ngs of foreign paint-scrubbers, who generally
form a steamer's crew of the present day--men who could no more handle a
bit of canvas than a cow could play the Wedding March--in fact there are
thousands of men nowadays earning wages on British ships as A.B.'s who
have never touched canvas except in the shape of tarpaulin hatch covers,
and whom it would be highly dangerous to put at the wheel of a sailing
ship--they would make a wreck of her in any kind of a breeze in a few
minutes.

In my boyhood days, nearly all the ships that came into Sydney Harbour
flying British colours were manned by men of British blood. Foreigners,
as a rule, were not liked by shipmasters, and their British shipmates in
the fo'c'stle resented their presence. One reason of this was that they
would always "ship" at a lower rate of wage than Englishmen, and were
clannish. I have known of captains of favourite clipper passenger ships,
trading between London and the colonies, declining to ship a foreigner,
even an English-speaking Dane or Scandinavian, who make good sailor-men,
and are quiet, sober, and hardworking. Nowadays it is difficult to find
any English deep-sea ship or steamer, in which half of the hands for'ard
are not foreigners of some sort. And now practically the whole coasting
mercantile marine of the Australian colonies is manned by Germans,
Swedes, Danes, and Norwegians.

When I was a young man I sailed in ships in the South Sea trade which
had carried the same crew, voyage after voyage, for years, and there
was a distinct feeling of comradeship existing between officers and
crew that does not now exist. I well remember one gallant ship, the
_All Serene_ (a happy name), which was for ten years in the
Sydney-China trade. She was about the first colonial vessel to adopt
double-top-gallant yards, and many wise-heads prophesied all sorts of
dire mishaps from the innovation. On this ship (she was full rigged) was
a crew of nineteen men, and the majority of them had sailed in her for
eight years, although her captain was a bit of a "driver". But they got
good wages, good food, and had a good ship under their feet--a ship with
a crack record as a fast sailer.

In contrast to the _All Serene_, was a handsome barque I once sailed
in as a passenger from Sydney to New Caledonia, where she was to load
nickel ore for Liverpool. Her captain and three mates were Britishers,
and smart sailor-men enough, the steward was a Chileno, the bos'un a
Swede