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Title: With Young Germany on Shipboard
Author: John Arthur Barry
* A Project Gutenberg Australia eBook *
eBook No.: 1302331.txt
Language: English
Date first posted: May 2013
Date most recently updated: May 2013

Produced by: Author: John Arthur Barry

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Title: With Young Germany on Shipboard
Author: John Arthur Barry

*


With Young Germany on Shipboard
A Visit to the Herzogin Sophie Charlotte

BY JOHN ARTHUR BARRY.
(Author of "Red Sun and Blue Star," "In the Great Deep," etc., etc.)

Published in the Australian Town and Country Journal
Wednesday, January 18, 1905

*

It is a curious fact, but a true one nevertheless, that German
shipowners have realised before their British contemporaries that to
prepare men to make good officers in steam they must first have some
training under canvas. "No one," remarked Captain Zander, of the
Herzogin Sophie Charlotte, "is, in my opinion, competent to take charge
of a steamer unless he has also served in sailing ships. Apparently,
however, your people think otherwise, and many firms are now taking
apprentices on their steamers." Most people who know anything of the
matter will be inclined to agree with Captain Zander and his employers,
the Nord-Deutscher Lloyd, the great German shipping firm, which has
given practical endorsement of its belief in the splendid vessel that
now lies alongside Circular Quay. Of course, we have, ere this, had
training ships belonging to different nations in Port Jackson. But none
of those visitors have in the remotest degree, resembled the Herzogin
Sophie Charlotte. So far as externals go, she is a very pretty
clipper-bowed model of a ship, with perhaps the loftiest spars of any craft
that has been seen in an Australian port for many a long day. They are
of steel throughout with the exception of the fore and main skysail-yards,
which are the only pieces of timber aloft to cross the masts of
the stately Duchess. The captain and his officers are, by-the-way,
rather proud of their skysails, and would have no objection to another
one on the mizzen. Proud, and with reason, the whole executive are,
too, of their ship, their boys who "man" her so efficiently; proud of
the flag they serve under, and of the uniform they wear; and proud,
also, of having broken the blank record of many years by sailing up
Port Jackson, with everything set to a main skysail.

There is no veneer or gingerbread about the Duchess. Throughout the
ship the motto is "Utility." From the galley to the hospital, from the
officers' quarters to those of the cadets, everything strikes one as
having been arranged with a paramount object in view--the one the ship
is intended for. Under the immensely long poop the boys are messed and
berthed. And there space, ventilation, and scrupulous cleanliness
everywhere prevail. Each lad's seat at the moveable tables is numbered;
and above that seat his hammock will be slung at 8 p.m. Fore and aft
and athwartships run rows of numbered upright lockers, in which are
kept such clothes and toilet necessaries as may serve for present use.
The chests are stowed away in the 'tween decks, and do not appear in
the living room. Printed and framed rules and regulations for boat and
fire drill are hung here and there; the routine and surroundings smack
of "steam" all over the vessel. Which, seeing what the training is
intended for, a supply of officers for the great steamers of the
N.D.L., is, of course, as it should be. Even the cadets, when on watch,
are bound to step the deck athwart it, instead of fore and aft, as a
preliminary to the bridge, where, in time, they hope to stand.

Unlike the fashion that prevails on such ships as the Illawarra and the
Macquarie, as Captain Zander, smiling and courteous, is careful to
point out, on the Duchess, there are no adult seamen. The cadets do
everything. The officers lead in everything; their charges follow the
example set. Alow and aloft these strapping young children of the
Fatherland, coming, the majority of them, from far-Inland States where
the sea is known of only in books, do the whole work of the ship. And
how it is done may be appreciated by seeing them at it. We have been
accustomed to regard the German as a somewhat phlegmatic and stolid
race. Perhaps this may have been true at one time. But, decidedly,
judging from the way the youngsters behave on the Duchess, the rising
generation, at any rate, is waking up to some purpose. And standing at
the gangway with the captain and his smart young chief officer, and
watching the lads who have been on leave coming on board, all spick and
span, saluting their superior, and being scrupulously saluted in
return, one cannot help being impressed by the sight of so much good
material, in preparation for, perhaps, a future great mercantile
marine. There may be also a vague and uncomfortable feeling engendered
somewhere in the background to the effect that it is time the British
shipowner was also beginning to realise his responsibilities.

