The sun., 1918-09-01
John Masefield and
the Praying Sailor
By SEABURY LAWRENCE.


Conway, that John Masefeld, the English
poet and historian, got many of the yarns
that he later spun into sea poems and
short stories The immortal story of
Ambitious Jimmy Hicks" and of the
enterprising "Bill Harker' were some OF
"Wally's yarns" told to the eager ''Con-
way boys" as they lay in the lee of
deckhouse of an evening and listened,
spellbound, to the old sailor.
But Masefield never wrote the real yarn
of Wally Blair, his old friend and mentor,
on the Conway Possibly it was the only
warn worth while he has left unwrltten.
During his recent visit TO this country
he told some of his friends of this fine old
character of the sea and how the Conway
boys idolized him.
II was intended for the sea" said Mase
field, "and so when | was IA | was sent
aboard the Conway, moored in the Mersey
above Liverpool, for my two years course.
And there I met Wally Blair, the old
lampman Of the ship, stepped in the lore
of the sea.
"He was famous old sailor and had
sailed in many of the crack clippers such
as the Currysark and other famous ones
And he had some tall yarns always ready
for launching if | went into the lamT
room where he worked or if We gathered
on deck after supper to listen to him.
"Wally and became great ehums ana
] listened to him by the hour, to his tale:
of the sea, of tropic storms, of shlpwreck
and castaways. He was an endless treas
ury of wild stories and he could put
grimly humorous as well as fantastic touch
to them. can hear himsnow as he ended
the oft told tale of Jimmy Hicks, saying:
And now, young Teller, don't YOU be
neither red headed nor ambitious
"He was queer looking old chap. /
remember his head seemed to set right
down between his shoulders, and for that
reason they called him Wally of the Thick
Neck. And he had the name of a very
religious man, and used TO kneel down on
the deck to say his prayers every morning
after turning out of his hammock.
"Well, the two years passed, and what
with Wally's yarns and the teaching Of
the more serious mentors l had learned
something of the sea. Then | got berth
as REFER aboard sailing ship and was
10 know in fact the great life that Wally
had told me about. II was my first voy
age and we went to far ports, and the
adventures had all the golden glamour
but few of the fantastic features that
Wally had put into his voyages.
However, I determined that when we
reached home the first person l would
hunt up would be Wally Blair and swap
him yarn for yarn. 1t was three years
before we saw the Mersey again. When
we were moored and ready to go ashore
| looked upstream and there, sure enough,
were the topmasts Of the Conway showing
dimly in the haze Down on the deck |
could picture old Wally shining up his
lamps | decided to go up and surprise
him.
"The officers were glad 10 see me, back
from a long voyage Of actual seafaIing,
and wanted to know all about it. But I
did not see Wally Blair.
"'Didn't you hear what happened TO
Wally, him and his yarnsF asked one Of
those irreverent men. Ny heart dropped
a few beats. l could not imagine any
thing happening to Wally.
You see, it was this way said the
officer, callously twirling his mustaehe.
'One morning not so very long after you
left this old scamp turned out as usual
and knelt down on the deck to pray, as he
always did. the old hereto WE'LL he
PRAYED and he prayed, and he prayed so
long that one of the men, passing. said to
him: Come, Wally, aren't you a long
time at your prayers?' And he gave him
a sort Of shake.
But Wally made no answer. He had
died there praying, and if We hadn't
given him decent burial he might be
there vet