The Kindliness of Sailor Folk.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XXVI, Issue II, 12 January 1901, Page 58

The Kindliness of Sailor Folk.

How is it that seafaring men. whatever may be their position or occupation, are invariably the best natured and most unselfish of mortals? Have you, my friend, the reader, ever met a disobliging sailor man, woman (remember the stewardesses), or boy? The writer hereof has sailed in many craft of all sorts and sizes, over some hundreds of thousands of miles, in different quarters of the globe, and never yet has he met sea-folk who were not obliging and good-natured to a degree far from common with we landlubbers. A crusty exterior you will, I grant, meet with occasionally, and but for a ehance circumstance it might lead you into the error of thinking you had indeed made a discovery of a sulky sailor, but if you have time enough it only needs a day or so probably—usually a few hours —and accident or circumstance will clearly demonstrate your mistake, and show jou that the erust, like that on some choice wine, merely covers and denotes the quality of the vintage. You must of course handle such an one with the consideration you bestow on the crusted wine; roughly or unskilfully taken in baud you will spoil the one just as surely as you ruin the other. But in either case you have only your own carelessness or stupidity to blame. No, whether it is in some terrible catastrophe, when unselfish courage shines like a lamp in the desolation, whether it is in the sympathy they show for that common incident of their everyday life, the sea-sick passenger, or whether it is in the thoroughness with which they endeavour to promote the comfort and enjoyment of those who are their temporary companions, the good nature, the gentleness, and the unselfishness of the sailor-folk stands out and wins our admiration. A sailor never laughs at a suffering seasick person-—that piece of minor brutality he leaves to shore folk—but you will see them go out of their way day after day to endeavour to mitigate the suffering of persons whom they never knew an hour before, and whom they may never see again. And where is the town or country host who. if you are on pleasure bent, win put himself to one-hundredth part of the trouble which a sailor does for a chance acquaintance. who as often as not forgets to thank him for his courtesy? The incident recalling these reflections was a recent excursion to Kawhia. It was not of importance in itself, bnt the attitnde and characteristics of the master and men of th* Gairloeh were the characteristics of their entire class and may there-

fore merit brief attention, 'there was not a soul of that ship’s company wteo did not put himself out to insure the comfort and enjoyment of the excursionists in a manner which few hosts would do for their dearest ar most influential guests. From the captain, who took a private little pulling-boat and converted himself into a tireless and indefatigable ferryman, to the deck hands who cleaned fish and did odd jobs for inept passengers, as if they enjoyed the addition to their other arduous work, each person on board put himself, and his goods and chattels, too, at the service of the landsmen. -As for the mates, who shall tell of their exertions? It is so on all setups. but the good people of the Gairloeh beat the record in this respect. Surely, then, the sea must have au influence on character and be a sort of forcinghouse for the social excellencies? Would that we could get away for a year or so. some of us. and see if it would make us as amiable, and give us their thoughtfulness and consideration for others.