Item 04: Memoirs of a Colonial Boy by Robert Joseph Stewart, ca. 1971 - Page 361
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[Page 361]
178
It was a calm sunny day, and this passage up the Georgia Straits, between the main island and the succession of pretty pine-clad islets that lay about a mile offshore, with the distant silvery sheen of the snow covered Rocky Mountains as a background, was one of the loveliest stretches of marine scenery that I have ever seen.
The "Bear" had very limited storage for coal in her small bunkers, and to carry the maximum quantity it was painstakingly packed in, piece by piece, by a gang of Japanese coolies, who were noted for their ability to get the greatest quantity in a given space. Coaling began immediately we berthed, in the late afternoon, went on all through the night and was finished in time for us to continue our voyage northwards, up the Canadian coast to Nome the capital of Alaska, at mid-day.
I soon learnt much of the sailor's craft: fancy ornamental ropework, intricate knots, the function of every one of the maze of descending ropes that were belayed to the pin rails around the foot of each mast and along the sides, and the names of all the various sails. Until we actually started some hydrographic surveying my only specialised work was in the small carpenter's up in the bows, and minor repairs and caulking of the few small boats on board.
About a score of the lower ratings of the crew were accommodated in a big berth deck in the waist of the vessel with a double line of bunks along each side. For meals the men sat on wooden forms at "tables" suspended from the ceiling on ropes, but in stormy weather rolling of the ship made this impracticable. and they sat on the floor and reached or dived for the food which was brought from the galley in big dishes - and the coffee in buckets - spearing a sausage or a potato, or scooping a mug of coffee out of a bucket, when the ship momentarily steadied. Often they had head-on collisions in the process. On one occasion a big Irish sailor and a smaller Indian one clashed at the potato tub and words led to blows. It was fighting in extremely difficult circumstances. Often as they rushed at