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EVILS AND ABUSES • 
 
 AVAL AND MERCHANT SERVICE, 
 
 EXPOSED ; 
 
 WITH PROPOSALS FOR THEIR REMEDY AND REDRESS. 
 
 BY WILLIAM McNALLY, 
 
 Formerly of the U. S. Nary. 
 
 BOSTON. 
 
 PUBLISHED BY CASSADY AND MARCH, 
 
 For the Author, at No. 8 Wilson's Lane. 
 
 1839. 
 

 Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1839, by William 
 McNally, in the Cork's OfEca of thp District Court of Massacbusetl», 
 
 ' ■ ,- '* « %.• 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 EvERV Citizen has a right to express an opinion on public men and pub- 
 lic measures ; and in doing so the author of this worli is actuated by no 
 other motive than to improve a class of men of which he forms a part, and 
 who have been so shamefully neglected. He has no personal animosity to 
 gratify, and in giving instances of im^oprieties and abuses, he does so, 
 from conviction that they were wrong; and that system which will not 
 bear investigation,"must be practically impure. 
 
 It is very seldom we hear a word in the councils of the nation, on behalf 
 of seamen. Many members of Congress, no doubt, would be happy to 
 bring their wrongs and grievances to notice, and assist in granting redress, 
 wexe they aware of their existence ; but futurity is not more carefully hid 
 from our knowledge, than are the wrongs of seamen from the American 
 people. That they are ignorant, cannot be doubted ; but whose fault is it ? 
 No institutions have been erected for them, while their own hard earnings 
 have been squandered and misused, but for what purpose none can tell. — 
 Every one knows that the law has never been put in force which directs 
 hospitals and asylums to be built with the hospital fund. The earth wili 
 not yield her increase without cultivation, how then can it be expected that 
 the powers of the human mind can be fully developed without education ? 
 
 Nathaniel Bowditch, the most talented of mathematicians, was in early 
 life, acommon sailor, without education. If the attention of seamen coul4 
 be turned to the important subject of mathematics, the benefit would soon 
 be apparent; for they, more than any other class of men, have opportuni- 
 ties of improving themselves. What would cost a landsman years of hard 
 study, could be accomplished by a seaman in the usual course of his pro* 
 fession. 
 
 967679 
 
iV PREFACE. 
 
 The following pages are descriptive of evils that actually exist in the 
 naval and merchant service. By a perusal of the work the landsman may 
 obtain more real information respecting sea-life, than from all the nautical 
 novels that ever issued from the press. 
 
 The author has given real names and characters — bestowed praise and 
 Maine, and given his reasons for fio doing, and the public can judge how 
 far his statements can be relied on. He has been carelul to add no color- 
 ing or embellishment, as his object is the good of all, and the injury of none. 
 Much indeed does he regret that seamen have not a better advocate, than 
 one who was niised among them, and of course deprived of the advantages 
 which education must ever give. 
 
 With regard to the political allusions that he has indulged in, he wishes 
 to be understood as having imbibed the opinions of no political parly, as it 
 is a subject of which he knows but little. The only distinction between 
 tlie two parties which he can at present perceive is, that one is in office, 
 and wishes to remain there, and the other is out, and wishes to get in. 
 With these explanations, the author submits his first book to the patronage 
 of the public. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER l.^Pane 1. 
 
 Nav}' pay Mil— warrant, or forwanl nfficers, how ne^lecterl — their 
 limited numher and cnnsiant st'rviftj— difTreiice hptween tlit^ prr)|)or- 
 titnial ninnh«'r o(cotMtiiissiniu,'d ai'd vvjuraiUerl cfficers — th«payi>f the 
 lant^r in iliffruvm class ships, and injnstiiuv tliereby— tin ir warrants 
 wiildield <Mjnl af*tin<r appfiijitments jriven Uihsii - ransf'T!»pre(»f — admirals 
 in the navy — <iiflr»renc« made l>y lie Na\y Department hetuetm a 
 post captain's ladij and forward officer'ci wift with regard to pensions* 
 
 CHAPTER I \.^Pasre 10. 
 
