The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1898-09-14
THE SHlPKEEPER.
What His Duties Are-Course Of Life ON q
Ship In Port.

THE SHlPKEEPER.
What His Duties Are-Course OF Life on a
Ship In Port.
The shipkeeper is the caretaker of
the ship while she is in port. He is
likely to be man who has followed
the sea, it may be in the employ of
the house whose vessels he now
looks after. He may have sailed be-
fore the mast or he may have been
a mate or perhaps the master Of a
ship. Every firm of large shipown-
ers or shipping merchants has a
shipkeeper of its own, who may
have been thus employed by the
same house for years.
The shipkeeper goes aboard some
times when the ship arrives in the
harbor, but usually when she is first
tied up to the wharf. The crew is
discharged the minute 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 ship
keeper is left in charge of the ship.
He is sometimes the sole occupant,
but most owners keep one other per-
son, man or a boy, aboard. If the
additional person is a man it is like.
ly to be the ships carpenter or one
Of the crew employed for that pur-
pose. The shipkeeper lives aboard
of the ship until she goes to sea
again. He may cook and eat all his
meals aboard, or if there is res.
taurant close at hand ashore he
may get his dinners there. He sleeps
aft. He does not sleep in the cap
tain's 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 watchman
of the ship, and he looks after her
in many ways and sees thatn harm
comes to her. He sees that the steve
dore's men don't drop blocks on
deck and that no injury Of any kind
is done to her inboard, and he 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 man who knows
a ship allow and alott and to take
sailors pride in her and personal
pride in the ships Of the house that
employs him. There are shipkeep.
ers who are not overnicc. shipkeep-
ers are just like other people in this
respect; but, az a rule, they keep
their ships in perfect order.
The ship is deepin 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 OF longer peri
dds when there is nothing doing
aboard of her except what he does
himself, when the ship is silent, but
sooner or later they begin to fill he1
up again, and from that on there is
more OF 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 of
fee 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 az
the ship fills up she is going down
in the water again. Two or thres
days before she sails the riggert
come aboard and bend her sails.
The crew was discharged the min-
ute she tied up; the new crew doesn't
20 aboard until the last minute be-
fore she sails. It may be that the
mate. the executive officer Of the
ship, comes aboard late. He must
know where everything is, and the
shipkeeper can tell him. Thus it
happens that sometimes the ship
keeper goes down the bay with the
ship and comes off with the pilot,
but oftener his duty is ended and he
ctans ashore as the shin leaves the