LIFE ON THE OCEAN DEEP.

Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 1953, 9 January 1914, Page 3

LIFE ON THE OCEAN DEEP.

g ..'■-'.■.■. ...; "BLTCHER BOATS.":!';: ■ "■ Drawn 'up' on a sheltered beach at Watson's Bay, Sydney, may frequently be seen a aedar-built boat, which, to the uninitiated, ' Idoks like _ a large variety of douldo-seullod raeing skill'. But though she is always ready to compote in a race against tinie at midday or at midnight, in fair weather or in foul, her races are. run over no set. smooth-water course, but put beyenel tho Harbour Heads, where tho great rollers of the Pacific, scorning to injure an object so frail, glide noiselessly beneath her keel, to hurl themselves a moment later in a thundering cloud of, spray against the walls of the iron- j bound coast. It is not for pleasure that this delicate-looking craft braves the wrath of the elements on the high seas. For she sometimes even ventures out beyond the five-mile limit. In appearance she looks as though sport'pr pleasure wero the'object of Eer life.' In reality her course is set on strictly qusiness lines. She is part and parcel of tho commercial life of tho city, for she is.owned by a great firm of ship chandlers, and is used as the means by which to get into communication with the tramp steamers and ships which are constantly making for the port of Sydney, and whose masters are free to do their own provkloring. "Buteher boats," for such 'is the name of these ecean skiffs, • states tho Sydney "Sunday Times," are gradually going out of use. In the days of steam they could put out to sea much more quickly than the launch that had to wait until steam was up: Petrol, however, has altered all that. But, strange as it may appear, the fragile buteher boat, that looks as if a breeze on tho harbour would bo about the limit of her weather-withstanding capacity, can go out to sea with comparative safety where many a motor-launch would do so at great- risk. - Nobody seems to kiiflw exactly how much sea a butcher boat-can.stand, but it is safe to say that it is more than 'half a gale that- keeps.: her harbourbound. Some years, ago,- when launches were not so plentiful, and the ing was not so eoinplct.efy in tho hands of agents as it is. .to-day, it was quite a- common occurrence for a butcher boat to range north as far as Broken Bay,'arid as far south as Woolongong, to meet an incoming vessel, and secure, the ship's business .when . pho made port. An ordinary butcher boat is about 25 ft. long, with a beam of 3Jft. She is built of cedar, and carries two pairs of sculls. Sailing is always resorted to when possible, and for. this purpose she has a higsail and a jib, but she lias neither centreboard nor keel, though some of the. larger boats used te be oquippol .with a centreboard to help them keep up to the wind. A crew of two is all a 25-footer carries, and one of them is, the.accredited representatives of the firm he works for. The men who undertake this arduous work practically beside their boat. At any rate,- thoy .%'i'c always prepared to launch her and put out to sea the moment a likely vessel is signalled from the Hound House on South Head. Week-days, Sunday's, or holidays, it is all the -same to the men of tho butcher boat. Tile call is just as likely to come in tho silent watches of tho* night as in the middle of the day, and it js just as promptly . responded to. Tho game little c;raft may shoot- out to sen when the doep4\>elcd yachts are running for shelter - wider close-reefed topsails, and battened jhntehes, andget through, too. The .men who e!o tin's seem to be imbued with the spirit of. William Pitt's mariner, in "Tho Sailor's Consolation," when, ho-sang; A strong nor'-enstrr's blo.rir.p;, Bill! Hark! Don't ye hear it roar now? Lord help 'em. how I pities thorn . Unhappy io.ks on shore now! ■ It is claimed for the butcher boat thatit is a difficult matter to upset it, and there must bo a good deal of truth in this contention, seeing-the weather they, go out in. : v With all its drawbacks, the few men engaged in this strenuous calling appear to like it. There is just that spice of danger in it which calls for courage and resource, and helps.to break the nieinotony cf mere routine. _It is also one of the few walks in life in which business ability is as essential to success as physical endurance, and the capacity to undergo hard and exhausting labour. 'But the man with "nerves'--or tho man afraid ef. Work or a wet. packet—should ' leave this branch, of industry severely alone. The man who loses his head in a time of danger is as great a inenaeo to life on board a small craft as a homicidal maniac let. loose in a-crowd. . Fortunately, seamen of our race are not often troubled with'funk, which' is all too often the active afeent in boating fatalities. It is quite sale, however, to forecast that disaster never overtakes the men who rim butcher boats on this account, for if they were "not absolutely callous to danger they would never think • of putting out to sea in a butcher beat.