Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1918-06-23

III IN
II ~ merchantmen. Once again is
~ the American flag to fly over
millions of tons of shipping scattered
through every harbor where a cargo
for the States can be scraped together
to fill yawning hold or where an
empty warehouse waits for American
merchandise
Old ports have awakened from long
sleep. Jared into sudden wakefulness
by the crying need for men and ships.
When these ports were in the heyday
Of their tarry glory they were the
hunting ground Of greasy crlmps,
who piled their bloody calling"
shanghaiing unwilling crews aboard
deep water craft about to clear for
the long voyage But the old ports
have come to life to find that the
crimp and his chief imp. the sinking
boarding house runner. are no more.
Men are no longer lacking. Crews are
NO longer hard to I'LL
a.
Instead, thousands Of young Ameri-
cans are fiocking to the age-old
water fronts They are the boys who
saw their childhood dreams Of some
day running or to sea vanish with
the passing Of the American clipper
ship; and the later triumph of steam
over sail And now with q newer.
greater American merchant marine
just below the horizon, they art the
boys who will make the new mer-
chant fleet possible. They are fiocking
to- the old ports to sign articles" on
some one of the big training ships
which are being operated by the
I,sk 49, -
ing and training service and from
which will be supplied the officers and
men for the American ships Of the
future.
At Boston, where along India street
still hang memories of the heet-heeled
where the Barbary Coast sucked in
the old-time sailor man, stripped him
of his gold and cast him forth upon
another three-year voyage; at New
York, where South and West streets
still harbor what is left of the drab
structures that were the sailors
boarding houses at these ports have
the training ships been stationed.
And others will soon cast anchor In
the harbor Of New Orleans, where
from time out Of mind ships in the
Caribbean trade have touched: and at
Newport News, where the River road
still holds the tang Of the open sea-
Upon these ships American boys are
learning to read. hand and steer
the necessary accomplishments of an
A. B. in the fo'c'sle of windjammer,
since the speedy American wooden
schooner is being built more extern
sively than ever before and even the
old neutrality-suspicious. and bark
entines and brigs-have been dragged
from the mud of a hundred rotten
rows" to be rebuilt and patched and
painted SO that they may take up
again their burden in the coastwise
carrying trade.
Also upon these ships American
boys are learning the less romantic
duties which mark the difference. be.
tween . sailor in steam and one IN
sail, and each is being given the
grounding which will fit him some
day "to sleep aft''-officer of some
stanch American ship.
Time was when the American sea.
man was a race unto himself. Into
the farthest reaches of the seven seas
he drove the fleet-heeled clippers oil
the ffties, while his wife ashore
raised sturdy sons to take up theil
fathers work when the tricky sea al
last had claimed him. Then came
the days when the American mer.
chant marine sailed into the doIdromf
of decay, when the few sailing ships
were no longer manned by Down East
sailormen, but were driven by non
descript scattermouche crews or by
stolid "squareheads," mostly the on
scourings of European ports. Ther
true "sailorizing" had become an al
most lost art.
But the lost art is to be revived a.
part of the great campaign OF straf'
inc tho HIM and eouipnin0 the natiOf