Harried Out Instructions.

Otago Witness, Issue 2840, 19 August 1908, Page 91

Harried Out Instructions.

Every -sailor has his story of the mistakes which "landlubbers" make over -the naine6 of -things at eea, -which .always «eem to be exactly the -opposite of what they are on land.

A. .new] boy had come on board ■& West India ship, upon which a, painter had also been employed to paint the ship's side. The painter was at work upon a staging suspended under the ship's stem.

The captain, who. had just got into a boat alongside, called -out to the new boy, who*"stood leaning over the rail: "Let go tb© painter !""

-Everybody should know that a boat's painter is "the rope which makes it fast, but this boy did not know it. He ran aft and let go -th-e ropes by which the painter's staging was held. Meantime the captain w-a/5 "wearied with waiting to be eaet off. "You rascal!" he called, '"why don't you lot go the painter?'"' " He's gone, sir." said the boy briskly ; "he's gone — pots, brushes, and all!"