The daily morning journal and courier., 1898-12-19

the commander. This IS easy to explaiil' The discipline on the big ocean liners especially on board those flying the En- gllsh flag, is almost as strict as that on man-of-war. As a general rule' the skipper does not invite familiarity on the part of his subaltern oihcers ana Tor the latter to remonstrate II they saw anything that they did not quite understand, or which in thelr opinion was an error of judgment, would III nine eases out of ten result Tn sharp censure, possibly in finding another discharge, and extreme difficulty in finding another ship, berth on an ocean liner being at premium among Qftcers of the merchant navy, Moreover, It lc doubtful whether any one of the officers on board the Mohegan realized at the time that so sound brain as that of the commander could possibly have thus suddenly and unaccountably got out of gear
 Who does not recall the laundering of the British battleship Victoria, some years ago. off the coast of Syria, with more than 600 men on board, many of whom were literally sliced to pieces by | the cruel screws which continued ehurning the water until great iron clad finally disappeared, bow first, be- heath the waxes?
 The loss of the Victoria is 10 be ex7 plained only in the same manner as l that of the Mohegan. Like Captain Grlf- fiths, of the latter vessel Admiral Sir George Tryon was one of the most ab- stemious of men and experienced of off, l ficers--a naval commander, in fact, re- nowned for his cleverness his brlllian- cy and his skill as strategist. Those who knew him would readily have set him down as the very one of all their acquaintanoes whose mental balance was the best poised and whose sanity the most sound. Yet while on the bridge of his flagship direting the 1 movements of the Mediterranean fleet, of which he was in chief command, he suddenly gege an order for maneuver which it was at once apparent to every captain of the squadron must result in disaster
 Captain the Hon. Maurice Bourke, who was his flag captain and beside him on the bridge, ventured, probably on the strength of his social position as brother an dheir to the Earl of Mayo and as equerry to the Duke of Edin- burgh, to utter word of remonstrance and to point out to his chief that a
 catastrophe must ensue. But he was
 soundly rated by the admiral for his presumption, and a few minutes later,
 as he had foreseen, the flagship was rammed amidships by the Camperdown
 and sunk. Here, again, as in the case ot
 Captain Grffiths on board the Mohe- gan, Sir George Tryon at the last min-
 ute seemed to recover all his wits, urg-
 ed the honorable Maurice to save him.
 self and displayed a pathetically pa
 ternal interest in the safety of the mid-
 dy on duty beside him, whom he forced
 to don the life preserver thanks to
 which the little chap escaped
 The disaster would have been still
 greater and other ships would doubt
 less have rammed and sunk one an
 other had not some of the captains, as
 well as Rear-Admiral Markham, second
 in command of the squadron, taken
 upon themselves to disobey the signals
 of Sir George. The iron nature of maya
 discipline may be perhaps best illus
 trated by the fact that the rear -admira
 and these captains were subsequently, brought before court martial at Nal
 ta and actually eensured for that very
 disobedience to superior orders bJ means of which they had saved no
 only their ships, but likewise the lives of all the officers and sailors undel their command. This censure passed by
 the Malta court-martial upon Rear-Ad miral Markham and the other com, manders for dsobedlenee to the fata
 signals of Sir George Tryon goes fai to explain why neither the first offioel
 of the Mohegan nor any of his subor
 dinates ventured to interfere with Gap tain Griffiths when he altered tn, : course of his ship and steered hel
 straight upon the rocks.
 In the case of Sir George, as also ot , Captain Griffiths, the only explanation
 of their issue of insane orders, neces , sarily leading to terrible catastrophies
 is that there was a sudden and momen , tary failure of a brain power similar tt
 that species of cramp or momentar. s paralysiswhich will sometimes de , prive a man for a few minutes of tn, f use of his limbs. Uusually this tempor : ary suspension of brain power is the re U Sult Ol HUE ue OI the Iltnu. put III
 tense anxiety of excessive absorption il 6 one subject will some times produc
 the same effect, as all great chess play
 CTS are aware.
 Curiously enough, these momentar, . "dwams," as the Scotch style then : medical men describe them by the ol : French word of petit maj pre- . cisely to the most skilful of chess play CTS, just in the same way as they hap e pen most frequently to men of predom t inant cleverness and brain power 1 e other instances. Among the most nota g ble cases of ''peit mal' which I can re :, call at the present minute is that c r General Pomeroy Colley, one of tn a most brilliant officers of the Engis e army, who commanded the Britis s forces in South Africa at the time c = the crushing defeat of Majuba Hil l. Discussing this, at first sight, inexpli j. cable disaster one day with LOT - Wolseley, now commander-in-c chief ( $ the English army, he informed me tha l. Sir Pomeroy, who had been one of hi
 most intimate friends, was in the hat n it of being seized at odd and most ir l, convenient moments with an invinc 0 ble and unconquerable desire to sleel l. Lord Wolseley declared that these fit tt fortunately rare and known to but fe