SALVAGE EXPENSES.

COMPLAINTS are sometimes made by the owners of wrecked property that the cost of their goods being salved and restored to them is excessive and unreasonable. They allege that the charges made for salvage, &c., are so great that it almost becomes a matter of indifference to them after their property has once been wrecked whether it is subsequently salved or not, and that from goods that may sell for, say, £100, they think themselves fortunate if they receive as much as £30 or £40 of the proceeds of sale.

It certainly seems rather hard, but then half a loaf is better than no bread. Let us consider what becomes of the proceeds of the sale of wreck in any one instance.

The property has been salved either out at sea or else on the coast, and has, perhaps, given the salvor considerable trouble, and he may even have incurred some risk to himself or his vessel on account of it. It has then been reported or delivered up by him to the Receiver of Wreck in whose district it was landed or found; and with that the salvor's connection with it ends, except, of course, receiving the remuneration due to him for his services. The Receiver of Wreck then takes charge of it, and has it removed to his warehouse or other place of safety. He also enters it in his books, and reports it to the Board of Trade in London and to Lloyd's. We will suppose that it is subsequently sold by him, either before the owner is discovered, if it be likely to deteriorate by keeping, or afterwards at the owner's request, and that it is sold for the sum of £100. Now what will probably become of this amount?

In all probability it will be disposed of in some such proportion as follows:

To the salvor, or salvors, will be paid about £25.

To incidental expenses, such as labour, cartage, costs of sale, &c., &c., we may allot about £20.

And to the receiver of wreck, his usual commission of five per cent.

-viz., £5.

The remaining £50 will be paid to the owner, who will possibly receive it with dissatisfaction. We may be surprised that he should be dissatisfied, but then

"Kill a man's family and he may brook it;

But keep your hands out of his breeches' pocket,"

is a truth with which we are all more or less conversant. Seriously, however, has he any grounds for complaint? We think not. Taking the charges separately, and beginning with the last, let us see whether they are not perfectly just.

We do not think any owner will complain at having to pay a tax of five per cent. to the Government when he considers what is done by them for the protection of wreck. Besides the Coastguard, who are a very large force, there are 130 Receivers and a still greater number of deputy receivers of wreck, stationed at different ports throughout the United Kingdom. Their duties are often very arduous, are always more or less accompanied by considerable responsibility, and where conflicting interests are concerned, are likely to gain for them the ill-word and ill-feeling of those with whom they have to deal. That so small a fee as five per cent. on the property salved should be charged for the services rendered by these officers, no ground of complaint can possibly exist.

With reference to the second charge-viz., incidental expenses, it is evident that such expenses must be incurred, and the only complaint that can possibly be made is that more expense has been incurred than was positively necessary, and that the Receiver of Wreck has not been so careful of the owner's money as he would have been of his own. The Receiver, of course, does not gain by wasting other people's money, and although it may be thought by some that there is a temptation for the Receivers to curry favour amongst their neighbours by paying them too liberally for their services in respect of wreck, still we think in the end they will find honesty the best policy.

With respect to the third charge-viz., the amount paid to the salvor, it should be remembered that this payment may be looked upon in two different lights: firstly, as a sum duly earned by the salvor for his trouble and risk; and, secondly, as a reward to induce salvors to act honestly in respect of wreck salved by them.

As you decrease the rate of reward you increase the temptation to wrecking; and, therefore, it is to the interest of the owners themselves that a liberal salvage should in all cases be allowed. It may, however, be stated that the Courts of Admiralty very seldom, if ever, give more than one-half the value of the property saved.

We think, then, it is clear that the owners' interests are well looked after. Of course, special cases will sometimes occur when the expenses will be unusually heavy; as in a case we remember when the cargo of a vessel sold for about £1,300, and the owners only received about £300 of the proceeds, the remaining £1000 having been expended in fees, salvage, and expenses. Such cases, are, however, exceptional, as the owners generally receive more than one-half of the proceeds of the sale of their property.

It will always tend to the owner's interest that he should keep on good terms with the Receiver of Wreck, and should at once comply with his requirements which in the end will generally be found to be perfectly just, and in accordance with the provisions of the Merchant Shipping

A

Act. If unnecessary expense is incurred owing to the owners refusing to produce satisfactory evidence of ownership, or to lodge substantial security with the Receiver to meet salvage claims, then the owners have only themselves to blame.

JAPANESE ROYAL NAVY MODELLED ON THE BRITISH NAVY,

OUR Special Correspondent at Yedo forwards us the following, which he thinks will interest our readers: :

In 1870 it was decided by the Government (the late Daimios consenting) to form an Imperial Navy, and nearly all those Daimios possessing ships of war, handed their vessels over to the Mikado for that purpose. Whether they were paid for the ships or not I cannot decidedly state, but I believe in most cases they were, for one condition when the ships were handed over was that they should continue to be officered and manned from the class they formerly belonged to, but from this restriction later on the Government released themselves, and, if I am correctly informed, they did so by paying the price of the vessel as each Daimio demanded it.

