'The 93rd half yearly meeting of this Company was held on' Wednesday, June Ast, at the Company's offices, 122, Leadenhall Street, E.C.
Mr. Tuomas Suruerzasp, M.P., in the chair.
After some remarks on the Company losses in the Inst 10 years he said in reference to the loss of the Tasman Now, gentlemen, there is one cireumstance which I cannot but feel we ought to be gratified with in connection with the unhappy matter—that, although the captain, an officer, and several of the crew of this ship perished, not a single passenger s life was lost—(Hear, hear). I need hardly say that in the safety of our passengers we have not only a practical but the deepest possible interest, and it is one of those matters upon which we are able, I believe thoroughly, to congratulate the Company, shat during the long time it has been in existence, we have enjoyed singular immunity in respect of the loss of passengers' lives. - I would also point out in connection with this question of the insurance of our ships that during the 10 years to which I shave referred we have had no fewer than some 45 vessels navigating all parts of the globe at the rate, on an average, of 2,000,000 {niles annually, and I say that considering the extent, the variety, and character of our service, the safety of our fleet has been on the whole very remarkable. Now, gentlemen, this disaster, as you are aware, has to be inquired into by a properly constituted authority, and it is, therefore, no part of my business to endeavour to anticipate in the test degree the judgment which may be passed as to the cause of this occurrence.
fut in these cases one generally finds one's friends are ready to assume the most favourable judgment ass and their service, long before an in qui taken place. For my own part, I ma vel great allowance for the natural feelings of annoyance of those passengers who were subjected to great peril on board the Tusmania, but I do not think Ishould be doing my duty to the Company if I did not endeavour to sct aside some of the statements which have been made r 7 cers of the ship, and wh stigmatise as misrepresentations affecting the character of the service. One statement which has been very freely made was that the captain of the Tasmania was not, at the time that the ship was lost, navigating the vessel himself, and that he was not in full charge of the ship, either because he was so unwell as not to be able to dis-{charge his duty, or, as I think one newspaper had it, was "so old and so decrepit that he ought to have been put on the shelf." Now, gentlemen, Captain Pertins, who has lost his life in this unhappy affa was 52 or 53 years of aye. e are few here, I imagine, who would like to be "put on the shelf" when they attained to Jet to that amount of longevity. Not only was Captain Perrins in the prime of life, but at the time when this unfortunate accident occurred was nav and had been up the whole whilothe ship was coming throt of Bonifaccio, viz. during the second elficer's watch from' midnight. Captain Perrins was personally in charge through those Straits, and only after clearing them, at something like three o'eluck in the morning, ho went to his cabin, and laid down the course to be steered after leaving the Straits. Ho went on to the bridge again and gave the course to the second officer, in which the latter entirely concurres Captain Perrins then said—* Now we are frve of all danger I shall yo below." Now, in half an hour from that moment the vessel struck upon the rock. T have said that it would not be right or proper upon my part to endeavour for one single moment to anticipate what the judgment of the Court may beas to the course which Captain Perrins steered, or as the manner in which the vessel was navigated, but I think it is due, not only to the memory of Captain Perrins but also to the Company, to show, that so far, there was, at all events no want of energy and no slackness on the part of the commander in looking after the vessel under his charge; and Imust also add this That during the 20 years that Captain. Perrins has held command in your service the Directors have on no occasion Had to find one single fault, however stall, with the manner in which he carried out his duties as an officer and a sailor. The Tasmania had six officers altogether, and of those six thro were actually provided with captain's certificates, so that there were, therefore, four gentlemen on board fully capable of commanding her according to the law. Now, gentlemen, another statement that has been made, and upon which I feel bound to make to make some obserations, is that on the occasion of this wreck the native crew behaved very badly, so far as the lascar—that is to say the sailor—portion of the crew is concerned. I take leave on good authority to deny that statement. Tt is perfectly true that the native crew of the engineer's department, or at least some of them—I think to the number of eight persons,—behaved badly in this respect, and took possession of a raft, on which they endea-youred to reach the shore, with so little success that seven perished in the attempt, and only one succeeded in getting to land. Tam not sure that if they had been European firemen it would' have necessarily followed that their conduct would have been sv much better. I observed the other day the case of the collision between the Celtic and the Britannic, where the European firemen of the Britwuic, against the orders and entreaties of the commander and officers, were the first to seize upon a Doat and to make off from the ship, which was supposed to be in extreme danger. I say that no Indian seamen ever behaved worse than did than those men upon that occasion. It is not likely that I should question for a single moment the superior courage of Europeans as against Asiatics. There are cases upon record, however, in connection with the fleet of this Company, and one of comparatively recent date, when the European seamen on board one of our vessels refused to man a boat: because they considered it a perilous undertaking, whilst the lascars quietly went into the boat and did their duty—(Hear, hear.) There is another misrepresentation which has been made, namely, that the Company employs natives, forsooth, for reasons of economy. I nood hardly say that this is an utter delusion, As a matter of fact, the crews of the Company's ships are composed, taking all hands into account, of two-thirds natives and one-third Europeans. The Tusmenia, I find, had on board crew altogether of 55 Europeans and 99 Asiatics, and why did we adopt natives when we first begin to run ships through the Suez Canal instead of Kuropeans Because I tell you that when our ships first began touse te Suez Canal we sent them to India solely manned by Europeans, but we were obliged to drop this system, owing tothe continuance of misconduct on the part of the European seamen and firemen. It was not an uncommon thing for ships conveying the mails to India to find that before they reached the end of their voyage to Bombay or Calcutta a considerable portion of the crew in gaol at the diferent ports stopped and e found that the distapline, clean lines, and other on board our ships, and the quality of our service was rapidly deteriorating. It was for that reason, and for that reason alone, that we were obliged to use Asiatics in latitudes in which they would be of more service than Europeans, Then, gentlemen, there is another statement made with regard to this affair, and it is in reference tu the delicacy and weakness of these Indians who perished on board the Tusmania, and who, as one writer puts it, died like rotten sheep" when they came into cold weather. Not a single lascar, not a single Indian sailor, was lost, except by drowning, and those' who were lost were Indian firemen, who are accustomed to live ina temperature of 150 degrees, and who, being exposed during the whole night to a bitter storm and wind, would naturally suffer, as many of us would have done under similar circumstances. But I may tell you, apron of the physique and capacity that Indian seamen have of enduring cold, that under ordinary circumstances we have had during the last 10 years, on an average, something like 600 or 700 Asiatics in the docks in
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.