{"product_id":"2940148111610","title":"The Ships Company and other Sea People","description":"The Ship's Company and other Sea People was written by James Douglas Jerrold Kelley (1847-1922), Lieut. Commander U.S.N. and author of  \"Our Navy\" \"A Desperate Chance\" \"The Question Of Ships\" Etc. Published in New York in 1897, it is an in depth look at ships, and the people that man these ships. (222 pages) \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe Publisher has copy-edited this book to improve the formatting, style and accuracy of the text to make it readable. This did not involve changing the substance of the text. Some books, due to age and other factors may contain imperfections. Since there are many books such as this one that are important and beneficial to literary interests, we have made it digitally available and have brought it back into print for the preservation of printed works of the past.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eContents:\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eChapter 1 The Ship's Company — Chapter 2. The Squadron Cruise — Chapter 3. Midshipmen, Old and New — Chapter 4. Superstitions of the Sailor — Chapter 5. The Basket of the Sea — Chapter 6. The Rigor of the Game — Chapter 7 The Spirit of Libogen — Chapter 8. Queer Pets of Sailor Jack\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eExcerpts:\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e...When the breeze is piping free and the tide is running strong none but a master-seaman may be trusted to haul out of the Liverpool Docks a great Atlantic liner. Should it be a leeward ebb, with the Mersey spinning under a flurry of squalls and snarling in angry eddies, a quick eye must mate a clear wit to make the trick a deft one. The maneuver is always a delight to the mariner, let bo's'ns, hopelessly spliced to such traditions as topsails reefed in stays, bawl what they may about the dead days of seamanship. For here are unfolded the mysteries of the art, and here are exercised all the higher qualities of the sailor, and just as much, believe me, as in the old times when the gray piers and oozy quays were crowded to cheer our famous clippers warping in and out to the music of barbaric \"chanties.\"\u003cbr\u003e...Beach-combers, shore-huggers — mere Abraham's men — will tell you the poetry is gone out of it all, and will, with much damning of their eyes, and shifting of their quids, and hitching of their tarry trousers, try to persuade you that steam has ruined the genuine sailors of story and of song. But this is mere transpontine nonsense, for above and beyond everything he who commands a ship, smoker or sailor, as it may chance, must first of all be a seaman. The demands of modern sea life have increased the responsibilities of the mariner, and in like measure the professional attainments required are deeper, broader, and higher than ever before.\u003cbr\u003e...The junior officers belong to all sorts and conditions of men. Most of them have had to fight their way, though some have parents who could well afford to pay a handsome premium for their sea education in the training-ships stationed off the principal ports. Here they are given a strict man-of-war tuition, though the routine of studies and drills is, of course, modified to suit the results expected. After their apprenticeship is served they go to sea, usually in sailing ships; and when later they choose steam, they join as fourth or fifth officers, and enter upon a career where their future is a hard but an assured one. In the large employs they are encouraged to enter the Naval Reserve, and are given time for their drills and opportunities to qualify for the higher certificates of the merchant service; and so much are these privileges esteemed that you often find on the best steamers of the transatlantic liners one-half of the officers holding masters' certificates and junior commissions in the auxiliary government service. Under the new regulations some of these officers have, beside the guard-ship drill, taken a regular tour of duty as lieutenants and sub-lieutenants on board sea-going men-of-war, and so far this has proved a capital plan for both services. The nationality of the officers is British, naturally, though English and Irish predominate, the Scotch, somehow, taking more kindly to the engineering part of the business, and the Welshmen staying at home.\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Digital Text Publishing Company","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47075251945712,"sku":"2940148111610","price":4.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/2940148111610_p0.jpg?v=1763697128","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/2940148111610","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}