the pictures on these two pages. Their jobs take great skill and
patience and very often courage. It has always been that way with men
who follow the sea. Some of the things they do are as old as ships
themselves. But many things are different now.
On old sailing vessels, the crew had to get their sleep wherever they
could find a place to lie down. They might curl up on a coil of rope or
on the cargo in the hold. Later, they were given one room, the
forecastle, for the whole crew. Everybody was on watch at least twelve
hours a day. It is only in the last twenty years that seamen have worked
eight regular hours a day.
[Illustration: Types of Freighters in Hawaiian Trade]
[Illustration: Mariner Class Freighter]
[Illustration: Harbor Tug]
[Illustration: New Type Freighter]
[Illustration: Ocean-Going Tug]
[Illustration: Victory Class Freighter]
[Illustration: Liberty Ship]
Almost all ships now have more comfortable bunkrooms, with only two or
four men in each one. Instead of living on old-fashioned salt meat and
salt fish and crackers called hardtack, seamen have almost the same
things that they eat ashore. In the old days, seamen often got a disease
called scurvy because they had no fresh food. Then the British
discovered that lime juice prevented scurvy, and every one of their
ships carried barrels of it. That’s why American seamen still call
British seamen limeys.
There are laws and regulations now that provide for better food and
working hours and pay on ships. Seamen in their unions have worked hard
to get the laws and rules that have made life better for them.
FISHING VESSELS
Fishermen have always been among the most daring and hardworking men of
the sea. For thousands of years they have experimented and invented,
always in search of the boats and ships and nets that will do the best
job for them. New England fishermen used to be great whittlers of ship
models. They carved out their models partly for fun, partly to give
shipbuilders new ideas for improving their designs.
One of the great fishing towns is Gloucester, Massachusetts, and there’s
a story about it that goes this way: Almost two hundred and fifty years
ago, a ship builder in Gloucester launched a vessel that everyone
admired. On the day when she first slid into the water, a big crowd
gathered to watch. She was graceful and light, and she fairly skimmed
along--the way a flat stone does when a boy skips it over the water. In
those days in New England, some people called skipping “scooning.”
All at once, someone in the crowd called out, “See how she scoons!” The
builder called back, “A scooner let her be!” And according to the story,
the name schooner--a new spelling--has stuck to this very day.
A modern schooner still has sails, but not so many as the early ones. An
engine now gives her power, so that she can make fast time to and from
the fishing grounds, and her sails are used mostly to steady her in the
sea while the men work. The engine also helps with the heavy work of
handling the nets.
[Illustration]
Each kind of fish has its own habits, and the fishermen know them well.
Some fish, such as cod and flounder, live down near the floor of the
sea. They are caught in drag nets which are towed at the right speed
behind the vessel. Men haul the net in, dump the catch into ice-cooled
bins in the hold, then drag the net again.
Mackerel behave differently. They swim along in huge groups called
schools near the surface of the water. The lookout man on the mast keeps
his eye on the sea till he can yell, “School O!” Quickly the men lower a
boat that sets a huge net called a purse-seine. At first the net is
really a fence. Hundreds of floating corks at the top, and lead weights
at the bottom, hold it in place, while the seine-boat draws it into a
circle around the fish. Then, at a signal, a motor in the seine-boat
pulls on a sort of drawstring in the bottom of the net, closing it and
turning it into a kind of giant sack. The seine is “pursed” with the
fish trapped inside.
This is what happens on a lucky day. But mackerel can be very irritating
fish. Sometimes the whole school will suddenly dive and race away to
safety, just the moment before the trap closes. Fishermen must have
patience as well as skill.
Before engines went to sea, the men had to purse the seine by hand.
Since their schooner carried no ice, they cleaned the fish, salted them
and packed them into barrels as fast as possible. Everybody, including
the skipper, worked at top speed. Even the cook lent a hand, and he was
often a boy of ten who hung his pots in an open fireplace or smoked
some of the mackerel in the chimney.
[Illustration]
Fleets of fishing vessels go out together when the season is right.
There’s a race for the fishing grounds, and then a race back to deliver
the catch to market. In fishing towns all around the seacoasts, small
forests of masts fill the harbors when the fleets are in.
