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The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from The Mirror of the Sea by Joseph Conrad: subject, is precise as to rules, mentions illustrative events,
quotes law cases where verdicts turned upon a point of stowage. He
is never pedantic, and, for all his close adherence to broad
principles, he is ready to admit that no two ships can be treated
exactly alike.
Stevedoring, which had been a skilled labour, is fast becoming a
labour without the skill. The modern steamship with her many holds
is not loaded within the sailor-like meaning of the word. She is
filled up. Her cargo is not stowed in any sense; it is simply
dumped into her through six hatchways, more or less, by twelve
winches or so, with clatter and hurry and racket and heat, in a
 The Mirror of the Sea |