NORTH SEA TRAMPS 249 



entirely wrong impression of their size and might, be- 

 cause here, as elsewhere, the official differs so greatly 

 from the actual. Theoretically, a craft of 700 tons net 

 register and 1 20 horse-power is not the sort of thing to 

 which the traveller spoiled and nerve-softened by floating 

 palaces would trust his life ; but in practice the carrying 

 power is raised to 1300 tons and the machinery will 

 develop a nine-knot speed. In theory, too, the tramps 

 come and go, weather permitting ; as a matter of fact 

 they run in defiance of wind and water, and keep their 

 appointed times as well, at any rate, as many suburban 

 railway trains. 



The typical tramp of the North Sea is a craft of 

 mellow years, and like a seasoned voyager she bears her 

 journeys calmly. Winds may roar and seas may crash, 

 but she knows them of old time, and while the new- 

 fangled boat may clutter, jib, and curvet, as if afraid or 

 startled, the veteran thumps evenly along and " punches 

 into it." 



A towering, crumbling sea may threaten to strike 

 and swamp her. What of it ? She has had such blows 

 before, and wards them off with her bluff bows ; or if a 

 sea has crashed broadside on, or has been shipped in a 

 heavy roll, she shakes it out of her spacious scuppers, 

 and drives along with gushing sides. If the propeller 

 whirrs in air and the squat of the counter on the sea as 

 the stern falls down to watery burial threatens to snap 

 the shaft or turn the engine-room into a useless foundry, 

 what of that ? For has not this same steamboat tramped 

 a full quarter of a century without ceasing, except for 

 repairs, and has not the brave old heart of her, which is 

 called a compound engine, survived many a worse shock ? 



