The privately managed interests have both their business and their
philanthropic sides. Let us take the philanthropic first. Seamen's
Institutes have grown from very small beginnings, and are now to be
found in every port where English-speaking seamen congregate. They
began when, as the saying was, the sailor {172} earnt his money like a
horse and spent it like an ass. They flourish when the sailor is much
better able to look after himself. But their help is needed still; and
what they have done in the past has not been the least among the
influences which have made the common lot of the seaman so very much
better than it was. Another excellent influence is that of the Royal
National Mission to Deep Sea Fishermen. This mission sends its
missioners afloat in its own steamers to tend the sick and bring some
of the amenities of shore life within the reach of those afloat.
Religion is among its influences, but only in an unsectarian way. Its
work in Canadian waters is directed by two able and self-sacrificing
men: Dr Grenfell, whose base is at St Anthony's in North-East
Newfoundland, and whose beat goes straight down north along the
Newfoundland Labrador, which faces the Atlantic; and Dr Hare, whose
base is Harrington, in the centre of the Canadian Labrador, which runs
in from the Strait of Belle Isle to Natashquan, more than two hundred
miles along the north shore of the Gulf, among a perfect labyrinth of
islands.
Next, the business side. As only a single instance can be given, and
as ordinary business management in shipping circles more or less {173}
resembles what is practised in other commercial affairs, the special
factor of marine insurance will alone be taken, as being the most
typically maritime and by far the most interesting historically.
Ordinary insurance on land is a mere thing of yesterday compared with
marine insurance, which, according to some, began in the ancient world,
and which was certainly known in the Middle Ages. It is credibly
reported to have been in vogue among the Lombards in the twelfth
century, and on much the same principles as are followed by Canadians
in the twentieth. It was certainly in vogue among the English before
Jacques Cartier discovered the St Lawrence. And in 1613, the year
Champlain discovered the site of Ottawa, a policy was taken out, in the
ordinary course of business, on that famous old London merchantman, the
_Tiger_, to which Shakespeare twice alludes, once in _Macbeth_ and
again in _Twelfth Night_.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account