FLIRTATION ON SHIP-BOARD

Waikato Times, Volume XXIX, Issue 2391, 5 November 1887, Page 1 (Supplement)

FLIRTATION ON SHIP-BOARD

Wiimm: has v ! a feature of the old sea life er* n y.-i m *re iom anticallv interesting than the i. . :r wii m a-fpien-injr of I*l if!: <->■<• 1 and yelioiv-hiirt-d Moll-*—’he :Trt t;i u, of th- 1-ng ore ill pa-sagt-t; Wii *t we <■ ill flirtation now :i* sr i i- i ::.e- -Ii i low of l >n i l-• v as compiled with The lobns* anti S.l i] reality of a perio 1 wh*n it t*■ >li .1 *H;i four mouths to sail to Bmhiy or Cdcutta.

There is n** lime alhiwel in this age for love-nnki;:;:. IJ-fore you can i: m-i ler yonr-eil fohly acquainted with a girl some wretch on the forva-tle is -inging out “ Land hi ' " 1 took particular notice of this <*a b.nd the line; steam-r in which I male the pi-sige home from ipef.j-.vn. It must certainly have e:id‘*d in a prepo-.il in the cim* of one couple li ad th-jr *;t* li-r dropp* d olfor a boiler bur-t and the -hip b**n d-laved.

They only wanted another week. Bat tie* st.-a-ii.-r w is impeitiiKiitly pnirlnal, hI.o a; r ighf hours le-f-oe her time; the people went a-hore at Plymouth, and, for all 1 ran teh, the young man, in the exeitr:n*eit of 1 mding and meeting hil friend- and s-eing ph-aty of pretty women about, m iv hj ive ah indoucl his intention and ended for the girl a chance that would have he.a a certainty in the old romantic poetic 1 1 sea d tv-.

\V3iv, we all know that the B-itish matron used to ship hj r darling-oil in the Ki't In li mien for husbinds in the country with alii li tho-e ves-ds trafficked, a»d how scores and -cores of these nn-o;dii-ti-e ate-1 voting ladies would land engaged, having aitim.ed themselves to gentlemen on board in the calms on the ojaa’or oria tbe tail -if the sou'h-east tram s, or in a small swell with a moderate breeze olf Agulhas, some pos-ibly hesitating as tar as the Mel ig i-eir p iralMs. How many marriige- originate at s-a, in these days of thirteen knots an hour, I wonder