The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1875-08-05

Parliament, who has been raising row
lately about the shocking abuses of the
Merchant service. He has been labor
ing at reform for years, and large pub
lie meetings have been held to sustain
and encourage him, When he spoke on
the subject of sailors wrongs at seaport
towns, two or three tho lsand sailors
would sometimes assemble and escort
him through the streets. Large sums OF
money were raised bysubscription to de-
fray the expenses of the libel suits
brought against him by ship owners, and
he has suffered largely himselfina tnan'
cial way. He has demonstrated that
ship owners are in the habit sending
vessels to sea which they know to be un-
seaworthy, fixing the insurance 50 that
they are safe from loss, while the poor
sailors lose their lives. We copy from
an exchange:
Mr. Plimsoll published book in the
early part of 1873 giving an account of
the principal discoveries he had made up
to that time. or 1000 casualties in the
carrying trade which occurred in single
year, about one-halfis represented by the
unseaworthy, overladen, or ill-found yes
sells of the collier class, chiefly employed
in the coasting trade, and about the same
proportion seems to prevail in other
years, the abuses being worse in this
branch of the business than in any other,
though by no means confined to it. A
great many ships, for instance, that have
fallen from class to class until they are
only fit to be broken up are patched and
put into the transatlantic timber trade;
they are Just able to float in fair weather,
and numbers of them founder on the vOy-
age, There are several common causes
of these preventable disasters; the YES
sells are worn out, or improperly and
cheapIy built, or overloaded, or INSULT
cienlIy equipped. One of the most
shocking devices by which ship is
stamped" in construction by parsi-
mOnious and rascaly owner is the use of
devils" instead of knee bolts. A knee
bolt is copper bolt that rivets together
the coatings of the ships side (planKing,
plating, &C. and gives it the necessary
strength of resistance. A "devil' is
sham bolt, consisting either of a head and
nothing else, or copper head with an
iron shank. The iron corrodes and. in
time becomes useless. In sugar ships
the fermentation of the sugar with the
bilge-water produces a chemical action
that soon reduces the iron to the Consis-
tency of black lead. Mr.. Plimsoll han
died such bolts which crumbled to pieces
in his fingers, and he mentions one owner
in the West India trade who lost ten
ships out of fleet of twenty-one in the
course of three years. There is said to be
a great deal of "scamping" also i'll the
common practice of lengthening ships;
and this is a part Of the subject i'll which
Americans ought to take particular inter
est on account of the number of length
ened vessels in the transatlantic passen-
ger trade. Overlooking is an abuse which
seems to be especially common in the
British Coasting trade, and it has led to
some peculiarly painful disasters. After
the sailor has signed his articles he can
not withdraw, although he knows the
ship to be unsafe. Mr.. PlimsoIl men
tions the case of Il vessel loaded till she
was only twenty inches out of water, and
sent to sea under escort of police boat
because the men were not willing to re-
main in her At the last moment two of
the crew begged to be sent to Jail rather
than to what they regarded as certain
death. The police lefused. The vessel
was never heard from again. Other in
are reported of a whole ships
being put by force upon n sink
ing vessel, which went to the bottom
soon afterward.
In attacking these abuses Mr. Plim
soil has not hesitated to assail the owners
by name, and occasionally he has sue
ceeded in reforming them by mere
threat of exposure. He mentions one
person who lost four ships from over
loading in 1868 and seven in 1869; los
sailors were known to have perished in
these disasters, although of one ship
wreck there was no return. 81 threat
ened him to his face that l would bring
the matter before the House of Com
mons. This man has not lost single
seaman's life since" But the owners are
not all so tractable. There are several
who have seats in the House of Com
mons and influence with the Board of
Trade, and it is to their malign interfer-
ence that Mr.. Plimsoll attributes the
result which has thus far attend
ed his labors. A Royal Commission was
more than two years ago to
devise measures for the correction Of the
seamen's wrongs, and Parliamentary
Commission was subsequently created
for the same purpose. The only visible
fruit of all the agitation so far i5 the mer-
chants shipping bill which Mr.. Disraeli
has announced his intention of abandon
ing. Mr.. Plimsoll has several times be-
trayed undue excitability; but when we
what influences he believes to
be arrayed against his bill, what weary
time has already elapsed since he began
to demand justice and humanity for the
sailor, and what bitter trials every man
has to contend with who enters upon
crusade in England against vested abuses,
perhaps we shall not wonder at the un
seemly violence of his demonstration in
the House of Commons.