OUR OLD CAPTAINS.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXIX, Issue 168, 15 July 1908, Page 8

OUR OLD CAPTAINS.

(To the Editor.) Sir, —It may not be generally known, but still it is a fact that there are a great number of our old sea captains out of employment at the present* time. Now, sir, most of these men are fine samples of the straight, honest, rugged, old sea-dogs, and also they are mostly very hard-up. Some of your thrifty readers will say at once that they have no business being in this position; why did they not save money; or why did they not keep their position; or how is it they cannot get vessels now? With regard to saving money, can anybody in Auckland name half a dozen sea captains who have saved enough money to make them independent in their old age? They may name some who have left the sea before they became old, and made money on shore; but there are very few who have kept to sea-going and made enough money to live on. There is no chance of a sea captain saving money. Whenever you get to port there are always a lot of visitors, who expect to be entertained, and, after a voyage, you feel like a schoolboy let loose, and are naturally careless of money. I know for a fact that lots of these old skippers when applying for a position are told straight out that they are too old. Others perhaps in their last command met with an accident, perhaps through no fault of their own, and the owners may have had some hard and fast rule that if any of their captains met with an accident, they must resign, whether the fault was theirs or not. The passengers, you know, must have perfect confidence in the captain of a vessel. Too honest to steal, too proud to beg, or oven apply for the old age pension, without money, what is to become of them? Even our Liberal Government, when they advertise for a harbour master, or anyI! 1 " 1 . 8 . , , 1, that line . make it a condition that they must not be over forty-five years of age. My object in writing £Jk J S ° meOne fu,l of "sourcel to take this matter up and try and do someth.ng for the deserving old sea cap tarns, who surely have earned their ririit to live, and who cannot help being of er 45 years old— l am, etc., R. CLAKK.