Peninsula enterprise. [volume] (Accomac, Va.) 1881-1965, 1898-04-16
4 SEA CAPTAINS PAY.
THE MASTER OF A BIG OCEAN STEAM
En- is NOT A PLuTOCRAT.

ER ID NOt ~ fEO OOtNN
Everything Considered he Is Poorly Paid.
False Stories Printcd-Low Wages Given
Other Officers For Onerous Duties-Pur-
ser and Surgeon.
1t is the general impression among
those who do not know that the duties
and responsibilities of the average skip
per of regular liner are rs many and
onerous as the successful bank president
and that in addition his salary is just
as large. The responsibility of the one
is about us great as the other, but when
it comes to duties the sea dog has as
rule much moro to bear, while, unlike
the bank president, his salary is as
small as his duties are large. 1t may
surprise some Of tho regular transat-
lantio travellers to learn that their beau
ideal of sea captain who i'll faultless
gold lace goes about the deck laughing
and chatting with the tourists, patting
tho half fare tots On the back and
doffing his cap to the rug clad occupants
of an easy steamer chair between the
time that he spends in his berth, i'll the
chartroom or OH the bridge, gets little
moro money o month than the detective
sergeant or tho average steamboat cap
tain. In many instances Mr.. Gold Lace
gets less.
One of the most successful lines run
ming between this port and Europe pays
its commodore, who has been over 20
years in this particular service, e35.a
month, or about $l75. This is about $40
a week. The other captains in this line
arc paid the equivalent of 1925 for 30
days labor. Any number of matter of
no fact stories have been printed with
the object of showing that the COM
manders of the great liners received III
some cases sums ranging from 81, 900
to $12, 600 per year. But such talk is
idle. There is not q single captain on
the ocean who enjoys such an income.
That many Of them deserve to is anoth-
er matter entirely.
In IN argument that master mariners
are we'll paid tho point is advanced that
the officers are fed while at sea and
even alongside the wharf with the best
that the market affords and at the en-
pense of the steamship company. Yet
so per cent Of these we'll fed gold laces
are married and have big families that
demand food, clothes and home either
here or abroad, whether or not the ship
is in port This establishment costs as
much whilo tho master mariner is on
the bosom of old Neptune as it does
when he is playing dry cob at home for
short period. His going or coming
adds or deducts little from the general
cost.
There are few pursers on the Atlantic
who command higher monthly salary
than $40. They must have years of en-
perience, host of friends and be top
sawyers, as they say at sen, to conf
mand even this figure. Unlike the
stewards, and, il the majority of cases,
the ships surgeons, the purser is sell
dom mado the recipient of q generous
tip. Nobody seems able to explain why
it is so, unless it be that the purser,
handling all the money of the voyage,
which includes extra passage money,
the receipts from the smoker made
through tie chief steward, the wine
bills from the tables, all amounting to
pretty large figure, is recognized as
the financial end of the floating hotel
and so treated accordiuClv
Tho smoker and its many attachments
are luxuries which the captain is not
permitted to enjoy, or if permitted rare
ly INDUCES IN. Any skipper who would
make himself a jolly good fellow in the
smoker would lose the confidence of
those under his care as fast as a trout
taking a May fly. Not that bis appear
ance there would make him any less the
sailor, but passengers for some reason
or another seem to believe that the
only place for tho master of their ship
is on the bridge or in the chartroom.
And if they can picture him on this
bridge in oilskins and so'wester with
the wind and sleet and ice clustering
around him so much the better TO the
perfection of their idea of the practical
and capable mariner.
The poorest paid man in an official
capacity Oh O great liner is probably
the surgeon. Some passengers have the
opinion that as the company pays the
ships doctor those using him Oh trip
are not supposed 10 give financial rccog-
milton to his attention. 1t is true that
none is obliged TO, but he should. The
demand Of doctor at sea is in nowise
different from that demand on land.
The steamship companies give passcn-
ger beard, lodging and transportation at
a cost that could not be equaled on any
railroad of the earth, when distance,
accommodation and attention are con-
sidered. The luxury of a doctor, while
generally forced, is at the same time an
auxiliary of sea travel for which the
company receives nothing, and which,
when free medicines are included, as
they Invariably are, costs quite a good
deal. Experienced ocean travellers sell
dom forget the surgeon when necessity
makes them call for his attention dur
ing trip. But these experienced tour
lists are few and far between. New
York Mail and Express
Sierkiewicz.