"THE CALLING OF THE SEA."

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLIV, Issue 13453, 1 June 1907, Page 1 (Supplement)

"THE CALLING OF THE SEA."

'♦' ■ J L by c.n.c.w, One glance at the map 0/ the world, as L shown by Mercator's projection, will impress on the most- casual observer this fact 0 —that New Zealand's very existence depends upon the control of the seas being in a friendly or neutral hands in J times of war. 1 € England, history- tells us, after her victories over the Dutch and French fleets, v spread her dominions throughout the whole f world. She was the irresistible sea Power. } c The romance and glory of her naval achieve-! ments impregnated her peoples with thejj, enthusiasm which led to the planting of her flag in lands widely apart —from densely , populated tropical regions, where "eternal j summer dwells,'' to the lonely wastes of ice and snow, where, the mighty Erebus up- \ rears his burning head in the ghostly gloom t of an Antarctic night. Great Britain still! holds that dominion by the power of her c navy, the patriotism and valour of her sons, j I and we of New Zealand are dependent on that navy to repel any attempted aggression 1 on the part of hostile Towers. Our fate* as a nation depends on the successful upholding of British naval supremacy. j v The possession of largo reserves of train- 1 led seamen in time of acute stress has ever been Britain's salvation. Though times have' j altered, and we no longer trust in oaken walls, but in mighty floating fortresses ofL steel, the need is still the same, only more;; so. In Nelson's day recruits had time to I get their sea legs and their sea nerves.; j Weeks, months, perhaps years, elapsed bo- ■ j fore they could close with an enemy. If I war comes in Sir John Fisher's day recruits will be in the fighting line inside of h forty-eight hours, and the fate of an Empire may be decided in a week. 1 What can we do to help our country in I ' the time of need, we who cannot find enough men to man our home trade and coastal vessels in these weak, piping times of peace''' I There is no training that can take the place !of* sea-training. There is no calling that: trains the hands to act and act rightly.! ! instinctively, without apparent thought, like that of the sea. You can train a man ashore to be a. highly disciplined automaton,j but if you put a wrong coin, in the. slot it j won't work: and what is the. use of a man with a profound knowledge of gunnery ashore, who would be coiled down left- 1 handed with sea-sickness if called upon to; man a 'gun afloat The Germans, inland-bred for the-most part, are making the most strenuous efforts! in maritime, affairs. They arc keenly alive to the fact that a great Meet without great j j reserves of men to draw upon is an anomaly - jwitness their subsidised steamers cutting J into British colonial trade, every man of the crew a German subject, capable of taking his place in the German Imperial navy at a moment's notice; their admirable system of training young officers and seamen, as evidenced by the visit of the N.G.L. training-ships Sophie and Charlotte to Auckland. The writer was aboard her- r three years ago in Melbourne, and her system of training is beyond cavil, or praise. Every' [ inducement is made to keep seamen afloat. Japan is now holding that position in the ' Pacific that England has held for centuries lin the Atlantica position that she is making assured and unassailable. The undisputed control .of the seas that divide her j'from the Acontinent gives her coinmer-; i I cial and maritime'advantages .that no other , nation can successfully challenge in ; the . North Pacific, a position which site is hour- ' ly strengthening, by enormously increasing 1 her naval reserves through the medium of I training squadrons. - -• - ■», Week by week we have pointed but in one > or another of our daily or weekly journals , the growing. disinclination of our youth and c manhood to adopt the sea as a profession. > View Auckland Harbour on a Saturday I afternoon; you will see hundreds of young i men afloat in craft of very description, the s love of sport, adventure, ( strong, ' within . them, bound for a cruise to ports all over ' the Hauraki Gulf; yet of all that number f you would scarcely find one who actually 5 makes his living by the sea. With our i interests so vitally bound up in our maritime 1 trade, to what cause are we to look for the s neglect of our native-born population to folt low the sea as a calling'/ Impatience of , discipline or restraint is undoubtedly one cause. Another most potent cause is that 3" the old-time glamour of the sea is worn 3 [threadbare- by modern methods of commtmi- , j cation. The romance of foreign parts has i died out. The days of the tea clipper, 6tune j sails set alow and aloft, her wmte wings -| gleaming in the tropical sun, threading the ,! intricacies and dangers of the Java seat -i unknown, uncharted waters to be traversed t|—pirates to be avoided or fought, long spells i in strange, weird places of the earthare 5 j days that are gone for ever. Our direct - j trade to the Indies and China is so small ? j that few New Zealanders ever get that ?\ nameless spell that traffic in the great ports i of the East casts over men, and which ren--3 j ders them ever after skives to the sea. A l I few\ youths, bolder than the rest, try a trip to Australia— out, coal home. 3 They see but little -.new, and the spell of t sea life is too short to make them love their 1 profession. They get ashore in disgust, to ,! give it as their pronounced, matured opinion, as travelled men, that the game is no n ! class. ■'--•; , : .. ... '..... The modern, unlovely tramp steamer has 1; taken the place of her lovely prototype, 8 dingy of .aspect, with winches rattling fore '.- and aft, belching smoke from her turrets, '• tearing the cargo out or rolling it in, no o sooner loaded than lines off and away on t her mission of money -making; no time for ', leisure or romance about her. We have not '•, much tc thank our modern writers of sea t stories for. Butlen, who can so charm us ', with" his vivid description of the sea in - storm or calm, entrancing us with his prose d poems descriptive of the denizens of the h deep, merely harrows our feelings with his r vivisections of the minds, manners, and s morals of the seaman of his day— race alt ready nearly extinct. Other writers, nor I- omitting a certain section of the press, conh tinue to represent sailors, fishermen, and d others who go down to the sea in ships, as g of necessity a combination of knave, fool, a and brute in the first place, and secondly, 1- a habitual drunkard from choice. These t are ideas that want weeding out of the pubn lie mind, as, on the whole, the seaman coms pares not unfavourably with any other worke ing class in intellect, honesty, and sobriety. n Sentiment, romance, and patriotism set 7 aside, let us look to the material and coma mercial aspect of the case. A farm "hand e at twenty or twenty-five shillings a week s has a poorer-paid job. His hours axe •1 longer, la's work harder and dirtier, accoin--0 modation and "tucker" generally inferior Y his opportunities tc save less, and of ad--1 vancement nil. In comparison with the e coastal seaman's lot the landsman has the c worst of it on all points, even in the matter a of risk of life. In the big mail steamers oi s the Union line the pay, food, and accommo--1 dation are still more'in favour of the sea- , man. When we reflect that there are some , 40,0000 alien seamen in British ships, who t in time of war would not only be of no use . to us, but be a probable source of danger i and menace, all thinking people mi. st agree y that it is time both Government and indivie duals should make some determined effort r to remedy the present evils, and to. popular- . ise the sea as a calling. To point out the 0 various means that could be adopted tc i bring about the desired change „ would uns duly prolong-this article. If, however, it d has but the effect of arousing public interest s and inquiry, which may eventually lead to e the recognition of the fact that it" is essen- ', tial to man New Zealand ships with New t Zealand men, to the exclusion of unnaturald ised aliens, it will not have been written in lvain,