362
THE
"TACOMA'S
>>
VOYAGE.
TERRIBLE WEATHER.
THE HONGKONG WEEKLY PRESS AND
passenger ship but afterwards suited to the requirements of the carrying trade; one result of the change is that the Shawmut is very The appearance presented by the Northern much superior in general get-up and fitting as compared with ressels engaged in the Pacific steamer Tarona as she steered for her buoy in the harbour on arriving on Thursday san trade. Every couvenience is supplied for There is also good morning, from Victoria, British Columbia, bore the officers and crew. striking testimony to the tempestuous weather accommodation made on what would have heer the saloon deck for the accommodation of encountered during the voyage. Tacoma was left
Chinese passengers to the number of 400 or 500, behind on 4th October and Victoria on the 5th, the weather for the first few days of the trip When she leaves on Saturday, the Shawmut will carry quite a number of these emigrants being splendid. On the 11th it became very un- favourable, and although on the day following On her first run across the Pacific from Tacoma the gule that had sprung up moderated appreci- she brought general cargo and lumber. She is ably, the 13th was a dirty, disagreeable day, presently loading general cargo for Tacoma,
ste.. and will call at Shanghai and Japan. The Tacoma was shipping seas continually, and
Captain W. M. Smith is in comuiand, and about 2 a.m. she pooped a heavy one, the port the officers are: first, Mr. Humphrey Jones: door of the after wheel house being washed away. A few minutes later she shipped a tremendous second, Mr. H. Armstrong; thir, Mr. W. Mr. Andersou. The chief sea abaft the smoke stack on the port side. Sims, fourth.
Iu all, the, This unshipped and smashed the two after life-engineer is Mr. W.. Alexander.
crew numbers about 94, boats, completely up-ending the large iron life- boat and laying it upside down across the galley skylight, the after life-boat being lifted from the chocks and thrown against the engine. room skylight. These boats were subsequently thrown overboard, being dangerous to the other deck fittings. This sea washed away the saloon skylight, flooding the saloon and all the state-
rooms.
The ship was now in great danger An officer, a quarterinaster, and four sailors were aft at the wheel, and it took their united efforts to steady it, the wheel-house also bein continually flooded. The captain and second officer were on the bridge signalling the wheel- house by whistle, the after telegraph being
disabled.
¦
It may be interesting to state that the some- what outlandish name Shatemuf is an Americau
Indian desiguation.
JAPANESE COMMERCIAL
HONOUR.
[FROM A CORRESPONDENT.!
|
[November 8, 1902.
than the merchant, and they were considered below the level of humanity. A merchant would never dare oppose one of the military or official class, and he ran grave risks even in remonstrance, for he could get no redress in official quarters, and if he did other than submit to what might befall him he made himself liable not only to the extortion of money, or other tyranny but also the loss of his head, under the ever ready sword of his offended lordling.
ESTIMATE OF NATIVE CHARACTER.
Following the drift of human weakness, whereby men commonly become what the world holds them to be, the spirit of trading became actnated only by paltry aims, and morality passed out of the reckoning. There had always been minds endowed for large enterprises, but they had been mainly utilised to fiuauce publie undertakings, and they seemed unwilling, even when opportunity prompted, to risk the chanees of foreign connections. Since sharp practice by certain foreigners accounted in part for the unwillinguess of reputable native houses to enter into the new relations, the field remained fo tradesmen of the common class, typefied by Prof. Chamberlain. in Things Japanese, in these words :-
Con-
"Peculiarly vague are bis ideas of such matters as punctuality, regard for truth, the keeping of a promises. He is a bad loser, even
will not of the smallest sums, and sider it derogatory to get out of a contract, should the market go against him, while his deep-seated distrust even of his own compatriots results in plots and counter-plots, real or suspected. between the promoters of almost So far from every important enterprise. practicing honesty for its own sake, he has not yet learned that honesty is, even from a selfish point of view, the best policy. His timidity is another weak point, leading him to seek the aid of government in nearly every large under-
which hs
not always been judiciously applied; and his professed eagerness for the introduction of foreign capital seems to be perverted in practice into opposition and obstruction."
Tokyo, 8th October. Ous may bear all over the East depreciation of the commercial honour of the Japanese. Nor does eaquiry in the immediate field tend to help native reputation in this respect. An estimate so general must of course have substance behind it, although trade returns, which show rapid expansion, in which native agencies are the most active and numerically the strongest,
taking, aid The davits tell a story which materially modifies any common sweeping denunciation. It is
as little for saying that a Japanese cares his bond as for his word: but it may be of justice observed that whatever measure
receives utterance upholds this view, it
The weather continued to get worse, the barometer reaching its lowest reading between four and five o'clock. About 5 a.m., another big sea almost engulfed the steamer, carrying away the port quarter boat, and driving i bodily through the captain's room. were snapped off like pipe-stems, the taff-rail disappeared, the deckhouse was wrecked, und a window in the wheel-house store in. The bulkbead between the captain's room and the social ball was washed overboard, and all the woodwork smashed into matchwood. Pouring down the after companion way, the seu again
flooded the saloon and ladies' after-cabin, the store rooms, and the linen locker. The captain, who remained on the bridge throughout the gale, and was ably assisted by his officers, euginoors, and men, says he never encountered such terrible wen- ther in the Pacific After shipping the second heavy sea, the ship belared splendidly, and rode out the gale, which by night had completely abated. A quartermaster and two sailors were amaged by the wheel.
