PROTECTION OF DEEP SEA FISHERIES. 483 



is no salvage of property, and the smack loses two or three 

 nights' work. The question is often asked, " Why don't you 

 apply to the Board of Trade for some recompense for loss 

 of time ? " The reply always is, " It is of no use." If such is 

 the case, it is high time that it was of use. How often are 

 shipwrecked crews brought in who report that one or two 

 vessels (it may be in the Atlantic or elsewhere) passed 

 near and took no notice ? It points to the fact that there 

 is a sort of dread among some masters, that if they rescue 

 a crew, and have to make the nearest port and get more 

 provisions, they will not be thanked by their owners, and 

 in some cases they have to pay for the extra provisions 

 out of their own pockets. It is the same thing as driving 

 steamers in a fog. A good owner forbids it, a bad one 

 finds that his master is careful and stops, and consequently 

 the master is told he is not wanted any longer. The same 

 pressure, in certain cases, weighs as to rescuing crews 

 in distress. The master may wish to do so, but, looking 

 to his own position, hopes that they will get saved by some 

 other means, or smothers up his feelings by thinking that 

 some other ship will be sure to save them. It is painful to 

 have to write such facts as these, but there are good and 

 bad all over the world, and the writer is only too sorry to 

 feel convinced that in some cases masters of ships have to 

 study their own families and position. This really is a 

 Government question, and from the interest which the Presi- 

 dent of the Board of Trade evinces in life-saving, it is to be 

 hoped that he will notify, that all future cases of rescu- 

 ing crews in distress will be duly considered, if reported to 

 him, and rewarded according to their merits. Surely this 

 would be only fair where private enterprise finds the means, 

 and often the necessaries, the Board of Trade having no 

 expense as in the case of maintaining rocket apparatus. 



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