To the Editor of the in your paper, as I wish to make public Sm,-—Will you please insert " few lin fow facta with regard to my experience in Shanghai, in connection with the English authorities and my crew.
'My cases before Mr. Wilkinson, as reported by you, do not convey' the hole facts and Ho learned judge himself has but a very vague idea of them.
a vel i stretch of imagination that. the Skipping One would imagine without a very great
Master connected with H.M.'s Consulate, who daily has dealings with sailors, has some knowledge of the difficulties constantly arising from the drunkenness and disorderly conduct of sailors when in port. Ju my case, I consulted with that gentle man before taking any action whatever with regard toa number of my, men who had refused duty. Acting on his advice, caused them to be summoned before the Magistrate, when the Shipping Master personally went with me and had these summonses issued. The Magistrate, on hearing the case the following day, (or rather, hearing but a small portion of it), distinctly informed me that I was at fault in issuing these summonses, and thereupon dismissed the case, ordering me to pay all costs.
Why am I sworn in an English Court, when the simple word of a foreign sailor is
If Mr. Justice Wilkinson were in com-taken in preference to my-sworn testimony? mand of an English merchant ship, he would have a much better idea of what the statement of a sailor is worth when he wishes to be discharged from his ship than he appears to entertain at present.
My anchor-light was found not burning on the night of the 6th instant.
On the following morning, having received a notice is fairly buoyed and marked for about from the Harbour authorities to the effect 65 miles, but great care is requisite aa that I was liable to a fine if the light-was the buoys are very' small and difficult not kept burning at night, I warned the to pick up if there is any sea. From watchman (whose duty it was to see that Cape Borsakof, the channel is admirably the light was burning brightly) of the con-marked by conspicuous triangular bea-sequences of not keeping a proper look-out. cons, without which it would be a most The same night, on going on board, I found arduous task to get a vessel up to Nicothe light out again, and the same watchman laevsk; asit is, the channels are constantly asleep. changing, owing to the debris carried down Nothing was said to him when he by the strong current of the Amoor. 'The appeared before the Magistrate for river is said (}) to be barred for anything over 6 feet draft of water, about 200 miles with my ship on either of the two nights grave offence. Had a vessel collided above Nicolaevsk. 'The' Russians ha in question, I would have been obliged to decided to remove the settlement about pay all damages arising therefrom, while I one thousand versts further up the river, appear to have no redress whatever for probably owing to the inclement climate the watchman being asleep. caused by its proximity to these of Okhotsk I think it but justice to have a case like with its masses of ice. Nicolaevsk was once mine tried before a Magistrate and Nautian important military station, abandoned in cal Assessors, the latter being gentlemen favour of Wiadivostock, The enormous well qualified to judge between a master of barracks and hospital are still to be seen 'a vessel and his crew, as they have had slowly crumbling away; altogether the place practical experience. wears a deserted aspect. It has bean a Your evening contemporary, a few days strong place, but now is not worth defend since, inserted an article to the effect ing. Forests extend as far as the eye can he did not see why the sailors of my ship reach on either side of the river, contain had been sent to gaol for refusal of ing many unknown treasures for the duty, as I had acknowledged that I had botanist and naturalist, 'The bramble,-wild painted "Plimsoll's mark" on my ship in raspberries, cranberries, blackberries and the wrong place, and' afterwards altered crowberries were observed, also veritable Had the gentleman who wrote that red currants, growing wild, besides many article been aware of the fact that when I well-known British plants, together with took command of the ship there was no many that were strange, at least to the Plimsoll's mark" on her, and that I might writer, The round Nioulaevak is left the port where I loaded (Antwerp) clayey, overlying beds of lava and trachyte. without such mark, and that I put it ov The river water is impregnated with lime, merely for my own protection and the The grilse had begun to run in July, and protection of the crew, he might have altered the Gillacks, a Siberian tribe, were hard at his opinion. I put the mark on the ship, work catching them, The large full-grown in the first instance, where any surveyor salmon do not appear till August, would have placed it, had the ship been in Smoked salmon,, and leather tan-salt water. But as she was then lying in ned with birch bark, imparting to it the fresh water, I made no allowance for the well-known smell ' of Russia leather, busreney. of the ship, had. mn in salt are among the staple producte of the place, water. I therefore altered it to its proper The Gillacks manufacture very curious place, where it la at present. In conclusion, waterproof dresses from the skin of the salmon, which look like shot silk when new. Bhipping at the Skipping Ofic were allowed rmit me to say that if the Registrar of The Gillacks, in common with most of the to give his opinion when differences arise Siberian tribes and the Amos, keep caged between a captain and. his crew, justin would be much better administered than it bears in their villages, over the lig of which there is an annual saturnalia, The is at present. celebrated convict station at Dui in Sagha-'Yours faithfully, lien is a place of some interest. The anchorage is formed by a gentle curve in the land with a fine bold cape at Master " Highmoor." is quite exposed to the 12th August. be a terrible place in a N.W. gale. shore is fronted by lofty cliffs of ironstone and limestone, with seams of coal, at an anglo Miscellaneous, of about 30 degrees. At present they are working ajseam about 400 feet up the cliff, and the coal is sent down to the beach in
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.