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October 21, 1854.] THE LEADER. 1^3
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REVELATIONS OIA SLAVE-TRADER. lievelatio...
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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An Englishman Abroadgleanings From Picca...
It xs impossible to avoid desultoriness in following these rambling , scrambling notes of * our melancholy , musing , acute Captain . He turns aside from the barren beauty of these classic regions to si gh after the lawns and glades and woodlands , the parks and forests of old England . Anon he is pitilessly severe on English prejudices , on the exclusiveness , the cant , the < x > nfusion of laws , the constitutional fictions , and the aristocratic misgovernment of his beloved country . Perhaps be is a not an uncommon specimen of the good old Tory , with a streak or two of the advanced Radical . Born and bred a Tory , he may have unconsciously developed into a Radical by conviction—if not by chagrin . The result of the mixture is a book which hits fiercely and sometimes at random at all manner of respectable . abuses—at inaccessible ambassadors , do-nothing or incompetent consuls , vexatious custom-houses , and officialism , in all its mystifying ramifications of red tape .
From Constantinople the Captain , with an evident sensation of relief , takes ship homeward to Liverpool , looking in at Smyrna , Alexandria , and Gibraltar by the way . When he is not scolding like a " heavy father , " he talks like what we should irreverently call a jolly old fellow , disposed to be a true citizen of the -world , and to make friends wherever he can . The long low screw-steamer in which he returns home suggests to the old sailor a few hints on the " continued defect of our naval architecture , " which , out of respect to the noble and gallant profession of the author , we quote at length : All our knowing naval people -will stare at such an assertion . They -would possibly admit the thing here and there in detail— one ship ugly , another crank , another a bad seaboat , or a dull sailer ; but I am sorry to say our ship and boat-building is generally and radically - wrong , from the first lines chalked out in the model lofts . of our Queen's or private yards throughout the empire ! .
It would exhaust a pamphlet to explain all this in detail ; tut it is sufficiently proved at a glance , in the eye of any seaman who has ever considered the proper shapes of floating bodies : —but to look at our ships loaded , afloat : and , ffoimr on board , simply walk their decks ! _ . The great defect I allude to is so obvious , that to me it is quite unaccountable how at is we obstinately persist in it , It is the constant want of proportionate breadth in our vessels afloat , from a cutter to a frigate—I can hardly except our line-ofUbattle ships ; and the consequence of this long , narrow , peg-top build is , that none of them carry their guns high enough out of the water , that they want room inboard , and that -essential stability in a moderate sea-way , to enable their guns to be carried 'with ease , and worked with advantage . As time has gone on , even up to sending Sir Charles Napier ' s fleet into the Baltic , ihis constant error has been persisted In through all the more recently-launched craftsteamers and all , which latter vessels , most especially , should be perfectly fiat-floored , and draw the least possible water !—instead of which , they are so deep in the water as to be unable to approach any coast ! They artificially multiply all the inevitable and natural dangers of rivers , or shallowsor rocky shores .
, I could name at once many of our steamers totally unfit to fight their main-deck guns in any thing of a sea , so low do they carry them ; aid , indeed , when all coal , stores , & c , are on board , they must be almost useless and helpless even in a moderately Tough sea or rough weather . ' It is this ' wretched build—all under water , and not half Enough , above—that I think distinguishes England ' s present marine , great and small . Then , again , our forecastles contracted—sharp up ! and down , it is buried in a sea way , instead of bearing out above the -water-line , to ease her in plunging . Nor is the breadth of beam carried well out aft , as it should be > to give room and create buoyancy . All this need not interfere either with a fine entrance or a fine ran . We have nothing to do ( and why are we not more wide awake ?) but compare * our ships -with those of the United States , to show us the defects , most glaringly , particularly in our small craft and steamers .
Tears ago I did myself the honour of representing to the Admiralty the many advantages of flatter floors , more beam , greater room , everywhere less draught of water & c . ; and particularly suggested of what incalculable service a small class of flatbottomed steamers might be for our coasts and harbours , on the plan partly of the American river steamers , ferry-boats , & c , which , from their drawing so little water , are enabled to put their noses on any beach as easily as a two-decker ' s launch . These screw-steamers might carry one or two large guns , on a pivot , at once to defend our shores , carry troops from , one point to another , and , in short , form the Government active daily carriers , and be our guard mobile all round our coast ! Mere ferry steamers or tugs on this plan , might turn out on such errands—properly built . Not such lumbering stolid contrivances as our Portsmouth ferry-boat to Gosport . With bulwarks breast-high , filled in with hammocks or haversacks , troops would be sheltered from musketry . Thesoaro the things I now , on my return homo , find wanted and cried out for in the Baltic , to land our troops , and cover their landing ! and generally to scour the shores and look into shallow wutei-s and rivers . So will they be wuntod in the Black Sea .