 Petty officers — their pay nniil 18-33 ; then reduced, hy whom, and for 
 what reations — the injnslice of the reduction — the U. S. schooner Ex- 
 periment —her (pialities— increase of om* national resonr.es attended 
 by a reduction of petty officers' piy—an«»ther alteration made in their 
 pay— ratinj^ a nnui one rate and making him tlo another duty— the p ly 
 of yeomen in the navy increased — at whose snirg^slion— pay of pursers' 
 stewards and seamen -mutiny in the British navy at the Nore from 
 neglect to seamen, compared to our present state—a few remarks to 
 seamen. 
 
 CHAPTER III. ^Page 18. 
 
 Enlistment and crimping for the navy— advance, how expended — 
 injury therefrom — amount required from the purser in three year?, and 
 the enormous percenta^je charged tiiereon — small pay of pursers— the 
 U. S. shi|) of tiie line Delaware— her c rew deprived of liberty — lewd . 
 women allowe<i on btjard in lieu thereof, and ilie innnoral tendeu' y of 
 the latter — the seamen of the Java on their arrival in the United 
 Stat s— the immense issues made by the purser to ihe cnvv — the profits 
 of tlie purser of tlie Delaware— purser's clerk, steward, &c. 
 
 CHAPTER IV. — Page 28. 
 
 Slop clothing furnished by the government— the losses thereon — its 
 iiselesrfiiess from being badly made, ba<!ly cut. and bad materials — 
 Mecessiiy of purchasing private goods from the purser, and the sacri- 
 fices made by green lia-nds to have them made up — navy commissioners 
 to blame for slop clothing being unsuitable— remarks on that subject — 
 the North Carolina's pay bill— total credit balauce^due, and purser's 
 profits estimated. 
 
VI CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER v. — P^^e35. 
 
 Naval ration — when regulated by law— changes since that time in 
 public feelino^ with regard to spirits — evil tendency of the ration, by 
 encouraging drunkenness — mistaken idea respecting seamen shipping 
 for s^rog — injury to seamen from not receiving small stores — pay of 
 seamen in the navy compared with that of the merchant service — 
 hints respecting the ration — want of seamen caused by the present 
 system, and benefit likely to be derived from remodeling the ration 
 and discontinuing spirits. 
 
 CHAPTER VI. — Page U. 
 
 Want of native seamen — to the extent that it proceeds— abuses 
 respecting protections, and the neglect of Custom House officers with 
 regard to examining into the abuses— leaving seamen abroad — reasons 
 for not taking apprentices in the merchant service — benefit likely to 
 be derived from taking apprentices, and plan for the same — seamen 
 of the navy, how instructed in their duty — false statements made by 
 former secretaries of the navy respecting the popularity of the navy 
 with seamen, and the injury which has arisen therefrom. 
 
 CHAPTER Y II. — Page b3, 
 
 England's plan for raising seamen for her navy — France — her laws 
 respecting the same — neglect of the U. S. government towards this use- 
 ful class of men, and the ruinous consequences to the navy and mer- 
 chants — apprentices in English vessels, and advantage arising from 
 having men and officers educated together, and from being citizens 
 of the same place — ^school ships in the river Thames — hospital fund — 
 ignorance of seamen — appeal to Congress — bounty given to seamen 
 in the navy — its uselessness — deplorable state of the navy from tlifi 
 ignorance of secretaries — advice to Mr. Paulding. 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. — Page 62. 
 
 The ship Olympia, of New Orleans — ^conduct of her officers — for- 
 eigners — reasons of their obsequiousness — ^affray in Port Mahon — beat- 
 ing sailors, and driving them on shore in foreign ports — tobacco found 
 on board the Olympia — result— shipping men — arbitraiy dispositioa 
 of the mate, and a Dutchman's appeal to the captain — a man beat with 
 a heavy belaying pin — no redress in New Orleans — injury to merchants 
 and ship owners, from the bad treatment of seamen. 
 
 CHAPTER IX. — Pagc72. 
 
 Brig Charles Joseph, of Providence — apparent kindness of the cap- 
 tain — its fallacy proved — flogging a seaman — cause thereof— remon- 
 strance of the crew unheeded — provisions — means of annoyance used 
 to punish the crew, who are driven on shore in Leghorn — character 
 of those shipped iu their stead— the captain's penuriousness— digression 
 
CONTENTS. VII 
 
 — impropriety of not having a law to regulate the ration in the mer- 
 chant service — the present law misconstrued. 
 
