202 



It is notorious, indeed, that owners are not required to make 

 full provision, and in case of wreck a majority of those on 

 board must inevitably perish unless, if in mid-ocean, they 

 are equal to a greater feat than swimming the Channel or 

 of shooting Niagara. On the subject of insufficient boat 

 accommodation Admiral Jasper Selwyn has said : " With 

 regard to our passenger steamers, few people understand 

 the discrepancy between the Board of Trade requirements 

 and actual practice. I have been across the Atlantic 

 several times in 6ooo-ton vessels, carrying actually from 

 1500 to 2000 passengers, capable of carrying with ease 

 3000 passengers. There were, probably, boats on board, 

 which, in case anything happened to the ship, would have 

 carried from 200 to 300 passengers, supposing all those 

 boats had been got into the water without damage, a thing 

 you can scarcely expect from an undisciplined crew, and 

 still less disciplined passengers, and supposing that every 

 precaution had been taken." * It might have been added, 

 and "supposing wind and weather favourable, much the 

 reverse being the prevailing condition." In further illustra- 

 tion of the inadequacy of boat provision, it may be men- 

 tioned that Captain G. E. Price, R.N., M.P. for Devonport, 

 some time since obtained from the President of the Board 

 of Trade the information that the popular Channel steam- 

 boat, the Calais- Douvres, was licensed for 1088 passengers, 

 and had boats for no. Captain Price also ascertained 

 that the Albert Edward, a Channel steamboat belonging 

 to the South Eastern Railway Company, that narrowly 

 escaped wreck near Cape Griznez last summer, was licensed 

 for 364 passengers and had boat accommodation for 83. 

 The accident involved a narrow escape from a wholesale 



* Transactions of United Service Institute : Meeting, i8th March, 

 1878. 



