The Savannah morning news., 1903-07-19
A Daring Form of Bravery.

a IuEtnk OEAh "
Daring aloft is a form of bravery
! most keenly appreciated by seamen.
| The man who will crawl out on a
yardarm in bowling gale of wind to
| pass a reef caring about its extremity
is more admired than a man who
would display GOODNESS under fire. The
latter is considered a passive kind
of courage, while the other is actual
daring by a man who knows his dan
ger.
Almost all greenhorns show signs Of
fear upon going alOft the first time.
Some sailors never get over sense OF
nauseating uneasiness when abort,
even when in port. / once met a
strange exception. He was a green
boy who had never before been to
sea. The first day out he climbed
aloft, showing not the slightest signs
of fear. He climbed up bare poles
like a monkey, slid down stays ana
hung abput in mid-aSr from ropes
that were never intended for climbing.
Finally he reached the very top OF one
of the masts and deliberately sat on
the truck-the fiat gilt balls through
which the flag halyard is rove. With
out holding on, he comfortably con-
templated the horizon about MN,
dangling his feet against the bare
mast underneath his perch. Mean
while. all hands were watching him
breathlesslY from deck.
But the strangest thing of all was
the fact that the boy was Swiss, COM
ing from a country where people new
or have been sailors. Perhaps absence
NJ giddiness in his case could be at
tributed TO his Notwithstanding an
cestors.
Sailors Shun Fights.
1t is proverbial that sailors love
fighting. especially of the rough and
tumble order. Ordinarily this is only
true of them when they are drunk.
Still, some tough cases are found on
American ships. The average mate
of a Yankee vessel is ready and even
anxious to fight against any odds at
any moment. Some of them will even
tackle a whole ships crew at once,
and their very audacity often wins
them their battles. This is not be-
cause they are Americans for many
are foreigners, but for the reason
that American shipowners demand
that sort of officers to control the
crews picked up in American ports,
usually made up of the toughest cases
in the maritime world. On the other
hand, these buckle officers usually ac-
cept defeat, as gracefully as they de-
liver it, afterwards asking those by
whom they were vanquished how they
did it.
One of these fellows, a notorious
bad man, became stranded in Manila
during the late war. He was at last
driven by want to join a company of
civilian scouts. He made good" be-
came the bully of the company, and
was feared even by the officers until
he had to face the enemy's fire. Then
he turned tail and ran so far that he
was never again seen that side OF
Manila.
In Terror of Pneumonia.
Nearly all sailors are easily awed
by mysterious natural phenomena or
apparently supernatural manifesto
tons. Earthquakes at sea, especially
at night will strike terror in the heart
of the bravest seaman afiOat, not so
much on account of danger which is
never great, but simply because he
feels himself in the presence of a great
natural force against which he is per-
fectly helpless. The danger from wind
and waves is a familiar one against
which he has been trained to fight,
but when calm sea about him be-
gins to boil and froth and form into
whiTipoois, he stands conquered.
l was once aboard a large ship, the
crew of which were all thorough sea-
men, most of them reckless West
Coast adventures and several well
known Honolulu smuggling despera-
does.
One night in the tropics their cour-
age was tested and found. wanting.
The sea was calm and a full moon
hung high in a deep indigo cloudless
sky. Suddenly, over the creamy ex-
panse of the sails, mysterious shadows
appeared, which, to our excited mag
nations, assumed the most horrible
shapes. The men were panic-stricken
and crouched under the break of the
poop in a frightened heap, too be-
numbed by terror even to exchange
EXPLANATIONS of wonder. Yet none
of those men would have owned up to
any superstitious beliefs, and they
laughed over their fright next day.
A Merry Norwegian.
But the nerviest case 1 ever heard
of was that of a Norwegian sailor
aboard the big American four-master
Shenandoah She was commanded by
tends all over the world among sea-
wegian up to the royal yard to do
some duty there.
But, cap'n," protested the sailor,
its not safe until the foot-rope's
fixed. Let me fix that first"
do as l tell YOU" ordered the cap
tain. THE foot-rope's all right"
The man went aloft. Ten minutes
later all hands heard a yell and saw
the Norwegian come tumbling down
through the rigging, distance of over