SAILORS' LETTERS

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 3032, 20 March 1917, Page 6

SAILORS' LETTERS

i~sMAIL DAY AT SEA (From the "Daily Mail.") "Mail, ho!" cheerily sings out the quartermaster,, standing by the ai'lergun. Two simple words, but with great magic in them. Heads instantly come popping up in all parts of our little ship. There follows a general scurry to 'the side, and eyes turn eagerly in the direction in which--the quartermaster points.

•"Whaur is she?" asks Stoker M'Bean, thrusting a grimy, visage through the manhole which gives entrance to the region of nether fires in which M'Bean and ochors of his ilk labour strenuously (luring their turns "on watch." "Away yonder," answers a signalman. "'Gie's a call when she's alongside," and M'Beanls coaly features disappear- for the time. But for one face withdrawn a dozen others show up. As though attracted that way by a magnet, all eyes turn towards the approaching vessel; our whole ship's company is agog with excitement. If you want to know why the coming of this stronger arouses such interest, the anewer is that she is the mail boat bringing our letters from home —and just what that, means to the war-exiled sailor man, well, you have got to be one of fcinr to understand. During the wait for the vessel's arrival one overhears men'wondering. "What's.she got for me?" Also plenty of chaffing remarks about "tailor's bills," "breach of promise writs," and other unwanted things go "chivvying" around. But in spite of this indiscriminate "jollying," which is merely the. spray on the surface, everyone in his innermost soul feels hotly anxious as to what there may be for him in the bulging sacks which he sees piled up on the mail-boat's decks. For the sailor, who sees home least of any man, loves it most of all.

A Solemn Ritual. At last the mails are alongside and willing hands hoist them inboard. Then comes a tense .period of expectancy as the skipper sorts over the contents of the bf*.s. Every man who can do so attends the distribution, and in the next few minutes one sees a picture worthy the brush of a, great artist—that would, in fact, be a splendid subject for such a one. , A little pilo of official letters is pushed aside. They can wait until all the others have been given out. His own private ones the skipper lays apart as he comes to them, promising himself a glorious halfhour in his cabin with ethese welcome companions as soon as he can get away with them, and the higher the pile the happier ho looks. "Petty-Officer calls the skipper. • "Here, sir," and a brawny hand shoots out. Tho letters are thrust into it and Sanders turns' joyfully away. "Simpson, A.8.," and another eager hand darts from the waiting circle; -"M'Bean, stoker." "That's me, sir," and into M'Bean's oily paw a parcel is given. "High tea in th' mess to-night, Sandy," jocularly remarks a messmate. "A'll see what's inside afore a tells ye that," camiily answers Sandy. And so the distribution goes on until the "post" is cleared. For one a. bundle of papers and a letter fr.om "the missus," for another a_ parcel with "some o' mother's cooking" insido it. To' watch the faces of tEose who have received letters and are reading thorn afforde an interesting study in. expressions. As they go off with their treasures (Teal treasures, too, mind you, that will be carefully preserved in ditty boxes,' read ,and reread dozens of times), their features fairly glow wifli varying emotions. And the countenances of those to whom tho mail brings frothing! Well, if ever one saw disappointment writ large it is upon them. "" "Gimme: your envelope," asks one such of a chum who has just opened a. letter. Tho envelope is handed over, and the recipient, after leading the address from various angles, scans the postmark and tries to solace his longings by figuring out when the missive was posted and how long it took to reach its destination. Now you must know that to a sailor reading a letter ifrom home becomes somewhat of a ritual. Ho does not do it in the casual fashion in vogne among shore folk. First ho turns the envelope over and'over, feels its thickness, examines the. postmark, then carefully rips open the flap, and for the next five minutes or so. grows oblivious to all things around him. "Listen, Bill," exclaims.a burly tar as he proceeds to read out a. passage describing something -which."my little Maggie" has said or done. "She's only a kid.o' five, y' know," ho adds in a tone of proud fondness which shows that to her far-away daddy "Maggie" is the most wonderful little girl Tn the whole world: Thus encouraged, Bill retails a passage from his letter, 'and so the' exchanges continue, the men who' Tvero letterless gradually sidling up and listening with hungry ears to those tit-bits from home. * ■■** Efforts in Verse.

■•. Frequently a sailor whose correspondence contains nothing of a very private nature will push it across to a messmate with tho request, "Tako a read at that." This the messmatji will promptly do with as much interest as if the whole tiring had been written to him personally. Rarely does one find a man churlish enough to keep all the good things to _ himself, and this good-natured "lending" of letters or publishing their contents gocs'far to make up for the slackness of less fortunate chums' friends. Sailors' correspondents, especially of the gentler sex, frequer&iy drop into poetry. "Hear this, Jim, says a young A.8., reading from a letter from his girl. "She sex: " 'Tho sky , is high, the 'sea is deep, A sailor's heart is hard to keep; For when you think you have him won, He'll leave'you where you first be/run.' "What d'you think o' that, eh?"

"P'raps she's hnerd o' ynu cuttin' loose wi' them Scorp gals on th' Rock?" suggests Jim, humorously and the A.B. grins as he dipa back into his letter.

Only a sample, this, of the verse which" such letters contain. Probably not 10 per cent, cf the amatory ones are without some such effusion; fliough they arc noue the less welcome for that. V

It goes without saying that tho post does not always bring pleasant news, even to a sailor. Bui viowr-d in its broad aspect, hnai! -day is joy day aboard ship. And th's. should.have its lesson for the pc-ople at. home. If only these would re'ali e i> how anxiously the arrival of the mail-boat is looked forward to, what extreme pleasure a letter from friends asher* jives to the men in far-away, seas fighting for the home they have not seen ifor probably' over a , cpuple of years and may never see again; how even the most inconsequential chit-chat is welcomed with svidity so 10 - ig as it is about homo, thov would 'lpvor-on'it. \c. writ"!.