A MELANCHOLY SHIP STORY.

West Coast Times, Issue 944, 1 October 1868, Page 3

A MELANCHOLY SHIP STORY.

(From the Melboiirrte Herald). • The revelations made at the inquest held by the district coroner, Dr Maelean, at Williams tciwii, dri Monday,' upon the deaths of certain Chinamen, passengers t>y ihe Dayspring from Hong lung to this ptirt, are something truly shocking to humanity ; and no pains should be spared to ascertain who is in fault, and to inflict upon the master of that ve-sel — Captain Middleton — the punishment which, if guilty, he so richly merits. The details of the sufferings and death of the \vrct ched beings who perished so miserably' on board the Dayspring, bring us back in imagination fd til's early j'sfrt of the last century, when scurvy was stlch a general scourge to sea-going people on long voyages. At that period experience and medical science had not as yet taught people how to avoid the infliction of scurvy at sea ; and no long voyage was made without entailing upon the seamen the certainty of the dreadful scoitrge of sea-Fcurvy. But at the present day there is no excuse for permitting its ravages to arise on even the longest voyage. Good provisions, cleanliness, abundance of light and fresh air, and the regulrfr.use of lime-juice, are known to act as specifics both in the prevention of scurvy and in its cure whenever it may chance to make it* appearance 1 . And this is 50 well understood that the law makes absolute provision for insuring the use of th.fse preventives, or remedies. But of what avails It that Passenger Acts are passed by the Impcrinl Parliament for this special purpose, if captains of ships ifilfully, and from mere cheese-paring penuriousness, set themselves against the law and recklessly sacrifice life, for she sake of making a small and dishonest saving of money, at the sacrifice of the liumiin life entrusted temporarily to their c°.re on board ship ? The master of a vessel who thus wilfully sets himself against th-> law and the dictates of humanity, and produces extensive mortality in consequence of his heartless recklessness, makes himself deservedly amenable to the penalties of manslaughter. And the fact that his victims belong to the inferior races, whether Asiatics, as in the present case, or any other class of those least able to protect thewselves, only aggravates his cruel conduct by cowardice That men, even though they were but Chinese or South Sea Islanders, should be allowed to rot away by inches and perish by dozens, from bad food, absolute starvation, and the attacks of scurvej' and dysentery resulting f i om the two former causes, on board a British ship, at this lime'of daj r , is a startling' and monstrou > anomaly, which is a foul blot on our civilisation. ' Out of ninety -six Chinamen who embarked at Hong Kong, twenty-three perished during the voyage ; and of the two European passengers on board, one is now so reduced by illness that his recovery is looked upon almost as doubtful by the medical authorities at the Melbourne Hospital, whither the sufferer has been removed. This is something like the horrors of "the middle pa-sage" in the slave ships of old.

The Dayspring sailed from Hong Kong on the 20th May. and afrer a miserable and protracted voyage of 10-1 days, came to^ an anchor here at Qiicensclift" on the 4th of the present month. The crew consisted of South Sea Islanders and four Europeans, one of whom, though bearing no mate's certificate, acted as second mate of the ship. There wns no first mate. The provisions supplied to the passengers were bad — in fact, to a, great extent not fit for human food ; and, such as it was, there was not a sufficiency of it. This food consisted of yams, peas, salt fish, suit pork, salt beef, pickled onions, sweet potatoes, and dried Chinese turnip . Most of these, the witnesses stated, were in very bad condition, and everything was

salt— even the pickles. The yams were rotten, the fish and beef were almost putrid, and emitted a most offensive odour ; some" of the other provisions were not quite so' bad. And the ship was leaky and wet — SO ra'ucb so that the passengers were unable to sleep' Irf" tfrefc berths. After Ahe first four weeks at sea the passengers, who had to support life on such garbage, as this, were denied even enough of it, bad as it was, to appease the cravings of hunger. They were, in a word, put on short allowance. After the lapse of sixty days this short allowance was curtailed still further, and there was an insufficient supply of water. Is it any wonder that scurvy broke out as a plague amongst the unfortunate Chinamen who were exposed to his style of treatment ; and then there was but a small quantity of lime-juice available to counteract the effects of the bloodpoisoning produced by such food. Add to all the aggravation of wet bedding, and the wonder is that any survived this terrible tedious voyage. Besides the twelity-fhree who died at sea, of the scurvy and dysentry, there are at present fourteen Chmamen and Kanakas badly afflicted with th&stf diseases. The sickness first showed itself when the vessel Avas a month at sea, and in a week or ten days afterwards a Chinaman died A&w days subsequently another perished, and after that, says one vof the European sailors in his evidence, " the Chinamen began to die fast." On the day itie ship arrived at th 6 Heads and the following night two Chinamen died, and their bodies were thrown overboard without any weight being attached, and in consequence these wretched remains of poor humanity were seen floating about in tbe neighborhood of the ship. On coming up into Hobson's Bay and anchoring there, another victim succumbed to the loathsome disease, and the body in this case was consigned to the water, but with the precaution of being weighted to insure its sinking. Altogether the narrative of the voyage of this death-ship is the mo#t rhocking, painful, and to a British community, the most humiliating episode in the annals of the British marine that has come to light for years. The inquest has been adjourned to this day (Wednesday) for the purpose of getting the evidence of the sick European passenger who 3s in the Melbourne* Hospital, and who from his alleged intimate knowledge of the Chinese language 1 may be able to explain matters which the Chinamen who were examined as witnesses were unable to make intelligible from their speech being but imperfectly understood by the interpreter. We refrain, therefore, from further comment until the testimony of this gentleman is obtained. The long voyage of the crazy craft is accounted for by the occurrence of protracted calms; and the utter uselessness of the Kanaka*— of South Sea Islanders — as sailors, once the" ship game into cold latitudes. The suni total of tlie whole thing — bad ship, bad crew, bad provisions,, — is that it is au outrage upon the reputation of the British as a seafaring people, and upon humanity, that such a foul floating coffin should ever have been allowed to pass over the broad waters of the ocean from one British port to another, even though these ports happened to be situated at the remotest possible distance from the great centres of European civilisation. And the authorities of this country ont to mark their reprobation of the outrage in a rery marked manner.