AROUND THE WORLD.

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 123, 26 May 1928, Page 4

AROUND THE WORLD.

GOSSIP OF THE PORT.

THE SEA AS A CAREER.

In a previous article the writer made a statement that he had never met a master mariner who would advise a lad to take up the sea as a career. There are many reasons for making this statement. The greatest reason of ali is that of remuneration. If one is fortunate enough to reach the top of his profession, he has had to pass a series of very exacting examinations. That of master mariner has been described as being much more difficult than the examination required for a solicitor or doctor of medicine. If one is ambitious he will very likely take on the examination of extra master mariner, which the late Professor Jowett, of Cambridge University, described as being much more difficult than that of an English barrister.

If one compares these three professions as being equal in proficiency, he will find that the master mariner receives a salary equal to that of the managing clerk of a solicitor. If a master mariner makes one mistake or error of judgment he is damned for ever in his profession, and if lucky, he might be able to spend the rest of his career ae a junior officer in the employ of some obscure shipowner up the China coast. If a solicitor makes a mistake he reaps the benefit in the shape of extra costs and emoluments. If a doctor makes a mistake or an error of judgment he buries his victim and no one is a bit wiser. The writer has in mind a friend who is the master of a vessel trading out of Auckland. He is a very young man as master mariners go, and is the possessor of an extra master mariner's certificate (square rigged), the very highest qualification that a seaman can hold. After a long career in the sailing slugs of the famous Loch Line, of Glasgow, he gained knowledge and experience which few seamen can acquire in these days. Still on the junior 6ide of the forties he secured a temporary command of a New Zealand vessel at a salary of £40 per month. His ship carries mails, passengers, and at times very valuable cargoes. He gets fourteen days holiday on full pay every twelve months. Compare his position with that of the chief clerk at the office of the ship's agents.. This gentleman receives £520 per annum, 79 days' holiday on full pay every year (including Sundays), 52 half holidays, and has every night in bed. If it is blowing hard or raining heavily he takes a taxi to the office, the master mariner referred to puts on his oilskin coat and sou'-wester and spends a long vigil on the lee side of his bridge dodger. If a livery passenger should complain to the master mariner that the ship is rolling too heavily for hk health, and the master mariner should tell that passenger to go to h—, it is mosl certain that the master will appear on the mat before the agent's clerk and will very likely receive a severe reprimand. The skipper will very likely stick his tongue in his check and if he is wise will say nothing, for he knows that there are any number of master mariners on the look-out for a position. There are very few shipping clerks of ability out of and even though our master mariner friend might have forgotten more about shipping work than our clerical friend ever knew, he knows that he would never get a hearing towards showing his ability. There has long been a grievance among ship masters and ship's officers that the salaries paid to the office staff of their companies is out of all proportion when compared to the salaries paid them. The responsibilities and the hours of work are also compared, and in every instance the comparison is much in favour of the shore staff.

A leading English company started the innovation of operating several of their agencies with masters and officers from their 6hips. It is interesting to note that these officers have obtained better results than the civilians did whom they succeeded It might not be out of place to suggest to some of our New Zealand companies that it would be good training for their deck staffs to take spells now and again in working in the companies' offices. This would pave the way for better co-opera-tion and understanding, particularly so in the case of married men. Difficulties might present themselves at the inception of the scheme, but it would only be at the outset. In the writer's opinion the heads of such companies would realise that their deck staff had ideas which would prove invaluable, especially in regard to cargo and other work reiating to the ships.

Certain steamship companies in England are beginning to realise that we are living in an entirely different age nowadays to that which existed a generation ago, when most of our shipmasters and officers were men of meagre education. In those days they could navigate after a fashion, and knew little outside of handling a ship on a voyage. To-day all that is changed, shipmasters and officers ■are usually men of high education. The examinations they have passed prove this, and the fact that so many ship s officers are striking out in directions other than the sea suggests that they are not satisfied with the conditions. Some have qualified for the clerical, legal, medical, and other professions, and many are waiting, like Micawber, for something to turn up. Among many of the junior officers in the mercantile marine there is little dissatisfaction . They are well paid, have little to do, and plenty of time to do it in. When they get married, however, and start to build up a houi£, they begin to wonder why they ever went to sea to earn a living. Many shipmasters and officers now sailing the deep waters onlv see their wives and children for a few days in each year. If they are of the "homelv" type, and the majority of seafarers are. "the days are slowly ticked off when they shall come again to their home ports. A few weeks ago came a rusty old tramp 6teamer into Auckland, bhe had been three years out irom her home port (Glasgow), and her master had a son who was born the day after he sailed from the Clyde. His chief officer had a family of three, anil he had only seen them eight times, the longest spell he had been with them was twelve davs. Could anyone blame these hardy seaiarers when they are told that there was a glorious jubilee in that old tramp s saloon when they received ordere to proceed to Manila from Auckland afid load for Glasgow. One has to go to sea for a long voyage to know the real meaning of the term "Homeward Bound." The old Scotch chief engineer of that tramp turned on a full bottle of whisky that evening to celebrate the occasion, a tlnng he had never been known to do before in all the nine years the skipper had known him. It was a great event, -d if any budding youngster with thoughts of a sea career in front of him, had been present, he would have been advised by everyone of the partv to try hell for a pastime instead of going out on the deep waters.

However, when all is said and done, if a young lad has the sea spirit in him. if he has only a tiny drop of that blood that helped to carry the old Red Duster to the _ uttermost ends of the earth, all the advice that could be given him bv the most disgruntled seafarer will never deter him from following in the footsteps of such men as Captains Saunders V C Woodget, BoJlons, Pattman, and other famous master mariners who have made the British mercantile the greatest in the world's history.

Taking it all in all, the eea is a ?reat career, one meets men. real men. who will be remembered throughout one's lifetime, and again there is always the thouzbt of a good chore billet in front of one. such maybe, as harbourmaster in a snuz port. ®

w be remembered by most readers that a late \ iceroy of India once followed the sea as a career, and he often stated that much of his success as a great lawyer came to him from the experiences he gained on the deep waters. The HTiter refers to Lord Reading.