THE MERCANTILE MARINE.*
MR. KEBLE CnarrEirrosr has the air throughout this book of writing a history of merchant shipping. The periods which he has chosen, however, by no means make a history, though they are typical. It is enough for us that Mr. Chatterton has chosen his periods well. He is a pains- taking writer, who is enthusiastic in research and is conse- quently always informing. The associations of the word "painstaking," indeed, suit him very well, for he is (as we think the word adequately implies) without the power to illuminate a subject, either by happiness of phrase or pro- fundity of insight.
He starts us off in the early days of sea trading in the cradle of marine civilization, the Mediterranean. He repeats the universal belief—which is, perhaps, necessarily universal as there is no evidence against it—that there was very little change in the type of sailing vessel from the beginning until the Middle Ages. Vessels hugged the shore in order not to lose themselves and could proceed in the desired direction only when there was a favourable wind. During the winter the weather was considered too bad altogether and the vessels were hauled out of the water. It has always seemed to us astounding that the art of sailing to windward was not discovered much sooner than is alleged. It is possible, however, that this art, which might have been discovered by accident at any moment, and certainly without any scientific
• The Mercantile Marine. BY E. ROA Chatterton. London : William Heine- mann. 1183. Bd. net.1 k-inwledge or anxious experiment, did not remain hidden so long. It may have been known in theory to a few, though it was not generally applied. A vessel built without a keel of course drifts to leeward if the wind is not abaft the beam. But quite a small amount of resistance to the leeward move- ment is enough to show that a vessel will forge to windward when the sheet of the sail is hauled in. It is such a simple thing to find out. A boat, like most human beings, follows the line of least resistance. If a keel, or a lee-board, or some- thing held over the lee side, deep enough in the water, makes it easier for her to go forwards than to go sideways, she will do it. It would not be in the least surprising, then, to learn some day that in those dark ages of navigation men had guessed the secret. It would be strange, indeed, if the Greeks, who excelled in every region of thought, in philosophy, in geometry, in medicine, in physics, had not a single man who could make a boat go to windward !
But if ignorance was really as great as it is believed to have been the explanation is that men had an unbounded horror of the sea. If early civilization had regarded it more as a high road, or as a thing of beauty or a means of pleasure, the sea would have appeared more frequently in early art than it does. Up to the Middle Ages the merchant was a daring but not probably a happy man. It might be necessary for him to have a ship built specially for him to carry his silks and merchandise to various ports. He could not be sure of being able to hire cargo space as can be done to-day. Then the damage done to his goods by sea water was frequent and serious. As late as the thirteenth century a merchant might in effect be the commander of the ship as apparently he had a legal right, if he considered that his merchandise was in danger, to demand that the vessel should run to the nearest port. The sailing master must have been sorely tried if the merchant acted on his legal right in such circumstances, particularly if he knew that to run for a difficult port on a lee shore was an almost certain way of being engulfed. And in those days even if the merchant and the master could agree there might still be disputes, as the decision about what to do • in an emergency was often decided by the majority vote of the officers and crew.
In England the Merchant Service was up to and including the times of the Tudors almost indistinguishable from the Navy. The separation of the two Services, which seemed to have become final in the nineteenth century, was to some extent undone during the Great War. If the danger of war on a large scale remains as remote as sensible men intend to • try to make it we must look forward to a future in which the Merchant Service will again be the regular training ground for fighting men—men who may never be called upon to fight, but who must be ready to do so if required. If any case, with a much smaller Navy there ought to be a considerable rehabili- tation of the Merchant Service regarded as a profession for well educated men—unless Englishmen are to lose the sea habit.
From this point of view Mr. Chatterton's chapters which deal with the old East India Company are particularly interesting. Before the Navy had eclipsed the Merchant Service in social esteem it was common for boys belonging to sea-going families to become officers in the Navy and the Merchant Service indifferently. The title "Merchant Service," though this is now generally forgotten, used to belong strictly to the sea service of the East India Company. When the monopoly of the East India Company was abolished the firm of Wigram, Green and Co. succeeded to the prestige of the Company and ran ships in which the equivalent of naval discipline was maintained and in which the young gentlemen, recently joined, were known as midshipmen. It was a bad day for sailing ships when Mr. Wigram differed from Mr. Green on a point of policy and the firm split asunder. Nevertheless, the firm played a great part in a great period. Mr. Chatterton
declares—and we think this is the most penetrating remark in his book—that the period from 1837 to 1877 is unsurpassed in
history for the mastery of the sea obtained by sailing ships.
Such a standard of seamanship had never been seen before and, now that sails have been displaced by steam or oil, is not likely ever to be seen again. It was the golden age for skill in handling sailing ships and for grace and science in building them. Those who played their part in that wonderful age were unconscious that they were making it illustrious and even we of to-day are, perhaps, too near to it to see its grand proportions. Mr. Chatterton well says that all log-books or reminiscences that appear about that epoch should be regarded with the utmost care and preserved for the wonderment of posterity.
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