OCR Text |
Show Christmas at Sea Is Gala Holiday I BY HOHTF.NSE SAUNDERS NEW YORK, Dec. 24. Spare your pity for the sailor on the wintry sea on Christmas eve. He doesn't need it. He may be in a foreign ports, with a dutiful lunfp or so doing its sentimental duty in his throat when he thinks of home and mother, but he is having his mince pie, bis Christmas carols and bis tree and probably having as good a time as any fireside group in the old home town. Christmas at Sea For Christmas at sea has a charm all its own. And the real, seasoned sailor actually looks forward" to having his. Christmas celebration on his boat. Chief Steward William Ballyn, of the Berengaria, is one of the officers offi-cers who has spent his Chrlstmases at sea or in foreign ports for the past quarter of a century. "But no matter where I have been, I have always had an English Christmas," says he. "And because the habit of years is so strong upon me, I'm going to have a Christmas party on the ship the night before we land even if it is rushing things a bit." Possibly there is a forgivable element ele-ment of vanity in this, for Ballyn's Christmas parties are famous. No woman ever worked out the details of her Christmas parties more carefully care-fully thau he does for the very large family of strangers that are always on ship board. Great Care Taken "I always have Christmas trees, even in the tropics," be asserted with pride. "And English plum pudding, pud-ding, mince pie, and roast goose, regardless of latitude. I look ahead and see that the materials for an English Christmas are on board before be-fore we leave England. "Nor do I forget the Christmas carols. I have no choir of 45 voices in my crew. Besides the sen songs and jazz tunes they love, they can sing Christmas carols as beautifully as any church choir. "Oil Christmas eve they begin at the captain's room and march about the ship carolling the same message of peace on earth and good will to men that have been sung for centuries. cen-turies. "I see to it that the Christmas spirit, which is the real essence of the Christmas celebration is given full expression." In the past quarter of a century Chief Steward Ballyn has collected many unusual Christmases, "My favorite was one of the largest, larg-est, noisiest, and most riotous ones, hack in l!)lo, when we were anchored anchor-ed at Port Said. There were 721 women and 1432 children on board. They were returning to England from India. Never did I see such enthusiasm and such spirit. "We. had presents for every child, several trees, and a feast second to none. That always stands out in my mind as a particularly British . Christmas." First at Home In Southampton, where he will spend his Christmas this year, Ballyn Bal-lyn will celebrate his first Christmas Christ-mas with his wife and his five children. They are even more excited ex-cited about it than he is. "A Christmas at sea gives you an excellent opportunity to see how human hu-man and 'how akin the world is," he concluded. "Your passenger list includes many nationalities and creeds. But on Christmas they forget for-get their differences and clannish-ness clannish-ness and become one big family for the day. ' "And the sailors at sea, as well as the passengers who are crossing on the 25th of December, don't need anyone's pity. They have less chance to be neglected or missed by Santa Claus than they would have on land." |