The Sun.
London, England, 1863-05-19 00:00:00

Manning Ships at Liverpool.

A committee of the Ballast-office in Dublin, who
have lately, by desire of the Board of Trade, in-
quired into the lighting
or marking of the south-
east coast of Ireland, have made some remarkable
statements in their report relating to the system of
shipping crews at Liverpool, which they declare to
be the principal cause of the casualties that occur
to outward bound ships off this Irish coast. They
state that when a ship is ready fnr sea notice is sent
to the Sailors' Home two or three days before that
a crew is wanted. At the time appointed the cap-
tain attends, and the number of men required are
turned aver to him, and agreements entered into.
A month's wages are then advanced to each man to
enable him to get his outfit, but it is generally spent
in profligacy and debauchery. Pimps are always
on the watch to pick up and secrete away any ap-
parently good sailor found among these men, and
in lieu they:send down to the pier from which the
vessel is about to depart any of the worst descrip-
tion of persons they can pick up, and the vessel,
being all ready to sail, often with the steamtug at-
tached to her, must either take these substitutes, as
they are termed, or go to sea half manned ; but
some captains, rather than take men from the
Sailors' Home, prefer to arrange with the parties
who have secreted the men before referred to, and
give a certain sum per head for every man they
supply. The men thus described go on board all
strangers to the captain ; most frequently they are
in a state of intoxication ; they are often so diseased
as to render them not only useless in the naviga
tion of the ship, but so reckless and refractory
that they will neither work themselves nor allow
others to do so, and the ship is not manage-
able for some days. She is usually towed ont as far
as Great Ormes Head or the Skerries. If the wind
oohour, and setting allowance for the
two points on the port bow, would be certain of
be from the southward or south and west, sail is
made on the port tack. The direct course from the
makingoktts an ) n
floodSker rtiiedsetroutnhoei
nTgusitarl
it,w
throwing the ship in on the Blackwater Bank, and
there cannot be a doubt that many a ship has been
lost from the reluctance of the captain to put his
ship about, from the disorganised state of his crew.
The committee are clearly of opinion that the losses
sustained by the outward bound ships from Liver-
pool are more decidedly traceable to the causes they
have thus stated than to the insufficient lighting
and marking of the coast, and they
make these
statements that the Board of Trade may take such
steps as they m.y consider necessary to bring the
subject under consideration of the proper authori-
ties, with the view to a closer inquiry to this im-
portant subject. The committee consider that,
although it is much in the power of the owner and
of the underwriters to remedy these abuses, yet it
is well deserving of consideration whether some en-
actments might not be adopted with the view of
remedying them, and puolic morality demands the
adoption of a vigorous and close supervision which
may tend to remove evils which appear to be se-
verely deplored by those who are from necessity
compelled to submit to them.

Ministers Baron 0
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SUDDEN DEATH.—Mr.yTmteionnao
of
s Exeter
Chelsea, head
under very melancholy cir-
odocuffiemtadhgsesotau,endmlocdiseentsne.his wife, to whom he was much attached, a few
days previously, and she was to have been buried on
lhursday last. On that day Mr. Veitch went out into his
nursery to gather lilies to strew on his beloved wife's
grave, and shortly after his return into the house he fell
down and expired. nrrsua:lbraeslryfeeter
es Dresdeniedn for Berlin.