worn out with pumping and with
lacerated limbs, managed to secure the sail and make their way on deck
to renew the fight to keep the vessel afloat. I do not believe the
owner belonged to the scoundrel class who sent their ships away with
the hope that no more would be heard of them, but I cannot help
thinking that he had close affinity to that no less terrible though
pious section who wearied heaven with prayer for the safe-keeping of
their ships and crews, while they themselves neglected fundamental
precautions for their safety. It was the fashion to look upon drowning
not only as an incident of the profession, but a natural finish to a
sailor's career; and it is no exaggeration to say that many people
thought the poor fellow preferred this form of extinction to any other.
The owner who squared his conscience by throwing the responsibility of
the seaman's safety on to Almighty God did not unduly concern himself
as to efficiency or seaworthiness; nor did he assume deep mourning if
calamity came in consequence thereof. A few appropriate words of
compliment addressed mainly to himself for his care in having the ship,
when she sailed, in a state of unimpeachable order, and his constant
intercession for divine protection were quite sufficient to exonerate
him from in any way contributing either to loss of life or to loss of
property. What cant, what insufferable _hypocrisy_! What hideous
slaughter was committed in those good old times in God's name and in
the name of British humanity! The late Dr Parker, preaching in the City
Temple some time ago on the Armenian atrocities, exclaimed amid
uproarious applause at the end of a fine peroration, "God damn the
Sultan!" And William Watson wrote a fine poem in which he charged
England with indifference and spoke of the Sultan as "Abdul the
damned." It is considered the prerogative of Englishmen to say strong
things about the heads of other Governments if their subject races are,
in their opinion, treated cruelly; but we are death on anyone who would
interfere or accuse us of injustice or inhumanity. The only difference
between the Government of Turkey and the Government of Great Britain
was that the one massacres by cutting throats, and the other used to
massacre by allowing rotten, ill-equipped, ill-designed vessels to sail
under the spotless flag of England and carry to their doom shiploads of
the finest seamen in the world. We "God damn the Sultan"; yes; but I
have known the time