The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1898-02-26
A KING ON SMALL PAY.
Master of n Big Steamship Is No
PIutOcrat.

Master of n Big Steamship Is No
PIutOcrat.
From the New York Mail and Express.
1t is the general impression among those
who do not know that the duties and re-
sponsibilities of the average skipper of a
regular liner are as 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 as great
as the other, but when it comes to duties
the sea dog has, as a rule, much more to
bear, while, unlike the bank president his
salary is as small as his duties are large.
II may surprise some of the regular trans
Atlantic travellers to learn that their beau
ideal of a sea captain who in faultless gold
lace goes about the deck laughing and
chatting with the tourists, patting the
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, in the chart room or
on the bridge, gets little more money
month than the detective sergeant or the
average steamboat captain. In many in
stances Mr.. Gold Lace gets less.
One of the most successful lines running
between this port and Europe pays its
commodore, who has been over twenty
years in this particular service, t35 a
month or about $175. This is about $40
a week The other captains in this line
are paid the equivalent of S125 for thirty
days labor. Any number of matter-of-no-
fact stories have been printed with the
object of showing that the commanders of
the great liners received in some cases
sums ranging from 5000 to $4,000 per
year. But such talk is idle. There Is not
a single captain on the ocean who enjoys
any such income. That many of them de-
serve to is another matter entirely In an
argument that master mariners are well
paid the 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 expense of the steam
ship company Yet 50 per cent. of these
well-fed gold laces are married and have
big families that demand food, clothes and
a home either here or abroad, whether
or not the ship is in port. This establish
ment costs as much while the master mar
iner is on the bosom of Old Neptune as 1t
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 a higher monthly salary
than f1O They must have years of ex-
perience a host of friends and be top
sawyers" as they say at sea, to command
even this figure. Unlike the stewards
and. in the majority of cases. the ships
surgeons, the purser is seldom MADE the
recipient of a generous tip. Nobody seems
able to explain why it is so, unless 1t be
that the purser, handling all the money
of the voyage, which includes extra pas
~, into fpnr %
made through the chief steward, the wine
bills from the tables, ali amounting to
pretty large figure, is recognized as the
financial end of the floating hotel and is
treated accordingly.
There is no man aboardship who is more
generally thrown in with the passengers
than the purser. And there is none VINO
is capable of making himself more popu-
lar or the reverse Seven-eighths of the
complaints go to him. and he has the pow
or TO rectify them if he will. He can
change the berth, or even the room of the
Messenger who thinks the accommodation
assigned him not up to expectation. That
i'm itself is the source OF great zeal OF
his popularity. He may go into the smok-
er at night when his assistant Is MAINTAIN
ing the rigor of office hours, puff away
at his brier, sip his grog with the tourists
or make himself generally agreeable with
the noker crowd between card draws. The
smoker and its many attachments are lux
uries which the captain is not permitted
to enjoy, or If permitted, rarely INDUCES
IN ANY skipper who would make himself
a Jolly good fellow in the smoker would
lose the confidence of those under his care
90 fast az a trout taking a May fly. Not
that bis anpearauce there would make him
anv less the sailor, but passengers, for
some reason or another, seem to believe
that the only place for the master OF their
shin Is on the bridge or in the chart room.
And If they can picture him on this bridge
IN oilsxins and so'wester with the wind
and sleet and fee clustering around nun
So much the better to the perfection idea
- Inc nractical and capable mariner.
The poorest paid man in an official ca
pacity on a great liner is probably ne
surgeon. Some passengers have the
saiSion s3,at as the company pays the
Sims doctor, those using him on trip
are not supposed to give financial recos-