When the poor old sailors, withered and broken
by hard usage, pleaded, for pity's sake, not to be ruined,
their appeals were ruthlessly ignored.
A most extraordinary feature of the agitation to prevent
loss of life at sea was the attitude of some shipmasters.
They believed it to be an undue interference with their
sacred rights. At the time when Mr. Plimsoll was vigorously
pushing his investigations into the causes for so many
vessels foundering, he went to Braila and Galatz, and
examined every English steamer he was allowed to visit. Some
owners, hearing that he was on a tour of investigation,
instructed their captains not to allow him admittance; and I
heard at the time that these instructions in some cases were
rudely carried out. One forenoon he paid a casual visit to
the steamer "_A----_," and entered into conversation with a
person whom he assumed to be the commander. He chatted some
time with him upon general topics, and soon discovered that
the captain was not of the same political faith as himself.
Shipmasters who take political sides are generally
conservative. Up to that time he had carefully avoided
making known his identity.
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