The record-union., 1899-03-14
PARSONS AT SEA.
The Feelings Of Shippers at Having
Clerical Passengers.

1 have observed that merchant skip
pers, almost without exception, have a
great dislike to having parsons aboard
Navy men, owing to their respect for
the Queens regulations, do not care to
talk on the subject. The commanders
OF big liners are also rather shy about
discussing the subject. / once wished
one pleasant voyage. Pleasant voy-
age!"he retorted sayagely. That's like
ly, amt it, when there's three parsons
shipped, and one of them a Bishop"
Here his feelings became too much for
him, and he called to the steward TO
refill the glasses. I was not surprised
to hear that a cylinder coyer blew off
in the bay. Sitting in my club one
night, skipper came in. 1 shook him
by the hand and hoped he had had a
good voyage. 'Voyage!" he replied. in
heartrending tones. Don't call it that.
I've never had such a dogs time in my
life. Got two parsons aboard at Sgd
ney and another at King George $
Sound, and, blame me, if two mission
aries did not join at Colombo! Sooner
than sail with five parsons again, I'll
break an arm or a leg and get put
ashore"
1oS W &c eiAC III CJ OoiSC LII clll AlS
glory one must talk to the masters Of
ocean tramps. 1 have known of one
case in which a skipper feigned serious
illness sooner than take command when
he found that five missionaries were
booked as passengers, and two of them
ladies. AS it happened, the ship had
a particularly bad voyage, and the un-
lucky missionaries had more than cne
4.
case was quoted to me as showing
great presence of mind and seaman
ship on the part of the skipper The
ship had a couple of parsons aboard,
and, as the crew expected, the voyage
was disastrous. The misfortunes cul-
minated in the decks being swept and
three men washed overheard. One was
a parson who ought to have been be-
low. After this the weather suddenly
abated and the ship came safe to land.
1 remarked that the parson ought to
have been under matches. 'Ah." re-
piled the old seadog who told me,
"Cap'n S. is a good man. He talked it
over with the mates, and there seemed
nothing else to be done. So they got
him up on purpose. Better one man
than a whole company, and the parson
ought to have been prepared, while it
warn't in reason that the whole crew
should be-
/ have noticed that it was among the
officers of boats trading to the West
African coast that the prejudice
against parsonic passengers is strong
est. I was on a ship down this coast,
and one night, when chatting with the
shipper. he said that his vessel had
never had a serious mishap. This is
how he accounted for it: The ship IL
a beauty" he said, land as soon as
she was launched I foresaw the ne
cessity Of her getting a bad name
among parsons and such like. AS luck
would have it, on her first voyage a
missionary shipped All the other pas
sengers left at the Canaries. Of course,
we had bad weather and he had a bad
voyage. I mentioned it to the chief
officer and he tipped a wink to the
steward, who, I fancy, said a word to
the cook When we put him ashore he
was as thin as a herring, and he made
a lot of complaints and threatened to
write to the owners. All I said was that
1 hoped he would do his duty to the
poor heather as we'll as I had done
mine to my owners. But he talked
ashore, and he wrote to his society,
and my ships been avoided like the
plague by parsons ever since. and
that's how it is ] have been SO lucky"
On the return voyage, however, as it
happened, at one port he had to take
on board a lady missionary whose
health had broken down. The weather
was very nasty, indeed; still the vessel
arrived in the Thames without any Sc
rious disaster. Odly enough, he was
compelled to take out couple of par
sons the very next voyage, and the
ship got ashore and became a total
wreck, no lives, however. being lost.
Shippers have told me that, danger
apart, parsons are not desirable pas
sengers; they interfere so much. One
told me that the wife of one clerical
gentleman insisted on holding little re-
ligious conversations with the stewards
and the crew and giving them tracts
till they nearly had a mutiny. AT length
he found her trying to improve the
moral condition of the steersman, when
he threatened that If he caught her
abaft the funnel again he would put
her in irons, after which she subsidized
l have often had ludicrous stories of
parsonic interference told me. One man