LACK OF SEA OFFICERS.

Evening Post, Volume LXXIV, Issue 138, 7 December 1907, Page 13

LACK OF SEA OFFICERS.

WHY MATES APE SCARCE. The merchant service is just now suffering from a deuith of mates, says the London Tiibune, and the demand lor competent .md lcliable men, especially as second mates, is in excess of the supply. As a. natural consequence, Avapes liavo ribeu very considerably, and the tendency is still upward. This lack of joung officers doee not, of course, affect the great passenger linon,, which h.iA-c ahvays more applicants than vacancies, but the ordinary trading vesseh <n-o hard hit by it. Ihis applies especially to sleaiviPib A man Avho ha& not got hib "full ticket," or master's certificate, usually prefers to do his time "in sail." Tho \wtgcs are slightly less than ">n steam," but there are compensations. One of thef-o i& that beUveen his first and second examinations a budding captain must have snent one year at sea, and he can usually do this comfortably by signing on for a long voyage in a| sailing ship. A mau Avho lias got his ''ticket" has little difficulty noAvadays in getting a ship, and a good junior officer often has the refusal of moro than one appointment. Even the young man without a, "ticket," who is otherwise- Avell recommended,, is by no means out of the Tunning, and in an extremity may obtain a post as second male. The reasons lor the lack of officers aro not. hai'd to find. For one thing, feAver boys are going to sea to-day than formerly, perhaps because the go-ahead sort of life on the modern steamer does not appeal to the sea-struck youth like themore easy-going existence on tho sailingvessel Avhich is being rapidly superseded. And those who do make the venture seem to bo more easily and rapidly disillusioned. Further, and still more important, the Board of Trade examinations bnvo becomo so very stiff of late years that many j-ouths, eve;i after four years on a good ship, are quite unable lo pass even tbo first one.