Page:The Blight of Insubordination.djvu/89

81 sailing vessels, have for years been furnished with lockers or seats all round, with tables that shift upon stanchions, of the well known pattern.

What happens to these fixtures after a year or two, only those who have lived there can tell. Somehow they do not last hike other parts of the vessel.

Walls of steel, decks of steel, roofs of steel, although they are sheathed with wood just in the wake of where people live— and sometimes die—do not permit much to be expected in the way of comfort from surroundings such as these when the climate is tropical. Unless there is a liberal supply of awnings the conditions are hellish in their nakedness. Oh! the dreadful steel decks, that will blister the naked feet after an hour's sun on a hot day; that never cool, even when the sun has gone until another morning! Too often there is not anything like a liberal supply of the very necessary awnings, the flimsiest apology or makeshift being commonly in evidence in cargo boats that could well afford to provide a proper outfit, such as those vessels that rarely leave the tropics must have. 'When the climate is wintry the conditions are then reversed with a severity that must be experienced to be appreciated, for it is not a joyful time for anyone.

When ships were built of wood, the lower forecastle for the accommodation of seamen was a fashionable institution. When iron became the material for shipbuilding the quarters for the crew were still to be found below the main deck, but much more often, as the ships increased in size, under the topgallant forecastle.

In this place appropriated to the crew was the windlass, the cables leading thence through the hawse pipes, which were rarely fitted with proper bucklers to keep out the rush of water when bucking into a head sea. Fine times and lively scenes were often enacted in such places, and if it is on account of such accommodation that the demand is made to "house the men better" there is perhaps a reason for it. Still it is a matter of doubt whether they are much better off in this respect in some of the modern small tramps, where cargo space 18 always the chief consideration. In the larger vessels the crew's quarters— the most modern arrangement is to accommodate them at the after part of the vessel—are generally all that is desirable; the lofty decks help to make it so. Shipbuilders who build vessels on speculation when orders are scarce provide the necessary accommodation, that is, the spaces, as required by law. Shipmanagers when placing orders for new vessels may or may not leave the details of that kind tothe builder. It is, however,