The new dominion. [volume] (Morgantown, W. Va.) 1876-1904, 1884-11-01
On Sea Stories,


As . man who went to sea in the
merchant service at the age of thirteen
and a half, and who stuck to the calling
to the age Of twenty, who for seven and
half years ate bad pork and beef,
scrubbed decks. slushed masts and un-
derwent the whole routine, from furling
the mizzen royal to helping to pass the
weather main topsail earring in days
when topsails We're single sails, I claim
right to complain with some bitter
ness OF soul of those writers who, know
ing nothing about the sea, write marine
stories in one, two or three volumes,
and so 90 ON sinking tho maritime lit
erature OF this country by another and
yet another stone fas .ened to it. Girls
may read of captains singing out to
"'vaat pumping" while the carpenter
peers with one eye down the we'll to see
how high the water stands in it; girls
may read of such things, say, and
consider with the author that the we'll
OF ship IS like the we'll in back yard;
and they may also read of the flying
jibboom having been furled during
squall, and of spare rudder having
been got out of the maintop when the
ship struck and flung the man at the
wheel down the forehatch; and they
can prettily wonder how men can be
found willing to enter into such dam
gerous calling as the ocean. But blum
ders OF this nature become very injuri-
GUS in course of time. Most circles
have nautical friends; the current sea
books are talked about, are cruelty
laughed at and dung to the boys, who
become critical, too, and absolutely dis
dainful, as | once saw a lad toss aside
one of the late Mr.. Kingston's books,
because of some errors in that gentle
mans description of sea fight. I tn nix
it was. So that my fear comes to this
that if sea novelists will not make up
their minds to go to sea as sailors and
learn to be correct, by pulling and haul
ing and going aloft and the like, even
the little boys will give us up, and the
end of it must be that the greatest
maritime Nat on in the world will have
no other marine literature but the
novels of Marryat and one or two
others: for we must remember that
Cooper, Dana and Melville belong to
the Americans Whether the stock of
novels we pos ess, so far as the navy is
concerned, will suffice, it is diicu.t to
conjecture. Our naval changes snce
the days of Marryat are so great that l
know of no condition Of the cd life
such as he wrote about that still lin
gers. Another Marryat would seem to
be wanted for this iron age; only, were
such another to arise, what will be his
materials? 1t must BIZ admitted that
there is very little romance to be found
in the Royal Navy now days. All the
old seamaulike conditions which one
expected to find on the quarter deck
have change their character. snd must
now be sought in the engine room.
Maneuvers are effected by propellers,
not by taoks and sheets and braces.
And, as ii there were not enough to ac-
centuate and utterly confirm the change
that has boeh worked by .he marine
engine, you have as great proportion
Of State ships the very ugliest vessels
that were everlaunched since the days
Of Noah's Ark. Besides there never
can be any more fighting as in tbs
days Of old. - ontsnspo arg Rerisw.