Profile
Walking Back
Profile of A Sailor
By Will Jackson
There are many aspects of seamanship. Not every person who goesto sea is a seaman in the correct sense of the word. In fact,a seaman and a sailor may be termed differently.
For example, I myself sailed to sea forover twenty years, with little experience in motor ships management,having done a year as A.B. and six months as bosun. I also learneda bit about diesel engines, having worked for two years in anengine room. However, being removed from a motor/steam ship toa sail ship, I wouldn't know the difference between a halyardand a mainsheet.
I would quickly be disqualified as a sailor.But then, changing the cards around and exchanging the deck forthe kitchen, I would very readily qualify as the ship's cook.That is the line in which I excelled, so that puts me in the categoryof a sea-going cook.
An engineer will never be able to efficientlydo the job of a chief mate, no more than a car mechanic couldfly a passenger plane without first being trained in that line. Now when we are talking about seamen of a hundred years ago andbeyond, we are talking about sailors. In fact, Webster's Dictionarydefines the word 'Sailor' as one working in Sailing ships. A sailorof yore knew that his very life and total survival depended onhow well he officiated his job.
His efficiency in handling the many linesand ropes that controlled the ship's behaviour under sails onan angry ocean the safety of the ship lay in the sailors' hands.The same sails that pushed the ship along over the waves couldalso trip her over, resulting in loss of ship and lives as well.
I heard a story, repeated, from an old manas a young man. There was an East Ender whose name was TheophilousBodden. Mr. Bodden went to the U.S.A. as a young man, after havingdone some schooner sailing locally. With his sailing experienceit did not take him long to obtain a job on a very large sailingship - a square rigger, four masted vessel.
He said he spent three years on that shipwithout a vacation, and rose to the position of a Quarter Master- one responsible for the good handling of the ship under way.The ship's trade was between Georgia, Carolina and the West Coastof America, via Cape Horn. They carried what he termed as generalcargo and lumber return.
But their route just changed for one voyageto West Africa with a full load of timbers and dressed lumberbeing hauled all the way from Vancouver. Well, he said it wasearly September, and he was set on going home for that comingChristmas. Three Christmases had already passed with him on thatship. But one of those South Atlantic real destroyers, in theform of a hurricane, came down on us giving us hardly a hope ofsurvival.
I spent ten hours lashed to that old ship'swheel with waves beating all over me. Except for being securelyfastened to eyebolts in the deck with a good strong manila rope,I would have been washed away a hundred times or more in thathurricane.
So, said Mr. Bodden, after being batteredand weather beaten for ten hours, drowning would have seemed aneasy way out for him. He was too exhausted to fight anymore. Now there were two other Quarter masters on the ship, but neitherone of them could be trusted with handling her in such weatheras this.
However, the Chief Mate decided he wouldtake over the steerage for a while, on this their survival depended;one wrong action and all could be lost in such a weather. I wentbelow deck to recuperate from my sufferings, but not for long. Within an hour passing the ship was flattened on.
Of course now she was being filled withocean water, offering no hope of righting herself again. Theship was a wooden hull, and she was loaded with lumber. The deckload of timbers had all gone from us so the ship had good buoyancy.If only she would right herself again, but instead she turnedbottom up. By the next morning the storm had passed us by.
There were fifteen remaining out of theoriginal company of 26. Those 15 would fight on for survival;but what hope could there be unless we should soon be spottedby another ship and be picked off the ship's bottom where we wereexposed to sun, rain and all else the weather would offer, withno food or drink. But it did rain often at which times we soakedour shirts and wrung the water into our mouths. We took turnsdiving into the ship trying to see what we could salvage fromthe air pockets on the main deck.
We discovered that the galley had air spacein it sufficient that a man could stand there and breathe. Therewere some cans of vegetables washing around and we found a duffelbag floating around, which we stuffed with the cans we salvaged. Among the items we recovered were a harpoon and a fire axe anda head rope, which was most handy to tie together the other itemsand pull them to our upstairs perch after we had reached the surfaceagain. This was treacherous indeed, but it was all the hope wehad left of staying alive.
One day, we used the harpoon to spear asizable shark. The fire axe was handy in chopping him in pieces,which we ate as though we were having the best tenderloin steaks. After that, every day we would spear fresh fish to eat, but ourbowel began to fail us and two men died, leaving us with the numberthirteen.
Soon we lost track of time, what day itwas, or how many days we had been drifting on the ship's bottom. Well, no one cared by now anyway. We were freezing by nightand being roasted by day. Life was becoming unbearable. Tearsflowed down the old man's cheek as he told this story. But smilespread over his wrinkled face as he continued talking.
One morning, just when the burning raysof the sun were awakening we saw sails so very close to us thatit seemed as though we could call to them. It was a three-master,and hallelujah! They were tacking the ship around and headingto us. There were 13 woe begone, distressed sailors dancing,prancing and shouting, all at the same time.
Soon we were safely on board the rescueship and only in another day reached port safely in a port inWest Africa - a name I can't remember. We were all medicallytreated and cared for in every way necessary. Then, in processof time, when we were well enough we were put on board anothersquare rigger that stopped at that port only to pick up 13 distressedseamen bound for Baltimore.
After a beautiful crossing to Baltimore,I was taken over by an appointed agent, given all the cash thatthe company had been holding for me, plus five hundred dollars,and given a train ticket to Tampa, Florida, to catch a vesselto Grand Cayman, as I was the only one from there.
Well, you know, I arrived home on ChristmasEve. Now I had prayed and asked the Lord to save my life, andhelp me to get home again, even when I didn't know anything aboutpraying. I had promised to serve him the balance of my life ifHe helped me.
Did Mr. Bodden remember his promise afterhe was safely landed at home? Oh yes, you can believe he did! Getting married to his long-time sweetheart, he built his houseand settled in. Mr. Bodden became one of the early pioneers ofthe Seventh Day Adventists in the island of Grand Cayman and faithfullyserved the Lord, preaching the gospel until he was too feebleto go any more. The church owes its being to Captain GilbertMcLaughlin and Brother Theophilous Bodden.
Well, this is just one story of the manythat can be told of the iron men who battled on wooden ships. Many lost the fight with the wild ocean, but even more, battledto victory because they were sailors and not simply seamen.
However, with the entrance of motor andsteam ships there was no more need for professional sailors. They stand in an enclosed sheltered room surrounded by the mostmodern equipment and mechanical gadgets, steering the ship witha little lever. Sometimes with no need to steer at all, the shipbeing set in Gyro.
All this and much more the seamen of thisage enjoy while sailing the seas. With no sails to boost or lower,no riggings to climb, or reef point to make in the sails; no standbyon the deck till the squall is over.
Surely steam ships set all the distinctionbetween the sailors and the seamen; somewhat like separatingthe men from the boys. Nevertheless thank God for the seamen,they still keep the world moving by the numerous ships they guideover the many oceans and seas. The sailors are gone, yes, butseamen are still performing their necessary duties.
They that go down to the sea in ships, thatdo business in great waters, these see the goodness of the Lordand His wonders in the deep.