Page:The Blight of Insubordination.djvu/60

52 sweeper (bunghi) caste, specially engaged for doing the dirtiest work. He is rated as a topass; very often he is a Christian (!) from Goa, the land of servants, that nowadays provides the Eastern fleets of British steamers with butlers, stewards, cooks, waiters and domestics of every kind required in the modern ocean-going steamer. As a class these servants compare very favourably with those of similar ratings among European crews, especially the cooks, who are what they pretend to be, and can do efficiently what they engage for. Decently cooked, palatable food is always provided on the tables where the Europeans live, and if it is not exactly recherché, it is a long way above the average of the ordinary sea cook skill, such as we were accustomed to before our acquaintance with these: men began. It is very well known that nothing affects the. contentment of a ship's crew, as of other men, as the ability of the cook to do his business properly, and the schools of sea-cookery that are now to be found in some of our great seaports. have certainly not been established too soon. Shipmasters now in engaging an ordinary European crew can get men who. have had some training and practice such as a course at these places provide, over and above their sea experiences, whatever they may be; so, given material to work with, it is to be hoped that the new order of things may make for contentment under: this head, and remove the reproach of our Yankee critics that. to "pick out the dirtiest man on a British ship, and the food-spoiler stands revealed"! Whether the successful cook should be certificated or not remains to be proved, for the Goanese cooks of the Lascar-manned steamer have only their continuous. discharge to prove their fitness for the post they take on with such marked ability, and an examination of their discharges would show more often than not that they graduate to the place in course. of time from their entry as scullions, butchers' mates, or similar places. The British India Steam Navigation Company's steamers are, perhaps, the chief training ground for these people in the lower grades. rom there they scatter all through the various fleets where Lascars are carried. Let our new-time cooks have certificates by all means, but it remains. to be proved whether or not it will be the means of them putting a price on themselves that the ordinary shipowner will not look at. It is a very trite remark that a good cook is worth paying for, and that a cheap cook is a dear cook at any price; yet it is too often overlooked that the cook of an ordinary British vessel has more work to do than he can actually manage with any fair expectation that it should be decently done. A cook, or a man who takes on the dual duty of cook and steward, for a