Among the schooners you can also see sturdily-built trawlers, which are
usually driven by steam-power. Newest of all are the vessels that work
like quick-freeze factories. Machines on board clean the fish, cut them
up, package them and freeze them right where they are caught. Or the
fishermen may quick-freeze the whole fish, then bring them back to be
thawed and sent to market.
People in fishing towns are proud of their fleets, and there’s a warm
welcome for the vessel that comes in first with a big load.
THE UNITED STATES
The day a ship returns safely has always been important to seafaring
men. It’s especially important if she has made a new record of some
kind. All the seamen in New York harbor were excited when the passenger
liner United States came in after crossing the Atlantic faster than any
other liner had ever done. And they all showed their respect in the
traditional way.
On tugs and freighters, on tankers, on other liners, skippers passed
down the word, “Break out the bunting!” This meant take out all the
brightly colored signal flags and hang them on the stays. (On page 91
you can find out what the signal flags are.) The United States had her
bunting out, too. When she appeared in the harbor, every vessel there
greeted her with tremendous whistle blasts. Fireboats filled the air
with high curving streams of water from all their nozzles.
[Illustration]
Aboard the United States, the members of the crew were more excited than
any one else in the harbor, but their work went right on through all the
happy hullaballoo. The AB’s got ready to tie their huge ship up. Others,
from the black gang to the steward’s department, were busy with
last-minute jobs. Working together as one huge team, they had made the
world’s fastest crossing. On the trip from New York to England, the
United States averaged 35.9 knots. (That means she travelled nearly 42
land miles an hour. Seamen never say “knots per hour.” They just say
knots.) Before that the passenger liner Queen Mary held the record. It
took the United States 10 hours and 2 minutes less than the Queen Mary
to cross the ocean.
The United States is really more than a ship. With a thousand people in
her crew and two thousand passengers, she is a floating town. Besides
the seamen who do their regular seamen’s work, there are crew members
with special jobs. In the ship’s shopping centers, storekeepers sell
souvenirs, and all kinds of things that passengers want and need. Movie
operators work in her two theaters. A children’s nurse takes care of
children in the nursery. A veterinarian cares for pets on board. Guards
watch over the swimming pool. A doctor and a registered nurse are ready
in the ship’s hospital to help anyone who is sick. Air conditioning
experts see that every room in the ship is kept at the right
temperature. Everything from the engine room to the dog kennels is
air-conditioned.
[Illustration]
Curtains, chair covers and rugs on the ship are made of material that
doesn’t burn. There is no wood at all in the ship except in the
butchers’ chopping blocks and in the pianos. But suppose a passenger
drops a match into a wastebasket in his stateroom. There’s an automatic
smoke-smelling gadget that sends a signal to a room on the bridge. The
officer there turns on the fire alarm, then pulls a lever which closes
that particular stateroom door and blocks the fire off.
There are lifeboats for all three thousand people in case of emergency.
These lifeboats are driven by propellers--but they have no engines.
People supply the power for the propeller. They push handles back and
forth. Even on this most modern ship in the world, there are boats that
move in the oldest way--by muscle power.
[Illustration]
The four propellers of the liner herself are each as tall as a
two-storey house. They are turned by enormous steam turbine engines.
Smoke from the boilers goes out through unusual-looking stacks. Inside
each one are giant filters that take away most of the soot. Besides,
there are wings called vanes at the top of the stacks to help keep the
smoke from swirling down onto the deck.
Although the United States is about five city blocks long and twelve
decks high, she looks as light and graceful in her way as the old
clipper ships. The clippers were American sailing vessels that got their
names because they went at a very fast clip. A hundred years ago they
held speed records all over the world. No wonder the captain of the
United States proudly said that his seamen were carrying on the clipper
ship tradition.
[Illustration]
Many people think the clippers were the most beautiful ships ever built.
Certainly they were the first sailing ships to be planned by men who
used scientific ideas in their work. At that time, science was bringing
modern machinery of all kinds to the world. Inventors had already put
steam engines into ships, but they had not yet studied what was the best
shape for a speedy vessel. And speed was becoming very important as more
people and cargoes crossed the oceans.
