FALSE IDEALS OF SEA LIFE.

Lake Wakatip Mail, Issue 1518, 5 February 1886, Page 3

FALSE IDEALS OF SEA LIFE.

The oceau is the theatre of more interest than boys would care to follow. We laugh with Marryatt; we read Cooper tor his " plots;" we fiud much that is dashing and flattering to our patriotism in the " Tom Bowlings," and " Will Watches," and " Tough Yarns," and "Topsail Sheetblocks ;" in the sprawling and fighting and drinking school ot sea yarns ; but when we turn to Dana and Melville, we find that the real life of the sea is nt to be l'ouud between yellow covers adorned with catching cuts; that all the rouiauce docs not lie in cocked hats and epaulets, but that by far the largest proportion of the sentiment' the pythus of the deep, the bitterness and suffering of the sailor's life, must be sought in the gloomy forecastle of the humble coaster, in the deckhouses of the deep-laden cargo steamer, in the crew's dwelling-place on board the big ship trading to Australia and India ana China.

It is because two or three writers have kept tbeir eye steadfastly on this walk of the marine calling, and it is because all the rest who have written about the sea have represented the sailor as a jolly, drinking, dancing, skylarking fellow, that the shore-going public have come to get the wildest, the aDsurdest notion of Jack's real character and professional life.

Tor one who reads Dana and Melville thousands read Marryatt, and Michael Scott, and Chamier, and Cuppies, and Neale.

It is in these books that we find Jack always on the broad grin, always smart in pumps for cutting capers, always yarning and smoking, and lounging, unless drubbing the French. " Pass the grog," he says *

l'uss the gro4 ! piss the grog! your sailor is a j 'lly dou, Ever laughing, ever gay, sings at night and works b\ day; Cares no more for wourd* and wealth Than doctors for their patient's health.

> es, he is always passing the grog, and singing all night, with lovely Sue to join the chorus! And jthis great maritime nation has for generations accepted all this sort of thing as true of Jack's calling, just as on the stage they dress up a man meant to play the part of a merchant sailor in the dress of a naval blue-jacket. But it is the nautical novelist who has misled the public, who, knowing perfectly what is right, has deliberately melodramatioed the unfortunate sailor, whether mercantile or naval, until readers look with incredulity upon the truthful portraits offered them by such men as Dana and Melville, and refuse to regard any representation of a nautical man as correct uuless he is constantly swearing, constantly getting tipsy, constantly speaking a language crowded with marine expressions ; and unless he makes his bow in

a tarpaulin hat at the back of his head, a laniard round his neck, an immense collar down his back, and a pair of feet scarcely visible in the bellmouthed trousers which run extravagantly tight to his hips.