fury on the battle-fronts, our sea-life was comparative comfort
in contrast to the grisly horrors of the trenches.

With universal service, opportunity for acquaintance with our life and
our work was extended beyond the numbers of chance passengers. The
exodus oversea of the nation's manhood brought the landsman and the
seaman together as no casual meeting on the streets could have done.
Millions of our country-men, who had never dreamed of outlook on blue
water bounded by line of an unbroken horizon, have found themselves
brought into close contact with us, living our life, assisting in many
of our duties, facing the same dangers. In such a firm fellowship and
communion of interest there cannot but be a bond between us that shall
survive the passage of high-water mark.

[Illustration: THE MASTER OF THE GULL LIGHTSHIP WRITING THE LOG]

IV

CONNECTION WITH THE STATE

TRINITY HOUSE, OUR ALMA MATER

OF all trades, seafaring ever required a special governance, a unique
Code of Laws, suited to the seaman's isolation from tribunal and land
court, to the circumstance of his constant voyaging. On sea, the
severance from ordered government, from reward as from penalty, was
irremediable and complete. No common law or enactment could be enforced
on the wandering sea-tribesmen who owned no settled domicile, who
responded only to the weight of a stronger arm than their own, who had
an impenetrable cloak to their doings in the mystery of distant seas.
The spirit and high heart that had called them to the dangers and
vicissitudes of a sea-life would not brook tamely the dominance and
injunction of a power whose authority was, at sea, invisible--and even
under the land, could carry but little distance beyond high-water mark.
To the bold self-enterprise of the early sea-venturers, the unconfined
ocean offered a free field for a standard of strength, for a law of
might alone. Kings and Princes might rule the boundaries of the land,
but the sea was for those who could maintain a holding on the troubled
waters. Were the 'Rectores' not Kings on their own heaving decks, their
province the round of the horizon, their subjects the vulgar
'shippe-men,' their slaves the unfortunate weaker seafarers, whom chance
or the fickle winds had brought within reach of their sea-arms? The
sea-rovers were difficult to bridle or restrain. _Spurlos versenkt_
might well have been their motto--as that of later pirates. No trace!
The sea would te