" REALITIES " OF SEA LIFE.*
THE title of this book raises hopes that are dashed im- mediately its perusal is begun. For many years past there has been abundant need for an authoritative work dealing in detail with the everyday life of the sailor, to which it would be possible to refer with confidence. Dana's. Two Years before the Mast has, for some reason not easy to be understood by seamen, posed for many years as our only classic upon this subject. Now Dana's book, though, somewhat dull reading, is a fairly accurate record of a sailor's life in an American ship. Although for a limited period, the writer lived with the men, shared their treatment, and apparently enjoyed no immunity from any of their hard- ships on account of his position. Yet as a guide to knowledge of the conditions obtaining on board British ships his book is misleading, and ought not in justice to. occupy the position it does. Every sailor knows how essentially different is the treatment of men in American ships from that in vessels of our own country, summing the situation up in the terse sentence, " Limejuicers, hunger and ease; Yankees, hard labour and plenty." Limejuicers being, as is well known, the slang name for British sailors. Several names might be quoted among English nautical writers who, while not dealing specially with the facts of sea life apart from its romance, are far more useful than Dana, even though the conditions he depicted have not materially altered in his. country's ships since he wrote.
In order to produces useful and tru stwortby book that should justify such a title as the one before us, it is indispensable that the writer shall have lived the sailor's life, not merely en amateur, but from necessity. Neither should his experiences • Roalitios of Son Lift. By H. B. Aoraman Coate. London : L. Erpoott GIlL 'be limited to one end of the ship, or to one class of vessel or voyage. There are seafarers, such as those voyaging in the great first-class lines of steamers to the southward, whose lives are as comfortable as any reasonable man could wish, -whether officers or seamen. And in consequence, the same crews are to be found in a ship voyage after voyage, only changing for other vessels of the same line. Well fed, well paid, and comfortably berthed, they form a distinct class, whose lot is envied by all other seamen. Ffom these vessels to the well-decked, undermanned tramp steamer wallowing across the Western Ocean with her couple of thousand tons 'of freight in charge of a half-dozen starveling wastrels of as many different nationalities is a far cry. Or to the huge, unwieldy four-masted steel tank, owned by some single-ship company, workhouse-rigged, and worse than jail-fed, her mighty sail areas unmanageable in a breeze except by calling all hands, how great is the distance !
Mr. Coate appears to have made one voyage under favour- able auspices as a friend of the owner in a comfortable ship, where time was no object and the scale of living high above -the average. Yet upon this scanty foundation he has built a book which, unless we are greatly mistaken, will figure largely In school prize-lists, but which for inaccuracy of detail and unreliability of facts would be hard to beat. As a readable set of youthful impressions of a voyage to Manila and back this book would be a fairly creditable performance; for the fulfilment of its ambitious pretensions it is utterly inadequate and untrustworthy. It is not difficult to guess whence Mr. 'Coate obtained his "facts," but we could wish that he were compelled to make a few voyages before the mast in such craft as he would be able by his own unaided efforts to get employ- ment in, in order to verify them. Then, if he were still able to write, a book from his pen would form an interesting contrast to the present work.
That there is something radically defective in the treatment of both seamen and officers in the great majority of our mercantile marine must be patent to any thoughtful lands- man who has studied the subject. Why is it that the per- centage of foreigners in all grades in British ships is so high, and is increasing by leaps and bounds ? Of lads who leave the training ships for a sea life, very few remain at sea longer than the second or third voyage. All over the country men are to be found in every class of employment where mechanical skill is not required, who have left the sea, and who will put up with many privations rather than return. An authoritative presentment of the realities of sea life would supply the answer to this question. But it is not to be obtained by pumping Jack ashore or by one or two pleasure-trips to sea. We should have thought this sufficiently obvious, but apparently it is not. The unavoidable hardships of a seafaring life are not to blame. Britons have not degenerated to such an extent that the daily conflict with the pitiless sea terrifies them. No finer body of men are to be found in the world than the seamen of the Royal Navy ; but no body of men in the world are better treated. But the con- ditions under which most merchant seamen live—of food, of housing, and lack of reasonable prospects of promotion—are so wantonly and needlessly bad, that unless they can be altered we fear that the ousting of the Briton by the foreigner will go on in an increasing ratio. Of itself, this is a fact full of menace. Apart from the drying up of our possible source of a supply of seamen for the Navy in time of war, it is no light thing to know that the transport of our food-supply is passing into the hands of aliens, nay, is already in their hands to an alarming extent.
There is really no reason to doubt that if all seamen were treated as well as those in the " liners " quoted above, the mercantile marine would become popular. There are many difficulties in the way, doubtless, but we believe them to be surmountable, and the issues at stake are so important that it is worth while making a great effort to over- come them. In the brief space at our disposal it is of course impossible to do more than indicate in the briefest manner some of the remedies which we believe would be effectual. One of the most important of them is just being seriously taken in hand, the enforcement of an adequate manning scale. What undermanning means to the sailor it is impossible for a landsman to realise. To find yourself with four or five other men battling with a gigantic sail which the fury of the bellowing gale batters about your panting,
quivering bodies, and which treble your number would hardly be adequate to master, is one of the most frequent of experiences. At the same time there are half a dozen other monsters awaiting you, threatening in their mad fury at restraint to shake the stout steel spars out of the ship beneath you. Then, after a night of such warfare as this, every man doing the work of at least two, a breakfast (1') of dirty water, alias coffee, a flinty "Liverpool pantile" (Anglice, crew biscuit), and perhaps a scrap of greasy meat that a homeless cat would reject. For this is the next most important reform needed—we are not sure but that it is the most important—a decent scale of provisions to replace the inadequate dietary at present issued by the Board of Trade as the minimum, but in the great majority of ships rigidly adhered to. There has been some talk lately of training cooks for sea- service, not before it is time, but it would perhaps be as well to give them something to exercise their newly acquired skill upon. The extra expense would be a mere trifle at present prices of preserved provisions. Another reform urgently needed is better berthing accommodation. The topgallant forecastle in which most seaman's quarters are placed is not fit for men to live in at all. Even a house on deck, which is far better, is often sadly cramped in space. Twenty men in an apartment 20 ft. long by 10 ft. wide herding together often make life an intolerable burden to such of their number as desire to live decently. A large number of the riff-raff of half a dozen countries that are found in ships' forecastles to-day have, in the classic phrase, "Manners none, customs beastly," and escape from their unsavoury society under present conditions is impossible. Again, where a good ship, good officers, good captain, and decent food are found in rare combination, it ought to be possible for men to remain by her at home, and not be dispersed upon her arrival in port to get in some floating bog-stye next voyage.
In conclusion we must add that we could wish that Mr. Coate's dictum were true, that "a lad of moderate ability who is determined to rise in the nautical profession needs neither money nor influence to accomplish his desire." The present writer's experience of the matter, extending over many years, is that without money or influence a man may easily get a second mate's certificate, but he will find it well-nigh impossible to get a second mate's berth. Second mates are so plentiful in ships' forecastles that their numbers excite no surprise, all seamen understanding why they are there.
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