The Worcester spy. [volume] (Worcester, Mass.) 1898-1904, 1898-10-30
THE COFFIN SHIP
Banisbed from the Sea by
His Labors.


forecastle of any ship sailing the seas
of the world today, no matter what ma
tional standard flew at the truck, or
what language was the mother tongue |
Of the crew, and put to the men to be |
found there the question: Who was
the best friend the sailor ever knew in
all the world?" the answer would come
with a hearty unanimity, Samuel
Plimsoll."
And there is no mistal1ing or denying |
that he was the friend of the sailor. He
consecrated his time, his talents his
energy and his wealth to the cause Of
the poor storm-tossed and neglected |
mariner, and FOR years he led a fight |
for justice to the sailor which will go |
down in history as one of the noblest |
and most philanthropic that was ever |
waged by a single man in legislative |
halls
When Mr.. Plimsoll started the move
ment in behalf of the seamen, some 20 |
years ago. he astounded and shocked |
Great Britain by the narrowing tales |
he told on the platform and in parlia- |
ment of the treatment of the common
seamen of the merchant marine at the |
hands of both shipowner and captain |
The poor fellow before the mast" had |
literally no rights which owner or skip |
per was bound or even supposed to re-
speet. III paid, i'll fed kicked and cuffed
and sometimes murdered, by bTutes of
officers drunk with rum or passion, the |
lot of the merchant sailor was infinite
ly worse than that Of the negro slave.
He was entirely neglected by the poll
tician5. for there was no such thing as
a sailor vote and the idea of an or
ganized union never entered the heads
Of those hardy but politically innocent, |
sons of the sea. Worse than all, they
were made the victims by the hundred,
year afte year, of the cupidity and cold
hearted villainy of the over insured
owner. who was by no means a rara
avis in the land. To be just, it should
be said, the over insured owners were
in the minority, but there was always
far too large horde Of the vampires in
the big shipping centers of Great Brit
ain, and no legislation was ever thought
of as a corrective for their Infamous
conduct towards the sailors in their en-
ploy.
No matter how old or how rotten the
ship they could get hold of for a few
! pounds, she was painted up and her
seams half callSed-just enough to keep
/ her afloat in the harbor and for day
or SO after she nut to 500 IS eeven A77at
IIt) was slowed into her, and then
when all was about ready for sea. a
crew was 'signed" for the voyage. The
hapless tars We're given some pay in adj
vance to get drunk with, and when
they were logged aboard by the owners
runners" they hardly knew whether
they had signed articles for a voyage
to Melbourne or Mobile. But to sea they
went, as fast as the tug boat could haul
the hulk outside the harbor. And as she
vanished from view, the ghoul of an
over-insured owner in his office on the
wharf rubbed his hands in glee. He
knew that vessel would never come
back, but that the first stiff breeze that
strained her rigging and filled her sails
would also open the half caull1ed seams
in the huh and before many weeks she
would be posted among the lost at
Lloyds registry and then-his insurance
would be due.
Samuel Plimsoll knew of these
things for years. He visited the dock
and talked with the seamen and posted
himself thoroughly as to their treat
ment He found the shipping laws
were. such that a crew had no alterna-
tive but the Jail If they refused to go
to sea having once signed articles, no
matter how unseaworthy they may
know the ship to be; he informed him
self on all the phases of the over-in-
surance rascality; he prepared a list
/ of ships that We're condemned in one
port. then towed to another, their hulls
reprinted, their names changed and
the ships registered again without any
inspection as fully sound and sea-
worthy; he found no limitation placed
on the amount of cargo that might be
slowed into a ship, so long as she did
not founder at her wharf. and then
finally when he had filed his mind
:, ;e
ties of sufficient number ard nature to
make his humanitarian hair stand on
end Mr.. Plimsoll stood for parliament
and was elected, and he went into the
house of commons determined to right
the wrongs of the sailor. No more
heroic or inspiring mission was ever en-
tered upon by a single man in any
country on the globe.
Strange as it may seem, this man
with a purpose so grand, encountered
from the outset an opposition that was
as Virulent as it was well organized
and powerful. The great shipping in
terest had it's strong and influential
representation in the house, and Plim-
SOIL. matched against such a force,
seemed as helpless as a mouse before
a lion But he fought on night after
night, session after session, much of
the time without one sympathetic as
sociate. TFampling under foot all con-
yentionalities of time and place, he
stirred the people of Great Britain to
an understanding of his cause, and
bitter were the denunciations which he
flung at the government for cringing to
the ayaricious greed of the ship own
ers He framed and introduced a bill
which condemned any ship owner to
Imprisonment and fine, who loaded his
vessel or allowed her to be loaded be-
low a certain depth and every ship was
to be compulsorily surveyed and toI
have painted in white on her sides a
mark that was to fix the limit of her
immersion.
The speech which Plimsoll made in
support of his bill was intensely dra-
matte He read the most pathetic let
ters from sailors all over the world,
begging him to carry the bill through,
many of the writer's telling him that
the chances were that the floating cof-
fins they were aboard of then would
not hold together on the homeward
voyage. His arraignment of the own
ers in that speech has been compared
for it's terrible invective to the inn
peachment of Warren Hastings by Ed
mund Burke. He said those men We're
people who bought old ships, and only
old ships, and sent them to sea, and
the public curiosity was excited to
know what the government meant to
do to stop that sort of thing, and who
the people We're who could sleep in
their beds when their bread was made
out of dead mems bones. He said he
had information of two ships which
-f..r~1o ,.;x-a4ad xrrhara ftaxr n4,rrI,f