1947-10-25 — Page 7

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THE HONGKONG TELEGRAPH, SATURDAY, OCTOBER 25, 1947.

greatest

BISSET OF THE QUEEN ELIZABETH merchant seaman of modern times continues his life story

The making of a sailor

in the

I am seasick and cured for ever: Death comes to our ship: We go hungry and live on biscuits and peas: My first fight: I pass for first mate.

by

COMMODORE

SIR JAMES BISSET. C.B.E.

good

12% 1.192 ww mutil the The roar of the sens d of me bol as an they crashed on to the apprentice in P

three main deck, the howling misted barque County of Pym- of the wind is the broke, burning ft. ARC of myxinis, the lonely darkness, my job in a pretty hard schoni, pard, the wild tossing of the ship I had left home A pany. left are il frightened child, homesick child of 15, half the thinking of time wanting to run back mother.

to

the panyes my father told me to Say every stay, fu with my wits to arat tered to say them.

old

days

'I was tested to the full on that voyage. The County of Cardigan... 1903: Mu second ship. All hands were so exhausted always looked forward to "ar- by exposure and loss of sleep riet Lane," Australian tinned When I had finished my ar

that the euntain ordered

rum mutton named after a lady of prenticeships J WHEN HE tough,

sent for everyone except the three easy virtue who was foully mur. spronting Stripling of 19, with sprawling in a heup into 11. Apprentices. We were given a dered-and canned! the love of the sea stront in few scuppers, and once the cap fi of condensed milk? my bones that never main did d showed me how to stand. Milk was a treat indeed, for

with my legs planted wide we never got it with our food. apart and hold on to the mizzen rurging for support."

I ever think of "swallowing the ancher."

was given little time map as the County ol Pean- broke drew away from Liver pool on my first voyage.

Watery soup

Many

times

Was

'Terrifying' watch

That was my first lesson in acquiring a pair of sea legs, and I needed them badly, for the gale increased in fury.

It was net till midnight that 1 came off duty only to shaken awake at 3.45 am. for terrifying four-hour

At noon 1 was fold ofT to bring the dinner from the gal- ley for the half-dork--we three apprentices, the carpenter, and other sailmaker.

watch.

་

three

Ship:

The cook Bundled me tind: watery vegetable potatoes cooked in very dirty jackets; ami a loathsom-look- ing piers of Boiled nullon with yellow fat.

Even today

cannot look at boiled mutton without wanting to rotch.

After dinner the mates pick- ed watches, and for my first

seven years at sea I was follow the system of four hours on Buty and four hours off, never having 1]}] than

three and a half hours' sleep in

by hunk at any time.

On that first day out with the ship lying over in a strong breeze, I felt

very sensick

when-called-for my waleh -at- one bell (45 p.m.).

After

violent spasm of sickness I climbed back into my bunk, praying that the ship might go down quieldy and take me with her with all any misery.

But at eight bells the mate dragged me on deck by the scruff of the neek. The ship was slipping along at gool speed and lurching heavily 50 that she constantly buried her lee scuppers and flooded the

deck with water.

Scooping up a pint of it in a pannikin, the mate ordered: "Drink that. it'll make a man of you."

was told to keep me on deck,

Having vomited

the

OFTEN HUNGRY Fleet of 'starvation ships' THEY called the British mer

cantile feel starvation ships, and I must admit I often went hungry.

in the tropies when I com- plained, an ok sailor told me to lean over the rail and ent some "wind puddings."

Sir James Blaser in his cabin in the Queen Elizabeth

north-east

Nearing the Trades we struck fine weather, and I was allowed to go aloft. It was 150 feet to the top of the main mast, and I gloried in it my first taste of glory at sea.

cuits and milkless coffee, with Breakfast was invariably his- butter, sugar, and marmalade, There was burgoo, or porridge, in cold weather.

With Harriet Lane we could rely on boiled rite and molasses, while Sanday's treat was plum duft.

and

So I lit my pipe like a man- could never learn to chew tobacco

- and ofT 1 went under the same

cap- tain, bound once more for Australia.

OVERBOARD

The youngest sea- man lost in storm DURING this voyage

1 saw our young- est able seaman lost at sea in a storm.

It was impossible to throw rope or life- buoy the wind just tossed them back. The maker, frantic with grief, dash- ed aft to the captain to implore him to do something.

sail-

down to the cabin and said: The captain ordered the men "The ship's having a hard fight to live in this gale. A boat wouldn't live one second.

