The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1912-05-06
(By George McPherson Hunter.)

experience as a ships officer follow
 ed by eight as secretary of the Amer
 ican Seamen's Friend Society has won
 for him close personal contact with
 stokers and deck hands. He has
 visited every important port in both
 hemispheres. His work has forced
 him to study the laws governing sea-
 men in every nation. Eight years
 ago MT. Hunter projected the Ameri-
 can Seamen's Friend Society's Insti-
 largest seamen's home in the world.
 Thirty thousand seamen pass through it's doors every month. Qualified as
 are but few others he has spent years in interpreting seamen to themselves
 and to the general public.l
 Since the steamship has displaced the sailing vessel great changes have been wrought in sea. affairs. So
 that few have awakened to the fact
 that the sailor himself has changed essentially. In the popular mind he is still Jack of the sailing ship
 days.
 In the days when the winds blew ships from port to port, ships were small, voyages long and hardships and adventures as plentiful as weevils in the sailors biscuit. Sailors were
 sailors, men of brawn, able to reef,
 knot, splice and steer"; keen eyed,
 strong limbed, deep-chested. tatooed, ingenious men. Yet life at sea was hard for him for captains were cap tains and orders were obeyed or men
 were carried below, mangled and bleeding. A sailing vessel represent
 ed, as nothing on land ever did, an absolute monarchy. 1 When the engineer and his griny satellites climbed over the rail a revo- lution began on this floating king dom. The engineer has been it's ring leader. Revolutionist is too mild Q term for him-magician would be more appropriate. He defied nature and made ships comparatively safe. The engineer dispelled. mystery and sobered the romance of the sea by smoke, oil, sage navigation and the possibility of ship large enough to carry a whole city.
 While the actual command of a ship still lies in the hands of the captain, the divine right of the cap tain, like the divine right of the king" has gone. He is a constitu- tional monarch, with limited dele gated powers ruling, instead of the old unsophisticated sailor, host of highly skilled specialists.
 The engineer set up a little king dom of his own with oilers, stokers and coal passers as his subjects. Eel low craftsmen, electricians, hydraulic and refrigerating engineers and other specialists, form his cabinet.
 Steamships created the globe trotter" who has called forth the boat designed for passengers only. Another tributary monarch of a little
 kingdom was crowned aboard the ship to meet. new demands-the chief steward The old-fashioned ships cook, known to the deep-water sailor as the doctor" was metamorphosed into "chef" with butchers, and con- fectioners to work out elaborate menus worthy of the best hotels ashore.
 Steam has revolutionized the pro- pulsion and navigation of ships, the loading and unloading of cargo and
 has introduced dispatch and organiza- tion in sea life. It has turned com fort into luxury for passengers, rob- bed the sea of two-thirds of it's ter TOTS and half of it's romance, and
 made ships depart and arrive with out materially helping the man of the sea- Their vicarious lives and deeds l have benefited the nations of the world in a measure no one can estf- mate with but little addition to their wages and many subtractions from the things that make life enjoyable
 and worth living.
 In sailing vessels officers and men formerly had long tedious voyages and exposure to weather and physi- cal strain. By way of compensation they had longer periods of rest in port and stretches of time at sea, especially in the trade wind regions, l where sailing ship life was full of charm. Steam and labor saving de- vices have transferred the strain from the sailors muscles to the whole crews nerves, reduced the size of the crew and made a small number bear a double burden. Steamers, particu- larly cargo vessels, go to sea when loaded night or day. In coal and ore exporting ports the loading goes oa night, and day. Modern sea-faring men get less sleep than any class of men we know about and have fewer Sundays. It is not all extraordinary thing for man to have no Sunday in port for months and years, if en- gagged in passenger service, as sail- ing schedule may be so arranged that ship is always at sea on Sunday. Personal touch between a ship owner and his crew has ceased. Ships are not owned by private individuals as they were in the days of sail. The amount of capital invested neceSSi-