OUR HERITAGE: THE SEA.

White Ribbon, Volume 23, Issue 270, 18 December 1917, Page 1

OUR HERITAGE: THE SEA.

From the very dawn of history we catch glimpses of man standing on the shores of the illimitable ocean, gazing out over its wide expanse, then launching his tiny skiff and putting forth upon its oosom, hugging the shore closely. From the first the fight has been severe, man at one time exulting that old ocean had been

conquered, and then the mighty waves arising in their fury and sweeping away his handiwork, as “without a groan he sinks into their depths, unknelled, uncofhned, and unknown ’ The ancient Greek found a pathway o’er the sea to found colonies, linked to the motherland only by th" tinv vessels that went to and fro over the watery way. To the Jew the sea meant separation and danger, and the Seer of Patmos tells of a heavenly

city in which there shall be “no more sea.’’ Contrast with til's the joyful < ry of the ic.ooo Greeks, “Oahatta! Oahatta” —“The sea ! The sea ! as once more they beheid its b'ue waves after their toilsome journey over the .sands and mountains of Asia. The Phoenician, on gain intent, launched his vessels, and boldly sailing through the Pillars of Hercules, biaved the storms of the nrghty At-

lantic, and brought tin from the Scilly Isles to his native land. Carthage, Tyre’s proud daughter, fought for years with the young Republic of Rome for supremacy in the Mediterranean, until the v ords of Cato, “Delenda est Carthago,’ were literally fulfilled, and proud Carthage was a heap of ruins. The supremacy of the sea lingered long round the shores of the Mediterranean. Venice, (ienoa. the Knights of Malta (the SeaKings of the Mediterranean) in turn held sway. Rut the introduction to Europe' in the fifteenth century of the mariner’s compass made possible longer vov ages. Columbus and Cabot crossed the Atlantic; Bilboa sailed out on the breast of the mighty Pacific; and Hawkins and Frobisher dared the boundless icefields of the frozen North in their effort to find a .northwest passage to India. England < urly turned her attention to navigation. The wise Allred offered an earldom to any man who made a voyage in his own vessel. In the veins of English mariners there flowed the blood of sturdy Saxon and bold Norseman, and with this heritage came the free spirit of the old sea rovers, their love for the sea, their delight in conquering its wild moods, and their pleasure in its calm waters. Almost every part of his land is w ithin sound of its waves; they sing his cradle song, they tempt his youthful feet into paths of adventure, and lure his maturer years with hope of.gain. Th n came the great colonising movement of the 17th and iXth centuries. Streams of people left the Old Land, some to find “freedom to worship Cod.” others led by the lure of wealth. To keep freedom to trade it was necessary that ‘Britannia should rule the waves.” Blake, Nelson, and Collingwood laid the foundations of our naval supremacy. But as Britain became moru and more a manufacturing nation, and less and less an agricultural country, so her dependence on over sea dominions to feed her people increased, and so the necessity to keep open trade routes became more imperative. Our Navy did its work well, and when the Kaiser let loose the dogs of war, the British Navy was ready, if its Army was not. But war is a different thing now from that which Nelson and Blake fought. The deadlv submarine and the mines

strewn “ ’nearh the billows dark’’ have taught the mariners to look for danger under the waves as well as upon them. In the dark and foggy seas around England the braVe mine-sweepers are ever on the alert to keep the way safe for troopship and cargo boat alike. Hardy men they are, stern and strong and rugged as the mountains of their Northern land. They dare alike the icy storms of winter and the dangers of the mine-strewn sea. They go out on the lonely deep, and often the call comes to them there; no flourish of trumpet announces their brave deed, and no lament is sung over their lonely graves beneath the waves. \V* r fl may they sing to their foes—* ‘‘With mouldering bones the deep is white, From the ice-clad Pole to the tropics bright, And the mermaid hath twisted her fingers cold In the mesh of the seaboy’s curls of gold; And the gods of the ocean have frowned to see The mariners’ beds in their halls of glee. Hath earth no graves that ye must sow The boundless sea for the thronging Xdftad?” A cry from these brave lAen has come ringing over the sea, travelling half-way round the globe. We have heard the call, and their great need has appealed to mother hearts here; and in response to their need have gone cases of warm clothing and much that may alleviate the miseries of their lot. Now, while they pur>ue their lonely calling, with wintry gales raging around them, and howling seas below them, they will know that far away, in the sunny isles of the Pacific, women are "thinking of them, and working and praying for them. Freely we have received here. May we freely give to helj> the needy.