The Republican journal., 1911-12-28
The Seamen Of Today
Are Not the Kind Of Sailors That Manned
Our Ships Before the Civil War.

Are Not the Kind Of Sailors That Manned
Our Ships Before the Civil War.
The old saying that there is no loss
without some gain is borne out by the
change which has been wrought in the
country's shipping. There has been
much lament over the decadence of the
famous Yankee seamanship, but after
the passing of the clipper and whaling
fleets at last has come to the high seas
new breed of Americans who may be the
equals of the old type in the wholly diff
erent style of craft in which they are re-
quired to serve.
The mechanical genius Of the nation
has sent large number of native young
men to the steam-propelled vessels of
the navy and the merchant marine in
recent years. Ninety per cent of the
sailor-mechanics of the navy are Amer
lean born. Twenty years ago the pro-
portion of Americans in the forecastles
OF our merchant ships was only about 80
per cent, in 1910 the proportion was 49
per cent, the natives largely predominant
ing over the naturalized. The movement
of Americans toward the sea from the
interior States of late years has steadi-
ly increased, but they have found en-
ployment mostly in the navy, as our
foreign going merchant vessels have
become fewer and fewer each year.
1t is difficult matter to make a mari
ner who was in his prime at the begin
ming of the Civil War believe that ships
or rather steamships of the present day,
OF which our merchant marine is largely
composed, and the vessels of the navy
also, are making sailors of the high
grade that were found on board of sail
ing ships before the Civil War, and tech
nically they are right. The mariner of
today is more of a seaman and less
sailor, and for the best of reasons that
the old-style sailor is required now only
en- board the half dozen, more or less,
sailing ships left under the American
flag. What proportion of American
born seamen are to be found forward in
our large coastwise sailing fleet we are
unable to state. But even they have
much of their sailorizing cut out in con-
sequence of these vessels being constant
ly in close touch with the rigging and
sail lofts and spar yards along the coast,
while the windlass, capstans, and sails
are nearly all handled by steam, so that
there is very little to do on board of
these that requires the services of an ex-
pert sailor.
On board our merchant steam fleet,
where there is nothing aloft but pole
mast, the most of the time of a seaman's
watch on deck is spent in scrubbing
paint, cleaning brass, and sweeping
decks. The seasoned, thorough sailor
man of former times is no longer to he
found in the forecastles of these vessels
because there is really no demand for
such. while below decks the demands of
steam and electrical machinery require a
different kind of skill and greater de-
gree of intelligence than in former years.
The constant advance of mechanics and
electrical sciences makes it necessary
for those connected with the ships
machinery to keep mentally fresh and
alert, hence the calling appeals to the
American-born, and these important
positions are as rule filled by them.
Through the advent of steam propul
sion, what is left of the work requiring
an expert sailor has been transferred to
the sail and rigging loft, and instead of
spare sails. spars, and rigging, hereto
fore provided in the ships outfit, dupll-
cate parts of machinery are carried, and
when necessary a machine shop is I'M
provised, if it does not already exist, to
repair any part of the propelling power
not too heavy that may have given out,
the trouble being below decks, when in
the former good old sailing-ship days an
accident to the propelling power, if any,
was always above decks. The foregoing
are some of the reasons why the real
sailors occupation has become almost
obsolete. The Marine Journal,