The Daily bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Hawaii]) 1882-1895, 1886-01-22
MARINE FATALITIES.


$4,000 questions and answers, occu-
pying $50 pages. Although the
London Globe says the investigation
"has thus far borne too much the
of trial of the ship
owning interest of Great Britain on
the prosecution of the Board of
Trade, still perusal of that
journals review of the document is
rewarded with some suggestive hints
and information that may be appli-
cable to other than British COM
merce. Mr.. Gray, Permanent AS
sistant Secretary to the Board of
Trade, while admitting diminution
in the loss of life on best managed
steamship lines, holds that the annual
loss of life in merchant shipping
amounts to one out of every fifty
seven employed. Among the reasons
for this high rate of mortality elected
by the investigation, a chief one is
the practice of over-insuring ships,
and the fact that no civil or crimi-
nal responsibility attaches to owners
who knowingly send to sea unsea-
worthy, overladen, or unnamed
vessels. Mr.. Gray. who conducted
the Investigation for the most part,
refers to "small capitalists who,
though they no more want ship
than they want a boa constructor, are
induced by highly-colored prospec-
fuses to put their money into ship
owing speculatiops. Inordlnate pro-
fits are promised, and to get these it
is necessary for the managers of the
enterprise to risk the safety of the
ship by cutting down the masters
wages, reducing the number of the
crew, and, in general, sacrificing
everything to the all-important con-
sideration of saving money" Some
high authorities are cited, ON the
other hand, to show that the figures
and conclusions of Mr.. Gray are
over-drawn. "Mr. Richard Lowndes,
President of the Liverpool Chamber
of Commerce, believes, as the re-
suit of forty years experience in
shipping matters, that there is ex-
ceedingly little wilful wrecking; but
he nevertheless thinks that the pres
ent system of insurance tends to
diminish the caution that would other
wise be used" The chairman of
the Hartlepool Shipowners' Society,
in long experience, had not found
that vessels highly insured were more
likely to be lost than these insured
on lower scale. During the in
quiry good deal of discussion oc-
Cured on the question of the alleged
deterioration of officers and men in
the mercantile service. Vice-Ad-
miral r. A. Powell is of opinion that
the master of a large passenger ship
is usually an extremely good navi-
gator and skilful officer generally,
but that, on the other hand, the
master of an ordinary trader is not
quite equal to what he should be for
his responsible position. "Still, +"
he adds, " it is impossible to forget
what they do when they come regu-
larly into peril, their marvellous self
sacrifice, both in the case of the
seamen and the masters" Captain
Methven, formerly of the Peninsular
and Oriental Company's service,
thinks that "the ordinary practice
OF masters IN navigation is far below
what they are capable of and that
their work should be more closely
looked after by owners by supervi-
sion of the log-book, which is often
very badly kept"
The revelations of the British in
quiry above stated do not show
causes of marine fatalities peculiar
to British commerce. With the
growth of Hawaii's infant marine
they will be found to crop up, and
it would be well to prepare for
them. Already it is no new thing
here to see people who have no more