CAPTAIN AND PAESENGERS.
IT will be a long time, probably, before the passengers of the ' Umbria' forget the eventful journey which came to a happy end last Saturday, when that ship safely entered New York Harbour under her own steam. The misadventure which befell the Cunard liner was by no means an uncommon one. When five days out, and somewhere to the south of Newfound-
land, she was brought to a standstill by the discovery of a -serious flaw in the shaft. It has happened more than once to an Atlantic liner that the shaft has actually broken and has nearly succeeded in ramming a hole in the ship's bottom before there was any suspicion of its weakness : in this case, however, the engineer seems to have had plenty of warning as to the fault in one of his most essential pieces of machinery, and to have stopped the ship before the split in the metal had broken beyond repair. The weather was more than usually heavy, and for four days the ship drifted, while the engineer's staff, who laboured under considerable difficulties, spliced the weak shaft and put it into working order. During those four days the ship spoke four others. From one of them, the Bohemia,' she accepted offer of assistance ; but the hawser with which the latter was towing her, parted,— possibly having been cut by the Bohemia' herself, who may have found the weather too bad for the task. The other two vessels lay by the disabled ship for a time, until the arrival of the fourth, the Gallia,' who also watched her fellow-Cunarder for a short time, and then departed on her own way to Liver- pool. At the end of the four days, the shaft was sufficiently strengthened to bear the strain of use, and the 'Umbria ' pro- ceeded to New York under her own steam at the respectable pace of ten miles an hour. Naturally, the fact of a ship carrying so many passengers being overdue, excited some anxiety until her fate was known ; but now that the reason of her delay is explained, one wonders what is the cause of all the fuss that has been made about her after her arrival in harbour. When the Umbria ' was still missing, it was generally supposed that a break-down of machinery would be the most likely cause of her non-appearance, and friends and relations of the passengers hardly had time to give up that comfortable assurance, and feel any serious apprehension as to their fate. With the passengers themselves, who knew the cause of their delay, there could have been little reason for fear; they were on board a ship which, although temporarily disabled, was capable of riding out comfortably a much worse storm than the one to which they were being subjected, and were in no more immediate danger than they had been at any other moment during the voyage. If a big Cunard liner -cannot lie to in heavy weather and repair her machinery, there is little safety in ships at all. Nevertheless, the public seems to have taken the liveliest interest in the story of this particular mishap, and the cable from New York has sent it home quite a variety of conflicting statements and contra- dictory reports to choose from.
The fact is, that the excellent captain of the ' Umbria,' -Captain McKay, was a little more open with his passengers than was quite prudent. With the laudable desire of sparing them any unnecessary anxiety, he informed them plainly of the cause of the stoppage of their course, and genially assured them of their perfect safety. So far, so good; the passengers had a right to ask that much, and it was but sensible to let them know the truth, and not imagine worse things for them- selves. But what the passengers had no right to ask for, was information as to the course that the Captain was going to pursue ; and Captain McKay made a mistake in not snubbing the first gentleman who questioned him on the sub- ject. " Why don't you send up rockets P " one of the passengers is said to have plaintively demanded. " There will be time enough for rockets when a vessel comes near enough to see them," answered the captain evasively, but courteously. The politeness was fatal ; after the implied admission that rockets and other ships were necessary to their salvation, the pas- sengers had a terrible hold upon the unlucky commander of the snip. Had he only answered, as he would have been -perfectly justified in doing, and as a great many other captains would certainly have done, " What business is that of yours P" he might have made himself a little unpopular, but he would have saved himself from much further worry. The passengers seem to have actually divided themselves into two different camps, and discussed a vote of confidence or censure. Happily, common-sense carried the day, and a vote of confidence was oarried. What would have been done had the vote of censure been passed, we cannot guess ; but this, at least, we may say, that if that motion had been carried, it would have been the plain duty of the captain to put the mover, seconder, and principal supporters of the resolution in irons. It is obvious, from the accounts which the more blatant and exei`able of the passengers poured out to the New York
reporters, that they attempted to make the un'ucky captain's life a burden to him with their continued and unreasonable questioning. One gentleman, who bears a well-known American name, informed his interviewer that he received a solemn assurance from the captain that the latter would signal the first ship for assistance by towing. What business had this gentleman to ask for such an assurance from the captain,— or, indeed, to question him at all on the subject? It is evident that the whole misunderstanding and outcry which arose from the alleged conduct of the ' Gallia' was due solely to the mis- representations of these busybodies. The official report made by the captain of the Gallia' is fully corroborated by that which had already been made by Captain McKay himself. "At 220 on Monday afternoon," the latter said, "the Gallia' appeared. I signalled to her to lay by, which she did for awhile. We again signalled that we were repairing, and expected to proceed, and the captain of the Gallia' evidently took that for an assurance that we did not need assistance, and accordingly proceeded on his course." Surely a very plain and intelligible statement of conduct which was perfectly natural on both sides. " But," continued the captain, "some of the passengers expressed disappoint.