 CPIAPTER X. — P«o-e82. 
 
 Rules and regulations for the navy — errors therein, and misrepre- 
 sentation — conduct of the department in investigating complaints — 
 two courts martial — articles 3d, 15th, and 30th, of the navy rules — how 
 violated— the U. S. ship Fairfield— cruelty and oppression of her offi- 
 cers — punishment hy Lieut. H — m — r — his death and burial — cause 
 thereof— Jimmy Leggs — his villainy and power — his death — disj:ating 
 officers contrary to law— two officers turned on shore from the St. 
 Louis, by orders from M. Dickinson, secretary of the navy. 
 
 CHAPTER XI. — Page 97. 
 
 Flogging on board the Fairfield, seen fi'om the Delaware's tops, and 
 the cause — purser and first lieutenant at loggerheads — subsequent con^ 
 duct of the first lieutenant — crew allowed to draw articles from the 
 pui*ser without limitation — bright work — the U. S. ship Lexington, 
 
 Capt. D -n — instances of unjust punishment — Wm. Mclntire — his 
 
 death — Lt. St gs — his ignorance — Captain D n instructs him 
 
 how to take in sail — liberty given the crew for ninety -nine years — 
 Captain McKeever lakes the ship — his kindness. 
 
 CHAPTER XII. — Pfl^c 108. 
 
 The United States ship Delaware taken out by Capt. Downes — the 
 commodore makes one cruise in her, and joins the Fairfield — the 
 treaty with the Turks concluded by Commodore Biddle— digression — 
 expenses of the Delaware, while laying in Mahon— injury to junior 
 officers, from that cause — the crew deprived of liberty, and abused — 
 the consequences— the commodore's conduct in Carthagena — his or- 
 ders, and reserved habits — his treatment of Commodore Staines — the 
 Warren — conduct of the captain and officers — kindness of Lieut, 
 Junius J. Boyle. 
 
 CHAPTER XII l. — Page 122. 
 
 Receiving ships — what they ought to be— Hudson — Columbus — 
 
 Congress — The Java, and Lieut. S r — his drunkenness, abuse, 
 
 tyranny, and oppression — lines written to him — Lewis and Lieut. 
 S Y & Co. — Scandal — Lieut. S r — his character — his bad ex- 
 ample to junior officers — slaves held on board the Java, contrary to 
 law, and their masters receiving their pay. 
 
 CHAPTER XI v. — Page 128. 
 
 Flogging seamen in the navy and merchant service — injury there- 
 from in the latter — difference between English and American laws re- 
 specting seamen — want of redress for common sailors who have beea 
 
VlH CQNTENl'S. 
 
 maltreated and abused — whalers — their want of seamen — their adver 
 tisements — youn^ men's prospects Avho ship in then^ — number of sea- 
 men confined in Boston jail previous to the 15ih of May, 1839, and for 
 what cause — crew of the Shylock — their wrongs, trial, acquittal, and 
 recovery of their wages. 
 
 CHAPTER XV. --Page IZ7. 
 
 Crew of the Halcyon as witneFses njGjainst the mate — his conviciion 
 and ()aUry punishment — crew of the Octavia liberated witliout trial — 
 crew of the Orientis imprisoned in Pernanihufo — ilieir treatment — 
 two of them sent on board the Effort — oneot tht^m maltreated, carried 
 on shore and left — the treatment of the other — Captain Nichols and 
 Wm. Couch found guilty of cruelty resulting in death — Judge Story's 
 sentence — article from the Boston Morning Post. 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. — Page 148. 
 
 Great care requisite in the selection of officers for the merchant 
 service — probable lo^^ses from their ignorance— ignorance of seamen 
 — efforts of individuals to improve their condition — fissistance required 
 from the general government — seamen on the lakes compared with 
 those on our sea board— education— want thereof ~[)roposals to effect 
 that object — want of teachers for seamen of the navy. 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. — P^o^c 158. 
 
 *• Degradation of seamen" — subscriptions— want of a library for the 
 crews of ships of war and merchant vessels — San<lvvich islanders-^ 
 their supply of books — the navy slush fund — its mal appropriation — 
 books and education provided for by hunting up and applying the hos- 
 pital fund— abuse respecting it and its estimated amount — naval hos- 
 pitals and medical department of ships in the navy. 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII . — Page 169. 
 
