The City of Aucldaud broughi some forty or fifty passengers to Auckland. Had the naked lighb these men carried by any means found a point of contact with the contents of a keg of gunpowder what would have been the result ? It is too fearful to

contemplate. Broaching the cargo is a crime far from being unknown amongst the crew,-> of immigrant ships calling at our ports; and not many months ago a captain putting into Canterbury prosecuted several of hit* men for mutiny arising through drunkeuneas resulting from the offence we refer to. "No grog allowed" is a condition in m 0.4 if not all the articles of agreement signed by seamen of vessels bound for these shores with immigrants; but '"Grog; 0," is not an altogether unknown muster-call on Saturday nights during the voyages of many of them. We ale far from recommending an. increased

allowance of grog, as we are afraid it would have no tendency to lessen the temptation; but we think many, officers might with advantage to all concerned, relax the stringency which marks the difference, both in comfort and position, between the quarterdeck and the forcastle.

We once heard a coxcomb of a third mate assert that " the only way to get along with sailors was to treat them like dogs." He acted on this principle; and as a result marline spikes and other ugly things occasionally di-opped "accidentally" from the rigging when he was handy below. We have heard, too, of a preaching captain, who gave his men any length of sermon, but a very short allowance of food ; and while he comfortably guzzled his brandy in the cabin on a cold night, Jack was considered amazingly well treated when he got a drink of warm coffee.

" Missing " is still the column in which the name of the good ship Strathmore is to be found.' One hundred and eighty days out, and still no sign! There were ninety souls sailed in her from London; and we are given to understand that a large quantity of gunpowder formed part of her. general cargo. With a knowledge before us of Jack's tendency to hunt below for the liquor barrels, is it safe that gunpowder should be carried on the same bottom with this temptation, with, moreover, perhaps two or three hundred human beings ? la it right that the immigrants'jlives should be risked above such a treacherous mice as twenty-five tons of gunpowder, barrels of liquor, and drunken men with naked lights ? Let us hope that the Immigration Agency will take steps to secure a stoppage of the practice of carrying at least gunpowder in the same vessel with the human souls imported to this Colony under the auspices of the New Zealand Government.