[Illustration: An Old Bay Liner]
No one knew whether steamships could go fast. But some shipbuilders
believed that sailing ships could go faster than ever before. They built
the record-breaking clippers. Soon the magnificent vessels began to have
races all the way from China to New York and London. It was many years
before steamships caught up with the clippers, but in the end they
proved to be faster. More important, they could keep going whether there
was any wind or not.
OTHER PASSENGER SHIPS
It’s the job of a passenger ship to carry people--and give them a good
time on their journey. But passenger ships also carry cargo. That’s true
of big ones and little ones, such as the City of Norfolk which belongs
to the Old Bay Line, the oldest American shipping company.
The City of Norfolk goes on short trips back and forth between Norfolk
and Baltimore on Chesapeake Bay. She takes on cargo during the day and
sails at night. Although she’s an old ship, she has radar to help guide
her through the busy waters of the Bay. All around are fishing craft,
ferries, ocean-going vessels--endless traffic through which the officers
must steer a safe course. In the dark wheelhouse, soft small lights hold
the key to safety--the sea-green light by which the man at the wheel
sees the markings on the compass, the yellow pips and the revolving blue
line on the radarscope.
In the hold below are automobiles, piles of second-hand truck tires,
crates holding all kinds of things, copper sheets by the ton which have
come by train from Utah, and will end up in some eastern factory.
[Illustration: Interior of an Old Time Bay Line Steamer]
[Illustration: Seattle to Bremerton Ferry]
Passengers stroll all over the decks. Some are travelling on business;
some are just sailing for fun. A group of school boys and girls on their
class trip dance to phonograph records. Their staterooms are
air-conditioned, but the inside of the ship looks almost as it did in
their grandmothers’ day, with balconies and big living-rooms called
saloons.
The City of Norfolk--and many other ships like her on bays and rivers
and lakes--is really a sort of combination ferry boat and hotel. Most
ferries, of course, have much shorter runs, and they are built to fit
the needs of their own special work.
Many ferries look exactly the same fore and aft. They have propellers,
rudders and wheelhouses at both ends, and there’s a good reason why. A
double-ended ferry makes quick trips back and forth. She can save time
if she doesn’t have to turn around in the water when she goes in and out
of her dock which is called a slip.
The big ferries carry automobiles, trucks, and as many as three thousand
people at a time. Some of them, on long runs, have up-to-date snack bars
so passengers can get quick meals. For safety, they carry lifeboats and
life jackets, just as ocean-going vessels do. But a ferry could never go
to sea. She is built very broad, with very little of her under the water
and a great deal above. Big ocean waves would tip her over.
[Illustration: Staten Island Ferry]
[Illustration: Arkansas River Ferry]
Men have used ferries from the earliest times. Hundreds and even
thousands of years ago people and animals were ferried across rivers on
rafts. Even today there are raft-like ferries which men guide across our
rivers by steel cables.
[Illustration: Railroad Car Ferry]
Train ferries take loaded freight cars across harbors where there are no
railroad bridges. In some harbors, the cars travel on flat-bottomed
barges which tugboats shove along.
[Illustration]
Long ago, barges were quite different. They were elegant vessels in
which kings and important people travelled on rivers. And fancy barges,
towed along behind paddle steamboats, once carried passengers up and
down the Hudson River, too. At that time the steam boilers on
paddleboats often exploded. Many crewmen and passengers were killed. So,
in order to attract customers, some steamboats towed “safety barges”
behind.
Nowadays barges are plain cargo vessels that do heavy work. Most of them
have no power of their own. They must be towed or pushed. The seaman who
handles a barge is called a barge captain. He must be an AB to get the
job, and on some barges he lives in a house at the stern. If he has a
family, they may make their home there the year round.
Before the days of railroads, a whole system of canals joined many of
the important American cities. Along these waterways horses or mules
pulled barge-loads of freight. Many a canal boatman started before he
was twelve years old, driving a mule on long trips all by himself. There
are still some canals in use, and powerdriven barges carry cargoes on
them.
FIREBOATS AND OTHER HELPERS
The old-fashioned engines that used to explode are gone now. So are the
candles and whale-oil lamps that lighted ships. All these caused fires
in wooden vessels. But even today, when most ships are made of steel,
with fireproofing equipment, there’s work for fireboats to do.