 Promotion for privates in the navy — masters' mates — duties of passed 
 midshipmen— second masters and passed midshipmen, different from 
 each other — conduct of the navy department with regard to promo- 
 tion—leaving seamen in foreign jails — Havana — the conduct of our 
 consul there — two men of the Con>tellation~their sufferings — remarks 
 on the want of laws to protect seamen from outrages— letters from the 
 Boston Atlas — popularity in the navy, and reasons for publishing this 
 work. 
 
 CHAPTER XI X .- Prto-c 183. 
 
 Court martial — charges— conduct of the court — witnesses — John 
 Beggs — his character and testimony — advice to John B — d — e — kind- 
 jiess of Commodore A. J. Dallas and Lt. Henry A. Adams— remai'ks 
 and conclusion. 
 
EVILS AND ABUSES IN THE 
 NAVAL AND MERCHANT SERVICE. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 Navy pay bill — warrant, or Tor'wer»l offtrers, hovv jieglected — theit 
 limited number and constant servic e^difforence Between the propor* 
 tional number of commissioned and warranted clPvC^rs<— tUe pay of the 
 latter in different class ships, and injusiico <Jier<?)i>>--r-.ihelV warrants 
 withheld and acting appointments given them — cause thereof— admirals 
 in the navy — difference made by the Navy Department between a 
 post captain's lady and forward officer's wife with regard to pensions. 
 
 The pay bill, fixing the pay of the officers of the navy, 
 after much discussion and amendment, was passed at the session 
 of 1S34 and 5. From the investigations and liberal views of 
 Congress at that time with respect to this arm of national 
 (Jefence, our citizens may be led to suppose that all the officers 
 of the navy are well paid, and handsomely provided for. This 
 is not the case. There is one class who as the greater number 
 of them are without influential friends, whose influence could 
 have availed them at that time, and who have by superiority in 
 their profession, and moral character, arisen from the rank of 
 seamen to fill the stations they now hold ; a passing notice of 
 the great injustice done them, may not be amiss here, before 
 proceeding to the subject as connected with seamen, petty- 
 officers, &;c. 
 
 The boatswains, gunners, carpenters, and sailmakers are 
 usually denominated forward officers. The boatswains and 
 I 
 
2 EVILS AND A.BUSES IN THE 
 
 gunners are men who have (before attaining that rank) served" 
 their country for a long time in subordinate stations, as seamen, 
 petty officers, &c., and are selected to fill these stations by 
 their thorough, and superior knowledge of their profession. 
 In the selection of these men, political influence can do nothing 
 in procuring them their appointments. They are selected and 
 recommended by their commanders for promotion, and who of 
 course, during three years or more ought to be pretty well 
 acquainted with their characters and abihties. The carpenters 
 ^nd sailmakers are men who are perfect masters of their trade ; 
 the former must be fully acquainted with the whole art of a 
 ship carpenter and ship joiner. The latter must be able to cut 
 and make any sail, for any class of vessels, and in addition to 
 these they must be men of character and respectability. The 
 carpenters and sailmakers are generally men, who forego all 
 the advantages c that wpuld be .derived from excellence, and 
 superiority iu'tlie'ir bjjsitiefes br^ sho^e, which if followed up 
 there, might have . yielded thenJ wealth and influence, but 
 these are lest 'ty entering the 'navy. The forward officers 
 are in fact the most efficient officers in a ship. They are 
 nearly always on duty. A commissioned officer may be on 
 leave of absence, or waiting orders, for one or two years, but 
 who ever heard of a forward officer, unless sick or disabled, 
 being off duty more than a few months, very seldom more than 
 three, after a three years' cruise, and then off to sea again, for 
 another period of similar duration. Their limited number in 
 fact prevents anything else being the case ; but why are their 
 numbers so limited? Simply because the department will not 
 appoint more ; it (as in many other branches of our govern- 
 ment) saves at the spicket and loses at the bung. There 
 was at the commencement of the present year, in the navy, 
 thirty-two boatswains, thirty-five gunners, twenty-seven carpen- 
 ters, and twenty-six sailmakers. Of these there were on board 
 of ships in commission and navy yards, twenty-nine boatswains, 
 twenty-eight gunners, twenty-one carpenters, and eighteen sail- 
 makers. Leaving sick, waiting orders, and on leave of absence, 
 only three boatswains, seven gunners, six carpenters, and eight 
 sailmakers, a number by no means sufficient for the wants of 
 
