The Northern Daily Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1857-01-31 00:00:00

TiiTE NORTHERN TIMES.-LIVERPOOL, SATURDAY.

DISCIPLINE ON BOARD AMERICAN VESSELS.

ST. HELEN'S CANAL AND RAILWAY COMPANY.

The North British Daily Mail, a Glasgow paper, thus
alludes to the recent affrays on board the J. L. Bogart, in the
Mersey, and the Echo, in the Clyde :—Some police cases have
recently occurred in our seaports which are well entitled to the
attention of the people and government of the United States.
The incidents of the bloody affray which occurred last week on
board the American ship J. L. Bogart at Liverpool must be
familiar to our readers. The crew, consisting chiefly of men
of colour, had been engaged, as the articles of agreement bore,
for a voyage to New York ; but, after going on board, they
learned that the ship was really bound for'Mobile. This change
of destination was very important to the blacks, for at New
York their freedom would be recognised by the authorities,
but at Mobile they would almost certainly be made slaves of.
Those who remember the case of a man of colour, who,
though a British subject, was kidnapped a few years ago
in Charleston, where the vessel he was in was
driven in by stress of weather, will be able to appreciate
the strong repugnance of the crew of the J.
L. Bogart to proceed to a slave port. The idea of the fate
that, awaited them appears to have stung them to the quick.
They refused to go to Mobile, which their articles of engage-
ment, if such documents have any legal force, well entitled
them to do. Whereupon they were immediately treated as
mutineers. One of them was struck in the leg by a shot, and
a bloody battle ensued between the black seamen and the
officers of the ship. Cutlasses and other lethal weapons were
freely used. The deck is said to have been one pool of blood.
Two great evils present themselves in this shameful case. In
the first place, there is the intolerable state of the law in some
of the seaports of the slave States of America, under which
even foreign seamen of col?ur aro exposed to capture, impri-
sonment and slavery. This is surely to carry the
slave law to a most wicked and impolitic extreme ;
and if the Slave States wish to cultivate commer-
cial intercourse with other parts of the world, they
ought at once, were it only for their own interest, to annul
this fearful abuse even of the power of nigger-napping. Bre,
in the second place, the case at Liverpool exhibits a lamentable
state of discipliner on board American vessels, which, we
retire to say, has been corroborated by a case on the Clyde,
which formed the subject of a police trial at Greenock on
Monday. The captain of the American ship Echo had engaged
five seamen, who went out from shore with him one night last
week: One of the men was somewhat the worse of liquor,
and the captain himself appears not to have been free of the
same evil. Words arose between them, and each was struck
by the other. After the party had climbed on board the ship a
scene of the most brutal description took place. The captain,
having the chief mate at his side, knocked the seaman
down, kicked him, and jumped on him. The wretched
man was then dragged into the cabin, where he
was tied up, and severely flogged ! Some of the witnesses say
that the captain himself wielded the rattan. The captain
admitted in his evidence, at least, that he was present at the
flogging, that it wes done with his sanction, and on being asked
on what authority he did such a thing, replied that he "thought
that he had a right to correct a man on board of his own ship "
The seaman, after being flogged, was handcuffed, and thrown
into a " bunk," where he was found by the police, " his face
all covered over with blood." Allowing for some exaggeration
in the evidence against the captain, there is sufficient truth in
this deplorable story to excite public indignation against the
low and wretched ideas of discipline, not 'to speak of
law and justice, under which such outrages could
arise in any civilised port. Strange to say, the
capta'n of the vessel brought up the five seamen
before the sheriff on a charge of assault, but is a court of
justice the case speedily assumed its proper aspect, and the
judge dismissed the charge with the remark, that " whatever
power a shipmaster possessed at sea—and that power was very
great—he had no power to do up and flog a man like a dog
within a few hundred yards of the police authorities." We
should remark, with respect to the treatment of coloured
seamen in the ports of the Slave States, that in the larger
cities, such as New Orleans and now also Charleston, the liberty
of black sailors is respected providing they remain on board
their vessels or only go on shore by special licence. Some
provision of the same kind should be made universal over the
whole of the Southern States ; nor can the question of
discipline in the mercantile marine too soon engage the
attention of our friends on the other side of the Atlant:c. The
Daily News of London remarks on this subject, that" the
warning bas actually gone abroad through the newspapers of
the Union, that their naval forco would be paralysed, in case of
war, by want of crews. They cannot get their ships manned,
they say, and their sailors desert to British ships, whenever
they have an opportunity, on account of the better treatment.'
It is painful to read of such things, and to hear such tales as
Liverpool and other ports are ringing with. The Americans
excel all the world in finding a remedy for any mischief they
once take in hand. We hope, for the sake of commanders
and seamen of commerce, and of national reputation, that
they will see to the solution of this difficulty without delay."

Yesterday the proprietors of this company held their
half yearly general meeting, at the St. Helen's Railway
Station. G. Greenall, Esq., the Chairman of the Board of
Directors, occupied the chair on the occasion. There was
only a small number of the shareholders present.

In opening the business, the Chairman said : This meet-
ing has been called in the usual manner, and 1 propose,
therefore, that we should pursue our usual course. I
shall first ask the secretary, Mr, Sinclair, to read the
report of the directors.