The seamen aboard fireboats belong to the Fire Department. They do deck
work or engine work, and they also handle the pumps and nozzles that
shoot enormous streams of water. The pumps suck in water through holes
in the side of the boat and force it through hoses and nozzles that can
be aimed like big guns.
[Illustration]
Sometimes fireboats go a little way outside their harbor to help a
burning ship. On the way, the fireboat captain guides his vessel between
buoys that mark the channels where ships can go. All harbors have these
channels, which are really streets for water traffic. The buoys are
floating signals anchored to the bottom. On a clear day, seamen can tell
by looking at the shape and color what each buoy means. In a fog or at
night, they listen for the bells or whistles on some special buoys and
watch for the flashing lights on others.
Rivers have channels marked with buoys, too, and men who belong to the
United States Coast Guard Service have the job of placing and repairing
them.
The Coast Guard also cares for lighthouses at dangerous points along the
shore. Powerful lights and foghorns in the lighthouses warn ships away
from rocks or shallow water and also help them find out exactly where
they are. In some places, lightships anchored in the sea do this same
job. A lightship is really a giant buoy. Seamen live aboard her to care
for the safety equipment. They get their food and mail from vessels
called tenders. (Any vessel that supplies another is a tender.)
Coast Guardsmen help seamen in other ways, too. Suppose a ship is
sinking. Fast, tough little Coast Guard cutters race off to the rescue
the minute the dreaded SOS signal comes over their radio. (SOS is the
code
[Illustration]
signal for “help!” and every radio man understands it, no matter what
language he speaks.)
[Illustration]
Using a special gun, men on the cutter shoot a lifeline across to the
sinking ship, and a breeches buoy is rigged on it. This is a canvas
seat, made like a pair of short pants. The seat hangs from a wheel
called a block which runs along the line. One by one the seamen sit in
the seat and are pulled along to safety.
CHARTS FOR SAFETY
In the days when the United States was still a very new country, many
people in Europe longed for the freedom they were sure they could find
here. One of them was Ferdinand Hassler, a young Swiss mathematician.
Hassler was no seaman when he set out for the new world in a sailing
ship. But luckily he did know a great deal about the stars. After the
captain of his vessel collapsed in a terrific storm, Hassler was able to
look at the stars and tell the seamen how to steer the ship.
[Illustration]
The things Hassler knew about mathematics made it easy for him to
navigate, but real troubles began when the ship came into Delaware Bay.
The map of the bay was old and very inaccurate. Hassler could not tell
whether the ship was in shallow water or deep water, except by watching
the leadline day and night.
This last part of his adventure made young Hassler very angry because it
was so unscientific. He realized that the safety of all ships depended
on accurate maps, called charts, of the coasts and harbors. Soon after
he landed he began to make plans for a survey of the whole American
coast. He talked to President Jefferson who agreed with him, and
Congress finally gave him the job. At last his good charts began to help
save lives.
Today the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey carries on the work
Hassler started. Using many ships and small boats with marvellous
equipment, the scientific men of the sea go about their important and
often dangerous work. It’s their job to map the earth that lies under
the oceans, rivers and harbors. Here are some of the things they do
along the Alaskan coast.
A survey ship moves through the water sending sound waves to the bottom
of the ocean. A delicate machine records the echoes made when the sound
waves bounce back from the deep valleys and the high mountain tops that
lie beneath the surface. Scientists know how fast sound travels in
water, so they can tell exactly how deep it is. But some of the peaks
are narrow and sharp. Even the wonderful machines miss them. And so
these very modern vessels must do something old-fashioned and simple.
Two of them travel side by side with a long wire cable hanging between
them. If the cable catches on a rock, the men know they have snagged a
sunken mountain top.
Often, men on shore help the men on ships with their surveying. The
instruments they use are so delicate that the warmth of direct sunlight
would cause inaccuracies. One slight error might mean a shipwreck. So,
even in Alaska, a surveyor works under an umbrella.
[Illustration]
You might think that all the charts and maps should have been finished
in the long years since President Jefferson’s time. But the work of
making charts can never be finished. The coastline is always changing.
Currents and tides, storms and floods shift millions of tons of sand
near the coast. Earthquakes and volcanoes raise land or lower it. A
place that was safe for ships yesterday may be dangerous today.
