Page:The Blight of Insubordination.djvu/30

22 "Some apology may be due for my scheme, in which defects may be discovered, but none for the statement of facts gained by practical experience, and while I have no wish to trespass on the feelings of anyone of my own cloth, it is necessary that the truth should be known before any scheme can be perfected for the benefit or reorganisation of the mercantile marine, and before it can become & creditable cradle for the Royal Navy or Royal Navy Reserve, which it might readily be made."' Enumerating the points, the author states: "Sixth, that the mercantile marine is much in need of reform is shown by the fact that it is common for crews to come on board their ships on the day of sailing drunk, disorderly, insubordinate, and mutinous! Again, most men rated as A.B.'s have not the efficiency which that rating implies. Out of eighteen A.B.'s, which was my complement in the Silvercrag on an average, not more than four rightly deserved the name. Though a seaman may possess an A.B.'s discharge, when you get him to sea you find he knows in many cases little more than a boy, as discharges are easily obtained from others, and many men don't care whether they have them or not. It is owing to a lack of properly trained men and a lack of proper discipline that so many of our fine ships of 2,000 tons and upwards are never heard of after leaving port."

Note, quite two years after the foregoing remarks were written occurred the incident of the Primrose Hill, with its terrible tale to bear witness to the truth of the statement, to say nothing of the many others whose real fate and manner of loss will never be known except that they are gone for ever.

"It matters not how smart a general may be if his fighting force is composed of untrained plough-boys, and the same result applies to the master of a ship. The authorities are making the nautical examinations harder every year for masters and mates to ensure greater efficiency in the navigation of ships by them, and yet the seaman, the most important factor, is altogether lost sight of.

"How can any sane man expect ships to be managed successfully if the working power consists of an untrained, unqualified mass of the tag-rag and bob-tail of mankind! It is impossible! The worry suffered by shipmasters through ill-disciplined crews drives more into an early grave than the anxiety of the sailing and the business of the ship, and it is not at all, as generally supposed by outside people, that the master of a ship is an all-powerful individual and that the crews are to be pitied. It is altogether the other way, as the law places no power in the shipmaster's hands effective enough to cope with the difficulties which arise. If the crews of the mercantile marine were responsible to the Government for their conduct, as in the Navy, there would be greater satisfaction felt on all sides. The ridiculously low sentences awarded to mercantile 'Jack' for some of the grossest breaches of discipline imaginable tend to make his conduct worse and his position lower than ever and lead to a great extent of crime upon the high seas.