The record-union., 1898-02-23
GOING TO SEA.
BOYS WHO HAVE WRONG IDEAS
ABOUT 1T.
In These Days There Is No Such
Thing as shipping as a
Cabin Boy"

scattered among the sail-lofts, ship
chambers shops, ship brokers offices,
and low saloons on South street, from
the Battery to Fulton street, and on
West street, from Castle Garden to
Washington Market, are some forty-odd
shipping offices, or sailors employment
bureaus. For the most part they are
to be found on the second floor of an old
dilapidated building, with an outlook
through dirty windows on the crowded
thoroughfare, the docks, laden with
merchandise, a network of masts and
rigging, the broad river, and, should the
day be clear the broken sky line of the
opposite city. The approach to them is
bewildering-thro a forbidding door
way, up a dark and narrow stair, with,
it may be, here and there broken step,
to the confusion of doors and passages,
and the denser darkness of the hall.
Every foot of space within has it's use.
Between the windows is the desk of the
shipping master; against the wall, on
either side, and in every odd corner
where deskroom with light may be
found, the desk or table of commits
sioner, boarding master or a super
cargo. At the rear, in obscurity and
ldT IGlHONcO 1IOIll the SlOWIuS SlONc,
are one or more benches, upon which
idle sailors, on the lookout for
chances" sit and smoke, swap yarns
and opinions and now and again VEN
ture a respectful remark to the ship
ping or boarding master-men of great
influence, and not to be addressed with
impunity-and are ignored for their
pains. To these offices come the Cap
tains in need of crew, sailors in search
Of a berth, and, with incredible fire.
quency, lads, in their early teens, want
ing cabin boy" positions.
Sailors, said an old shipping master
yesterday in his South-street office, "are
the hardest worked. worst treated,
worst fed and least thought-of class of
men on the face of the earth. If you
want a candid opinion of a sailors life
ask sailor. They all know what it is,
and they all admit it. Yet they stick to
the sea, and they can't be torn away.
The boarding houses are crowded with
idle men and the shipping offices are be-
sieged by them, most of them ready to
take berth in any kind of a craft af1oat.
1 can understand that, though. Once
a sailor always a sailor is a pretty
steady rule. What l can't understand
is the existence of a great crowd of
young men and youngsters who choose
to follow the sea rather than a quiet,
comfortable trade ashore. The romance
has been pretty we'll battered out of the
life on the rolling wave by any num-
Der of plain tales and thoroughly de-
scriptive articles: and it seems to me
that the youngsters of this generation
should have the truth in their heads.
But they haven't-strange to say, they
haven't. The boys of forty years ago,
when / went to sea, and when the only
sea stories to be had were of a kind to
fire the imagination of log of wood,
live again in the boys of to-day-lads
with the same thirst for adventure, the
same faith in their false ideas. and the
same obstinate determination to follow
the life Of their choice The shipping
masters meet"
The shipping master interrupted him.
self to listen. There was an uncertain
footstep in the hall. pausing before the
threshold for an instant: then timid
knock on the door
Come in,'' called the master, adding
in a lower voice; My life on there 6
one nowi"
A boy of 10 years, or thereabouts, en-
tered and. cap in hand. advanced diff
IDENTIFY toward the group of gossips about
the stove. He was coarsely clad, slight
and pale-faced, and lacked the self-as-
sured air of the city-bred boy. He looked
about him nervously, evidently uncer-
tain what to do, and doubtless heartily
wishing himself away from the rough
locking company.
Isis this "a shipping Officer" he
stammered.
1T is"
Where a seaman gets a berth?"
Some Of em get jobs here"
We'll II want to sign articles for a
voyage SOUTH
See these men"-pointing to a row OF
grinning sailors on one of the benches
they'd sign articles for a trip to the