And

couli if you got it over the side, who against this sea?

pull it to windward

"Evans was a tine seaman and Conel man. We're all sorry for him

a

We never saw bacon, cheese and his parents. Now carry on with or eggs.

and our supplies of your watches and don't make your- fresh ment. fruit.

selves miserable thinking about vegetables only lasted for twe only. Any master of a ship may long remembered the captain's Weeks out of port. After that have in his time to make we were issued a

equally tot of lime- Bard decisions. juice every chy to

myself. prevent scurvy.

I was to learn that

A black cyc

Big salt fish were kept in a canvas-covered

I had my first fight on this trip- box on the main-top because of the stench, bigger chap than and a black eye.

against our youngest apprentice, a and it was my job ALE the and a split knuckle (both my youngest apprentice to climb up Property) were the ntaln satisfac- and throw one down on Friday tion I got out of It. for the cook.

Pantiles

Biscuits were called Liverpool pantiles and they were just as hard. They were a half-inch thick, four inches. across and stamped with 42 holes, the hid ing places for weevils.

never

After six months you ate a biscuit without first giv- ing it a knock to dislodge them. Rats were after your biscuits, too, so the "bread barge" was hung on a hook on the deck- head.

own

I have to record, too, that I sold the Bible my father gave me for a deliciously tempting basket of fruit offered by a native of lonely Pitcairn taland.

I reasoned that this native would at easily get a bible marooned on that out-of-the-world island, while fruit was necessary for my health. I always could. Furthermore, the

I confess the Bible means dog-eared.

was by

Τελ

Saw

It was 25 months before I verpool again after this

second apprentice. voyage. For my third I was eldest

During this third voyage 1 kot my first lessons in navigation and found, having a good hou for figures, I

The captain and mates ate a progressed swiftly. little-better than the crew," their"

diet being supplemented

AN OFFICER

OCCR-

sionally by tinned foods.

On one

voyage we short of provisions that we had nothing LO ent but

ran

So

You look very young for the job'

split peas, and slush.

biscuits. IN 1903 1 attended nautical college Liverpool and passed for

I was

In

Slush was the white grease second mate with ease. Boating on top of a pan of boil. yet 20, ed salted pork, and was used for greasing the masts.

The sailors were breaking their pantiles into slush and frying them to a brown mash.

The captain feared they of the salt in the slush, and or would get painful boils because- dered the cook to stop the fry- ing.

On

П

Now came the test of serving ns an officer. I had never given order in my life botore, and as ion I knew it was going to be dif- Ind with a shy and retiring disposi-

icult.

With these misgivings I barged the office of my employers,

info

brandishing my second mate's certi- dente.

said the shipowner, "Do you think "You look very young for the job," the men will obey you?"

with bravado, "and I'll see that it's "Give me the job." I answered properly carried out."

oan

But the desperately hungry Dinner at noon was salt beef threw the cook out of the or salt pork, bean or pea soup, got their boils. I got them,

galley, had their In a day or two il was seam and supper at 5.30 was the re- too.

slush-and He forced me to swallow the pering about aloft like a mon- mains of your dinner with lot, and I was handed over to Bill, the senior apprentice, who key, greedily

But fresh air and hard work learning the milkless tea. workings of yard and sail, and

agreed with me, and I grew so

"Very well, young man. We'll put adding to my vocabulary all the.

We used to cut up our scraps ed Melbourne-91 days

fast that by the time we reach- tain Roberts is a hard case, and so is you in the County of Cardigan. Cap- sea nautical rigging terms that so of treat, add bits of biscuit, put from water I felt better and by the enthral and bewilder the lani- it in a tin in the galley oven, trousers reached only halfway wages are £4 a month."

out Mr Kinley,, the mate. If you Liverpool-my shore satisfy

them you will end of the dog-watch, 6 p.m., lubber.

do. Your and eat it for supper as "crae- down my calves, my sleeves ker hash."

The County of Cardigan was were near my elbows, and my full-rigged, heavily sparred ship, We made our own cake-call- jacket was far too tight round much bigger than the Pembroke. And the captain's ginting blue eyes' et Dandy Funk--by pounding the shoulders. biscuits to powder in a canvas ' Homeward bound we

were the hardest I had yet hind to bag, adding sugar, marmalade at Queenstown for orders and 1

called face. and water, and getting the cook bought a skirted blue

I was tested to the full on that to bake it.

gerge voyage, and we beat as far as Aus- coat with velvet collar and fancy tralla, Chile and Peru. purple lining, a black wide-

I was feeling hungry.

was

In the dog-watches 1 taught knots and splices, and bow to box the compass.

