made a noise about their troubles once they got ashore and left them
astern, and so the possibilities of recurrence were left open. One
feels inclined bitterly to assail the owners, their captains and the
general public, for having allowed such things to happen, but in common
fairness we must put some of the responsibility on the seamen
themselves for playing into the hands of a gang of unmitigated
blood-suckers who, in some cases, purchased silence by paying
compensation for the time the men were short of grub; but never more
than the bare cost of the food for the time they were short of it was
allowed. In the majority of cases payment was evaded altogether. I have
been amongst this sort of thing on several occasions, and feel some
difficulty in writing with calmness when I reflect on all the
unnecessary hardships and sufferings that were caused by sheer wanton
greed. On four different voyages I learnt how terrible it was to be
short of provisions and water, and in three out of the four this was
preventable. The first case was excusable owing to the long continuance
of easterly gales in the chops of the English Channel. Some vessels
managed to reach Scilly or Falmouth, but many failed to do so, and we
were amongst the many. On several occasions we were nearly able to
fetch into port, and then the wind increased and we drifted back into
the ocean. This gaining and losing process went on for three or four
weeks. Each fresh sail sighted was signalled or hailed to the effect
that we were short of provisions and asking if they could supply us,
and invariably the reply came back, "Impossible: our supplies have run
out." We in turn were frequently appealed to for succour, but had to
plead the same thing. The one redeeming feature of the critical
position of the large fleet that was held in the grip of the wind for
so long a time was the knowledge that we were all in the same
predicament, and if we could not supply each others' wants we had at
least the pleasure of companionship, and this kept us from losing hope
until a slant of wind came to our aid and carried us into port. In this
case we had been on very short rations for many days, and yet there was
never a word of recrimination, and singularly little grumbling except
at the perversity of the wind.

Nothing whatever could be said in defence of the other cases, for the
vessels were not only sent away from a home port criminally short of
supplies, but they left the port at