Tin-: Voice of their Masters. 



313 



AS WE WEKK BEFORE THE " TITANIC " DISASTER. 



■' The Report is to the effect that the e.xisting scale 

 in regard to the stability and sea-going qualities of the 

 ship itself and to the carriage of the boats required 

 which has been in vogue for the last twenty years are 

 ■ adequate for all ordinary emergencies.' Therefore 

 from this we are lelt exactly as we were before the 

 Titanic disaster. Such an opinion is indicative of the 

 worthlessness of the trouble, time, and labour expended 

 in the deliberations of the Committee. 



THE REPORT HOPELESSLY INADEQU.^TE. 



Under the law as it stiinds, it is open for a similar 

 ?hip to the Titanic to proceed to sea with a certificated 

 master and one certificated officer only. In the 

 interests of safety and efficient manning, it is high 

 time that a proper and adequate scale was framed and 

 laid down by the Legislature. No matter how big the 

 tonnage of a merchant ship may be, there is nothing 

 incumbent upon her as regards her carrying a proper 

 upply of certificated and responsible officers. 

 .\ccording to Recommendation 30 of the Report of 

 the .Manning of Merchant Ships Committee (i8y6), 

 ' a ship is in an unseaworthy state when she leaves 

 port without certificated officers or with her respon- 

 sible officers unfitted for their duly by reason of 

 prolonged overwork.' The .Manning of Merchant 

 Ships Committee therefore recommend that vessels of 

 500 tons gross and over should have two mates, and 

 of 2,000 tons and over three mates. Xo steps whatever 

 have been taken by the Board of Trade in enforcing 

 these recommendations, although the Manning of 

 Merchant Ships Committee stated that they ' urgently 

 demanded legislation.' The present Report as it 

 elands is, in my opinion, hopelessly inadequate in this 

 respect. 



THEORY. NOT PRACTICE. 



'■ Many of the troubles which now exist in the 

 service are due to the fact that it is dealt with in a 

 theoretical instead of a thoroughly practical wav. It 

 is essential that those familiar with active seafaring 

 in all its branches, whether on the quarter-deck, in 

 the engine-room, or in the forecastle, should be invited 

 to .serve and should figure far stronger, numerically 

 speaking, than i.s usuallv permitted bv the Hoard of 

 Irade." 



SWEEP ^WAY THIS NATIONAL DISCRACE I 



It would be most difficult to imagine a more damning 

 criticism of the Board of Trade and the .\dvisory 

 Committee, an^l it gains most decidedly from the 

 fa(;t that it comes from one who is a member of the 



.Advisory Committee, who speaks what he knows. 

 Surely no more is needed ? The existing state of 

 things must be swept away and the country saved 

 from a national disgrace. Too long we have allowed 

 this special branch of national life to be dominated 

 by those who are specially interested in its material 

 side. The foundation of British liberties is the jurv 

 system, which ensures that a man shall not be con- 

 demned save on the verdict of twebe citizens specially 

 selected as having no interest in the case. We may 

 not condemn a man to death without an impartial 

 jury, but the Board of Trade can condemn thousands 

 to death by handing the mercantile marine over to a 

 packed jury of men who care more for cargo than 

 lives, and would rather risk lives of crews and 

 passengers than risk dividends. Such a state of affairs 

 is not only disgraceful, it also strikes at the root of 

 J5ritain's greatness. 



LET THE NATION SPEAK. 



Let us have done with pretence. " There is in 

 practice no such thing as a Board of Trade . . . 

 nothing remains but a Minister, whose principal 

 functions are executive, and who in no sense represents 

 a board. That being so, it can hardly be expected 

 that the opinions of the Department as a Consultative 

 Department should carry the same weight as they 

 originally did." 'I'his is no new opinion, since it was- 

 expressed in 1864 by .Mr. J. Booth, then Chief Secretary 

 to the Board of Trade. And who will dare say that 

 things have altered for the better to-day ? A glance 

 at the evidence of the Board of Trade officials at the 

 Titanic Inquiry can leave no doubt on that point. 

 And yet these officials are not only intrusted with the 

 carrying out of such laws as the Merchant Shipping 

 Art (1906), but are, under one of its clauses, empowered 

 at any time to suspend the operation of every section 

 of the Merchant .Shipping Acts, as well as of everv 

 regulation made in accordance with these Acts. In 

 other words, to-day, if the shipowning interests desire 

 it. and instruct the .Marine Department of the Board 

 of Trade to that effect, all the shipping laws are so 

 much W4ste paper. .And upon this solid biisis is the 

 mercantile marine of the Empire, tfiose arteries of 

 Empire, founded. No thinking man or woman can 

 fail to realise that something must be done and that 

 no half measures are possilile. The betrayal of the 

 fCmpire is too great, too bare-faced, to tirook delav or 

 palliation. Let the nation speak on a national question 

 and sweep away the jumble of vested interests and 

 bureaucratic anachronism which to-day m;is(juerades 

 as the Board of Trade Marine Department. 



