THE MERCANTILE MARINE. [From the " Times," Feb. 21.]

New Zealander, Volume 6, Issue 449, 3 August 1850, Page 2

THE MERCANTILE MARINE. [From the " Times," Feb. 21.]

Mr. Labouchcie'a Act for the better Regulation o* the Merchant Service, is now before us ; and .1 measuie more important, or more lilais to be attended «itli pe.manent and beneficial consequences to the public ficrvice, has seldom emanated from any depjitment of Government. Up to the present moment a wild licensa has pervaded the whole Eystem of the mercantile mae line, which in some instances left the masters at thmercy of the seamen, and in other* subjected the seae men to the drunken tyranny or ignorant ferocity of tijmnsteis. The public generally has known but Mile of these raalteis. A chance report of the proceedings at the Thames Police Office, in which peihaps a batch of seamen summoned the master or owner to pay up an airear of wages which, as the other side alleged, had been forfeited by their own insubordinate or mutinous conduct, constituted our only clue to the difficulties in which the owner and the master of a merchant vessel might at times be placed. In the same way it might, perhaps, happen that we cast a glance at the particular! of an investigation into a brutal series of outrages which had been perpetrated on the high seas, by the master of a merchant ship, on the person of a defenceless boy ; and this furnished u« with something like an idea of the tyranny of which commanders might be guilty without check or hindrance. But we do not think we overstate the case, when we lay, that the great mats of the public was in a state of the profoundest ignorance as to the regulations which affected so important a body of men as the members of the commercial marine —what were the conditions of the huing of the men — what the limits of the power of the master— how the muster was trained to command, ami the men inured to obedience —what degree of knowledge was requisite for successfully working a ship -and what precautions were taken that men appointed to so responsible an office were possessed of the qualifications thai fitted them for command— what became of the mercantile seaman during the intervals of his voynge, and in his old age— I how he was fed, how clothed, how punished for dia- , obedience j — upon such points as these, and many other similar ones which might readily be enumeiated, we think we are scarcely exaggerating the case when we say that there was scarce one out of a thousand men of business who possessed anything like accurate information. But when any person did take the trouble to inquire into the subject, the degree of apathy which had been displayed by the Government of the country upon a point of such vital importance, could not but appear almost incredible. To be sure there was a registration of seamen, and by the slip of parchment issued to each man one might ascertain the length of time he had nominally been in the service, and in some degree diminish the chances of desertion ; then there were the certificates delivered by the masters to the seamen, marking the limits of their service on each voyage they had made ; and, as far as these particulars went, no doubt they were serviceable enough . But beyond the registration, up till quite recently, there was absolutely nothing done by the Legislature for the regulation of the mercantile marine, if we except stopping a shil« ling a month from the wages of every seaman to constiiutc a fund, any benefit from which was practically put out of the reach of ninety-ninie in every hundred contributors to the fund. During a voyage the master was left pretty much at the discretion of the crew, and the crew at the mercy of the master, if we may be permitted to have recourse to an Iliberniciim to shadow out the utter state of confusion which pervaded relations which should have been strictly and bharply defined. No kind of security was taken that the masters of ships should necessmily be men of competent knowledge to carry on the business of the ship. We aic perfectly aware that in the more important class oF vessels which performed the long Indian, Australian, and whaling voyages, insensibly a system hid grown up which did practicably provide for a succession of tolarably competent persons ; but even among this superior class an incompetent master always might, and occasionally did, intrude himself, through the favouritism of owners or from Eonoe other causes. On the shorter foreign runs, instances of such unfitness were unfortunately but too common, while the coasting trade was delivered over to the hands of men amongst whom incompetence was rather the rule I linn the exception. It is true enough, that with regard to this latter class no Tcry high degree of scientific attainment is required ; rough practical seamanship and the habit of localities are ulmost a sufficient stock-in-trade for 'he Belfast and Newcastle traders ; but even of these slender qualifications they were too often devoid. We leave out of the question all desiderata but those of sufficient capacity to avoid running the vessel ashore and keeping her clear of shoals throughout tbe course of a short run, although it must be evident that the effect of requiring a higher stand of education would have been to draw into the service a higher class of men, mote calculated to maintain the discipline of the ship and to promote the interests of the owners. We will not here stop to comment upon the short-sighted policy which induced the owners to persist in such a system of appointment. It will be enough if we record the opinions of all practical men who have been concerned in the shipping trade, that if a man enn combine the characters ot owner and master in his own person, he may add one-third to the average earnings of a ship. We can but shadow out thus faintly the condition of the merchant service, such as it has been until the present moment. Mr. Labouchere lvi endeavoured, in a most praiseworthy and intelligent spirit, to introduce tomethinsj like order into this chaos. We find in his bill that he has taken security, by means ol exami. nation and certificates of capacity, carefully graduated, that owners of ships shall for the fuiure have their pick of competent persons. Not only will the power of selecting from the best men be thus lodged in the hands of owner\ but officers of the Board of Customs will not, for the future, be permitted to grant clearance to ships the masters and mates of which cannot produce the certificates of competence required by the Board of Trade. Great encouragement is offered to persons who have made the merchant service their profession, to exert themselves in obtaining first-class certificates, for to tha possession of these documents extraordinary powers over the crew are annexed, which will render the possessors of this honorable distinction much more valuable seivant* to their employers, and entitle them, consequently, to a higher scale of remuneration. We tuke this to be one of the politic feitures in the Act, that it only grants powers over seamen, somewhat similar to those exercised by officers m the Queen's seivice, to men who have evinced a deshe to rise above the herd of their fellows, and who will, therefore, presumably, exercise their new authority in atempeiate and judicious spirit. It has been a constant complaint amongst masters in the mci chant service that they had not a sufficient degiee ol p^wer to carry on the business of the ship in a satisfactory manner. The answer was, that where bo many masters would probably have exercised their authority in a brutal aud oppressive spirit, it would have been impolitic and premature to lodge any very extraordinary power in their hands. But Mr. Labouchere meets the difficulties of the cats in a satisfactory manner. Ho pro-

