The daily morning journal and courier., 1899-04-27
DANGERS OF A SAILORS LIFE.
Some of the Drawbacks That Are Not

Generally Appreciated.
 l There are dangers to seamen about
 which landsmen never think" said the
 captain of one of the Baltimore fleet en-
 gagged in the Rio coffee trade to a little company at the Riggs. "You wouldn t
 consider the apparently simple process
 of weighing anchor a risky one, yet
 there is part of the job so disagreed | always draw lots to see who shall per- form the duty. In the ships bow there
 is 8 compartment hardly big enough to
 hold two persons comfortably, and here
 the anchor chain is slowed. The sea-
 man who is to do, the slowing and the
 under officer who is to oversee the work reach the place down little ladder through an aperture scarcely large enough for a fellow to squeeze himself It is so dark there that you can't see your hand before your face and a lan- tern has to be taken along. The odor at this time Is bad enough, but when the chain begins to come in it becomes al
 most unbearable. Some of the harbors in the tropics-indeed, most of them-- are filthy, and there are brought up from their bottoms all sorts of disagree able souvenirs of your visit. -
 But the real danger: Each link has to be carefully placed in it's proper posi-
 tion as the chain comes slowly in, for | ot heryvico yrh +o ,;,,o
 chor again the whole side of the ship might be torn out Sometimes, through the carelessness of the men on deck the windless is allowed to slip. and the chain begins to run out at a great rate. Then fellow has to be quick, or he will be dragged up through the chute and his life crushed out. He is warned of the danger by the metallic rattle and the smoke arising from the friction as the fast-moving chain comes in contact with the chute and he presses as far back as he can from the iron mass, for he knows too well that a terrible death awaits him if his clothing should become entan~ gled in the chain at such moment. Only few voyages since on my ship a man was caught in this way. The mate, who was by his side, managed to rescue him, but in doing so was himself carried along with the chain and had his life squeezed out.
 II had pretty close call myself once. While slowing away the chain acciden- tally kicked over the lantern and the light was extinguished. Of course I could not stop in my work to let those above know what had happened, for the 1a1 -.,. I...J. said, might result in disaster, and the mate unfortunately, was not then near at hand To be alone in the darkness and the horrible stench was far from pleasant, but of a sudden heard a sound that filled me with terror-the rattle of the chain as it began to swiftly pay out. Some one had blundered, and there I was in that black and loathsome hole the victim of the blunder. I | shrank back, pale and trembling, for it l was only few months before that a poor devil had met the same fate that it | seemed awaited me. Remember, I was only few inches removed from that | rushing, rampant mass of iron, and | there was no little likelihood that in | some vagary of motion it might ensnare me in it's tolls. The awful noise, the stencil the odor of smoke, the sparks as the chain strained against the chute, all | these had their effect upon me, and my mind became a blank. When the mate came for me with a lantern I had swooned and fallen across the compart ment where the chain had lain a few before. The chain had run its course before I tainted, else I should nave been ground to pieces.
 Sometimes the cargoes brought from he hot countries play havoc by the tunes they give forth On one voyage he sugar we had aboard made every ,ne sick. Matters finally became so bad hat we could not live below deck. I ,hased big Newfoundland dog out of ts kennel aft and used the place as berth, while the crew threw themselves lround the deck at the imminent risk of ,eing washed overheard. The cook had o go into the hold occasionally for pro- risions, and when he did so he tied a ,iece of cloth over his mouth and nose. After several such hurried visits he was and two other men, similarly protected, went down and secured him with ropes and he was hauled out. The Iatches could not be battened down, for ear the cargo would spoil, so we had to ut up the best we could with the fumes ntil we reached port.
 "The usually pleasant aroma of coffee becomes sickening, indeed, when a man as to sail for weeks in ship loaded with the grain. Pine lumber Is worse, nd petroleum as bad as pine lumber. You taste the stuff in everything you at, and meat and bread are the same, o far as your palate is able to distin- .uish, all savoring strongly of whatever our cargo happsns to be. Under the influence of the tropical sun these fumes ct to be simply terrible. Once we left 'ort with our drinking water in pine asks. We had been out only few avs when the water began to taste res- nous, and from day to day the taste ecame more disagreeable. At last we 1ere forced to stop drinking altogether, nd make for the nearest port, which appened to be in the island of St. Hele- a. There we changed the wooden re- eptacles for others of a material not SO asily affected by heat. But in the leantime we had suffered for our ig- orance. ce."-Washington Star.
 |