To the Editor of the Nonru-Cutsa Datty News, £m,—Will you kindly insert the following letter in your valuable paper, anent "Courts of Enquiry," which will be edifying to the general public and of great interest to the seafaring community ere and elsewhere.
Tdo not know of anything that is more in need of improvement than the present mode of composing courts of enquiry into the conduct of t captains and oticers. A case in point is the loss of the Yunnan. The President of the court was navigating Lieutenant of aman-of-war, who is practically on a grade with the second or navigating officer of a P. & O. steamer, the Captain of a P. and 0. steamer being the only Capt: juded in the court. Even he, I presume, has little or no coasting knowledge and is probably much junior in command to the master on whose case he sat in judgment.
The third member of the court was_the British Vice-Consul, 1 seaman at all, Now there were available as assessors men of great experience in command of both wceanwg and also Tam request that such appointed was refused, which seems at the least very strange, Nuw I would ask, can any of the above court or all of them put together, run one of the coasting stoaters from Shanghai Bund to any of the coust ports, say Swatow or Amoy, and enter these ports at all times ut tide, ete. make good time? 1 think not. Tam sorry to think that men who must feel that they could not do this work are entirely out of place when set in judgment on the who can, Whit has become of the good old law, or the spirit of the law, that a man should be judged by his peers aly? The Sentence against Capt, Pexcock seems very Ihe admitted by all seamen of experience, and also on the other hand very light on the chief officer, why, the evidence shows, ran the ship onshore on a clear moonlight morning, having the lighthouse ana the land in sight wil the time, 'This case is only paralleled by the case of the s.s. Dacea, in the Red Sea, Tu the coasting steamers the captain has to be on deck day and night at all dificult or narrow passes; between whiles he may snatch a few hours', sometimes minutes', sleep. Off vod Hi clear moonlight night, ship steam chief officer in charge (wh al times). if a captain is not justified in asleep then, when is he entitled to sleep at all? What station does such a court place the first oticer in if he i responsible for the ship, while the En is asleep? 'Is he anybody at all? What does his certificate entitle him to as regards responsibility? Ts he capable of being an officer at' all if he can run a ship on shore against the Imd in a clear moonlight night and a good light on the land? "Does such a court presume to say that the captain would have been respousible in the least if the ship had collided with another steamer under the same circumstances? The land certainly did not come half way to meet the chip.
The letter in your paper of the 13th inst. asking what an officer is for, is very much to the point, and I fully' endorse the opinions therein stated. There seem to be tov many of the ches mentioned who appear to have no brains or judgment and must in the commonest cases fly off for the Captain, not apparently having: sense enough to head the ship away from a visible danger. I hear the captain of the Yroman intends placing ease in the hands of the London Ship. masters' Association, and I have yo doubt when the case is judged by more com-tent ten, the decision will be somewhat different, the present. one having given dissatisfaction to the whole of the eeafari community here. The Captain, I hear, has had a successful career as x shipmaster for eleven years and has been fortunate enough to gain the confidence of all his employe Lam certain that the China Navigation C had very high opinion of him also, This makes his case al) the harder, seeing that he has not proved himself unworthy, but simply the victim of misplaced confidence. Considering how this case has gone, I, as consting master, feel quite at " loss te know when it will be safe for mo to sleep. Has the Marine Officers' Association no interest in this case? Is it satisfied with the verdict More especially, is it pleased with the composition of the court? Is it satisfied with the insult conveyed by the refusal to all crusting captains of experience to sit i judgment I should like to hear it express an opinion on the subject, before it rolls over and gues to sleep og: Tam, ete., 18th January,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.