THE MODERN SAILOR.

Sun (Christchurch), Volume I, Issue 107, 11 June 1914, Page 10

THE MODERN SAILOR.

Jt seems that some of the most interesting testimony before the Committee on Merchant Marine and Fisheries on the Seamen's Bill came out toward the close of the hearings which were brought to a» end on March 12 (says a Home paper). Among the last to appear to protest against the impractical features in this measure were Captain J. W. Proctor, of the American Bureau of Shipping, and Captain J. G. Crowley, president of the Coastwise Transportation Company. The latter declared that present-day sailors got better food, as a rule, than most of those who were listening to this testimony, and Captain William .1. Hunt, of Cleveland, a veteran lake shipmaster, asserted that sailors had dropped from a hardy life with tackle, oilskins, and sea boots to a mere creature wearing thin socks, low tan shoes, and straw hat. He scornfully told the committee that the sailors of to-day actually h%l to be provided with ladders when they paint ships. He said the reason his people did not drill their boat crews during stormy weather was that they did not want to lose men and be prosecuted for it. In other words, present-day A.B.'g have become '.' tenderfeet," as it were, to use a landsman's term.