Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-05-20
TRAGEDIES
OF THE SEA
BY FRANZ. T. BULRN.

III I UNFORTUNATELY there is little diff
IL Guilty In writing upon fruitful q
topic as the above, so fruitful indeed
mat In the brief space at my disposal do
snot propose to particularize more than by
passing allusion any of the great sea TRACE
Idies that have passed through our later
Emaritime history. 1t will, 1 think, be far
more fitting in article like this to deal
kpith the causes of the sea tragedy and to
Show. as may easily be done, how, by the
advance of seamanship. the improvements
In naval architecture and the steady up
Mard trend of character among those re-
sponslble for the navigation of ships, great
sea tragedies have lessened amazingly in
plumber, while the fleets of the world have
Increased in an even greater proportion.
5 hen l first went to sea, only thirty
eight years ago, seafaring was Just emerg-
iug from that state in which its normal
condition might have been described as one
O. tragedy. Steam, that great ameliorator
Of life at sea, whether ior the passenger
Or the seaman Qeaving for the present the
fremen and engineers out of the question:.
had evidently come to stay. and although
splendid fleets of clipper ships still traded
regularly between the united kingdom and
az the great ports of the world. 1t was
obvious that their tenure of regular trade
WIS menaced most seriously by the new
1nS ships there were cases of actual ex-
pCrieuCe which froZe the blood to listen to-
Cases of disaster occurring through drunk
enncss. through ignorance and careless
pess. superadded to the ordinary perils of
the sea, were neither few nor far between,
although IT must be gladly admitted that
certain great lines, such as Greens, Wi
grams, Dewitt q Moore, George Thompson
an Brocklebanks enjoyed special immu-
nity because of the great care with which
they selected their officers, the lavish up
l,- Ir,4
means least. the good food which they pro-
vded for the large crews carried.
-
Just a step lower in the scale very diff
Eereut condition of things obtained. Owing
10 the truly Internal condition of feeding,
have seen practically whole ships COM
pany before the mast suffering from scurvy,
tha, most horrible and loathsOme disease
whereby much of the putridity of the corpse
may be Witnessed in the still living and
suffering body. And il was entirely due to
the vile quality of the food put on board
and practically an entire absence of fresh
professionalism 1t is a farce to present men
who have been compelled to eat the oHal,
which, although acrid with salt, was really
burid with one plateful of preserved soup
-FOUR times in seven months! l was but a
boy. but can l ever forget my task of lead
sng those scurvy-strtcken men about the
decks at night flor they were then quite
blind. putting the ropes in their hands
hUd hearing their means as the pulIlng
sacked their tortured bones. This is sea
r.sedy.
THEN there was the coffin ship, meant TO
sink somewhere out of reach of prying
ewes heavily insured and in command of
some reckless brute who valued not his
own life at a row Of pins, and the lives OF
his crew at much less. The risks of sail
fus I'm a vessel like this, apart altogether
from the secret intention Of sinking her at
liz frst favorable opportunity, were very
great. for the usual concomitants OF such
p foyage were rotten gear bad food, filthy,
almost intentionally bad accommodation,
and plenty of drink In addition to all these
II was usually the case that there was no
thrunometer or useless one which was
worse while reliable charts and other usual
aids 10 navigation were absent or in such
p condition as to be unusable. Life on
board such a vessel as this was a long
tragedy no CLEAN of light illumined the
sordid gloom, and when the end came it is
perhaps not tGs much to say, that those
few terrible moments in which the weary
soul parted frors the worn body were well
come. because they led straight to rest
*
But We are still far from the bottom of
tie scale. Lower even than these occasion
al vessels sent to sea to sink, were those
whose owners were poor and generally allied
to the master or skipper and sometimes the
FIRST officer by financial ties. 1t is hardly
necessary to say that these vessels were
called cheaply, because that condition is
obvious but this raging desire for economy
LED to some truly awful deeds The crews
OF these vessels were chiefly boys and young
men who were taken apprentices to avoid
paving them wages. and their condition can
only be described by one often misused