Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1901-03-28
SAILORS HAVE PIANOS NOW
Musical performances
Heard on ConstiuG Steamers
on the

What struck the visitor as d was
that an upright piano stood along
the port side of the cabin. He could
not suppress a short whistle of as
tonishment which the skipper was
quick to notice. says the New York
Sun. \ piano on a 300-ton schooner
engaged in the lumber-carrylng trade
when there was a big hole in the
cabin tablecloth seemed to the visitor
to be peculiar. Still he stified his de
sire to laugh as his host said, with a
wave of the hand:
"Sit down and I'll play you a tune"
First it was Brahms. then came
Beethoven, Schubert and Schumann.
Then all was stiIl. The master of the
schooner was the frs to break the
silence as he Said-
After all. I like Brahms best.
Schubert seems to"
The visitor could not contain him,
self any longer, and stammered: y
never knew that sailormen went in
for this sort of thing. Are there
/ many instruments aboard ship"
Few pianos like that, l warrant
YOU. I picked that one up in the
Pacific. 1t came out of the wreck of
an English bark that struck near Val
paraiso. Got it for a song from the
underwriters. Better now than when
first launched into the sea of music"
But You do not understand me. /
mean is it not strange tc find a pi'
ano on board a sailing vessel like
this?'
Not at all. not at ALL" replied the
master mariner. "It is all h fash
ion these days. There was a time
when the cabin of the average coast
ing schooner looked as desolate as
the rear end of a Maine barn. They
are now got up with some idea OF
comfort. I know at least IS schoon-
ers in the trade between south CT
Hatteras and east of Sandy Hook that
have fine pianos in their cabins. One
of them, the new siX-master. George
w. Wells. has a grand. but then she
has plenty of beam
Il do not know how the idea o.
placing pianos aboard vessels in the
coastwise trade originated, but / I'M
agine tina some skipper who had
taken his family to sea with him de
cided to lug along the pet dog and
maybe the piano. Anyhow, there is
nothing strange about the sound OF
a piano aboard the schooner type OF
craft these days. The big lines can;
have a monopoly, you know.
1T remember passing Winter Quar-
tiers shoal lightship one calm even,
ing last August in the company of II
schooners all bound north. 1t was
Just after supper. and the crew had
gathered about the forecastle &c
smoke their turning-in pipe of to-
bacco, when somebody on the nearest
schooner to us began to pound away
on an organ that was in the cabin
He was mutilating one of the comic
operas. and ! just turned to and gave
him a piece of my mind over the key,
board. That was the signal for a
general row, and in less time than il
takes to tell it seven of the Il
schooners were battering away Al
~naturals. sharps and fats. Those who
hadn't any pianos came up into the
luiet of the evening with banios, har-
monicas or concertinas. and it was
the grandest vaudeville performance
that old Neptune ever heard.
There is nothing really surpris'
ing about seeing a piano on board q
vessel of good tonnage these days, il
she happens TO ave a good owner
[ was down in the Erie basin the 9th
er day and heard the chords of a tip
top piano coming from a canal boa:
living up there for the winter"