THE SS. SHAWMUT.”
The big new cargo steamer Shawmul is at present lying in the Harbour loading her first cargo in the East. She belongs to the fleet of the combined Northern Pacific S.S., Boston S.S. and Boston Tow-boat Co.'s. The Shawmut is one of the leviathans of modern cargo-boat type, being the largest vessel put out by the Sparrow's Point Shipbui'ding Co. of Baltimore, Maryland. As the visitor approaches the steamer where she lies out in the Harbour, her great size and capacity begin to be more appareat; his launch dwindles to a cockleshell, while the big steamer grows in perspective and her straight sides look like the elevation of a three-story house. When one gets on board, the sense of magnituds is accentuated. What strikes one most perhaps is the forest of derricks which meets the view. There are 14 hatches and as each batch bas 4 derricks to its own che-k, the simple matter of multiplication sum will enable the reader to arrive at some idea of the appearance she presents when loading To work these there or discharging cargo. are 13 cargo engines. The Shawmut has of course been fitted with every convenience for the rapid handling of freight. Her tonnage gross is 9,606 tons) and she can be loaded or unloaded in 48 hours!
The Shawmut's dimensions are 505 feet in length over all, 58 feet beam inside, and 42 feet depth; dead weight 12,000 tons, mesure- ment 18,000. With two triple expansion engines and twin screws the vessel has a speed of 15 knots. She was originally laid out as a
|
a
by foreigners who have been in Japan for some years and have fared well enough to put out lines for long account. DN they coutiuue to do. Removal of a foreign house to China, where the nod of the merchant is declared to bind like a hard and fast contract, is never re- ported on the ground of bad treatment here. The usual business changes occur, and some of them have involved surrender of offices in Japan and a transfer of manager or staff to a Chinese port, but it was not because of inability to com but loose business conditions. Like influences might lead anywhere to similar changes. The inference thus seems permissible that foreigners may contrive generally, as they have already done, to protect themselves: just as natives put up guards against each other; just as prudence and circumspection shield business dealings in other lands; and that in spite of a tone in com- mercial ethics below par, business is not only possible here, but it is conducted with average safety on a growing scale with all parts of the world.
|
|
|
|
|
These words are intended to have present applicability, as well as to fit earlier years They are reinforced by an example. in which a Mr. Kimura refused to take delivery of 100 bales of yarn for which he had contracted with a foreign firm in Yokohama. Finding appeal fruitless to the Yarn Makers' Guild, the foreigu firm sued and obtained judgment in accordance with the contract, the court ordering Mr. Kimura to pay, in addition to the stipulated price, insurance, interest, and godown rent. minns 90 days usually allowed pending delivery. At a meeting of the Yokohama Guild shortly thereafter. the action of Mr. Kimura was fully endorsed, and the foreign firm was condemned to a boycott, in which dealers in Tokyo, Nagoya, and other important towns were to be asked to join. Representatives of the Tokyo Guild next visited the foreign firm to say that they were determined to settle the dispute, and unless their arbitration were accepted, they would join the boycott. Advised by a Japanese lawyer that the law could afford them no protection agaiust boycott, or redress any wrong they might thereby suffer, the foreigners were compelled to accept the offer of arbitration, and were thereupon informed that Mr. Kimura would take delivery within 60 days, the foreign firm to pay its own legal expen-e. Delivery was accepted at a price which left the foreign firm a loser by about 2,500 yeu (£250), balf of that sum consist ingofinsurance, interest, and warehous charges. Prof. Chamberlain emphasises the case because Mr. Kimura had been Manager of the Yohohama Specie Bink, and was at the time a Director. besides being on the Municipal Board, President one of the of the Yokohama Guild, and wealthiest men in the city. "Where great houses easy to fall victims", the writer concludes, "it is conceive that the smaller fry have but faint chance of redress. Aud there is no sign of a change. Breach of contract is us rife in this yearf grace, 1901, as at any previou pri·d. As we pen these lines, the godowns at Yokohama are crammed with goods of which the Japanese who ordered them refuse to take delivery,"
If laxity among the Japanese may not be justified there is at least some explanation of The mercantile class always had inferior it. rank. Incentive for its improvement in the early part of the Tokugawa Shogunate, 300 years ago was not long enough held out to have appreciable effect; for when the cisposition then to encourage foreign trade was reversed, the Shogna being convinced that the foreigners wished to proselytise rather than to trade, and that wholesale conversion was designed as a step toward destroying the political entity of the empire, the trading element dropped back to the despised level that it had formerly occupied, and from which it had not recovered at the beginning of the present regime recognised division of the people at the time that Settlements were first set aside wherein foreign merchants might freely do business was into four classes. The military and official gentry had first place, next farmers, next the artisans and labouring
JAPANESE POINT OF VIEW, people, and last the traders. A tribe of outcasts
However indef-nsible the altitude of Mr. known as etae and a disgusting element called hinin, who lived by begging, and apou whom Kimura, his refusal being based on the colour devolved the execution of criminals and disposal | of a tag, which was red when he said it should of their bodies, were alone degraded further have been purple, the practical effect of the
A
cunie. the
No comments yet.
Private notes are available after approval.