their sons should be ministers, and sometimes by the
unbounded belief of the young men themselves in their
fitness. But it often becomes apparent that good bricklayers
or blacksmiths have been spoiled in the process of
selection; whereas a little courage and frankness on the
part of the selection people would have saved many souls and
many reputations.




CHAPTER VI

SAFETY AND COMFORT AT SEA


The present-day sailor has a princely life compared with
that of his predecessors of the beginning and middle of the
last century. Those men were ill-paid, ill-fed, and for the
most part brutally treated. The whole system of dealing with
seamen was a villainous wrong, which stamps the period with
a dirty blot, at which the British people should be ashamed
to look. What awful crimes were permitted by the old
legislatures of agricultural plutocrats! Ships were allowed
to be sent to sea in an unseaworthy condition. Men were
forced to go in them for a living, and scores of these
well-insured coffins were never seen or heard of again after
leaving port. Their crews, composed sometimes of the cream
of manhood, were the victims of a murderous indifference
that consigned them to a watery grave; and the families who