The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1899-02-11
PARSONS AT SEA
Shippers Would Rather Break Legs
Than Carry Them.

1 have observed that merchant skippersA
almost without exception, have great dis
like to having parsons aboard; navy men,
owing to their respect to the queens regu-
lations do not care to talk on the subject.
rather shy about discussing the subject. /
once wished one pleasant voyage "Pleas-
SAINT voylge,' he retorled savagely: that's
likely, amt it, when there's three parsons
shipped. and one of them bishop" Here
his feelings became too much for him and
he called to the stewart to refill the glasses.
l was not surprised to hear that cylinder
cover blew off in the bay. Sitting in my
club one light, skipper came in. shook
him by the hand and hoped he had a good
voyage. voyage he CRIED in heart-rend-
ing tones. "dolt call 1t that. I never had
such a dogs time In my life. Got tho par
sons aboard at Sidney, and another at
King Georges Sound, and, blame me. if
Sooner than sail with five parsons again
I'll break arm leg and get put
ashore But to see the prejudice in all its
glory one must talk to the masters of ocean
tramps. have known of one case in which
a skippa.' feigned serious illness sooner than
take command when he found that five mis-
sionaries were booked as passengers, and
two of them ladies. AS it happened, the
ship had I particularly bad voyage. and the
unlucky missionaries had more than
very near squeak. for their lives. Once
case was quoted to me as showing great
presence Of mind and sealnanship on the
part of the shippers. The ship had couple
Of parsons aboard and as the crew ex
pected, the voyage was disastrous. The
miSfOrtuneS eliminated In the decks being
swept and three men washed overheard.
One was q parsOn, Who ought to have been
below. After this the weather suddenly
abated and the ship came safely to land.
l remarked that the parson ought to have
been under the matches. "Ah!' replied the
old sea-dog who told me, "Capn 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 Il whole company, and the parsOn
ought to have been prepared while it
warn't IN reason that the whole crew should
be-"
l have noticed that it among the
officers of boats trading to the West Africa
coast that the prejudice against parsonic
passengers is strongest. l was on a ship
down the coast, and one night. when chat
ting with the skipper, he said his vessel
had never had serious mishap. This is
how he accounted for it: The ship is u
beauty Che s;Iid) and as soon as she was
launched ] forcsaw the necessity of her
getting bad name among parsons and
such like. AS luck would have it. on her
first voyage a missionary shipped. All the
other passengers left at the Canaries. OF
course we had bad weather. and he had
bad voyage. l mentioned 1t to the chief
officer, and he tipped wink to the stew
ard who, fancy. said a word to the cook.
When we put him ashore he was as thin
as herring. and he made 81 lot of COM
plants and threatened to write to the own
ers. All said was that l hoped he would
do his duty to the poor heather as well as
/ 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 1t Is
I've been lucky" On the return voyage,
however, as it happened. at one port he
had to take on board a lady miss .onary
whose health had broken down. The
weather was very nasty, indeed, still the
vessel arrived in the Thames without any
serious disaster Oddly enough, he was
compelled to take out Il couple of parsons
the very next voyage. and the ship got
ashore and became total wreck no lives.
however. being lost. Shippers have told
me that. danger apart. parsons are not de-
sirable passengers; they interfere SO much.
One told me that, the wife of one clerical
gentleman insisted on holding little re-
ligious conversations with the stewards