necessary hardship. He knows that he is playing a part in a very significant service for his country, the new growth of her merchant marine. Also he has the sense of mastery over the elements and men that is in itself a great satisfaction with life, and as he rises in official rank he has the deferences and the comforts of life accorded him in an elaborate way hardly existent in any other life outside the armed services.

Here are the rates of pay for all the kinds of men aboard ship, that went into force January 1, 1919. The figures are permanently interesting, even though they may shift before you get to sea, because they in all probability represent the best pay you will ever get at sea in the various ratings. In all human probability sea wages will never get higher than these, though there are men who claim wages will go even higher, just as there are other men who insist wages will get back to the meager pre-war level. The scale was agreed to at a conference in Washington of Shipping Board officials, officials of private shipping companies, representatives of ships' officers' associations and seamen's unions at the time war bonuses for exceptional duties were abolished, and the question of what the going rate should be,

with all bonuses cut out, had to be settled. The general feeling was that the men at sea had secured action in accordance with their views regarding wages. The first officer's wages doubtless will be increased to something not so out of proportion with the captain's, in view of his very great responsibilities in the actual administration of the ship's work, but in general this scale probably will represent top-notch wages during the coming years for everybody at sea excepting captains of the finest liners. You may get less; you will hardly get more during your time at sea. The rates for all the officers, engineers, and three principal stewards vary a little according to the size of the ship. The master of a 20,000-ton singlescrew ship or a 15,000-ton twin-screw ship gets fifty dollars a month more than the master of an 8,000-ton ship, and there is about the same difference with chief engineers and chief stewards. A slighter difference is maintained for the other officers, engineers, and principal stewards. But the pay for all the petty officers and the men on deck, in the fire-room and engine-room and in the galley, is the same, whatever the size of the ship. The pay of the official rankings runs as follows:

Master.

1st Officer.

2d Officer.

3d Officer.

$375.00 or $337.50 or $325.00 or $312.50 or $300.00

The pay of all the lesser official rankings and all the ratings is identical whatever size or class the ship:

Not all of these rankings and ratings are

on every ship. Only the largest ships, for

instance, carry both wipers and oilers in the engine-room; an oiler does both jobs in the other ships. The same is true of refrigerating engineers and deck engineers, of fourth officers, of storekeepers. There is certain additional pay for overtime work and sometimes subsistence when a crew has to eat away from the ship while in a port, but the scale as it stands indicates fairly the filthy-lucre point of view on ordinary life at

sea.

II

HOW TO GET TO SEA

F, then, you've decided you want to go and that you want to go in a merchantship instead of the navy, there are a number of ways you can have a try at it. The old, time-honored way is a good one. Hang around a dock, pick out a ship you like, find out where she is going, try a "Say, mister,' to the mate, and ask him to sign you on as ordinary seaman if you are as old as eighteen or of good size for your age at seventeen, and if younger get him to take you as deckboy. This way of doing requires that you be in a town that is a port. Sometimes the hardest problem for a fellow who is bit by this zest for the sea is to get from his home town to a port. The old, time-honored way for that used to be to leave a note for the folks and slide out the bedroom window some moonlight night, jumping a freight-train as it rattled through, and landing in the seaport town with a dollar and an appetite. When