Shipboard Newspapers.
This account of an adventurer of the fifties came out of the Lightning Gazette, a paper published weekly aboard the ship.
Realising the importance of keeping such a mixed collection of passengers amused Messrs. James Baines put a printing press aboard each of their ships and thus the issue of the shipboard newspaper was something always to be eagerly looked forward to on Saturdays. In many an English and Australian home there are no doubt still to be found treasured, stained and tattered, copies of these ships’ newspapers. I have myself handled volumes of the Lightning Gazette, the Eagle Herald, the Royal Charter Times and coming down to more modern days, the Loch Torridon Journal and other Loch Line papers.
The printer of these ship newspapers was usually a paid member of the crew, but the editor and sub-editor were elected by the passengers, the captain, of course, acting not only as a frequent contributor but also as a censor—no matter of a controversial sort either religious, political or otherwise being ever allowed to appear in the news sheet of Captain Enright’s ship.
The Ship’s Notice Board.
The ship’s official newspaper sometimes had to contend against rival productions, promoted by private enterprise, but its chief rival was the ship’s notice board, which was a stout one, being no less than the mainmast.
Here are a few notices, gathered haphazard from the Lightning’s mainmast.
| CLOTHING SOLD BY THE PURSER | |
|---|---|
| Cigars, 2d. each; per hundred | £0 12 0 |
| Do. Havannah | each 0 0 4 |
| Canvas trowsers | 0 3 6 |
| Kersey drawers | 0 3 6 |
| Mits | 0 1 0 |
| Oilskin trowsers | 0 5 6 |
| Oilskin coats | 0 7 6 |
| Pilot cloth coats | 0 5 0 |
| Pilot cloth trowsers | 0 12 0 |
| Blue serge shirts | 0 5 0 |
| Regatta shirts (printed fronts) | 0 3 6 |
| Black alpaca coats | 0 12 0 |
| Felt hats | 0 3 0 |
| Sou’westers | 0 2 0 |
| Black glazed hats | 0 4 0 |
| Guernsey frocks | 0 8 6 |
| Scotch caps | 0 2 0 |
| Knives | 0 1 6 |
| Apply to C. T. Renny, Purser. | |