THE TANG OF THE SEA.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1831, 18 August 1913, Page 4

THE TANG OF THE SEA.

MAKING A "SEA-DOG." Steam may have driven sonioof tlio rft. manco from tho eea, but there aro still "wind-jammers" ploughing tho ocean highways, and still young Britons ea.fer to man them. One of tlieso lads, a Sydney boy, wlio loft for "foreign parte" as a deep-sea A.8.. on a full-rigged ship last January, has written a letter to his parents which, might have been penned at any time sin'cu Britons . first fared forth in search of tho wonders lyiiijj on tlio other side of the hom/iii. It is a story of galea and calms, of stem eca discipline and sudden death, and of strange lands and flying fishes, nil told in tho language of the real sailor. Tho boy furled the nrnzcn-royal ia tho Southern Sea, and noticed gladly that of all tho (sailors given a turn at this ■ task "none oould boat me." He fought _ a; ocmpanion for attempting to bully him, and boro no grudgo when tho mate, "a really decent chap," thrashed them both. "Ho mado one rush at botli of us," savs. "and a midM© later I was rolling in" tho leo scuppers. Whon I pickcd myself up from tho scupper, ho was eevorcly chastising.tho seaman, and both of us ran to tlio braces a little sadder, but also a littlo wiser. Wo saw ono throe-masted, ship in tlio distanco outward bound." Tim lad lecorded with respect tho prescience of tlio "old man," who seemed to know, by instinct when a 6torm was brewing, and could make himself hoard above the roar of a 6quall with his order, "Stand by topsail halliards, lower yards half down." Ho to veiled in his first crossing of the Lino, when "several of us wore put through by Neptune, and after being tarred all over, shaved, dosed with salts by tlio glassful, and givon some curiouslooking things thev railed pills, we got our certificates." He secured o. pa" of flying-fish wings on tho day ho had ma first-turn at the whecl-a -red-lcttor dav indeed. The ta.ng of tho sea comes with his letter. If tho Australasian Navy is beirig manned by sailors of the sarao typo its future is safe..