Traveller.

Alexandra Herald and Central Otago Gazette, Issue 361, 9 April 1903, Page 2

Traveller.

—+— TUGS.

Sr£|£ECAUSE you have often seen a of >§E slatternly little river tug splutter•jftSJK ing ahead witk a long string of bargeß in her wake, don't think that all tug boats are of the same claps and engaged in the same kind of toil — make no snch error.

The first-class British tag is fit to go almost anywhere and do anything in the way of towing; her work is not all heartless drudgery; there is no lack of variety in her occupation. Sae tenderly nurses the ocean greyhound in and out of dook; she takes hold of a great sailing fthip and eaves the towering craft many -days ot hazardous navigation. Now and then she is sent on a distant expedition, thousands of miles away from her station to tow home a disabled steamship. A' sea-going tug of the newest type 1b perhaps one-fortieth part the sise of a twentieth century ocean liner. An appreciable difference! Yet it happens often enough that the stately leviathan is com - pelled to call the modest little boat to her aid. You see, the engines have yet to be invented which will never break down; and when robbed of her motive power, the mightiest steamship that ever was launched is at the mercy of wind and tide, a helpless cripple. The best thing she can do in the event of an accident to her propeller, or a serious breakdown in the engine-room, is to make her way somehow to the nearest port, and then send for a powerful tug to tow her to her destination. One of our crack tugs has been known to pull a huge passenger steamer from St. Helena to London, a disc? ace of nearly 5000 miles, in a month.

Not very quick travelling, you say. True, but it is obviously impossible for a tiny craft to pull along a very big one at a high rate of speed, The master of a huge vessel is usually well pleased if his charge is towed a hundred miles in a day When ships run ashore as they often do in violent '.weather, it is one of the tug's many duties to get them afloat again. Th« stranding of his vessel is one of the worst calamities which can befall a skipper 5 but as a rule it is not long before the smoke of a tag is seen in the dist&nce, and very soon after the latter's appearance on the scene; the Btranded craft is afloat c-nce more.

Sometimes the tug acts as pilot boat, and quite often she is called upon to a life-boat to a wreck while a terrible storm is raging. Indeed, it frequently happens that the tug and her crew take the foremost place in the work and rescue. Briefly, the tugboat is the freight locomotive of the seas, and a number of other besides, LONDON 'HELL-FIRE' CLUBS. On April 28, 1721, an order in council appeared denouncing ' certain scandalous societies' which were believed to hold meetings for the purpose of ridiculing religion. Soon after a bill was introduced in the house of lords for the purpose of suppressing them, but it was rejected on the ground that it might lead to persecution. There had been a great deal of money made just then on the stock exchange, and these clubs were one of the means whereby certain wicked and licentious men got rid of their gains. They were properly called 'Hell-fire clubs.' Their members were known by ppcudonyms such as Pluto, the. Old Dragon, the King of Tartarus, Lady Envy and Lady Gomorrah. They showed their contempt for everything sacred or awful by such devices as that of burning sulphur at their meeting. So much discomfort will men incur for the sake of doing something outrageous, says the London News. Many were the storks that went about concerning theße *H. P.' clnba. It was frequently related that after drinking a more than ordinarily horrible toast some yrung man would fall down dead.. Once it was said that a circle drank boiling scaithoen (a mixture of butter andwhisky), before a roaring fire, so that * the, marrow melting in their wicked bones, they fell down dead upon the floor.' At their wakes there was aa unaccountable smell of brimstone, so that the very horses refused to draw their hearses. And when these clubs had had their day in London, the id-a migiated to Dublin, where it was taken rp with embelliahmnt, Many other stories concerning them are told in Ireland even to this day, and especially of the large black cat that presided at the board and was always helped first.