ll-deckers, and the
Hartlepool men were driven to take the matter up vigorously.
They would have no indefinite, haughty assertions. They
demanded investigation; and the result of it proved that the
theorists were wrong, and the men of practical ideas were
right. It was proved that there were singularly few cases of
foundering among these vessels, and that fewer lives were
lost in them than in any others. This is not the only
instance in which Lloyds' Classification Committee have
been proved wrong in their opinions. They refused in the
same way, for some time, to class Turrets. I was obliged to
give up a conditional contract which I had made with Messrs.
Doxford and Sons, of Sunderland, for the first built of
these, in consequence of their refusal to class. But Turrets
have now been well tested, and prove very superior
sea-boats. Underwriters, indeed, could not have better
risks; and, what is as good a test as any of a vessel's
seagoing qualities, is the readiness of seamen to join and
their reluctance to leave it.

But each successive depression in shipping unrolls the
resources of the mind, and there are evolved new ideas which
disclose advantages hitherto unknown. They may not be great,
but they are usually sufficient to make it possible to carry
on a profitable trade instead of stopping altogether or
working at a loss. It was this that brought the Switchback
into existence: a vessel, by the way, which has a short,
deep well forward; a long bridge; raised after deck; and a
long well and poop aft. Then came the Turret, and then the
Trunk; and last, the Single Decker on the "three-deck rule."
I do not believe it possible that any of these will ever
founder if they are properly handled, if their cargoes are
properly stowed, and if no accident to machinery or
stearing-gear occurs. They may come into collision with
something, run on to a sand-bank or reef, and then founder,
but not by force of hard buffeting. I am persuaded that the
chances are a thousand to one in favour of them pulling
through any storm in any ocean. But this is not all that can
be said of them. The men that compose the crew have
spacious, comfortable, healthy quarters, whereas in the old
days, besides the prospect of being taken to Davy Jones's
locker, men were housed in veritable piggeries: leaky,
insanitary hovels, not good enough to bury a dead dog in.

CHAPTER VII

WAGES AND WIVES

When I first went to sea, and for many a long da