PILOT TOOK A RISK

Taranaki Central Press, Volume IV, Issue 454, 23 June 1937, Page 3

PILOT TOOK A RISK

EARLY SEAFARING DAYS Mistakes Ended On The Gallows London, May 7. There appears to have been something akin to “Communism' "in the seataring profession in the time of the Crusades. In his "History of the Merchant Navy,” Mr H. Moyse Bartlett says that the master of a ship had' to ask the opinion of his crew on the wind and weather before putting to sea, and that he was empowered, with the advice of his crew, to pledge the. tackle of the ship, but not. the hull, in return for provisions. The wages of the crew were always the first charge upon the ship. It other funds were not available the ship had to be sold to pay them. The practice of wrecking was severely dealt with, guilty parties being plunged into the sea until halt drowned, and then taken out and stoned to death. Any lord found guilty of encouraging wrecking had all his goods and lands confiscated, while he was tied to a stake in the centre of his mansion, which was then set alight at the four corners. Thereafter the mansion had to be torn down, and ’’the place converted into a market place for the sale of hogs and swine to all posterity.” A pilot who deliberately wrecked a ship was hanged on high gibbets. A pilot who ran a ship aground through incompetence would lose his right hand and left eye, and, if he was inI capable of making good any damage I resulting from the grounding, he could I be beheaded by the sailors there and . then.