[Illustration: A FEW TYPES OF SAILING SHIPS COMMON IN EUROPEAN AND AMERICAN WATERS] To a traveller unfamiliar with ships the captain of a steamer seems generally to have an easy job. The mates stand the watches on the bridge, the engineers below, and often a captain is actively engaged in handling his ship only in leaving and arriving at ports. For the remainder of his time at sea he reads or paces the deck, takes his meals regularly, and does little else save make observations with his sextant in the morning, at noon, and in the afternoon, spending at this task hardly more than a few minutes each day. These are his activities during fine weather, which, fortunately, is most of the time. If fog and storm intervene, the story is a different one, and every captain finds it necessary, at times, to spend whole days and nights on the bridge, his food brought to him, his every sense alert to take advantage of each opportunity the elements present to ease his ship, to keep her on her course, to watch, if land is near, lest breakers and black rocks should be his port of call. Nor should a captain content himself with knowing how to handle his ship in heavy weather. A knowledge of the causes and actions of storms is highly important. From a barometer much can be deduced about changes in the weather, and if one knows what to expect he is likely better to be able to meet it. I said that a man could be taught to steer passably well in a few hours, and that is true _at sea_. But the steering of a ship amounts to more than holding her to her course across wide stretches of smooth water. Many a ship has been saved from collision because her officers knew accurately her “turning circle,” her “pivoting point,” her “kick,” and other fine points of her steering. It could readily happen if two ships were approaching each other “bow on” that they could safely pass if each put her rudder half over to the right, and that their sterns or even their sides would collide if each put her rudder full over to the right. Such a thing is due to the fact that ships steer with their sterns. To change a ship’s direction to the right the rudder moves her stern to the left. It is as if an automobile were being backed. To turn a corner its hind wheels would not change their course until the front wheels had been swung sharply to one side. [Illustration: A FEW TYPES OF SAILING BOATS TO BE FOUND AROUND THE WORLD]