The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1897-11-14

most of the other ports the list is be-
low 80. The numbers are vigorously
kept down to these figures by the mem
bers of the different associations,
without whose consent no boy can be-
come even an apprentice.
To become cub" which is the
name given to pilot apprentices, a boy
must be strong enough to stand hard
work and exposure. He must be ia
miliar with the sea to the extent of
being able to row a boat, and prefer
ably he should know something about
a sailing vessel. Often he is a boy who
has served a year as cabin boy on a
coasting steamer. When he finally gets
his berth on one of the pilot schooners
his duties are far from pleasant.
The boy must scrub down the decks
under the direction of the boatkeeper.
He must help the cook in the capacity
of general scUlliOn. He must run err
rands for all the pilots on board and
as there are frequently six or seven
of these, this alone is enough to keep
him fairly busy. Then in his odd mo-
ments he is expected to learn to set and
reef sails and be OF general assistance
in the sailing of the schooner. He is
the first one up in the morning, and it
is generally late at night when he
crawls into his hard berth, lame and
/ tired and glad of the chance Of few
hours sleep, which may very likely be
/ interrupted by the necessity of helping
to put a pilot off to a passing ship.
And yet, if he has the making of good
pilot in him, he would not trade his
! place for any other that he knows of.
! He is like the sea gulls that sweep
past him, and, like them, he would pine
away if placed in cage, or on land,
/ which, to a true sailor, is the same
thing.
The first lesson that the cub has 20
learn is not to fear the sea in its
angriest moments. He must stand on
the deck of these little pilot boats when
she sinks in the trough of heavy sea
with a mountain of green water hang
/ ing above her, threatening to fall ard
engulf all on board, or when she hal
ances on top of a mighty swell as help
| less as a chip on a roaring flood. 1t
! takes a boy of more than ordinary
nerve to keep from wishing himself
safe on land at such time. but what
would the most daring fresh water
sailor think if asked to put off in a
| rOWboat at such a time? Yet this is
one of the pilots ordinary duties. No
matter how boisterous the sea, the dis
play light which reads, I'VE want a
| pilot" when hung at a vessels mast
head, means that he must send his
yawl across to the vessels side, and one
! of the oarsmen selected to put him
| there is usually the cub. This is one
| of the first tests of the pilot boy. If he
falters or turns pale, the men may not
openly chide him. but he will feel that
he has earned their silent condemna
ton
You see, the pilot boy must have in
L,
hundred tales told by the old seadOgs
of Sandy Hook and Cape Charles and
every other port along our coast show
that he usually has. A typical instance
which I heard related a few days ago
occurred in the great blizzard of 1888
! That was a storm that no skipper along
the Atlantic coast will ever forget, FOR
many brave man and more than enc
good ship went down into watery
grave in that wild March hurricane.
Pilot boat No. 4 of the Sandy Hook
fleet was caught in the storm. She was
almost manned" at the time; that is,
she had put off all but one of her pilots,
and only three men, this pilot, the host
! keeper and the cub were on board. The
tight little boat lived through the storm
all right though men and ship came out
of it with a coating of ice that made
them a sort of floating berg. When
the storm had partly cleared away, on
the second morning, and While the sea
was still running desperately high, No.
4 sighted a schooner evidently in dis
tress. 1t was learned afterward that
a heavy sea had gone clear over her.
| washing away three of her men, and
leaving only two, who were dashed to
the masts. These two were so covered
with ice that they couldn't set them
selves free even, and the schooner was
about to go under With the aid of a
glass, the men on No. saw that the
two on the other schooner were alive,
for they were making feeble motions to
each other.
In q few minutes a boat with the
pilot and cub put off from No. 4 in a
sea that it seemed no boat could live
in. They carried a line to the help
less men. When they reached the
schooner she was pitching perilously
but the boy jumped from the yawl
seized her ice-crusted chains and
clambered up to her deck. There he
made his way along the slippery deck
cut the men free and lowered the men
to the boat which the older man held
steadily below. The cub was the last
to leave the fated ship. The pilot was
not a DioUS man, but when he got
back to No he knelt and THANKED
heaven for their Drovidential deliver
ance The boy got no medal for his
exploit. IOddV ne is one OIL the New
York harbor pilots and probably not
more than 80 persons ever heard of his
heroism. When | asked him about the
story the other day he admitted its
truth, but modestly insisted that his
name should not be printed with it.
The pilot boys work does not al
ways consist of facing death or danger
in the storm. Usually it is easier and
more pleasant. When the lights of an
incoming vessel are sighted, as the
pilot boat bowls along at night it is
his duty to give them the torch. -
The torch is a bundle of rags on the
end of a long stick. The boy plunges
it into a tar barrel, lights it and
whirls the fambeau about his head
beneath the big number on the sail, to
show their neighbor that it is a pilot
boat.
If the boy survives three years OF
this kind of work he becomes by the
permission of the pilots governing
board a boatkeeper. He then has
charge of the sailing of the pilot boat
and has cub OF his own to train. AS
a boat-lzeeper he must serve for two
years.
At the end of the five years he comes
up for his examination. This takes
place before the harbor commissioners
and they usually call to their assist
ance one or two old pilots, who ask the
candidate the most soul-racking ques-
tons about unknown shoals and bars
and give him most discouraging feel
ing of utter ignorance of all that he
should know