But we are so in lovo with grubbing under water without room to stir in on deck abovo at ( while you may wash your hands over the side !) that the " despatch" boat built to meet this demand I see draws thirteen or fourteen feet water !!! ( with guns at the sides !) when such tilings should not draw . / fre , and should bo , as to capacity for carrying troops and fighting ono pivot gun , throe times as efficient . The models for such boats may be seen in every river and harbour of the United States , whore wmnonse boats ( floating platforms ) and swift ( partly from skimming over the water , not under !) may bo scon drawing but from eighteen inches to two or three foot 1 carrying hundreds of tons-and quite equal to such seas us tho Baltic or Euxino ; but A am porauadod , oven in a gnle of wind , they would niuko bottor weuthor of it thun t & o things wo Bond afloat . As it affijuts mere passengera in our tjlight-built , long , low , narrow iron stoamers ( culled splendid !) thin pervading defect is of consequence both to their comfort and safety , lii a gale and a honvy sou , a clumpy -wide French ftsliinirooat would bo infinitely moro safe . I nm persuaded half tho climistora wo hour of , both < m our coasts and nt Hen , spring from this ogreirioiiH fault—which nobody , scientific or worismg by rule of thumb , in or out of our yurdw , seems to suspect or havu tho loust
If it is over happily departed from in the right way , il in in tho vessels built by us lor other Governments ! Tho despatch boat built in tho river tho othor day fur 1 ' rua . sia was a much bettor bout , and moro to tho purpose than our own poor thing , which , if tflo limes is to bo boliuved , knocked about , m > at Spithuuil—thut lirin ^ liur gun or guns from tho ports ayuh quite a failure . Ilinovo .-t ono ' r * Hiiudul wonder how nho cnnio to linvo ports ! or how aha could possibly , for hor hI / . o , b « niailu to ilruw thirteenJ \ wC water f both queer qualified which oxuotly uiiflttod hor for tho very thinir for which « "o w « tt Hupp < wod to bo built I In all our «« w vossoIh , steam or sails , nothing in tulkod of liut apuvd—nn if other qwohtiOB wore not equally essential ; nay , niucih more ho—impurullvu . Alienee tho awkwardly long low-tlringa daily turned out of our yard * , with no
topsides—no room anywhere , and all keeL so sharp they may be said to progress undo * water rather than above it . Our Clyde and Glasgow builders sin least in this way ; but let any man look at our Hamburgh boats , our Irish boats , those of our Channel Islands , those to France from all our ports in the British Channel , even our fast Gravesend and Greenwich boats ; and it is quite impossible to say any one of ihem is at all near what she should be either as to size or speed : all owing to this one radical defect of build—since being down under water such an absurd depth offers the greatest resistance ( no matter how long or how sharp they are ) to going ahead , infinitely more thau the increased divergence of the angles from the cut-water , thrown out in a flatter and extended floor . This might be illustrated in a hundred ways . But I must have done . s i ? ii ° - We take leave of our author , whom at certain moments we have ielt halt disposed to christen the Sir Anthony Absolute of foreign travel . The volume is illustrated by four drawings from the author ' s hand , remarkable for _ spirit and effect . The " High Street , Pera , " which forms the frontispiece , is quite a che / - ( Tceuvre of observation , and we can answer for its truth .
October 21, 1854.] The Leader. 1^3
October 21 , 1854 . ] THE LEADER . 1 ^ 3
Revelations Oia Slave-Trader. Lievelatio...
REVELATIONS OIA SLAVE-TRADER . lievelations of a Slave-Trader ; or , Twenty Years' Adventures of Captain Canot . London : Bentley A . pew weeks ago , noticing some extracts from the American edition of this book which appeared , in anticipation of its regular publication , and with a great flourish of preliminary applause , in tie New York Tribune , we ventured to put the public on their guard against it , as a worthless or worse than worthless book , that would probably be pushed into notoriety in the -wake of Uncle Tom and the Isfegro-literature mania roused by that respectable
novel . We-protested against the mythical look of the -whole affair—haying no great liking for the ostensible character of the '¦ book : as the story of the adventures of a certain dare-devil ex-slave-trader captain , " edited" from his conversations andpapersby an American litterateur , Mr . Brantz Mayer . We also hinted that the work seemed to have no particular merit-of a literary kind to justify its becoming popular . And , finally , founding our opinion on the extracts in the New York Tribii 3 ie , WQ said that the work seemed to have been spiced -with " warm" passages about negresses , mulatto-beauties , harems , & c , in order to make it sell .