ment at the action of the ' ' in leaving before we had tested our machinery after repairs." Really, we fail to see why the passengers should have formed any opinion whatever on the subject, and we are disposed strongly to deprecate Captain McKay's action in recording their disapproval. He was not called upon to invite their counsel in the matter, or even to listen to their uninvited criticism. The captains of the ' Gallia' and the 'Umbria' both owe their duty imme- diately to the owners of their ships, a duty which comprises the safety of their passengers and the expedition of their mails, and that duty is one which, as far as we can gather from their official reports, was amply fulfilled by both.
It is quite a new idea that the passengers of a ship should form themselves into a committee to sit in judgment upon the captain and pass criticisms, adverse or favourable, upon his manner of performing his duty. At the best of times, the position of the captain is by no means an enviable one owing to the persistent way in which he is harassed with idle ques- tions; at a time of doubt or difficulty the position would be intolerable were he liable to be cross-examined and advised as to the merits of the course he intended to adopt. There is one community in the world which must be ruled by a despot or not at all, and that is a ship's company. Most travellers understand this fact, but it is evident that many of the passengers of the 'Umbria' had realised it very imper featly. According to the history furnished by some of their number to the New York reporters, they are represented as behaving throughout with wonderful equanimity and courage ; their courage does not appear at any time to have been put to a very severe test, and the less said about their equanimity the better. We imagine that the General who wished to bribe the captain to save their lives, was of American and not of English manufacture ; but seeing that this courageous and irascible gentleman had quite a following among his fellow-passengers, we do not think that Captain McKay can have had much reason, on the whole, to take a grateful pride in his passengers' support, One can hardly be sur- prised that occasionally the captain of a big liner makes a practice of refusing all information to his passengers, upon any subject whatever, and escapes from their wearying im portunity by assuming an unapproachable and almost bearish demeanour; for, indeed, his patience is often very hardly tried. There seems to be a kind of tradition among travellers, especially if they be ladies, that the subordinate officers of a ship will take a pleasure in misleading them by untruthful answers, and that the only source of true information lies in the captain himself. When more than a hundred people hold this belief, and all wish for information on the same subject, the captain may be excused from showing a little impatience under the trial. Once, an unfortunate man, goaded to frenzy by the eternal question, "Do you think we shall have rough weather, captain ? " turned upon his feminine interlocutor, the twentieth that day, with the rough and unkindly suggestive answer : "Madam, that is a question you should put to the ship's cook,—be has the best reason to speculate upon the probable roughness of the weather." The poor lady never troubled the captain again ; but did not the captain, too, deserve some sympathy P The inanity and perpetual curiosity of idle people who " want to know ",on board a ship is some- thing almost incredible. When they are given any good reason for asking questions, then the condition of the com- manding officer is a perilous one.
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