Of course very many of the captains were more accomplished than the stolid persons concerning whom so many droll legends still linger; but the fact remains, that valuable property and valuable lives were entrusted to men who wrought solely by rule of thumb, and that the trust was, on the whole, very wisely bestowed.  With clumsy old craft that sailed in heavy weather as though they were dragging an anchor at the bottom, and that missed stays on the faintest provocation, these men carried goods to the value of millions, without incurring nearly the loss which is borne through the failure of the smart iron steamers.  They are nearly all gone now, and the public are not much the better.  Many good judges think that in the event of a great naval war we shall feel the need of that fine recruiting ground that lay between Spittal and Yarmouth.  The old collier sailor, illiterate as he was, and stupid as he was in many respects, made a model man-of-war’s man when he had been drilled into shape.  He was alert, obedient, and utterly careless of danger; he had the fighting instinct developed to the point of ferocity; he was at once strong and docile, and his very simplicity made him the best possible instrument to be employed on dangerous enterprises.  The last specimens will soon be beyond the reach of social students.  Here and there may be found some bronzed old man who remembers when the Tyne was little more than a ditch flooded at tide-time.  He hobbles sturdily to the pier and looks at the passing vessels with dim eyes.  The steamers pass up and down with their swaggering turmoil; the little tugs whisk the sailing ships deftly in and out; but he will always think that the world was better when the bar was shallow, and when the sailors worked up stream without the aid of those unseamanlike kettles.

IN THE BAY.

The screw steamer “Coquet” left a little port on the north coast early one October.  She was bound for Genoa; and as this was a long trip, a little group of men, among whom were several who owned shares in her, waved their farewells from the end of the pier.  A number of small tradesmen and a few well-to-do fishermen had formed a company to buy her, so she was regarded as quite an institution of the port.  A smart captain had managed her cleverly, and she paid, during five years, an average dividend of nearly fifty per cent., after the modest claims of the “managing” owner had been satisfied.  Naturally she was regarded as a treasure, and her fortunate owners used to make triumphant observations about her to less lucky men.  The steamer had gone through some very bad weather; but as every rivet in her hull had been examined while she was being put together, and that too by a man whom no skulker could deceive, she had lived in seas that sent scamped ships to the bottom.