Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1873-04-11
Tur psIrIsH MARINE.
css.sas Ass,ssss ,: ;sS s.. s.sE "a q

llness a. thaa which uenuttod IA
Iho Loss OF the Atlantic
A Mr.. Plimsoll, member Of Parlia'
ment. IA making a crusade against Brit
ish shin owners who send their vessels
N sea m An unseAworthy condition. OF
poorly manned, or with insufficient sup.
niles The fate Of the Atlantic will
Greatly strengthen his hands. We APP
mend a speech delivered by Mr., Plim'
soil, \ few weeks ago. At llneds 2 5, <
On Saturday week, he said he had q
letter from seaport town IN the north
Of Scotland. In which Il was stated that
an old shin had been sailing from that
mort longer than any body that lived
there could tell, and that she ought 10
have been broken for firewood any time
during the last twenty years. IL was so
notor,ously unseaworthy that at last the
owner could not get any man to 80
aboard Of her. The captain himself
stuck 10 her because he was an old man
ana had n large family, and the choice
for him was that or restitution. lie had
sailed so many years IN her and had
always escaped, that he thought he
would risk il. The captain and
owners put their heads together,
and what did they do2 After
they found that they could not
get men to sail in her, they actu'
ally sent the ship TO sea with a crew
of Young boys, the eldest OF whom was
not more than seventeen, and she went
10 the bottom and drowned them all.
What did the audience call thatf lie
called Il murder. He was asked 10 make
inquiries, aud he took a letter to gem
tleman, who assisted him, and replied
"Be sure of this, the matter will be in.
ouired into" He then telegraphed TO
Hull. where they had trusty messen.
ger. who travelled for him and obtained
him information. go right away 70
this place, make inquiry, and let me
know il the ship was lost aud these lads
we're drowned and the man went and
was now pursuing an investigation into
the case. Another thing that happened
during the last week was this: de saw
gentleman driving pair OF very hne
horses with smart groom behind him in
the West-end Of London. He knew
something about the gentleman, and be
looked at him as he went by and thought
rather more than he would tell just
then. The day after he got letter
from the northwest. What did they
think it said. It told him that one OF
that mans ships had just come to port
so grossly overladen that if she had tae
least heavy weather she and all her
crew must have gone to the bottom. And
now another instance. A ship, the name
of which he had on the piece of paper
he held in his hand, sailed from port
so overladen that the seamen shortly
afterward put into port and refused to
work her. They we're taken before the
magistrates, and the magistrates sem
fenced each of them to six weeks i'm
prisonment. Another crew was OBJ.
tanned, put on board the same ship and
she went to sea the day after. On the
day after that she put into Falmouth,
the second crew refusing to 90 on the
voyage. aud they were sent to prison,
one and all, for three months. Then a
third crew was mustered and put on
board, and the vessel was again sent to
sea. While the first and second crews
were still in gaol the ship went down
and the third crew was drowned.
Mr. Plimsoll said late captain in
the Royal Navy and present Governor
of county gaol told him it was liter
ally true that many of the best of our
felIow.countrymen had only to choose
between death by drowning and the COM
mon gaol, and he begged him to go ON
and persevere in what he was doing.
Now. he asked the workingmen OF
Leeds if tkey would stand that sort
of thing any longer. See, then, that
they formed committee to cooperate
with the committee which was being
formed in London. He did not know what
would be the mode of operation OF the
London committee, but he should pro.
nose TO them that every town in England
should depute one or more persons to
wait upon Mr. Gladstone before the end
of the month and let him know unmis-
takably that the will of the people OF
England was that they would not again
up until their fellow-subjects at sea en-
joyed the same protection which they
gave to their factory hands and their
miners. If the people of Leeds lent a
helping hand in the movement, they
would never regret it. The recollection
would remain with them until their dying
day; it would be a solace when flesh and
heart failed because Of physical prostra-
ton azd weakness. Ay, and it would
be a solace to the confines of the next
world; and more than that, the recol-
lection that they had extended help.
ing hand to their brethren at sea would
precede them into eternity, and would
plead for them before God. lnasmuch
as We did it unto the least of these, my
servants, We did it unto me.