SIMPLE STOSY OF THE SEA.

Mataura Ensign, Volume 6, Issue 344, 1 April 1884, Page 5

SIMPLE STOSY OF THE SEA.

In concluding a speech, at Birmingham on a recent Wednesday night, Mr GJhaniberlain said. — I will give you a simple story of the sea, not told, in sensational language, but as it fell from the lips of witnesses examined on oath in the courts of law in the kingdom. There was a vessel, a fine vessel, some 2000 tons gross burden, which was owned' by a man who had no knowledge o£ ship-, ping,, who was I. believe,, a builder and landagent, and who had made money, and thought that he could make more by investing it in ships. He was •at liberty to speculate as he pleased, provided that tite counters were, not hujnan liv,es. This £hip according to the builders' account,* Sought to have had a freeboard of sft 6in. [That m,eans that' the upper deck 'of the to have been .sft 6in. out of the water w&en she was ' fully loaded, fother aiithoriSes^'uuL Ah.aii that w&?*XGfr enough, and that she ought to havehad :J7ft. But this owner, who knew nothing about shipping, wb.o . wanted to make money, sent her to sea on her first jvoyage with a free-board of 4ft 9in. She jhad a fine voyage ; there was no ]ieavy i weather, but ,she behaved so badly that Iwhen the crew came home they left her, land refused, to sail in her any more. didthe owner do P He gave her the inext voyage a free-board of 4ft 9in. On 'the second and third voyages, she had i! again fine weather. She behaved badly jboth times. Both, times the crew refused ['again to sail with her; and on the last ! j voyage which she ever went this owner sent her out to sea so loaded that her freeboard, which, ought to be sft 6in. aei cording to some, or 7ft. according to others, was only 3ft. 9in., and her crew, which ; ought to have been from 29 to 39 hands, * : was reduced by the owner at first to 25 hands. So overladen, and undermanned, she foundered in she first gale she encountered ; every man on board was drowned, and widows and families remained without redress except from Heaven — (cheers) — for the wickedness of which they had been the victims. The captain of the boat, before he sailed on his last voyage, wrote a letter to his father He said : — " If I come back from this voyage, I will never sail in this ship again. Why should my wife be made a widow so that another man may handle a little coin ? Don't tell her, don't tell my mother anything about this ; it might make them uneasy." I might tell you many other cases. Do you not think there is something in what the late Chief-Justice Earle said on one occasion when a man , was on trial before him, and he charged the jury : " Gentlemen, is not this one . of those instances in which a ship has ■; been built, and equipped, and manned, and loaded with an intention of sending her direct to her destinatien at the bottom of the sea?" (Loud cheers.) Just think abeut it. Whenever there is such a gale as that which blew around our houses and shook our windows and doors last week, you know that the next day in. the paper you will read about the great loss of life, and the black book at Lloyd's will be filled with the names of ships that have gone to the bottom of the sea, of which no more will be heard. Hundreds of men who are dear will have gone to the bottom of the sea with the ships in which they have sailed. I say to you upon all grounds of duty, upon gronnds of morality, as well as upon grounds of interest, let every man, without distinction of party, assist me against even the great and powerful interests which are involved in the conservation of the existing system, a,nd enable me to put a stop to the state of things which is discreditable and deplorable, and which ought not to be endured. (Loud cheers.)