SIR,—As there have been so many changes of late years in all that is connected with sailors and ships, the loss of life at sea is a subject well worth considering during what may be termed the experimental period. The loss is not so great now as it was in 1874, when the final Report was issued by the Royal Commission on Unseaworthy Ships; then three out of four deaths of seamen in British, ships were from violence or from drowning; now the rate is two out of three. The average mortality, however, is about twenty in one thousand, which does not appear to be larger than the ordinary range of a healthy parish, but when we take into account that sailors consist for the most part of men in the prime of life, the proportionate mortality on shore would be only about six in one thousand. The extra risk, therefore, of a sailor's life is as ten to three of a landsman's, and when the sudden death is in the proportion of two to three, we at once see how really dangerous a sailor's life is. Probably in this experimental period the risk may be greater. I am no advocate for blaming shipowners as being careless of the lives of the men whom they employ. They seldom see any- thing of them; sailors are, as it were, part of the machinery of the ship, and this will become more and more the case as sailing-ships give place to steamers. Great attention is paid to the accommodation of the passengers in the splendid steam-vessels which are now built, and when the shipping trade is more profitable, we may hope that more attention will be given to the quarters for the crew. When the ship is new—and that is the time when the shipowner sees most of his vessel—the quarters for the crew are very different in appearance from what they are after the paint has lost its freshness, and they are black and damp with dirt and steam.

The loss of life at sea from 1867 to 1872 was greater in missing ships than in those which were wrecked and their fate known. The proportion in British ships was 6,094 in missing vessels to 5,954 in shipwrecks. Prom 1875 to 1878 there were 10,638 "accidental deaths " reported to the Board of Trade as having occurred in British ships during that period. I learn from a table furnished to the Shipping Gazette, that there have been exception- ally heavy losses recently in large steamers— vessels ranging from 80 to 100 yards long. The following is the terrible list; they are chiefly cargo-carrying ships :—The Boscommon, capsized ; Capella, capsized ; Tiara, abandoned sinking ; JEmblehope, capsized; Joseph Pease, missing ; Telford, missing; Bernina, missing; Bayard, aban- doned; Toxford, capsized; Swteton, missing; Zanzibar, missing; Homer, missing; and I fear the list is not complete. In sailing-ships, too, the experiments in new-fashioned rigging and the tremendous efforts to make quick voyages have led to many disasters known and unknown. Ship- owners have been heavy losers, but we must also consider the lives of the captains, officers, and men thus swept suddenly away.

I question if it is a subject for more legislation.

I think it is one rather for public sympathy; and the power of the Press, backed by public opinion, will do more real good as a preventive than many Acts of Parliament. What is wanted most is particular instructions from shipbuilders as to loading, and these should be engraved in the captain's cabin. The regulation mark for the ship's loading is of little use if heavy cargo is carried above the true centre of gravity. In bad times there is a strong temptation to captains to take all the cargo they can get; but public opinion has a wide range, and has its influence at Galatz and Odessa, as well as at New York and Calcutta.

We are sure to have more experimental ships from time to time, and what I fear most is that steamers which have been built for the Suez Canal trade will be diverted into trades where the cargoes are heavier and the seas more violent; Saloons will be turned into receptacles for cargo, instead of places for passengers; and the ship that would have weathered many a storm with a goodly number of passengers, will become dangerous when heavily laden with a shifting cargo of grain.

I believe that the naturally experimental phase through which our merchant ships have been passing, has not been taken sufficiently into account.

It demands special care, and the instructions that would have been judicious from an owner to a shipmaster ten years ago need to be qualified now.

I write in the interest of the shipowners as well as of the sailors, for living in a parish through which all the ships to and from London must pass, I cannot help taking an interest in all that concerns ships. Shipowners have had to suffer much from adverse legislation, and so have sailors, for the latter have to compete with foreigners, lascars, and Chinese in our own ports, while the former are even debarred from selling their property to the foreigners, who ought to provide for the repairs that the English shipowner is compelled to under- take. However, if we can get the death-rate lower, and if the Government will extend their most praiseworthy efforts to put down the evils of crimps, and help, as they are doing in my parish, to facilitate the transmission of sailors and their wages to their own homes, the condition of our sailors will be much improved. The Sailors' Home in London is now self-supporting; sailors are becoming more thrifty, more sober, and in every way more dependable; they appreciate sympathy, and they certainly deserve it. Voyages now are more regular, and the same ship loads and re-loads at the same port; the sailors see more of home, become more domesticated, and as they become less estranged, they will not be such an easy prey to strangers; their lives become more valuable, and we should be jealous of their loss.

I am, &c.

JOHN SCARTH.

Holy Trinity Vicarage, Gravesend.