Memories of Salt Horse Diet and Pirates: Steam for Comfort The days of all-masted ships—days when the record run from Shanghai to London was 87 days, when food was tough, and sailors were away from home for two years at a time, when to be murdered quietly by Chinese and to have the ship looted was always a possibility—are re-called by the retirement of Captain A. J, Bowles, the senior inward pilot of the Port of London Authority, after 57 years on the sea- Captain Bowles is 71. He had been a sailor many years before the Suez Canal was opened and the trim clippers plying in the China trade were superseded by steam. Captain Bowles is a tall, broad man, with twinkIng blue eyes, a healthy red face, snow-white hair,: and_a deep rumbling voice.
"Those were great days," he told ian "Evening News" representative at his new home in Golders Green. "But they were hard days, too. For comfort give me steam, though it is sad to see the little attention shipbuilders pay nowadays to graceful lines.
sailed for many years on the Elizabeth Nicholson, one of the biggest of the tea clippers in the China trade. She was nearly 1,000. tons, and her length over all was 300 feet. We carried a crew of 32. It is wonderful to think nowadays how we ever survived in those days. Salt horse one day and a bag of flour the next was a common diet-Our trip was from Shanghai to Fuchan and then a straight run back. Often the captains of rival clippers would wager large sums on the race back. I remember more than once being paid extra wages for getting home first.
"T never sailed in the famous Cutty Sark, but I have been in company with her, She was a very, fast ship. In those days sea-chan-ties were common, and it was rousing scene when the clippers weighed anchor for home. Modern sailors complain when they are away from home for eight months at a time. I have been away for more than two years at a wine sailing from London to China ang thence to New York and australia.
"We had to keep a sharp look-out in the rivers for Chinese pirates. They used to drift down stream silently at night, and if there was no watch kept would cut the crew's throats and loot the ship. But those were the days before the opening of the Suez Canal." has been paying as compensation for damage done in these areas The cost ofthe new undertaking will be about $15,000,000.—Reuter.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.