The River Falls times. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1894-1933, 1897-09-14

THE SHIPKEEPER.
What His Duties Are-COurse of Life
ON u Ship in Port.

New York Sun: The shipkeeper is the
caretaker of the ship While she is in port.
He is likely to be a man who has fol-
lowed the sea; it may be in the employ of
the house whose vessel he now looks
after. He may have sailed before the
mast or he may have been a mate or
perhaps the master of q ship. Every
firm of large shipoWners or shipping mer-
chants has a shipkeeper of it's own, who
may have been thus employed by the
same house for years
The Shipkeeper goes aboard sometimes
when the ship arrives in the harbor, but
usually when she is first tied up to the
wharf. The crew is discharged the min
ute the ships lines are made fast, and the
captain goes Very soon, it is likely on the
same day. The ship may have come from
a China voyage, or a voyage to some
other distant seas, and have been gone
for months, and he starts for home as
soon as he can--dOWn East or wherever
it may be-there to remain until the ship
is nearly ready for sea again. Then the
shipkeeper is left in charge of the ship.
He is sometimes the sole occupant but
most owners keep one other person, a
man or a boy, aboard. If the additional
person is a man it is likely to be the
ships carpenter one of the crew en-
ployed for that purpose. The shipkeeper
lives aboard of the ship until she goes to
sea again. He may cook and eat all of
his meals aboard, or if there is a res
taurant close at hand ashore, he may
get his dinners there. He sleeps aft. He
does not sleep in the captains room, but
he takes his choice of the rooms of the
mate and the second mate, this being the
custom on the beach.
The shipkeeper is the Waterman of the
Ship and he looks after her in many ways
and sees that no harm comes to her. He
sees that the steyedoreS men don't drop
blocks on deck and that no injury of any
kind is done to her inboard. and ne sees
that no harm befalls her from tugs or
lighters or other craft. And he keeps the
ship in order He is more than likely to
be a man who knows a ship allow and
aloft, and to take a sailors pride in her,
and q personal pride in the ships of the
house that employs him. There are ship
keepers who are not over nice, shipkeep-
ers are just like other people in this re-
spect: but, as a rule they keep their ships
in perfect order.
Suppose you see in South street a fine
ship that takes your fancy and you walk
down the wharf to go aboard of her. If
you find the gangWay leading UP to her
side bright and clean, not even any dust
on it, the manrope a fresh, bright bit of
rope, brass manrope StanchiOn planted in
the rail handsomely polished, strips of
canvas laid upon the brasS-coVered treads
of the steps leading from the gangWay
platform up to the rail of the ship, upon
the brass-covered rail ITSELF and upon
the steps down to the deck within, why,
it really wouldn't be necessary to look
any further to know what kind of a ship
keeper was aboard here. But it you look
down the quarterback into the waist of
the Ship you will see there broad ex-
panse of deck as clean as any floor. 1T
you go forward and look, say, into the
hosting engine house, you find the engine
and the tank and the room itself newly
and tastefully painted and everything in
4Yiv. 6nly into thn er1l1 1c6
you will find that just the same; as clean
a kitchen as any you ever saw, arloat CT
ashore 1t is just the same everywhere
about the ship; the white paint is hite
and the brasswork is bright; and the
cabin is in perfect order; and the veteran
of the sea who keeps the ship in this
shape is proud of her, as he has a per-
feet right to be. She may have been tied
up at three or four wharveS, a as many
different points around the harbor, tow
ing here and there and discharging or
taking on cargo, but she's kept as trim
and handsome as though she were on ex-
hibition.
The ship is deep in the water when the
shipkeeper first steps over the rail; he
sees her rise as they take the cargo out
of her, until she is light, and stands, on
high tides, with her side high above the
wharf The shipkeeper stays aboard for
weeks. There may be days or longer
periods when there is nothing doing
aboard of her except what he does him
self, when the ship is silent; but sooner
or later they begin to fill her up again,
and from that on there is more or less
life aboard of her and alongside.
A week or ten days before the ships
sailing day the captain comes to town.
He visits the owners office and goes
down and sees the ship. He looks after
her stores and whatever other business
he may have to attend to. All this time
as the ship fills up she is going down in
the water again Two or three days be-
fore she sails the ringers come aboard
and bend her sails.
The crew was discharged the minute
she tied up; the new crew doesn't go
aboard until the last minute before she
sails 1t may be that the mate, the ex-
ecutive officer of the ship, comes aboard
late. He must know where everything
is, and the Shipkeeper can tell MIN. Thus
ii happens that sometimes the Sh1pkeeper
goes down the bay with the ship and
comes off with the pilot; but oftener his
duty is ended and he steps ashore as the
ship leaves the wharf.
The Suburban Juvenile Idea.
.sAre youse rich?"
Nav
ssYouse are! Youse owns four bicy.
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