The officers of the Duchess all belong to the German Naval Reserve, and
have done terms of training on German war ships. A surgeon is carried,
as also are two instructors in navigation, who at sea find their time
fully occupied.

At present it seems that the training ships of the N.D.L. are quite
unsubsidised by the Government. They are, in fact, being maintained at
an absolute loss to the company. The cadets pay £40 each per annum for
their three-years' course on board. Freights, as a rule, are low, and
expenses of upkeep are heavy. Thus there is, it is stated, always a
heavy debit balance on each round voyage. This, however, is a state of
affairs that will no doubt be presently remedied when the success of
the new departure has been justified in the direction not only of
rendering it a nursery for competent officers for the N.D.L., but for
the German Navy into the bargain. All the cadets, it must be
understood, are lads of good family, and their three years on the
training ship entitles them to the privilege of a reduction of two
years' service out of three in the navy of their country.

That the boys and their officers are in happy accord is evident to the
most casual eye. On such occasions as the birthday of one of the
latter, there are rejoicings and presentations. Many of the youths are
expert with pencil and brush; others have a facile knack of rhyming;
hence the gifts to their preceptors often take the form of allusions in
which are embalmed in colour the physical attributes of the recipients,
while their mental virtues, and, at times, their little failings, are
celebrated in good-natured verse. English is regularly taught; and
everybody on board appears to be more or less proficient in the
language. "I'm an able seaman," proudly, in answer to a question,
replies a youngster of 16 or 17, dressed in working dungarees, covered
with tar and paint. He is a nicely-spoken lad, and he explains that the
badge of his rank, when in uniform, "is a bud--bud, oh, how is it said
in the English? I am sorry I forgot." Then, in a second, he touches a
button on your coat. "Button, so. A button on each breast." "A fine
ship?" "Yes, also a very swift ship. Likewise a somewhat wet ship when
she travels swiftly." He is "out of his time," and he hopes to
presently either become a quartermaster on one of the N.D.L. liners, or
staying in the Duchess attain the rank of petty officer. He opens some
of his comrades' lockers, and you notice whatever else they may contain
there are always books in them. Then he apologises. "I can no longer
stay. To work I must return," salutes, and so departs.

It is of interest to learn from the young "chief"--there are no elderly
people anywhere visible on this ship, whose master even seems only a
little over 30--that the vessel, originally the Albert Rickmers, one of
a line of famous four-masted German clippers, was, when bought by the
N.D.L. for the present purpose, renamed after the daughter of the
Archduke August of Oldenburg, and that both of these personages take
the utmost interest in the ship and her mission. Then, again, you are
told that she is probably the only vessel now afloat that carries
studding-sails, lower and topmast on main and mizzen. They are
manufactured out of old stay sails, and are, of course, "jib-headed."
That they also give a lot of trouble is confessed. But then the setting
and trimming of them makes excellent practice for the boys, who might
otherwise be napping o' nights. Questioned as to the influence of the
"extras" during that wonderful passage of his last year from Melbourne
to Hull, in 76 days, the captain placidly remarks that he "certainly
had very fine winds." Captain Zander knows, too all about the doings of
the Loch Torridon, and one imagines would not be disinclined to back
the Duchess against the speedy British clipper, with whom she is much
of a size and rig, spreading, however, a larger area of canvas.

Incidentally, it was mentioned that the sister ship to the Herzogin
Sophie Charlotte, the Herzogin Cecilla, christened after the sister of
the Grand Duke of Mecklenburg, was also a very fast ship. She is also
more modern than our present visitor; built specially for the business
in 1902, she is 800 tons larger, although practically alike in all
other respects. To speak of the courtesy and hospitality to visitors on
board of the Duchess would be only a work of supererogation; no time
taken or trouble expended in showing what is to be seen, and explaining
its uses is considered ill-spent by the executive. In the history of
Sydney Cove many fast and famous clippers have lain at the berth now
occupied by the Duchess, their modern prototype. And it is within the
memory of people still alive that one or another of those old ships
took wing unaided from the wharf to the outer seas. In those days, of
course, the Cove was comparatively clear water. But as Captain Zander
appears to take a delight in getting the utmost possible use out of his
canvas, he might, perhaps, give the citizens a trial by, if the wind
allows, when once in the fairway, taking his fine ship out as he
brought her in--under all plain sail. Prosit!


THE END

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