In Alaska, glaciers that run into the sea grow bigger or melt back.
Sometimes these enormous rivers of ice push themselves out under the
water. The little survey vessels mapping the ocean’s bottom have to sail
over the sunken glaciers. There is always danger that, at any moment, a
great mountain of fresh-water ice may break loose and rush toward the
surface. When this happens, any vessel nearby is almost certain to be
destroyed.
Seafaring men need to know about the tides when they enter or leave
harbors. Tides are very different at different places along our enormous
coastline, and they change from one day to another. The Coast and
Geodetic Survey has worked out a wonderful way of telling ships about
tides in advance. Every day, records pour into Washington from all along
the seacoast. The figures they give are put into a fantastic “thinking
machine,” together with other figures about the sun and moon which cause
the tides. Electricity is turned on, and in no time the machine tells
what tides will be like with ordinary weather tomorrow or even next
month.
Men have come a long way since they first learned to float on a blown-up
animal skin or a bundle of reeds. For thousands of years, they have been
inventing new and better ways to travel across water. But the oceans
have an enormous power and force. Science and seamen still have much to
learn about the power which they must fight and make work for them--and
which will always be exciting.
[Illustration]
WHAT SEAMEN SAY
Here are some words that you haven’t met in the rest of the book. They
are all part of seagoing language.
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
AHOY--a call given by men on one ship to greet men on another.
AVAST--an officer shouts “avast” if he wants a seaman to stop
hauling on a line.
BELAY--to tie or make fast. A belaying pin is a short rod which can
be stuck into a holder so that a line can be twisted around it.
There were many belaying pins on old sailing vessels, and they made
handy weapons at times.
DEEP SIX--when a sailor throws something overboard, he “gives it
the deep six.” The expression comes from the days when sailors
measured the depth of water with a leadline. The “deep six” was a
place on the line which showed the water was six fathoms (36 feet)
deep.
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
FOUL--Seamen use this word to describe anything that has gone wrong
or got mixed up. A snarled line is foul. A ship’s hull covered with
barnacles is foul. Bad weather is foul.
NORWEGIAN STEAM--seamen say they use “Norwegian steam” when they do
heavy work without the help of machinery.
SCUTTLE BUTT--the drinking fountain on a ship. Because seamen often
gather there to talk, the rumors and gossip that they pass on are
also called “scuttle butt.”
SEA LAWYER--a seaman who likes to argue about rules and
regulations.
SLOP CHEST--a room where seamen can buy clothes. Every ship is
required to have one.
SLUMGULLION--a seaman’s word for stew that he doesn’t like.
TRAMP--a freighter that ties up anywhere and has no regular
schedule.
WINDJAMMER--a sailing vessel.
[Illustration]
Code flags make it possible for ships to talk to each other at sea. Each
flag stands for a number or for a letter in the alphabet. The flags are
used in combinations--not to spell out individual words, but to send a
whole message. For instance, the two flags N and C flown together mean,
“In distress. Need prompt aid.” No matter what language a seaman speaks
he knows what this signal means. Some of the other messages he can read
are IQ--“Do not pass ahead of me”; RW--“Where are you from?”; AG--“Shall
not abandon my vessel.”
INDEX
AB, 12, 26
Able Bodied Seaman, 12
accommodation ladder, 26
amidships, 25
anchor, 34-35
athwartships, 25
backstay, 28
banana boats, 43-46
basket boat, 40
barge, 60, 80, 81
barnacles, 50
batten down the hatches, 27
beam, 28
bells, 14
bilge, 28
bireme, 33
booms, 27
bosun, 24, 29
bosun’s chair, 29, 31
bow, 12
Bowditch, Nathaniel, 18, 19
brightwork, 31
bulkhead, 24
buoy, 82
canal, 62, 80, 81
capstan, 22
captain, 29
chantey, 21, 22
charts, 84-87
Chips, 24, 25, 34
Clermont, 58
clipper, 75, 76
City of Norfolk, 76, 77
Coast Guard, 82, 83
companionway, 24
compass, 17, 18
crow’s nest, 13
davit, 46
depth recorder, 57
dhow, 33
dock, 27
draft, 28
drydock, 50-51
dugout, 32