In the autumn of 1870, the Hiyobusho began to form plans for the organisation of this navy, and many wished the American system to be followed, but feeling was more strongly in favour of the English, and the Government decided to adopt it. Lieutenant Hawes, a young retired officer of the Royal Marines, accepted employment under the Naval Department of Japan in December, 1870, as Gunnery Instructor to the Fleet, but found it impossible to commence his duties then, owing to the disorganised state of everything. It was clearly necessary that some proper system of organisation, routine, and regulations should be established for the interior economy of their ships before anything like drill could be commenced, and the Department concurring with Lieutenant Hawes, consented to hand over the Rin Jho Kan, a partially armourelad corvette, for the purpose of being thoroughly put in order and organised by him exactly as an English man-of-war, and the Lieutenant had authority to make whatever changes he thought necessary.

He found the ship manned and officered by one of the Higo clan, with the exception of the captain. There seemed to be no distinction between officer and man; ward-room, gun-room, cabins, and lower deck all seemed alike, anyone and everyone freely using them. The Rin Jho Kan was in a most filthy condition, and in a disorganised state; her decks were covered with dirty stinking mats and Japanese fire boxes; men slept, ate, smoked, and cooked where and when they liked; they

were in a most sickly state. Out of a crew of 230 about 100 were lying about on dirty futons (beds) sick, some had fever, but they were chiefly suffering from cold. No arrangements had been made for food or clothing for them. A small amount of money was allowed for the former, and men bought their own, and to save money, of course, got the cheapest. The armament of the ship was also in a most disgraceful state with rust and dirt, and apparently some of the guns had never been moved, as the deck was a sort of store of Japanese beds and boxes. To commence the work of reformation, Lieutenant Hawes advised the swords to be taken away from the men (nearly every man had one or two swords), the clan to be broken up, and the ship officered and manned from the different clans then favourable to the Government. This was objected to, and he had, I learn, much difficulty in getting it effected. He pointed out how necessary it was, considering the political state of the country, to abolish the system of clans on board ships, to render a Goverment navy effective.

It was finally consented to, and the step carried out most severely, more so than had been wished or expected. Nearly all the crew were discharged, and then the ship underwent a thorough clear out. Japanese mats, doors, futons, fire boxes, sword racks, cupboards, etc., were sent on shore. A few men were kept on board in charge of the ship, and were billeted on the main deck; the lower deck, magazines, store-rooms, cabins, holds, etc., were completely overhauled, and it took some weeks to clear the rubbish out of the ship. The complement of the ship was settled at 275, including officers, and the lower deck was fitted accordingly. Mess tables and stools, bags and bag racks, hammocks and blankets, cooking range, etc., were all provided, store-rooms and holds were properly stowed, magazines fitted, and so on, and then the ship was commissioned. Iu the meantime it had been arranged on shore that uniform clothing for the men should be provided, and each man was accordingly given a complete outfit of clothes as nearly similar to that of the English sailor as possible. The crew were classed into the different grades of petty officer, leading seaman, able seaman, ordinary seaman, and boy, stokers and marines formed distinct bodies. The crew were taken chiefly from the Hosokawa, Chosin, and Satsuma clans, and a few from the others. The officers were from various clans, the captain was from Chosin, the commander from Satsuma, the first lieutenant from Higo, and the others from other clans, some the same. Many of the midshipmen were from Satsuma. Routine was now established, and a system of watch, quarter, station, and fire bill arranged, similar to that used in the English Navy, and then commenced the course of gunnery instruction.

Many changes took place amongst the officers, and the difficulty of the

clans working together now showed itself, and it was very doubtful whether the thing would answer; however, in course of time the little jealous feeling existing wore off, and now it is a perfect success.

After getting the gun-deck properly fitted, and the guns put in order, certain routines of drill were established, comprising heavy rifled gun exercise, truck gun drill, and revolving gun exercise. All drills were carried on by means of interpreters, the words of command all being given by Lieutenant Hawes in English.

These drills were carried on regularly, till the end of June, when the department held an inspection, to see what progress had been made, and to compare the Rin Jho Khan with their other ships, to see if they approved of the alterations.

The result of the inspection was most favourable, for the ship was in good order, considering her former condition, the men drilled very fairly, the regulations on board being followed out to the letter, and all showed promise of progress.

The Arisugawa, No Mia inspected, accompanied by the Faiya, some Daijos, and others of the Hiyobusho. Every alteration was carefully examined, such as hammocks, bedding, messing, ship's books, clothes, etc., etc. The comparison between the Rin Jho Khan and the other ships was such as to strengthen the determination of the Government to adopt the English system, and orders were given for all the ships in turn to go through a similar alteration. Our countryman, Lieutenant Hawes, received a public and private letter of thanks from the Hiyobusho, and head of the navy, and (let our Admiralty note this) a suitable increase to his salary. I believe these instructions were sent to Europe to engage the services of. naval officers for navigation, seamanship, etc., but as no officers have yet come, I cannot tell you the intended arrangements.

After the inspection, Lieutenant Hawes continued his course of gunnery exercise till the end of August, and then went on leave for some weeks. On return, he commenced a course of magazine drill, sword and cutlass exercise, and exercise frequently at general fire stations.

At the end of October the Rin Jho Khan went to Jokotska, to be docked, and he commenced a course of work on board the Nitsin. Nearly all the arrangements of her decks had to be altered, and properly fitted, and before that was completed, all the ships were assembled at Yedo, to prepare for a naval review. Our countryman went to Yedo, also, and had to undertake the commissioning of five ships, and all the arrangements for the Mikado's review, even to the smallest detail; of course, much came under his direction totally foreign to the instruction he is supposed to give by agreement. The squadron reviewed consisted of ten ships, and the review passed off very creditably.