INTRODUCTION Vll 



But, in the result, I have to say that the sale of 

 this book, which I take it is the best test of the 

 appreciation of the public, has been utterly insig- 

 nificant. It has not gone beyond the second small 

 edition in seven years, and since by general consent 

 of all its readers it is written in an interesting way 

 and has no dry pages, I think it may justly be inferred 

 that the public do not want to hear about the Mercan- 

 tile Marine, are entirely indifferent to the status of its 

 members, and are content to take all its benefits to 

 them as they take light and air as coming in the 

 course of nature, with the management and produc- 

 tion of which they have no concern. This opinion is 

 borne out by my experience throughout our islands 

 as a lecturer on the subject. Talking from the plat- 

 form, I can always interest my hearers in any phase 

 of the sea without introducing the slightest element 

 of fiction; but I cannot induce them to read the 

 matter up, nor can I ever find any evidence of the 

 subject having been studied, however cursorily, except 

 by persons who are, or have been, directly connected 

 with it. This I cannot fail to lament as being, in 

 view of the paramount importance of the subject, quite 

 unnatural and unnecessary, more especially when I 

 see the intense interest manifested by people of all 

 ranks and grades of education in games such as foot- 

 ball, cricket, and bridge, and the amount of earnest 

 thought expended upon acquiring information con- 

 cerning them, not only in their present, but in their 

 past history. Moreover, I know personally working 

 men who have lavished upon horse-racing an amount 

 of brain-power that, legitimately applied, would have 

 made their fortune. Such men will give you, at a 



