The Savannah morning news., 1903-07-19
is THE SAILOR A BRAVE
MAN OR A CRAVEN?
The Author of Deep Sea Vagabonds" Declares
That Courage and CoWardice Are Shipmates.
BY ALBERT SONMCHsEN, Able Seaman.
Copyright 1909 by Albert Sonnichsen.

The average landsman has the fear
of the sea strong in his soul There
fore, says the landsman, the sailor is
brave man: he is in truth the BRAY
est of men. for he goes down to the
deep with a rollicing song on his lips
and devil-may-care gait, that sig
Nifty utter indifference to the known
and unknown perils that beset him on
an sides.
Five years of experience at sea has
proved to me that the landsman has
a vastly exaggerated idea of the sail
or's bravery. While sea life does at
tract men who have a natural disre-
gard for personal danger, it may safe
ly be said that the typical sailor is n
strange contradiction of reckless BRAY
cry and arrant cowardce.
Here is an incident in point. It
occurred aboard a vessel in which I
made my first trip to sea.
Heroic Act.
We were sailing before a five-knot
breeze through a tropical sea For
several days big sharks, on the look
out for refuse, had been following the
ship. One morning a boy painting
over the stern, lost his hold and fell
overheard. All hands saw the acct
dent, but it remained for a young
Bnglishman to act. Before the cry
had been raised he seized n life belt
and leaped overheard with it.
When the ship was hove to both
men were a mile astern and almost
an hour passed before they were
picked up. Meanwhile the English
man had reached the boy with the
life belt, for the latter could not swim.
The Englishman also displayed great
GOODNESS in keeping off the sharks, re-
naming quite still until they were
close, when he frightened them off
with a few lively kicks, for a shark
is really a timid creature. But few
men have the presence of mind to
think of this when in the water.
OF course the man was made much
of for his heroic act; to leap over
board in shark-infested waters is a
deed that especially appeals to a sea-
mans admiration.
About month afterwards we ran
into cold weather, and then, one dark
night, we encountered a stiff gale that
made it necessary to shorten sail
rather suddenly. The lighter canvas
SRNCNAAS bAOhBAAb COllNi VI
and furled, but by the time this was
done the wind became so strong that
all hands were called to furl a big
topsail Even the cook and the stew
ard We're obliged to go aloft with the
rest of us, while the captain relieved
the man at the WHEEL that he might
also help with the sail.
1t was a tremendous job, for the
heavy sail tapped and Numbered over
the line of men stretched out on the
frail spar, shaking the mast as though
cannon were being discharged from
the deck. Finally, after an hours
struggle, the sail was tightly furled to
the yard, and the men were just pre-
pairing to go down when the mate,
who had been experimenting the job,
cried out:
Hold on, there, fellers, we've been
one man short! Has anybody gone
overheard ?"
Nobody had been seen to fall.
Then" bawled the mate, some
ones loahng. You fellers stay up
here till 1 go down on deck and find
out who it is"
The Brave Sailor Turns Coward.
When we came down the mate had
found the shirker. Ii was the young
Eng1ishman who had braved the
sharks when the rest hesitated.
Had it been any other man he would
have been severely punished, but as
il was. no one said a word nor even
cast a reproachful hint. This the man
felt so keenly that when the port was
reached he was obliged to be treated
in a marine hospital for nervous dis
order.
/ met this man ashore some years
afterwards. He was on the San Fran
cisco police force, where he had secur-
ed employment, for he never ventured
to sea again. He voluntarily discussed
his case with me. He attributed his
cowardice in the storm to heredity. He
came of Italian stock primarily, and
his theory was that for centuries his
ancestors had been used to the COM
paratiVely calm waters of the Medi-
terranean, where most of the sailing Is
done in craft so small that the sails
can be handled from on deck The
danger seamen face there is from
treacherous undercurrents and hidden
rocks, and at handling small boats
men of Latin blood are as brave as
the best But when II comes to fight
ing struggling canvas on lofty ice
coated yards they feel and show the
fear of an unfamiliar danger.
Observation has led me to believe
This. The best deep sea sailors. the
most daring men aloft, are of Morse
origin-Russian, Finn, Dane, Swede,
Norwegian. Anglo-Saxon. These men,
especially the Scandinavians, whose
ancestors sailed the stormy Baltic and
North Sea, are universally acknowl-
edged to be the boldest seamen.