WOMEN AT SEA.

Dunstan Times, Issue 3135, 18 September 1922, Page 8

WOMEN AT SEA.

JMion the London barge Pacific, laden doe,, Vvitli oilcake, ran into a gale oft Dungeness, only the great help rendered by tlie captain's wife enabled the vessel to bravo the storm. The w'ptjim, the , 11; ,te, and this woman, were tiie whole of the crew. Imagine a emit carrying over 100 tons oi heavy cargo, her masts towering some /0 ft. above the deck, seas washing her from stem to stern—and that brave woman toiling at the sails what time the two men clung dearly to the helm. She was as good as "a, man any dav.

Lots of women, just as brave as this one, put to sea in the everyday course of things. Most of them arc the wives ol bargees, not the bargees that spend their time pottering along the canals, but bargees who sail their big vessels into deep waters, who are masters of navigation, who know what a gale of wind is.

•Such women were probably brought op on :i barge— a canal barge. Time paused and they married one of their Ivind. they became, indeed, sea women. A°t that they spend all their time at sea. Many a bargee would hesitate ere lie would take bis wife sailing with Inin, not, perhaps, so much from chivalry, ns because lie reckons tho barge too much like a home when Ins wife is about! Hut some bargees simply can’t keep their wives at home. No, thev must put to sea with them. Of course, dioinestie duties are their chief concern, washing. cooking, and cleaning up generally. J often wonder why it is people talk about “dirty old barges.” Jdave they seen many, or are their coni'lll sains 1 drawn from the casual viewing cl some really old l barge lying neglected at a, wharf? T think I could "Pen then- eyes. And thank the hairgee s wife lor such clean, spick and *pan vessels. I heir cooking and cleaning over, the bargee« wife will take her “trick” at t(K' wheel with any seaman. She puts on an old coat belonging to her hushand, ties a handkerchief round her heai,. and then she is ready to weather tajie Horn if necessary. An incongruous note is struck bv a line of washing flapping breezily from the mainmast. proving her a woman of main ac--11 VltfC'Sb .And if di flic u I ties arise, the bargee’s "i e is capable to meet them. Not for nothing is she a bargee’s daughter. Sho !)"' -"'V ful the barge up into ie M iud—db a, hundred and one things it you would never suspect she could • * - - hor excursions' arc made I" mmmor, Hut summer is not imii ime roni sudden, and fierce, gales litih hT™ 'IT l ,ort - b,,s >’ with her Ilk home, attending to the wants of hc , Ja.n , ly-l o r she is a family woman (oil| ,}ll r’*| re t t,IC Il<?ro, ' c ‘ l tales vet to be sJ) ! ' * K> l,a Ws wife at sea,. Had ' <m board the Pacific tho V the chances arc that that m>nd slop might never have weathered 1 1"'storm asi bravely as she did.