The book itself is now before us , in Mr . Bentley ' s edition ; and we have examined it to see , whether our impressions of it in anticipation were correct . On the whole , they were . The book is , in the main , one that we would not desire to see popular—and that probably will not be so , even with those who devour booksrof , ' | thrilling interest , " and are fond of negro-literature . Mr . Bentley ' s edition , indeed , seems to have removed from the book one of the elements on which we commented as distinguishing the American edition of it . He seems to have gone over Mr . Brantz Mayer ' s text ( this gentleman ' s name does not appear at all on the title-page of Mr . Bentley ' s edition ) , and struck out the " warm" passages—a process creditable to Mr . Bentley ' a regard for the decorous , but by which , we should think , the chance of tha sale of the book Las been considerably lessened—as in reality these were the passages that many a Briton would have given his money for . In other respects , however , we fancy Mr . Bentley ' s edition is a reprint of the American one of the original editor , Mi . Brantz Mayer ; and , taking it as such , we retain our other objections to it .
First , we have no guarantee for the authenticity of the work—and yet it is precisely the kind of work that is only valuable so far as it is rigidly authentic . In fact , the guarantee is less than in the American edition , in which the name of one known person , Mr . Brantz Mayer , was associated with the responsibility . In Mr . Bentley ' s edition the title is simply Revela * tions of a Slave-Trader ; or , Twenty Years' Adventures of Captain Canot ; and besides this " Captain Canot" no one appears as responsible . Who . then , is or was Captain Canot ? In a note on the title-page it is stated , " the author , who is a French subject , reserves to himself the copyrigh t , and right of translation . " This is , doubtless , in terroveni of Messrs . Routled" - © and Others . Who QV & nulllisliinrr nflim * rnnrinto <\ F + lm & mo «! nnn « , 1 U ;~^ . „_ ,
it Captain Canot would come forward and claim his property , we should have the benefit of taking a look at him , and ; should then know better what degree of historical reality to assign to his book . We have heard va ^ ue rumours as to who the gentleman is ; and "Mr . Bontley ' s editor , in his advertisement , says " the narrative is authentic : the author has relinquished the traffic [ in slaves ] , and here relates the incidents of his life for the purpose of serving the cause of truth . " But with all respect for Mr . Bentley ' a editor , though he may bo convinced by what ho knows of the mythical Captain Canot , the public are not hound to be convinced by his averment at second-hand—the more as in the American edition Captain Canot is in . tho background altogether , and figures hot as tho author of the book , but as only the subject of it , whose adventures arc narrated from his papers and conversations by Mr . Brantss Mayer . On the whole , our impression ia , that there may bo some person or other answering to the Captain Canot of these adventures , and that this person may have hud adventures , but that tho book is in great part a literary «» c , Mr . Brantz Maver having boaten un
tlio bits of fact supplied him into language enough lor an octavo volume , and otherwise done the composition . The flowing insipid style of tho book- — reminding one of a litorary hack making sentences to order , with the iacts to bo inserted into his sentences lying on ins desk beside liim in n boxmakesthis supposition more probable . At all events , we do not know how much is fact , and how much is sentence-making ; and till'this is cloarud up , the authenticity of tho book must remain suspect . At tlio best , and even if authenti c tno book ia hardly worth reading- It is a tissue of adventures ait sea , umong pirututi , among wluvos , &« -, crowded us thick upon each other as possible ; but e «< : h uinling hi ' UmW , and having not ono atom of real or permanent interest . Tim sonteneo-inaking in good onouizh : but with perpetual eimair * in tlio " ritual ions , " < lu ! n ; l ! i n 0 P ' - 'wor in
tho style . As a novel it would l > o bud . Tint bust bittf «» '" passages not relating Captain Canot ' s Ju . lvont . uroH , but accumulating information ubout tho Hlave-trado , such as any American littJmtcur n > ul < l / wivo got by " cramming " from miy book on tho trufliu . One or two such jmasagoa Imvo been quoted by othor journals from tho book , and wo do not care to repent thorn . Alto- <
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Oct. 21, 1854, page 19, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_21101854/page/19/
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