SHIPS AS PEDLARS

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1509, 31 January 1901, Page 18

SHIPS AS PEDLARS

THE QUEER Sxx/a* OF A QUEER

LIFE.

The man with a pack on his back, trudging from village to village and offering for sale at .cottage and farm-house doors a miscellaneous collection of wares, has his counterpart in the ocean pedlar, ranging in size from a trim schooner trading among the islands Qf the Pacific, to a steamer of one or twh thousand tons 'burden. Unlike the ocean “tramp?’ that steams in ballast from one port to another in quest of a charter, the ocean pedlar start® out from Hamburg or San Francisco, the chief home ports of the trade, with a definite object in view. Sailing from the former city the course is generally laid either to the coasts of Africa or South America, having in the hold a varied assortment of goods likely to he marketable in the regions visited—cotton fabrics, trinkets, arms, ammunition, liquors, and all spar© room filled! up with. coal. As the largest profits are often derived! from the sale of contraband. munitions of war to insurgent bodies, their detection by regular authorities would! lead! to instant confiscation; several rounds of cartridges are probably done up in innocent-looking cases stamped “Corned Beef,” and a few stands of discarded German army rifles in packages labelled, “Glass—With Care.” The captain of such a vessel must pos_ sess not only ability as a navigator, hut an expert knowledge of the requirements of his trade, in addition to a plausible tongue wherewith to successfully barter his wares and win over the goodwill of an ill-disposed commandant. If he does not own an interest in the ship herself, it is generally required that he shall do so in her ventured cargo.

Trudging along over the ocean at a seven or eight-knot palce, saving the coal as much as possible, the pedlar opens” his trade by casting anchor in, say, a South or Central American port, when, having “squared” the commandant, he invites local merchants and others on board to inspect his stock. Duty, of course, has to be paid, by the purchaser, but in certain cases that difficulty is often overcome by the visitor

to the ship coming ashore swollen out, perhaps, to three times his normal size by as many new suits of clothing! The greatest good fortune that can fall in the way of an ocean pedlar ls for a British or American man-of-war to put into some out-of-the-way port in which he is lying, short of coal. Then from Ms spare stock ho sells a feu 7 hundred tons at as hard a bargain as the necessity of the purchaser permits him to drive. On the Central American coast the pedlar usually times his visit at about the commencement of the coffee season, that is, early in the new year, so that when ho has sold out his wares he is able to load up, almost to the water line, with the principal export of the country and crawl off home round Cape Horn. That the ocean peddling trade is not without its dangers is illustrated by a story told by a mate of one of those vessels.

In order to preserve his. respectable character the contraband goods are sometimes obliged to be stored in places likely to escape the_ vigilant eye of the customs officer, and. in the case in question, the mate’s bunk was chosen as the safest repository for certain packages of dynamite consigned to the leaders of a Nicaraguan* revolution All went well until the night- before the ship was due to arrive at her destination. when a fearful thunderstorm broke over the vessel—the lightning, playing ■about the masts in a most alarming manner. The mate confessed that the idea of turning in upon a bed of dynamite under such circumstances was not conducive to peaceful repose, even to one accustomed to sleep through all manner of dangers; but with the reflection that if a flash found its way to his bunk he would not be / likely to he made aware of the fact, he slumbered serenely through his watch below, and! next- day delivered the “'preserved tomatoes” safe_ ly to the consignee. The ocean peddling trade on the Pacific has been shorn of much of its profit since the inter-island passenger traffic in natives —who too often were .carried as passengers much against their will, to dive for pearls on the great Australian Bank—has been effectually suppressed. Still, a considerable trade is carried on in peddling small articles of hardware. Cheap chromes, old clothes, personal trinklets, and an occasional case of “dry goods,” which if seized, would turn out to be remarkably wet.