The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1908-04-02
GOOD TIMES BACK AT SEA.
Sailors Society Sights End on Hard Sea-
son. Jack Ashore Has Barely
Weathered Idle Winter.

New YORK, March 80. That the end
of hard times for the sailor is already
in sight at every American port was
asserted here today on the basis OF
special reports which have just been
received at the headquarters of the
American Seamen's Friend Society
from sixteen branch stations along the
Atlantic and Pacific coasts. Where a
month ago stranded seamen lay thick
over the floors of their shelters each
night, sadly wanting work, food and
lodgings, berths are today being found
in steadily increasing numbers among
awakening shipping interests, the So
ciety's agents declare. Every prospect
exists, in the opinion of these trained
maritime observers, for returning pros
perity to the sailor man who has barely
weathered his hardest winter in many
years.
From Seattle, where the workers OF
the society have resorted to emergency
relief measures to keep 400 idle sailors
alive since last November, it is reported
that the tension has already begun to
slacken in view of the opening OF a
lunch counters have been filled by these
refugees from stagnant shipping at
.his port all winter. Now signs of re-
turning life in the seaman's trade are
at last promising to put an end to their
labors, the agents at this Pacific branch
declare.
In Pensacola, at a diagOnally opposite
corner of the society's national system
of working stations, only twenty sailors
are today reported to be still looking fol
work. Within week every man jack
should be shipped, according to present
indications. From Jacksonville, Tampa,
Mobile and New Orleans small army
of sailors have poured into Pensacola
looking for chance to ship all winter.
Many of them walked barefoot and ar
rived half starved and in rags. This
sad influx of unemployed seamen has
completely stopped, the local agent OF
the society reports, and apparently his
hard siege of providing food, shelter
and help for the marooned merchant,
men of the Southern ports is happily
ended.
| Only tWo-ScOre Seafarlng men are 10.
day looking for work at Galveston and
| few of these will be lacking a berth by
the end of spring. From New Orleans
about the same report has been recelv
ed. The branch of the American Sea
| mems Friend Society at Newport News
sends the word: prospects good; have
| been bad all winter" The same mes
sage. with details of the heroic meas.
ures which had to be taken to tide the
sailor through the winter, is coming
from other branches of this organlza
| ton in Norfolk, Charleston, Savannah
| Port Townsend and Portland.
! While every seaman's shelter in tins
| city has, throughout the winter, beer
| crowded with the unemployed, it was
declared by the shipping offices, ''crimps
| and officers of the sailors labor organl
cation here today that conditions were
beginning to change and new berths
open for the sailor along the water
front. With the opening of the lake
| trade, the yachting season and the
steady enlivement in shipping circles
every man Of the sea is to be assured OF
plenty of work. At the headquarters
| of the American Seaman's Friend So
| ciety in this city it was asserted, on eX-
perience as we'll as these reports from
both coasts, that hard times for the
sailor had today come to an end.
4 81 am inclined to believe that the
summer shipping will again return te
normal" said Captain Charles B. Par
sons. ex-president of the Maritime Elk
change and trustee of the American
| Seamen's Friend Society, today, 81 Zee
very optimistic on the outlook for the
immediate future in shipping circles.