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Service ("); by the power conferred upon the Lord Chancellor to make Rules of Procedure ("); by securing to any person charged an opportunity of making a defence (); by the power to hold Inquiries and Formal Investigations as to stranded or missing ships (); by the extension of the ordinary limits of jurisdiction of Justices and Stipendiary Magistrates (©) ; by granting the right of appeal, and in certain cases of a rehearing (); and by alterations in the mode of appointment and selection of Assessors. (8)

Efforts have therefore been made by successive steps in legislation to improve the procedure of Courts of Formal Investigation, and although few will maintain that imperfections do not still exist, it may fairly be urged that most of the changes already made have been rightly directed so far as they have gone. The results of the more recent legislation, apart from that which affects Inquiries, afford a wider field for controversy. The revolution effected. in the construction and equipment of ships by the substitution of steamships for sailing ships, of iron for wood, and (in a minor degree at present) of steel for iron, have undoubtedly complicated the question of comparative safety of life at sea. Whether after making allowance for the new dangers incident to such changes they have been attended by any general increase of safety is a matter upon which a diversity of opinion exists, but in taking a survey of the past thirty-five years, there are indications of progress and improvement which may be noticed Improvements with satisfaction. Numerous appliances for saving life have been introduced into the equipment of vessels, as well as established on the coasts; a keener supervision has been exercised over the boilers and machinery of steamships and repairs; the construction and stability of ships have been repeatedly discussed and the results made public; the

established in measures for safety of life at

sea.

(*) Shipping Casualties Investigations Act, 1879 (42 & 43 Vict., c. 72), s. 3, see post, page 65.

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(d) Ibid, sec. 32, and see post, pages 28, note ("), and 63.

(e) Ibid, sec. 33, page 64.

(f) Shipping Casualties Investigations Act, 1879, s. 2.

(5) Ibid, sec. 3.

special dangers incident to coal (*), iron, grain ("), rice, and other cargoes have been exposed; light has been thrown upon numerous questions bearing upon the administration of the Merchant Shipping Acts by the Board of Trade; some progress at least has been made towards the solution of the vexed question of freeboard; the incompetency and misconduct of masters and other officers have been the subject of constant inquiry and punishment; the guarantees of their efficiency have been strengthened by the test of a public examination before a Government Board; harbours have been increased and improved; lighthouses and beacons have been erected in localities the dangers of which have been made apparent by Inquiries into shipwrecks or otherwise; lightships have been established off the coasts as experience has dictated; buoys have been laid down in dangerous channels; trustworthy charts have been issued as the result of careful and continuous surveys; unsuspected errors have been discovered in published charts; elaborate sailing rules, accepted by many foreign governments, have been formulated; and valuable safeguards for ships and crews have been made known, introduced, and adopted.

In estimating the general results of the legislation to which the labours of the Committees of 1836 and 1843 gave rise, it is but fair to remember the extraordinary and ever-growing increase in the number and tonnage of British ships, as well as the bearing of that increase upon the supply of really efficient officers. It is only by a recognition of the fact that much of the benefit of legislation must of necessity be negative, indirect, and of slow develop

(*) The causes of spontaneous combustion and explosion of coal gas in ships have been considered with most useful results by a Royal Commission. Their able and exhaustive Report, see Parliamentary Paper 1586, 1876, contained recommendations which have been made the subject of an "Official Caution" (see Appendix, p. 233), and by means of the machinery of the Board of Trade have been pressed upon the attention of all shipowners and shipmasters and other persons interested in the working and shipment of coal.

(b) A recent Act, the Merchant Shipping (Carriage of Grain) Act, 1880, has been passed upon this subject, and by virtue of its provisions, Rules have been approved by the Board of Trade for the stowage of grain cargoes from the United States, Canada, Australia, Germany, the Mediterranean, and Black Sea. The Act and Rules are set out in the Appendix, page 285.

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Sir T.H. Farrer's
Memorandum of

1875.

ment and by a broad comparison of the present with the past that a true estimate can be formed.

Upon this point Sir T. H. Farrer has permitted a reference to a Memorandum prepared by him in November, 1875, in which was collected a great body of facts and statistics for the purpose of testing the question whether British Shipping had deteriorated or improved since the repeal of the Navigation Laws in 1849. Extracts from the Memorandum will be found in the Appendix, page 336.

Whether or not upon a just review of past legislation the safety of life at sea may be said to have relatively increased, the Royal Commission on Unseaworthy Ships expressed the opinion that by means of Inquiries into shipwrecks attention has been directed to many sources of danger, and a stimulus has been given to the ingenuity and sense of humanity of individuals in devising means for their removal. (a)

(a) The same point is repeatedly illustrated in the Evidence and Reports of the Select Committee of 1860 and the evidence before the Royal Commission of 1873, and also in the Reports of Formal Investigations.

