Its members.
No Commission in our time has consisted of more able and impartial members. Besides His Royal Highness, it had as chairman the Duke of Somerset, a nobleman of shrewd sense and of very sound judgment, who had been First Lord of the Admiralty; Mr. Liddell (now Lord Eslington), who represented a large maritime constituency, and had for years directed his attention with unwearied zeal to all seafaring questions; Mr. Milner Gibson, who had filled the office of President of the Board of Trade; Sir James Hope, an Admiral of great experience; Mr. Rothery, the Registrar of the Admiralty Court; Mr. Cohen, a well-known barrister-at-law; Mr. Denny, an eminent shipbuilder; Mr. George Duncan, an experienced Shipowner, and a member of the Committee of Lloyd’s Register; Mr. Edgell, of the Trinity House; and Mr. C. W. Merrifield, F.R.S. and late Principal of the Royal School of Naval Architecture.
Their order of reference
By such a Commission the most searching inquiry was to be instituted “with regard to the alleged unseaworthiness of British registered ships, whether arising form overloading, deck-loading, defective construction, form equipment, machinery, age, or improper stowage.” The Commission was also instructed “to inquire into the present system of marine insurance; the state of the law as to the liability of shipowners for injury to those whom they employ, and also the alleged practice of under-manning ships; they were likewise to suggest any amendments of the law which might remedy or lessen such evils as may be found to have arisen from the matters aforesaid.”
A careful analysis of Mr. Plimsoll’s statements showed that he attributed the causes of shipwreck to unseaworthiness, owing to want of repair; overloading, which includes the carriage of cargo on deck; under-manning; bad stowage; inadequate engine power; over-insurance; defective construction, and undue length; and, that a full half of the losses arose from two of these causes, first, that “a great number of ships are regularly sent to sea in such a rotten and otherwise ill-provided state that they can only reach their destination through fine weather;” and, secondly, that “a large number are so overloaded that it is nearly impossible for them also to reach their destination if the voyage is at all rough.”
As I have already endeavoured to show, the “Merchant Shipping Consolidated Act” of 1854, with its 548 clauses, was passed expressly for the purpose of remedying by law, as far as practicable, existing evils, and the amended Acts of 1855, 1862, 1871, and 1873 had the same object in view; so that there was in force, at the time when the Commission commenced its inquiry, a mass of legislation, which, in itself, ought to have been amply sufficient to prevent and punish the offences alleged to be committed. Indeed, conscientious Shipowners have been heard to say that they were appalled at the numerous instances in which they had found themselves law breakers, from the simple impossibility of bearing in mind, owing to the number of Acts in force, their legal duties. Yet, if Mr. Plimsoll’s recommendations had been carried into effect, the manifold legislation, then in force, would have been very much increased.
and mode of thorough investigation.
Happily, however, the Commission saw, after thoroughly examining the whole subject, that it was not by increase of legislation, that such evils could be remedied, but by a more effectual application of the law as it then stood. In their reports[259] they express an opinion, that much misapprehension appears to exist about what is meant by unseaworthiness, so, before offering any recommendation with the view of preserving human life at sea, they prefaced their observations with a few practical and sensible remarks on what constitutes unseaworthiness.
The safety of a ship at sea, they remark, with great force, cannot be secured by any one precaution or set of precautions, but requires the unceasing application of skill, care, and vigilance, from her first design to her unloading at the port of destination. To be seaworthy, she must be well designed, well constructed, well equipped, well stowed, and, above all, well manned and well navigated; otherwise, “all precautions as to her construction and her stowage will be unavailing.” While public opinion had been abundantly directed to these precautions, they considered that other sources of danger had been altogether unnoticed, and they showed, from a summary of official inquiries, that from the year 1856 to 1872, inclusive, while only 60 ships were known to have been lost from defects in the vessels or their stowage, no less than 711 were lost from neglect and bad navigation.
Their reports.