mysterious
detonation, the sudden agitation of the sea round the slowly raised
stern, and to this day I have in my eye the propeller, seen perfectly
still in its frame against a clear evening sky.

But perhaps the second officer has explained to them by this time this
and a few other little facts. Though why an officer of the British
merchant service should answer the questions of any king, emperor,
autocrat, or senator of any foreign power (as to an event in which a
British ship alone was concerned, and which did not even take place in
the territorial waters of that power) passes my understanding. The only
authority he is bound to answer is the Board of Trade. But with what
face the Board of Trade, which, having made the regulations for 10,000
ton ships, put its dear old bald head under its wing for ten years, took
it out only to shelve an important report, and with a dreary murmur,
"Unsinkable," put it back again, in the hope of not being disturbed for
another ten years, with what face it will be putting questions to that
man who has done his duty, as to the facts of this disaster and as to his
professional conduct in it--well, I don't know! I have the greatest
respect for our established authorities. I am a disciplined man, and I
have a natural indulgence for the weaknesses of human institutions; but I
will own that at times I have regretted their--how shall I say it?--their
imponderability. A Board of Trade--what is it? A Board of . . . I
believe the Speaker of the Irish Parliament is one of the members of it.
A ghost. Less than that; as yet a mere memory. An office with adequate
and no doubt comfortable furniture and a lot of perfectly irresponsible
gentlemen who exist packed in its equable atmosphere softly, as if in a
lot of cotton-wool, and with no care in the world; for there can be no
care without personal responsibility--such, for instance, as the seamen
have--those seamen from whose mouths this irresponsible institution can
take away the bread--as a disciplinary measure. Yes--it's all that. And
what more? The name of a politician--a party man! Less than nothing; a
mere void without as much as a shadow of responsibility cast into it from
that light in which move the masses of men who work, who deal in things
and face the realities--not the words--of this life.

Years ago I remember overhearing two genuine shellbacks of the old type
commenting on a ship's officer, who, if not exactly incompetent,