In connection with this subject may be mentioned the power conferred for the first time by section 32 of the Merchant Shipping Act, 1876 (see, p. 63) to investigate the cases of "missing ships." That enactment has undoubtedly had a beneficial operation, a result which may be partly due to the necessarily wide field of inquiry in such cases. In the absence of all evidence of the casualty itself, every reasonable theory of the cause of loss which the circumstances may suggest must be discussed, in order that the Court of Inquiry may select that which may in their judgment present the greatest probability. In a Memorandum prepared by Mr. Gray, Assistant-Secretary to the Board of Trade, in January, 1880, "On recent losses of British Steamships," the following passage occurs :-"There is every reason to believe that the action of the Board of Trade in giving publicity to the excellent and exhaustive Report of the Royal Commissioners who inquired into the causes of spontaneous combustion and explosion of coal gas in ships, has greatly reduced the number of such casualties, and there is very little doubt that if all the information about these lost and missing grain and coal laden ships were classified and made public, and if formal investigation were made into every case of the foundering or disappearance of a grain laden ship (even though in some cases we should not get much information beyond the particulars of the construction, dimensions and deck fittings of the ship), the interests of owners and underwriters would soon lead them to the discovery of an improvement in the stowage of grain, and in the ships in which it is carried."

The usefulness of Inquiries for administrative purposes may be said to begin when the public proceedings come to an end. The Reports are officially scanned, weighed, and exhaustively discussed, and their results tabulated and noted for immediate or future action by the Board of Trade, or as a basis for further legislation as the

It is equally certain that increased carefulness and knowledge on the part of officers of ships have been induced by the fear of Inquiries, and the consequent exposure of incompetence, and while it cannot be said that the recognition extended to merit, competence, and good conduct, by the Courts holding these Investigations is an adequate compensation for the anxiety and cost which they frequently involve, it must yet be an acceptable reward to the skilful and careful seaman who prides himself on his success in his profession.

In adverting to the question of safety of life at sea it would be unjust to pay no tribute to the energetic and self-denying efforts of Mr. Samuel Plimsoll, late M.P. for Derby, whose enthusiastic championship of seamen, and success in compelling public attention to the dangers of the sea, are matters of history. case may require. This mode of procedure had been found of great value, and it is that to which Mr. Gray refers in the above Memorandum in suggesting the "publication and classification of information as to lost and missing grain and coal laden ships." A précis is from time to time made of the facts and conclusions stated in the Reports of important Inquiries, and these are widely circulated among shipowners and shipmasters by way of "official caution upon the subject so treated. The latest of these, summing up the results of typical Inquiries in regard to neglect, overloading, bad stowage, imperfect ventilation, and faults of construction and machinery, will be found in the Appendix, page 249.

In another Memorandum upon "Missing Vessels " prepared by Mr. Monkhouse of the Board of Trade, in July, 1880, the following passages occur:-" It is no doubt in a great measure due to the late Inquiries into missing ships that public attention has been called to systematic overloading and the dangerous construction of highly. classed vessels. The agitation from outside, the appointment of the Wreck Commissioner, the prominence given to his Reports in the newspapers, the passing of the Act of 1876, are all necessary steps which have led up to the present usefulness of Inquiries into missing ships, to which may be added the immense amount of information collected and published by the Board of Trade. It is not that the Inquiries have brought out facts not known to the Board of Trade, but that they have published them with power, and that this power is what they never had before-gradual in growth, but unexpected in its ultimate force. It may even be doubted whether many of the conclusions of the Wreck Courts are trustworthy. It is certain that the decisions arrived at as to the actual cause of loss in each case should be received with caution. Without witnesses of the disaster, conclusions must be problematical, whether in 1860 or 1880, and the real justification for these Inquiries, viz., that the public is interested in them and reads the Reports of them, and the hidden causes of loss of life become a public subject of debate, and owners and underwriters are forced by the light of public opinion to see their responsibilities-has not existed till very recently."

30

PART II.

Foundation of

tem of Wreck

Inquiries.

CHAPTER I.

PRELIMINARY INQUIRIES INTO WRECKS OR OTHER
CASUALTIES.

The existing system of Inquiries into wrecks and the present sys- shipping casualties is governed by Part VIII. of the Merchant Shipping Act, 1854, as amended by the Merchant Shipping Act Amendment Acts of 1862 and 1876, the Shipping Casualties Investigations Act, 1879, and the Merchant Shipping (Colonial Inquiries) Two kinds of Act, 1882. The Inquiries are, strictly speaking, of two kinds :

Inquiries.

I. Preliminary Inquiries.

Classification of Preliminary Inquiries.

I. Preliminary Inquiries.

II. Formal Investigations.

I. Preliminary Inquiries properly come within the scope of this book. It is true that they are not by law steps necessarily precedent to the Formal Investigations described in subsequent chapters, yet they do in fact frequently lead to them and were originally designed to do so. For that reason, and also because the enactments which relate to them are intermixed with those which provide for Formal Investigations, it is desirable to give some account of the Preliminary Inquiries. They are authorised by sections 14, 432, 448 of the Merchant Shipping Act, 1854, and sections 31 and 32 of the Merchant Shipping Act, 1876. Inquiries in colonies will be the subject of a later chapter; it may, however be stated, that in general they are dependent upon the Colonial legislation, which is set out in the Appendix.

These Preliminary Inquiries may be conveniently classified with reference to the persons authorised to hold them, as follows:

I.—Inquiries by an Inspecting Officer of Coast Guard, a Principal Officer of Customs, or a person specially appointed by the Board of Trade.

II.-Inquiries by a Receiver of Wreck, or a Wreck Commissioner or his deputy.

III.-Inquiries by an Inspector.

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