WELLINGTON AND SEAFARING.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1791, 2 July 1913, Page 3

WELLINGTON AND SEAFARING.

Sir,—Entering your harbour this morning, every prospect pleases, and to a stranger it is a' great treat. On the left the mouth of Cook Strait is gapiitg at us. Further south, a majestic range of snow-capped mountains rear their beautiful summits to. the sky. It is calm. The sea is one glorious undulating mi'rror. The seafowl is careering here and there over tho smooth surface of the waters, and now and again uttering a cry of delight.as he pounces upon ins prey. "Oli," says he, "let us preyl" Un the port band, under the lee of'the land, there is quite a flotilla of fishing boats. They aro hard at it. Brave men. They deserve all .they can catch and more, for they work very hard for it. Now wo aro entering your lovely harbour, one of the finest natural harbours in the world, I suppose. On the left are beautiful hills, studded here and there by redroofed, well-built houses. We are winding to the port hand, and as we do so the 'unfolding scent', is becoming morn charming and beautiful. The equipment of the s.s. Mokoia is Ibn finest in every way of any steamship ] have travelled by for eomo time. Hor

captain (Captain JlacLean) is a thorough gentleman, also her oificers and engineers, ller seamen are highly efficient and well behaved, ulso her firemen, whilo the departments which cater for our comfort aro all that one could desire. lam travelling second-class, and I make hold to say that the table is far superior tu that found some years ago in tho first saloon of ocean liners, in contrasting modern ships with those in which 1 mailed when I first went to sea some 36 years ago the difference is very marked and pronounced. Seamen at the time 1 write of worked long hours, worked very haul, and received poor enough fare. In the fishing boats in those days on the British coast young boys received hard treatment. In deep water, utile seamen shipped for tho round voyage at A'i! Ills, per month. The writer shipped as chief officer in a full-rigged ship for t.'ie remuneration ot .CO per month. In those days very few sailing ships carried iron tanks for their bread, but rather wooden lockers, with the result that what we called the pontile became wecvily before the Jiip was thro-o months . out from Home. . You may imagine, sir, the state of the bread during a voyage of, say, two years' duration. Why, wo used to hash it up in all forms. Sometimes wo split tho biscuits open with a sheath-knife,, and t'lireiv the live stock 'overboard. Often enough we had 110 time to do this, so we steeped the biscuits in sea-water, covered them with salt horse.fat, and placed them in the cook's oven, aud ate them in that fashion. On other occasions we pounded them in canvas bags with a marlinespiko or serving mallet, and made them into what Jack calls "cracker hash." I havo seen the salt horso so hard on being boiled that no one could tear it, no matter how sound their teeth. Seamen often kept hunks of it for some time, and then cut and carved it into models of ships. • Oh, the present day contrast is very ffrec.t. Sailors are gentlemen now, and I believe they appreciate the good conditions prevailing now. If not, they ought to—l am, etc., OLD SEA-DOG.