“Home is the Sailor... ”

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 628, 3 April 1929, Page 8

“Home is the Sailor... ”

Guide to Men on Shore Leave A LITTLE publication, “A Handbook for Shore Leave,” which has just been received in Auckland, leaves sailors no excuse for sore heads and morning-after doldrums following waterfront carousals. It covers 352 ports throughout the world and tells the seaman where to go and where not to go when away from his ship.

r pHE sailor ashore to-day—at Auckland as elsewhere—is vastly different from the sailor ashore 20 years ago. In the picturesque day of Jack London’s tales of the ’Frisco waterfront, it would be a poor shore leave indeed if there were not at least a convivial spree or two and a few free fights before the men returned to the ship; now there are social halls, seamen's hostels (with billiards tables and table tennis), institutions catering for mariners’ wants, and organised bodies of people whose special mis-

sion is to watch the welfare of the seafaring man when he steps off his boat on vacation. Of course, there is a flavour of spice in shore leave —there always will be —but if every seaman has in his pocket a copy of the recentlyissued handbook (it costs him 50 cents to any part of the world), he can usually keep out of some of the worst troubles to be encountered on land. This publication, which was instituted in the days of the war, is crammed full of useful information to the shore-going merchant sailors about hotels, seamen’s homes, recreation facilities, American Consulates (it is an American publication), addresses for legal, medical, surgical and dental aid, shipping agencies, seamen’s unions, public libraries, places of amusement, and the most interesting sights in or near the ports. It tells that at Shanghai “Jimmy’s

Kitchen" will provide the best meal, while mixed up with prosaic laundry addresses and advice that “native women do washing,” are the facts that Ah Cheese should be patronised at Apia, Socrates Vassiliades at Constantinople, Tinturaria Cambournac at Lisbon, and the Saltsjobadens Tvattinrattning at Stockholm. “The honesty of the laundresses who come aboard at Corunna.” sailors are warned, "should be investigated.” In Auckland, New Zealand, the sailor Is given to know, one may take a trip to "Lake Takapuuta,” while, skipping lightly across the world at a glance, the marine sees that at Tsingtao (pronounced “Ching Dow”) the safest beverage is beer, where the bottle is opened In the presence of the drinker. WHERE NOT TO LAND Summary advice is handed to the shore-leave men when they reach the island of Haiti—foul still in history with its black record of tyranny unrestrained—and Cape Hatien, the scene of the negro Christophe’s murderous caprice, is described as “a poor place for white sailors; don’t desert.” Further along the island Port-au-Prince shares the bad reputation. Regarding some of the islands in the Society Group, frank advice is given. Nanking, China, is not inviting. “No further information available as foreigners have been driven from Nanking,” the shore-leave intelligence says; while the severing of diplomatic relations between America and Russia leaves the port of Odessa simply a blank sheet. “Avoid contact with bum-boat men, who offer doubtful liquor and may be robbers,” greets the sailor seeking information about St. Michael’s, in the Azores. Then, again, when he gets to Rosario, Argentina, he is warned that “seamen remaining on shore for more than 24 hours are liable to arrest,” and that “the red light district is unusually rotten here.” SEASONAL PLEASURE Vera Cruz, of course, provides “bullfights in season” for the amusement of visitors and the populace. "Genoa is a most difficult port in which to be stranded,” relates the guide as an inducement to men to return to their ships—surely a reflection upon the hospitality of the birthplace of Columbus. It is well enough to hear nasal songs of Barcelona, but the marine who steps ashore there must carry identification papers, lest he be arrested —such is the hospitality of Spain. The port of Aden gives sightseers a glimpse of “The Tanks,” built by the ancients to conserve the scanty rainfall, but there are no amusements and no employment available there. Finally, when the ship slides Into Yokohama, Japan, and the sailor looks up his little book, he sees that "seamen should not accept occupation without advice of consul; this applies particularly to offers of employment with boxing or wrestling concerns.”