The Herald says HMS Better Together is sunk. Hmm. I claim earlier - TopicsExpress



          

The Herald says HMS Better Together is sunk. Hmm. I claim earlier copyright: ______ 17. S.S. Anglia There was once a large steam ship of the name S.S. Anglia. She was the largest steam ship of her class, and the pride of her Line, the Britannic Line. More often than not, she was painted out in the Britannic Line colours, red, white and blue and she was instantly recognisable when she was on the high seas. In fact, S.S. Anglia was very often on the high seas and she had taken on all sorts of different cargo: spices from India, bananas from the Caribbean, and less talked about amongst the Britannic Line’s Board of Directors, slaves from Africa. All these made the Britannic Line a very successful shipping Line, and the directors of the company became very rich men. (These were people who no one really knew much about, only that they raked in obscene profits). There was barely a port in the world that had not had a visit from S.S. Anglia – from the Falkland Islands to Gibraltar, from Auckland in New Zealand to the Cape of Good Hope via Aden and Bombay; S.S. Anglia had been to them all. One day, S.S. Anglia was preparing herself once more in her home port to go on a voyage to a far-flung territory where the Britannic Line’s directors had an interest. As she was sailing out of the port, she came across three little merchant vessels who had come to see her off. Their names were M.V. Alba, M.V. Cambria and M.V. Kernow. S.S. Anglia towered over these three merchant vessels, and if they had not been careful, they would have been swamped by S.S. Anglia’s wake. “Hey, be careful!” yelled M.V. Alba, “You could have submerged us all!” “So sorry!” shouted S.S. Anglia back cheerfully, not really meaning it. “I can’t stay and chat to you little boats. Things to do, cargoes to acquire, people to see. You know how it is? Oh, of course, you don’t, do you? Poor little weak, insignificant, parochial merchant vessels!” S.S. Anglia chuckled, “What good are you to anyone?” “Yeah, yeah” said M.V. Cambria, “we know you don’t care a fig about us. Not even after all we’ve done for you!” “What have you ever done for me?” asked S.S. Anglia scornfully. “Well....,” began M.V. Cambria, but M.V. Alba interrupted her. M.V. Alba was rather more confident in speaking to S.S. Anglia than the other merchant vessels – the others were rather in awe of S.S. Anglia and often let M.V. Alba lead and speak on their behalf. This was not really good for M.V. Cambria or M.V. Kernow’s self-confidence, but at least they knew they had a good friend in M.V. Alba. “What M.V. Cambria is trying to say, is that she supplied you with all the coal to convert into steam which powers your voyages. In addition, I, M.V. Alba helped to deliver the iron and steel that made you in the first place. And also the steam boilers that power you were carried by me when you were being built.” “And I carried the tin from which your whistle is made”, piped up M.V. Kernow, not wishing to be left out. “Pish! Tush!” exclaimed S.S. Anglia. “As I said, I’ve got far more important things to do than stand around, chattering to the likes of you! Look at you all, stuck in this backwater harbour, plying your parochial trade on the same stretch of water, day in, day out. You should get out more – see the world! Just like I do. Travel does so broaden one’s horizons, don’t you think?” S.S. Anglia laughed, a deep, sarcastic laugh. “I’m sure that I carry more cargo than all three of you put together too!” she said, after she had stopped laughing. And then with a loud blast on her whistle – the one that M.V. Kernow had help deliver – S.S. Anglia steamed out of the harbour. Now, as so often happens, nemesis is the partner of hubris. That day, S.S. Anglia had a new skipper aboard – Captain Cameron. It was said that Captain Cameron had had very little training in seamanship, maybe he had steered the odd raft on Lake Oxford or in his youth had toyed with a radio controlled catamaran on Eton Water – both renowned for being shallow stretches of water which often evaporated completely in high summer owing to the strength of the sun. Be that as it may, Captain Cameron of the S.S. Anglia had very little navigational skills and even less of the complicated mechanisms involved in setting up the autopilot. This he confidently (but misguidedly, as it turned out) entrusted to his second in command, Commander Clegg. (There were some of Captain Cameron’s crew who thought that this position should have been assigned to First Mate Osborne – and had threatened to mutiny over this – but, for the time being, Captain Cameron had managed to keep the mutineers in check. It is of course highly debateable whether First Mate Osborne could have averted the tragedy that befell S.S. Anglia later, had he been in charge of the autopilot. Stoker Johnson watched and followed these developments with interest from his own boiler room, downstairs. However, he didn’t throw in his hand with the putative mutineers – at least not just then. He kept his own counsel and kept on shovelling the coal that powered S.S. Anglia. What is clear however is that culpability for the ensuing accident to S.S. Anglia extended top-down and all the crew were to be held accountable for their actions and omissions on that fateful day). But we are jumping ahead of ourselves a little. We had left S.S. Anglia, steaming happily out of harbour, leaving M.V. Alba, M.V. Cambria and M.V. Kernow bobbing uncertainly in the waves caused by her wake. Suddenly, there was an almighty crash. Knowing the local seas much longer than S.S. Anglia or her crew, the three merchant vessels immediately knew what had happened – S.S. Anglia had collided with a sandbank, located just outside the mouth of the harbour. They looked on in amazement as S.S. Anglia, the pride of the Britannic Line which had so recently dwarfed them, now faced them, looking completely stricken and listing outrageously to starboard. (That’s leaning extremely to the right, for you landlubbers). The three merchant vessels decided as one that they should steam to S.S. Anglia’s aid. Bravely they sailed towards the stricken vessel and succeeded between them in rescuing all the crew of the S.S. Anglia, including Captain Cameron himself. Some thought that it would have been far better had they not saved the Captain, but the merchant vessels’ argument was not really with ordinary individuals, but rather with the Britannic Line and all the cargoes that had been commissioned (often illegally, too – like the slaves) to be carried by its ships, for the exclusive benefit and profit of the Britannic Line’s Board of Directors. However, although Captain Cameron and his crew had been heroically saved by M.V. Alba, M.V. Cambria and M.V. Kernow between them, (who, quite rightly, basked in the glory of being in the right place at the right time for once – and could claim the individual credit for their acts of bravery and selflessness; something which S.S. Anglia usually often took credit for for herself instead of them), the Captain and his crew would now have to face another ordeal: a court martial. At that court martial, all the members of the S.S. Anglia’s crew were found guilty of gross misconduct and negligence and were dismissed from the employ of the Britannic Line. Captain Cameron lost his commission, with a note from the court martial that he should never be entrusted to command any sea-going vessel again. It was a cruel irony according to some, that on the very day these judgements were pronounced, S.S. Anglia herself sank beneath the waves; waves that she had ruled for many a long year for the benefit of the Britannic Line. The hope and the glory that was the Britannic Line were also over. _____ (c) Siôn Rees Williams 2012-2014 All rights reserved
Posted on: Sun, 30 Mar 2014 12:03:08 +0000

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