vidcs that the power of the master to maintain discipline shall advance in proportion to the probability that he will exercise it with discretion. We should add, that independently of the power granted to the first clais ceitificate master to maintain discipline and to punibb. seamen by confinement in certain cases, we find in sections 7o'-78 of the Act a series of regulations for holding courts while the ship is on her voyage, and punishing mutinous seamen, if necessary, which was much wanted, and will prove o! great value, through the mere terror it will inspire, in the maintenance of discipline tlnoughout the merchant service. The title of the Act is a fair index to its contentsit is emphatically a measure " for improving the condition of Masters, Mates, and Seamen, aud maintaining discipline in the Merchant Service." Knowing, as we do, the enormous difficulties with which masters who are disposed to do their duty by their owners have to contend, in the maintenance of discipline, and the absolute necessity there is that discipline should be maintained on board ship, «c cannot but doubt if, cvea by this bill sufficient security is taken for the maintenance of good order. But it will be easy enough to extend their authority when are once secure that masters, as a body, are proper persons to be placed almost in the position of Queen's officers. We cannot, however, dismiss the bill without noticing the very jmportant series of regulations in sections 28, 70, 79, and 103, which constitute a little code for the protection of the pecuniary interests of the seaman, as well as his health and comfort. It is difficult to see if a superior order of men are entrusted with the working of the measure — men, who will in all probability be inspired by the spirit as well as bound by the letter of the Act—how it can happen that our seumen should not feel that they have the strongest reasons for remaining firm to their allegiance to a country where their interests are so carefully protected by law. This bill must of course be read in conjunction with the proposed measure on which we commented the other day, which will provide means of subsistence for the scamun of ibe mercantile marine in the decline of his years and the decay of his powers. The two bills taken toge hci constitute a code that was much wanted, now that the recent change in our economic legislation has taken the drag off commerce, and the mci cased exigencies of trade aie daily demanding larger supplies of ships and men.