Page:History of merchant shipping and ancient commerce (Volume 2).djvu/558

 ordinary four-barred gate placed slightly on the incline. When the basket was filled with coals they "jumped" from the top of this stage on to the deck, the weight of their bodies raising the basket in one whip to a point where a man in attendance could instantaneously capsize its contents into the weighing machine; thus the operation of discharging the coals proceeded with extraordinary rapidity.

Perhaps no branch of maritime commerce ever produced hardier or more alert seamen than that of the Northern coal trade. During her great naval engagements England looked to that trade more than to any other for the best, or at least the hardest and most daring seamen for her navy. Indeed, it afforded a supply of men who could go aloft in any weather and fight the guns, with the green sea frequently rolling through the port-holes. They never saw danger. Accustomed to work their way amongst shoals and sandbanks, and along iron-bound coasts in their frail craft, and during the most tempestuous weather, the shelter of a man-of-war was like a haven of rest to them. But though they frequently faced dangers without a thought which would have made the regular man-of-war's man tremble, they stood sadly in want of discipline, and were with great difficulty trained to order, so that the comparatively easy life of a man-of-war's man had few attractions for them. On board of the collier, master, mate, and men smoked their pipes together; and if they did not mess from the same kid, they were in all other respects pretty much alike, creating an equality and freedom more in accordance with their habits and tastes than the drill and daily routine of the royal navy.