As to the men, they knew their job perfectly, but they could neither read nor write. They went aboard the ship with their marlin-spike, pricker, palm, rubber, sail-hook, needles, etc., and even with a well-scrubbed handspike for the windlass. Many of the modern, dry-nursed steamship seamen, better educated and better fed though they are, would have no right to be reckoned in the same category of efficiency as these rough mariners, who still used the old-fashioned hour and half-hour sand-glasses in their brigs. It was one of the most glorious sights to see a fleet of these colliers beating up the Thames. A waterman was always employed to assist each brig working up the river, and he would come aboard anywhere between Woolwich and Greenwich. If they were beating up with the flood tide, there might be fifty or a hundred brigs all of a bunch, and it would often happen that a brig could not fore reach because of the colliers just ahead. The waterman would therefore put the helm down, let her come up into the wind, and shake, but not so long as to lose way. This was known as a “waterman’s nip,” and with great care he could make the brig take as long to reach from one side of the river to the other as would allow the crew time to eat their dinner. The collier crews were the smartest men afloat for breaking out the anchor, for the reason that in working their way in and out of so many narrow channels they frequently had to bring up. It was always said that whenever an ex-collier’s crew shipped aboard another vessel the windlass required only half the men to work it. Thus, everywhere the mariner in his own particular sphere was an expert at his job, and though he could never suspect it, he was making history, helping on the development and civilisation of the world. It was a lawless, irreligious, even blasphemous age in which he lived, and it is easy enough to criticise him for his wild excesses. But, having regard to the morals of the time, his poor pay, the disgraceful conditions of service, and the hard life which he was compelled to endure, is it to be wondered at that when he came ashore he was dragged into debauchery? The responsibility rests largely on those who enriched themselves by his bravery, his seamanlike skill and devotion to duty. There is not one of us to-day who is not a debtor to these old-time mariners for what they have done on our behalf, no matter what their ship. CHAPTER XII THE SAIL-CARRIERS