The Express.
London, England, 1866-01-19 00:00:00

DISASTERS AT SEA.

The Times is sorry that our shipowners have not
something better to propose for getting at the causes of
shipping disasters than the scheme recommended at the
meeting held in the City of London on Wednesday. It
appears that these gentlemen would feel confidence in a
jury composed of five retircl mercantile captains, either
selected or taken in succession from a jary list. From this
jury there shad I be no appeal. From such a tribunal
there would inevitably be, in the opinion of the Tiny',
a notational default both of justice and of the
public safety. The jury would have to try a cri-
minal charge, with penal consaqueuces, with a pro-
fessional fellow-feeling for the accused, but at
the same time with all the maxims and traditions of an
ordinai y English juryman. They would be reminded over
an l over again, that a man must be supposed innocent till
proved to be guilty ; that proof is no proof unless it
amount to demonstration ; and that it is better to acquit
ten guilty men than to convict ens who is innocent.
This, of course, is very right when the question is
whether to hang a particular individual or not.
But that is a totally d,if.Annt sort of issue from
any to be tried in an inquiry into casualties at
se,. In that isqvl fwe want to know, with regard to a
particular point of the Atlantic Ocean and a particular state
of the weather, which is the way to the Cape of Good Hope,
and which to Las Roccas, or the bottom of the sea. We
are thinking of ourselves as well as the accused. The
sort of court, therefore, proposed at the Landon Tavern
would prejudge questions of immense practical interest,
with certain wholly irrelevant maxims of our criminal juris-
prudence, and the equally strong professional bias of what
we must call a pack d jury.
Dwelling upon tke recent disasters at sea, the Ti»tr3 ob-
serves that it is not the appalling calamities which terrify
the public and raise the rate of marine insurance, that really
occasion the greatest sacrifice of human life and property,
but those which come from a shallow water and a lee shore.
The darkest part in the ghastly tale of the year's wrecks is
that which is filled by the coasting trade. The only
consolatory reflection suggested by the perusal of the
dreadful records, is the thought of the courage displayed,
which raises even men of ordinary mould to the moral level
of heroes and martyrs ; the golden deeds performed and
forgotten by the actors, without any self-conscious appre-
ciation of the'- trio character ; the self-devotion, the
highest of which our oat ire is capable, exhibited by rude
and humble seamen as well as by the veteran with a Pfelong
reputation for gallantry to sustain,

No natiinterest cut surpass, none perhaps can
equal, rem►rks the Doily News, the mercantile merino of
Great Britain, to witch the royal navy owes its origin, its
strenttb, an I its maintenance. In the naval defence of
the America' Uuion how effective a part was played by
the merchant service of our kinsmen! Within the last 20
years oar mercantile marine has elevated its own character
and position in a marked degree, especially in attracting
a class of officers superior in education and in social advan-
tages to those of the last generation. Parliament has
shown little discretion in some of its occasional attempts at
legislation in behalf of the shipping interest, and the de-
mand of the shipowners and shipmasters for a fundamental
change in the constitution of the courts of inquiry in
the case, of casualties at sea—exceptional tribunals as they
s'aed—are especially just and moderate. In the royal
navy, in case of wreck or donne, the commander and
officers of a ship are tried by a court composed exclusively
of naval officers of their own or of superior rank. Why
should not the commanders of merchant ships be analo-
gously tried by courts composed of officers of their own
rank in their own Berries, instead of by an anomalous
and nondescript court composed of two civilians and two
"nautical assessors," salaried officials of a government de-
partment'
The Post insists that a more ample explanation than we
have yet received of the loss of the London steamship is
demanded by the interests of the public.
The Telegraph mentions a few practical suggestions
which have been addressed to it. Ooe correspondent asks
why such a ship should go to sea with open iron cutters
instead of lifeboats sufficient to carry off her crew and
passengers. One boat, it is true, of the right descrip-
tion was swept out of the davits, and one was shattered
by the waves ; bat if there bad been four or five more