RANDOM REMINDER

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31322, 18 March 1967, Page 38

RANDOM REMINDER

DOWN TO THE SHIPS AND TV

Much of the recommended reading in our youth came from the works of authors who took the gentle reader by the hand and led him down varied paths of adventure. Very often the road ended at the docks. So we have always been impressed with the hard life of the sea-going man, with his two years before the mast, and sundry other difficulties. The oceans seem to have been peopled by Blighs and oldfashioned Queeg and

everyone had to eat weevilridden biscuits, briny water and keep a weather eye out for flying belaying pins. So we were Interested to hear about a conversation recently among three master mariners who were gathered together at Lyttelton. One of them was shore-based, and very naturally was inclined to mention to the others that he was on a good sort of lurk. When it came time for him to depart, he told the other two that he was going home to his wife, who would have a special meal ready for him, and

then he would enjoy the domestic comforts of cutting the lawn and sitting down to watch the television programmes. The seafaring men nodded silently. After he had gone, they finished their beer and went off to their respective ships—to see their respective wives, eat their respective speci-ally-prepared meals, and watch their respective television sets. And they felt some comfort from the fact that they would not be required to push lawnmowers about The sea just isn't what it used to be.