discount, does not seem to
know that a British Court of Marine Inquiry, ordinary or extraordinary,
is not a contrivance for catching scapegoats. I, who have been seaman,
mate and master for twenty years, holding my certificate under the Board
of Trade, may safely say that none of us ever felt in danger of unfair
treatment from a Court of Inquiry. It is a perfectly impartial tribunal
which has never punished seamen for the faults of shipowners--as, indeed,
it could not do even if it wanted to. And there is another thing the
angry Premier of New South Wales does not know. It is this: that for a
ship to float for fifteen minutes after receiving such a blow by a bare
stem on her bare side is not so bad.
She took a tremendous list which made the minutes of grace vouchsafed her
of not much use for the saving of lives. But for that neither her owners
nor her officers are responsible. It would have been wonderful if she
had not listed with such a hole in her side. Even the _Aquitania_ with
such an opening in her outer hull would be bound to take a list. I don't
say this with the intention of disparaging this latest "triumph of marine
architecture"--to use the consecrated phrase.
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