By the Merchant Shipping Act of 1873 (36 & 37 Vict. cap. 85), the Board of Trade are empowered, at their discretion, to detain any British vessel “which they have reason to believe is by the defective condition of her hull, equipment, or machinery, or by reason of overloading or improper loading, unfit to proceed to sea without serious danger to human life.” By this Act, power is also given to the Board of Trade to detain any ship for the purpose of survey, to impose conditions as to her repair, and to enforce alterations in loading. The Commissioners do not consider it necessary or desirable to extend these already stringent and arbitrary powers, in order to prevent unseaworthy vessels from leaving any port in the United Kingdom. On the contrary, they suggest certain modifications of those powers, so as to make their action more prompt than it is at present, in which all differences must be referred to the Board of Trade in the case of detention, the owner having power of appeal in England to any court having Admiralty jurisdiction, and in Scotland to the Sheriffs’ Court; they further recommend that the master or owner of the vessel thus detained may be permitted to appeal to the shipping master or collector of customs, who should be vested with authority, when necessary, to appoint two or more competent shipmasters, to constitute a court whose decision should be final.[262] They at the same time express the hope, that, when these modifications are adopted, “the detention of vessels notoriously overladen or otherwise unseaworthy will gradually compel negligent Shipowners to be more attentive or to abandon the trade; worthless ships will be broken up, and the eventual weeding out of such ships will not only add to the safety of a seafaring life, but will be a benefit to the careful Shipowner, who will find his business increase, while the premium to be paid for insurance will be reduced.”
Shipowners already harassed by over-legislation.
Parliament having, for many years, been engaged in attempting to regulate minute details about shipping, it is not surprising that Shipowners should have complained of being harassed in their business by well-intended but ill-contrived legislation, and that they should, when further legislation of this sort was injudiciously proposed, have resisted it to the utmost of their power. Indeed, the Board of Trade itself had, for some time, seen the absurdity as well as the danger of a public department, imperfectly acquainted with the science of shipbuilding and with the interests of the commercial marine, attempting to dictate to shipbuilders and owners of vast experience the best mode of conducting their business; and, in the evidence before the Commission, Mr. Gray, Assistant-Secretary Marine Department, admitted that many enactments designed to secure safety of life at sea had been mischievous, and ought to be modified or repealed.
For instance, the obligation by the Merchant Shipping Act of 1844 to carry a certain number of boats in proportion to a ship’s tonnage, was found to be impracticable, and, consequently, the Board of Trade, by the amended Act of 1873, took upon itself a discretionary power in this matter. But discretionary powers in this case, as in many other instances, did not work well in practice; surveyors differed in their views as to the number of boats necessary, and the number of boats sanctioned at one port was frequently disallowed at another. Similar objections arose in the case of lights, and, as no coloured lamps could be found on trial until very recently, equal to the requirements of the Statute, Shipowners were subjected to similar capricious decisions of surveyors.
Mode of inquiry into losses at sea
It would weary my readers were I to enter into all these details, such as bulkheads, sea-cocks, hatchways, stoke-holes, compasses, safety valves, and innumerable other matters which Government has attempted to regulate by Act of Parliament, as I have, already, in more than one instance, alluded to these matters during the course of this work. But I must not omit directing attention to the large amount of evidence received regarding the system of inquiring into losses and casualties at sea, and to the powers given to the Board of Trade, by the Act of 1854, to institute such inquiries. It would appear from this evidence that the officers of the Board of Trade and the solicitors who act for it, as well as the Shipowners, have all a serious objection to the present mode of conducting such inquiries, and that the tribunal constituted by the Act does not command general confidence, while the mode of procedure is dilatory and expensive (perhaps, necessarily so, where much evidence has to be collected), and the power of the court is so ill-defined that, in too many cases, it cannot be enforced.
The inquiry frequently assumes the shape of a criminal proceeding against the captain, rather than of a careful investigation into the cause of disaster, the chief point at issue being whether the captain is to be acquitted, or punished by having his certificate cancelled or suspended; and, inasmuch as he is on his trial, he may if he pleases volunteer a statement, but cannot be examined. Nor has the court any power over the Shipowner, who, however culpable, is altogether beyond its jurisdiction.
examined and condemned.
The Commissioners recommended that these inquiries, made purely in the public interest with a view to the preservation of human life, should be conducted in such a manner as would best disclose the nature and cause of the disaster, whether, for instance, this was owing to the faulty construction of the vessel, to bad stowage, to circumstances connected with the navigation, to the incompetency of officers, or to the neglect and misconduct of the master or crew.
Recommendations.