FOURTEEN-YEAR-OLD apprentice de Mierre joined the ship Main in 1905. He then became a member of a floating community in which the weekly rations for each man included seven pounds of ship's biscuit and seven ounces of lime juice. At the time, apprentices received no pay at all and the boys on the ship were paid ten shillings a month – while the fine for using insulting or contemptuous language was five shillings!
Such ships have gone and there are very few men left today who can write of them from personal experience. In this book, the ship Main and her crew are brought to life again and we follow their disciplined existence day by day. It is a life which the erstwhile apprentice, who was later to join the Cunard Line, now describes as 'hard but well-ordered.'
For the three years covered by the narrative we live with these men in an absorbing, authentic account of hardship, courage and expert seamanship.
On a well-found, well-manned sailing ship, work began when the ship left port and continued at intervals of four hours until she reached port. The boys' work included washing down the decks, hauling the ropes, polishing the brass and greasing the masts.
It was certainly a strenuous existence but H. C. de Mierre's account of it underlines the humour, comradeship and humanity which made it a fascinating and unforgettable apprenticeship for life.
Illustrated with photographs and line drawings
The jacket illustration is a reproduction of the author's oil painting of the ship Main.
– From the dust jacket
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