A romantic figure--Changed conditions--The bad old days--Better treatment forward than aft--The unfair change for a boy from the training ship to the trading ship--Cleanliness barred--Bad advice--What to do for him--Running away to sea--An old-time shipping office--Small ships, bad and good 294 CHAPTER XXXIII. THE ENGINEER. Need for literary engineers--A noble calling--Its perils and its pride--No sea-joys for the engineer--A nineteenth-century hero--A unique profession--Producing a high-grade man--The evolution of the marine engineer--No foreigners allowed--The E.R.A.--In case of war--No mere mechanic--The blindness of the Admiralty with regard to the engineer 305 CHAPTER XXXIV. THE FIREMAN AND TRIMMER. Why do men become firemen?--A terrible calling--Some of his duties--The voice of steam--Better drunk--Cleaning fires--The slavery of civilization--A lower deep--Are we nearing finality? 317 CHAPTER XXXV. CONCLUSION. Pertinent questions--The whole truth--Does magnanimity answer?--The peril of the alien--No Trade Union for sailors--The officer's chance--A valuable educational factor--Our national safeguard--Finis 328 THE MEN OF THE MERCHANT SERVICE. CHAPTER I. THE RISE OF THE MASTER (IDEAL). Viewed from whatever standpoint we may choose, it is impossible to arrive at any other conclusion than that the British Mercantile Marine is not only the greatest British industry, but that, for its overwhelming importance and far-reaching effect upon mankind, it is the most stupendous monument of human energy and enterprise that the world has ever seen. Yet, with that peculiar absence of pride in our own institutions, that easy-going magnanimity which, in spite of what not only foreign writers, but many of our own authors assert, is really the most distinctive characteristic of the British race, we show but little appreciation of this marvel of commercial genius and concentrated effort. Dependent by our own action upon our ships for food, we evince no alarm at the possibility of disaster to these main arteries of our national life. Go where you will, up and down this country of ours, and, except among people directly engaged in shipping business, or a few earnest souls who think it is their duty to know something of the conditions under which their dear ones live, you will find scarcely any knowledge of the British Merchant Service at all. The vast majority of people know of but one form of seafaring, _the_ Navy, as they call it, _par excellence_; and if a man tells them that he is a sailor, they are disinclined to believe him unless he wear the familiar loose blue clothing and gold-lettered cap of the man-o'-war's-man.