§ MR. E. J. REED (for Mr. PLIMSOLL)asked the President of the Board of Trade, If he would explain to the House how it comes to pass that whereas 515 ships had been found to be unseaworthy on survey by Board of Trade officers, and 28 of them were found to be so bad that they were ordered to be broken up, that there were not more prosecutions for sending unseaworthy ships to sea under section 11 of the Merchant Shipping Acts, 1871 and 1873, than two in Ireland; and, whether he intends in future to put that salutary Act into more vigorous use?
§ SIR CHARLES ADDERLEYSir, the Question incorrectly assumes that there were not more than two prosecu- 851 tions tinder the 11th section of the Act of 1871. With reference to the 515 cases mentioned, the chief reason why more prosecutions have not been made is, that the section only provides for cases in which the owner or others actually send a ship to sea in an unseaworthy state. The Board of Trade have, under the 12th section of the Act of 1873, stopped ships from going to sea, thereby intercepting the offence which would come under the 11th section of the Act of 1871. There was a clause in the dropped Merchant Shipping Bill which has been passed in the Unseaworthy Ships Bill, elaborated and improved by the hon. and learned Member for Durham (Mr. Herschell), by which the Board of Trade will be empowered to proceed against persons who attempt to send or take unseaworthy ships to sea. That, with improved legal machinery, will probably make the law much more effective in future.