FAIR SEA CAPTAINS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LX, Issue 18374, 14 April 1923, Page 2 (Supplement)

FAIR SEA CAPTAINS.

COULD WOMEN COMMANDS m'JGLD SALT" BAYB NOT The Board of Trade has told th. », chant Service Guild •£££■, n > to prevent t, women ' roni^d?k£'-^SH master mariners and mates tI % gas has. been. But there are very-few sea captains in ;the^worldSS^^S think, in Great Britain Salt in a London paper. -^?iH Any woman of average int«n- ' • *-"' •' « pass : the navigation St o tfT tion Lots of women who an,^ Wn > i boating and the sea miriif L fo^. 0 { through the seamanship teSs-^J°^« To qualify one has in v.. anr,r„„*- ":"'•'.' for four years, or s^e^om 6 ySbPg the mast. A captain's wife ord™ s** sailing with ( him. might qualify W- W ' "signed on" technically as' / 5 hand, but I doubt if she^vould sfe? examiners. ; ■• * SBlls iy the ■■> There was, for instance, a fam„ ''-"-■ ammer at Cardiff whose pet tr ck i? * X " as a candidate < entered r&&»W* to yeU out in full quarter style! ■" All flat aback forrard! mafc *& you do,: sir?". :\ ;^|S : Many an experienced youngster fail-a" ' to pass that test, simple „ it * WBs# gJJ., would be no hope at all , for a girt X had only technically qualified. S *ggS Frankly, in the old sailing-ship dava lif woman could not possibly have taken her .'ticket.", It may be somewhat differed in steam. -Your old sailing ship S will tell you that steamship 8 hands £ merely housemaids, :. and that ■is :IaW«M true. They wash down decks, scrub ,22 work, and occasionally rig an awninSli sailor crafi .they know practically nothW ~ : Out iof > curiosity once I ; asked a deck hand in a liner to show me how to ma& a Turk s head. He said he would try to and out from i one of the quartermasters'Jll • woman might well be able to holdS job like that for four years— even a housemaid's job in an under-found tramp mv.a -. full gale of wind is something that would test the nerve.of any woman. ; Then, too, the men of the sea, whc iV 6r in sail or steam, are still the hard citizens of the world, who at times have to be" driven -ft; the point of the fist, or the toe of the boot, or the blunt end of a belaying pin. ...... I cannot, somehow, see a woman hand. ' ling any ; crew with which I - have ever sailed. Even a skip PW ' s wife has a difficult time oF it ' • although she does not come . into ' direct contact with the men, and .'as * general.; rule, ; her husband must be a ' ttooS-man-dnver.before he dare take her aflort. . - :: But to imagine a woman, unaided, 'trptl m § *? make ; a .;toughscrowd of Liverpool dock-rats" jump lively when the decks are < awash y and'?. the: ; cargo adrift" below—til well, candidly, it is beyond me!