Improvement of seamen by better education.
In the meantime I must direct the attention of my
readers to the unseaworthiness of too many of our
seamen, which is of really greater national importance
than the unseaworthiness of our ships.
However desirable it may be to make certain, if we
can, that no unseaworthy ships shall leave our ports,
the incompetency, carelessness, and drunkenness of
seamen demand much more seriously our attention;
and, as all legislative enactments have hitherto failed
to raise them to the requisite standard, we ought to
direct our attention more earnestly than we have yet
done to their education. If education is necessary
on shore, it is still more so with seamen, and yet
we have done, practically, nothing, as a Nation, to
assist them in gaining knowledge, and, especially,
that description of knowledge required in their
calling. Indeed, we have not seriously attempted
any great practical scheme for their education or
for the amalgamation of the services of the Royal
Navy and those of the mercantile marine, which,
while invaluable to us as a nation, would tend so
much to elevate the social position of that neglected
portion of their class, who, not having the
good fortune to be enrolled in the Navy or on the
lists of the large Shipowners, must seek their daily
bread at sea in any ship where employment can be
found.
Evil effects of advance notes On the contrary, we have, in some respects, pan-*
- [Footnote: already very heavy, and to which their competitors are not subjected,
we, in either case, drive them from the trade. We must further, if we adopt the principle of a certificate of seaworthiness, recollect the interests of a great number of small coasters, and carefully consider if it would not seriously affect them.]
