318 Report of the Committee on Colour- Vision. 



the test that was adopted by the Board of Trade throughout the 

 whole of my examinations," 



When I first saw this gentleman on May 11th, 1889, a more 

 hearty man than he appeared could not be. He had been getting 

 £9 a month, and a bonus of £1 from his Company. The Com- 

 pany, on dismissing him from his ship, behaved very kindly, 

 giving him shore employment at about £5 a month. But the loss 

 of his situation, the having to give up the sea, and the destruc- 

 tion of his hopes so preyed upon his mind and body, that in May 

 last he became the victim of acute phthisis, and died. 



Up to the day of his dismissal he had not had a day's illness, 

 nor had he had occasion to consult a medical man. The Board 

 of Trade were well aware of the case, for on June 19th, after his 

 letter had appeared in the press, he was sent for by the Liverpool 

 Board of Trade, and asked if he was the writer of the letter, and 

 his object in writing it ; and, when he said it was in order to get 

 employment, he was told to the effect that, as the Board of Trade 

 had not interfered with his certificate, he had no claim upon 

 them, and that if shipowners chose to make laws for themselves, 

 it had nothing to do with them, and did not prevent him going 

 again to sea, as he could go to other companies. It must not be 

 thought this is an isolated case. It is now no uncommon thing 

 in Liverpool to hear of officers being dismissed for colour- 

 blindness who have held, in some cases for years, lucrative and 

 responsible appointments on board ship. Everyone will admit 

 the justice of these dismissals, for upon the correct colour-vision 

 of the officer on watch depends the safety of the ship, and, in 

 many cases, the lives of hundreds of helpless passengers, and 

 property to the extent of hundreds of thousands of pounds, but 

 everyone will at the same time admit the hardship — nay more, 

 the injustice — done these men by the use of bad Government 

 tests and regulations. This brings me to another point, that 

 many of the shipowners of Liverpool will not take a Board of 

 Trade certificate now. Up to the time I wrote my second pam- 

 phlet the Liverpool shipowners believed that the Board of Trade 

 certificate was a positive proof that an officer was not colour- 

 blind. Now many of them refuse to take it. They do not test 

 the men themselves. Many of them send their officers to medical 

 men or to opticians, or ask them to again go to the Board of 

 Trade, and I may here mention that sailors have a considerable 

 objection to being tested by opticians ; and I have been told of a 

 case where a sailor, on being rejected by a surgeon attached to 

 an Atlantic liner, remarked, he " didn't see why he should not go 

 to sea, because a common ship's doctor said he was colour- 

 blind." These men have the Board of Trade certificates already, 

 but since I pointed out the defects in the Board of Trade tests, 

 many of the owners of the large Atlantic passenger steamers insist 

 on a re-examination of their officers' colour-sight and form-sight. 



I think there should be an efficient examination in the first 

 instance. No improvement in the mode of testing can be satis- 