The Secretary then road the following report :
" The Directors have to report that the increase in the
gross traffic receipts for the six months just ended, when
compared with the same period of 1856, is .w 5,221, against
which must be placed an increase of working and renewal
charges of £1,603, and of Interest on Loans and Prefer-
ence Dividends of .€984. The gross revenue for the half-
year, as shown in the statement of accounts circulated
among the shareholders, is £40,397 19a 6d, and the working
charges, rates, taxes, and rents amount to £15,213 5s 10d
(or 375 per cent, on the receipts), leaving a surplus of
£25,184 13s 8d ; deducting from which for interest on loans
£7,403 8s Id, for renewal of permanent way £7OO, and for
additional works £549 183 11d—R8,658 7s, leaves £l6 526
6s 8d ; to which must be added the balance left, after
payment of the dividend declared at the last general
meeting, £l9 17s sd, making £16,540 4s 1d ; out of which
the directors propose that a dividend should be
declared for the , past half year, payable on the
10th of February, at the rate of 2 per cent per annum
on Stock A, £3,168 ; do 5 per cent on Stock B,
£3,6u0; do 6 per cent on Stock C, £3,757 10s; do 45
per cent on Stock D, £2,674 2s 6d ; do 4j per cent on the
£25 Shares, 1852, £l6 4s; do 41 per cent on the £2O
Shares, 1853, £1,602 lls 3d; do 6 per cent on the £2O
Shares, 1855, £1,428 95—e16,246 16s 93, leaving a balance
to be carried to the next account of £299 7s 4d.

" The number of passengers conveyed during the year
1856 was 590,959, showing an increase of 24,384, on the
number conveyed in the year 1855. The weight of coal
and merchandise carried on the railway, 707,150 tons ; on
the canal, 629,563 tons ; total, 1,336,713 tons—being an
increase of 132,420 tons over the weight carried in the
previous year.
"This increase is diffused in tolerably fair proportions
over every branch of the company's business.
" In pursuance of the authority given at the last meet-
ing, the Directors have taken the necessary steps for
applying to Parliament in the forthcoming Session, and
have introduced into the Bill, clauses declaratory of the
right of traffic, resorting to the Docks and Canal of the
Company to exemption from the local charges of Liver-
pool. GILBERT GREENALL, Chairman."
The Chairman then said—lt is my duty to propose the
first resolution, which is, " That the report just read, with
the statement of:accounts, be received and adopted." I have
much pleasure in laying before you the accounts which
close the procedings of this concern up to Dec. 31, 1856,
from which you will find that the gross receipts have been
£40,397. That shows an increase over the corresponding
half year of Dec. 1855, of £5,220. This has arisen from
an increase in the canal account of £1,186, and of that of
the railway of £1,034, and the items on which that
increase has occurred, is coals £2,832, goods £2,042, and
passengers £346, making in all an increase as I. have
before stated of £5,220. The increase in the number of
passengers has been nearly 24,000, and the increase in
the tons of goods conveyed, 134,000. I may mention that
from Garston and the docks the traffic has reached
10,000 tons. The disbursements in the year have been
£15,213 13s Bd. As some may wish to know what has
been our averagp working expenditure for the permanent
works on the canal and the railway. I may say that on
the canal it has been 22i per cent, and 43 per cent for the
railway, and 1 believe that that is about the usual amount
for railways.
A Shareholder : That 43 per cent includes rates and
taxes, which some railways do not include. Railways
generally charge 41i per cent, exclusive of rates and
taxes.

The Chairman-then referred to the amount of traffic in
connection with the Garston docks, which had reached
10,000 tuns. On that point he said he must confess that
he did not think that that traffic had fully developed
itself, but he thought that it would fully meet the expec-
tations of the most sanguine of his brother directors. He
had also great pleasure in saying that at the present
time there was a vessel in the docks receiving
a cargo direct for China, and that the proprietor, Mr.
Ewing, had expressed his satisfaction at the manner in
which it had been worked. lie might also state that the
proprietor of the vessel has saved a considerable sum by
coming to the Garston Docks, instead of going to Liver-
pool, a saving of at least 23 6d per ton on the whole cargo.
He then said he would speak as to the future prosperity
of the company, and to do that ho must judge from what
had already transpired. From the figures he had before
him he found that the income in 1848 was £27,000; in
1853, it rose to .6°55,000, and in 1856, it amounted to
£77,000, and from that he argued that if the income went
on increasing in the same ratio, it would amount to
£lOO,OOO. He then explained that if it should increase to
that amount, how it would be expended, and still leave a
dividend of 5 per cent. Having thanked the company for
having so attentively listened to his statement, he con-
cluded by moving the adoption of the resolution.
Mr. Daglish seconded the motion, which was unanim.
ously adopted.
Mr. C. Holland then moved a resolution to the effect
that a dividend should be paid on the 10th of February, as
follows :—At the rate of 2 per cent per annum on stock
(A); at the rate of 5 per cent per annum on stock (B); at
the rate of 6 per cent per annum on stock (C) ; at the
rate 9f 41 per cent per annum on stock (D); at the rate
of 41 per cent per annum on Shares 1852 ; at the rate
of 4 per cent per annum on £2O Shares 1853 ; and at the
rate of 6 per cent per annum on £2O Shares 1854.
Mr. Gaskell Taylor seconded the proposition, which
was unanimously adopted.
A vote of thamKs to the Chairman concluded the busi-
ness of the meeting.