"COFFIN SHIPS."
[KUEOPE.'X MAII,.] At Belfast tho other day the Plimsoil Act of 1871 bore its first fruits in the conviction of two gentlemen named Quinn for the offence of sending a ship to sea in an unseaworlhy condition. The case was a plain one, It appeared that the Messrs Quinn owned a small vessel c £ lied the Niturod, and in No-
vember last Bent her to sea on a voyage from Belfast to Scotland. The evidence overwhelmingly showed that the ship was then in a most unsound and unsafe condition—tjme of her timbers utterly gone, others rotten and, in a word, quite unfit to contend with wind and waves. She was officially examined at Greenock and reported to the Board of Trade; At the trial the surveyor of the Board of Trade at Greenock deposed that tho vessel was " not seaworthy," and was " daugerous to human life." The Messrs Quiun were found guilty, and Judge Lawson sentenced them to a fine of £l5O, and two months' imprison, ment each. This is a heavy punishment to respectable men, but it is only by severe sentences that owners of vessels can be compelled to see that the ships in which poor sailors are sent to sea are not what are mournfully termed " man-traps'! aud " cof-fin-ships."
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Westport Times, Volume VIII, Issue 1183, 9 June 1874, Page 2
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214"COFFIN SHIPS." Westport Times, Volume VIII, Issue 1183, 9 June 1874, Page 2
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