THE STEAMER STEWARD.

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume I, Issue 144, 3 June 1911, Page 4 (Supplement)

THE STEAMER STEWARD.

When th»i ship's band plays "CnU Du. Mein Schatz, Bleibst Hier,” the thrilled passenger, says Mr Jonas Howard, in tho “Chicago Tribune,” looks up to the first-class deck and vows t.nav if he ever plays in a band it will be his ambition to play in a "deep sea” band and toot his horn in harmony with the. thunder of the rolling billows. That is the first moment, away from the dock. Strangely enough at the table he recognises in the smiling waiter who brings him his boiled cabbage and potato salad the same man who blew the slide trombone so. heroically on the upper deck an hour before. A few’ hours later, when lie is lying prone in his berth, wondering just how sick a man can get, a white junketed figure slips into his stateroom, arranges a few towels, and seizes on the bed clothes of his neighbour’s berth to straighten them out. in his absence. “Who are you?” asks the miserable passenger. “1 am the state room steward,” tht» white figured one replies, and as ho turns you recognise the trombone man again. Oace more at the evening concert in the cabin yon find him blowing Jus horn, and if you happen to pass the galley after a meal vou will find him just as busily washing the uishes.

There is no single individual in the «ervi-e of the public from the stoker down who is perforce so versatile in his attainments and so enduring in his service. _ His hours are from five in the morning_until ten at night, his pay’ on the foreign-owned lines average about £3 a month, and the steward in secondclass 'does not double his wages from his tips and the fund that is raised among the passengers to-pay the-Land ~ Stewards have been known to sleep, eighteen in a triangular room sixteen feet long, and eleven wide, with two small port-holes for ventilation. They must wait at the table at breakfast, previously having set it, then they wash the dishes. Next they make up the beds, then serve the little luncheon on deck which comes alwut ten o’clock. Next they arrange the table for lunch, wait upon the table, wash the dishes on some lines, and eat their own lunch. In the middle of the afternoon there is another light luncheon vhi-h they must sene, fhen they set the tables for dinner, which they" siihr(m<n'ly serve. After getting the remnants m:t of -gbi and eating their own meal they give a concert from eight to ten. after which they are fr.-e to nd the nicht as they please. In spite of afi this hard work a"

?the degrading treatment which they ’ receive from many passengers, one i finds scores of intelligent, well educated ! youths, otf the German lines especially, , i>nd one wonders how the lines manage ! to inveigle them into tlieir service.. For ; the most part they are enterprising i boys who are eager to see the world ! after they have left their gymnasium or ; universities,, and have not the means : to travel, so they put to sea as stewards, content to end tin, th; abuses ami , hardships of the life for the glimpses they get of the various ports. dm* bov from Berlin whom a pas- ' senger interviewed some time ago had ; run away from home and gone into ' the service of the Hamburg-American j line s>? that his parents might not know that he was doing menial labour. His family was one of aristocratic tenI dencies. hut too poor to send him on i his travels in the projier style. Had I they known that he had adopted a life i so degrading in their eyes, it would i have broken their hearts, he said, but he was accomplishing his purpose. In two years he had served op six different branches of the Hamburg lines and had ■;een airucst every port from the Far East to the Atlantic coast of America.