ADMIRALTY MISMANAGEMENT.

Westport Times, Volume V, Issue 817, 27 May 1871, Page 3

ADMIRALTY MISMANAGEMENT.

Admiral Eous, writing on Admiralty mismanagement, gives a seaman's reasons why the Captain was sure to capsize, mismanaged as she appears to have been, and adds:—" It generally happens that when a terrible catastrophe occurs some good arises in the shape of warning to inexperienced oißcers. In this instance evil begets evil. A court-martial is of course or. darad io try the survivors, and to ascertain whether the Captain was lost by negligence or other default. The court sat three days investigating the merits of the building of the ship, which was not within their jurisdiction.

They were summoned to decide, not how the ship was butib, but how the ship was lost. On'y three questions were necessary—l. Why were no preparations made to shorten sail to meet the threatening squall ? 2. Why were men not stationed by the lee topsail sheets i.nd halyards,"aecording to the custom of every ship of war in respectable discipline, which is to station men by the sheets and halyards of the first sail to be reduced, even in the finest weather? 3. Why were the watch on deck allowed to go below before they were relieved, and the deck deserted in the face of the enemy ? The verdict was—'Lost by the strength of the wind and the heave of the sea.' A truism. It would have been more consonant to common sense—' Lost by the officer of the watch not knowing how to shorten sail or to keep his men on deck.' The truth is, that the boiler has emasculated seamanship. No man can serve two masters—he will hold to the teakettle and despise the canvas. You can no more rear a seaman in a steamer than on the Bridgewater Caalal, and in ten years' time the British seaman will be a rare bird among the sailors in the Eoyal Navy."