I have never been seasick since that day.

Years later in luxury liners- passengers have often asked I saw the full cruelty of the me how to care seasickness. sea after we rounded the Cap I have never told them what and encountered a fierce wester the male did to me, for I am ly gule. A mountainous wave still doubtful of its effects on a broke over the stern and swept delicate stomach. Shipa doe everything off the pOOD. tors always say there is

Cure.

I

FIRST GALE I'm like a frightened child

no

Rum all around

broken.

.

'Dry hash'

Each week the cook issued us with our "whack" of provisions according to the Board of Trade scale.

awake hat, and bell-bottomed Two ugly fights

trousers.

་

the

a

This was the rig of the smart pathetic to a beardless boy, the crew The other oflcers were unsym- coasting sailor, but when my broached the cargo and got drunk, I mother anw-those bell-bottoms was involved in a couple of ugly The captain and mate jump-

when I got me ten months lights with dangerous men, and once .ed into the rigging, but the

Negro ran amok and nearly stab- after sailing from Liverpool, bed me in the stomach with a mor We got half a pound of but she would helmsman was picked up half- ter, half a pound of marmalade, family finish hugging me before

hardly let the line-spike. drowned and with both legs a pound of sugar. Each

At the end of what was the womt day rushing me off to a we got half a pound of pork or tailor.

"decent" voyage I had yet endured, I went to three-quarters of beef.

the captain for my reference. It was six weeks before the blue eyes softened, and he mid: "You

To my surprise the glint in Each man was issued with County of Pembroke sailed stuck it out like a man. I but two-thirds of it went into once more made me wonder first mate and was on the look-out three quarts of water a day, again and the comforts of home want a better second mate."

A few weeks later I had passed for even the severe fright I got when

the cook's tank.

whether a soft job ashore might for a job again. The mate told me to keep on the huge wall of water roared

not be more pleasant and far- the poop behind a

Once a week while they last safor. weather past mo cloth, and I was to watch the claim me as a victim because I with "dry

and only failed to cd the cook would obligo us But this time my parents clock in the companionway and was sheltered fore side of the potatoes,

hash" containing said: "You have made your bed, strike the bells every half-hour. mizzen mast.

onions, und ment now you must lie on it, so off chunka, while on Saturday we you go and be a man."

DID not have long to wait for my first experience of dirty weather. It came at 8 p.m. when we were all ordered on deck, because it was blowing a whole gale.

He died. next day and buried him at sen.

Wo

To me it was a heart-rending experience, outweighing

never

NEXT WEEK From sail to steam: The Titanic disaster-wo savO 706: The coming of radio.

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REMEMBRANCE DAY

Remembrance Day la dedicated to those in the Bervices who fought so gallantly and endured so much between 1914/18 and 1939/45. It la also an occasion, when Britishers in distant parts of the Empire and foreign lands turn their thoughts to the Mother Country and feel that they share that great tradition which she has created and so splendidly maintained throughout the centuries.

It is now more necessary than ever before to secure your geno- rous support for Earl Halp's Fund for the Disabled of the two World Wars. Their need is great, and the Committee of the British Legion feel that you would wish to be prominently Identified in the endea- vour to alleviate the distress of so noble a band of physicst sufferers. Remembrance Day will be celebrated

on 9th. November.

Poppies will be sold on Saturday, 8th. November.

Cheques may be made payable to Percy Smith & Co., Windsor House, Hongkong.

OYSTERS FOR HOSPITALS

One thousand dozen oystern, for distribution among hospital patients, wero recently carried from Australia to Britain in the light Fleet carrier, HMS Glory.

Together with 4,700, cases of other produco they formed the largest shipment of food gifts to be carried from the Commonwealth in a war- ship of this size.

The oystors were the gift of Mr T. Mamaras, a philanthropic mem- ber of the Greek Community of Melbourne. They wore specially frozen for this voyage and it was ar ranged by the Agent General for Victoria in London, in conjunction with Britain's Ministry of Food, that they should be sent to night London hospitals:-

EXPORTS

Chomicals Fine and Heavy American and Foreign Crude Drugs Raw Materials Pharmaceuticals

IMPORTS

Crude Drugs Raw Materials Spicos

MAX VAN PELS

441 LEXINGTON AVENUE NEW YORK 17, N, Y. Cabin Address: MAXLANPE