Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1910-03-03
PILOT BOYS OF NORWAY.
Youngest Nayigators on Amy Sea-
Boats Are Copies of Viking Ships

Boats Are Copies of Viking Ships.
The hardy Norsman takes to the
sea like duck to a pond. He is al
most amphibious. The youngsters on
the coast begin to work for their liv-
Ing at an early age, and 1t is aston
lshing what different phases of sea
life the boys fill to the satisfaction
OF their employers and themselves.
The Norwegian pilot boat, a clumsy
looking craft of some thirty feet in
length, is perhaps as seaworthy a craft
of her size as swims the sea.
She has a large cruising ground
She carries a spirit sail of fair size
and several jibs to suit the weather.
Carefully handled, she will ride out
the heavy gales which in the German
ocean kick up a dangerous and choppy
sea that calls for all the seaworthy
qualities of a sailing vessel.
The boat is manned by a pilot and
his boy. Her cruising ground is be-
tween the Maze and the Skaw-promi-
nent landmarks for vessels bound to
Norwegian ports or harbors in the
Baltic or Gulf of Finland.
The pilot boat is run alongside the
ship, the pilot jumps aboard and the
boy trims sheet and steers for his
home port, which may be as far north
as Stavanger.
The sail is long and lonely, but the
boy contrives to navigate thither
blow high or blow low. He seems to
have the homing instinct of the
pigeon, as the only aid to navigation
that he has is a chart and compass
An easterly gale often blows him far
off his course.
Some of the boys are only 13 or Il
years old. They are the youngest nav
igators on any sea. Flaxen of hair
with blue eyes and rosy cheeks, they
are brave and sturdy sailors. Their
diet is chiefly salt fish and sea biscuit
when afloat, but sometimes the vessel
that takes the pilot will throw the
youngster chunk of cooked salt beef
or salt pork, sud sometimes a hunk
of plum duff for his own private con-
sumption; but these cases are com
paratively rare, and the boy general
ly has to depend upon the narrow re-
sources of his own larder
His little craft contains no side
lights. Whenever vessel approaches
him, he lights a fare-up signal-a
torch of oakum soaked in tar or kero-
sene
On his solitary voyage to his home
port he sleeps in the daytime, his
boat Steering herself In this way he
prepares for the vigil of the night.
The dangers he encounters are
many and great, but he takes them
in matter-of-fact way highly credit
able to him. 1t is strange that so few
boats are lost The truth is that their
model is such as to withstand just the
sort of weather they meet. In their
principal features they resemble the
viking ships of old, which in their ad-
venturous voyages weathered the
heaviest Atlantic gales and ravaged
the British and Irish seacoasts in
many a hostile and bloody raid.
The young Norwegian, after his
training in the pilot boats or mackereI
boats, mans trading ships of every
country.
Lars or Nils or Oscar has one ideal,
and that is to ship aboard a British
or American yacht, preferably a steam
craft, where he lives a. happy life,
we'll fed and well treated. He is
frugal. thrifty sailor, and his earnings
with but few deductions, are sent
home to gladden. many a Scandinavian
fireside.
He gets on an average $50 month
on a yacht an amount which looks
very big to him in comparison with
the scanty wages paid to sailors IN
der the Norwegian flag