NAVAL AND MERCHANT SERVICE. 3 
 
 the navy or to relieve those who may return from a long cruise, 
 worn out with fatigue and sickness. Agreeable to the navy 
 register for 1839, there is in all one hundred and twenty boat- 
 swains, gunners, carpenters and sailmakers, ninety-six of whom 
 are on duty. There are three hundred and ninety-two post cap- 
 tains, commanders, and lieutenants in all, two hundred and one of 
 whom are on duty. By this it will be seen that four-fifths of the 
 warrant officers are on duty, and only a very little more than one 
 half of those that are commissioned. But this comparison 
 must not be considered as tending to prove that we have too 
 many of the latter grade. On the contrary, we have not a 
 sufficient number to officer all our vessels ; but it will clearly 
 prove that we have too few of the former ; and it is as neces- 
 sary that we should have a requisite number of the one, as the 
 other, for when the services of a greater number are required, 
 they cannot be taught their duty in one day. It has never been 
 taken into consideration that the greater number of the for- 
 ward officers have families, and as reasonably might be ex- 
 pected, wish to spend a part of their time with them. No, 
 let them go to sea for four or five cruises in succession, wear 
 themselves out in the public service, and as a recompense, 
 look in tlie decline of life to the gratitude of their country, in 
 the shape of small pay in a navy pard or three hundred and 
 sixty dollars a year on leave of absence. This, fellow citizens, 
 is the gratitude of the American Republic, to those who have 
 grown grey and worn themselves out in the public service, 
 and who have been ever ready to defend your firesides, and 
 who have so ably protected your commerce, the source of so 
 much wealth to your country. This is not mere assertion ; 
 look at facts. IMr. McN. the boatswain, and Mr. C. the gun- 
 ner of Charlestown navy yard, are only receiving ^500 in full 
 of pay and rations. These men have both been in the navy 
 since the commencement of, or before the last war with Great 
 Britain. The former is allowed by all to be the most perfect 
 practical seaman that we have ever had in the navy, and the 
 latter was chief mate of the ship that brought General Moreau 
 from Cadiz to Philadelphia when banished from France by- 
 Napoleon, is a well informed man, and perfect gentleman. 
 
4 EVILS AND ABUSES IN THE 
 
 Had he remained in the naerchant service, his merit would soon 
 have procured him a command, and long ere this he might 
 have realized enough to have kept him comfortable in the 
 decline of life, without being dependent on the scanty pittance 
 allowed him in the navy. 
 
 I hope those gentlemen will excuse the liberty that I have 
 taken with them. I am, and shall be compelled to make such 
 allusions in regard to this and other subjects in order to prove 
 that these are facts, and not idle declamation. These and 
 other instances will serve to show how these men and seamen 
 suffer from not having friends to represent their case to the 
 public, and consequently a want of proper representation of 
 their case in the national legislature. How far this may go in 
 bringing the foul injustice done them before the public, 1 will 
 not attempt to predict, but I could not let this opportunity slip 
 without representing their case to their fellow citizens. The 
 pay bill fixed the pay of boatswains, gunners, carpenters and 
 sailmakers as follows : 
 
 When serving on board a ship of the line $750 pe? annum, 
 
 '' ** " frigate 600 " 
 
 All other duty 500 '< '' 
 
 Qn leave of absence or waiting orders 3G0 '* " 
 
 All Other duty includes navy yards, and the law moreover 
 states that " one ration per day only, shall be allowed to all 
 officers attached to vessels for sea service." Now in a navy 
 yard the officers are not allowed a ration which is valued at 20 
 cents per day, but at sea they are, by which it is evident that 
 the officer of this grade, who is serving in a ship of the line, 
 who was appointed as it were yesterday, receives in all t^SSS, 
 being ^323 per annum more than the old faithful servant who 
 from long servitude, is unable to attend to duty on board of a 
 ship in active service. Could the highest pay be always 
 given to the oldest and most deserving, as no doubt was the 
 intention of Congress when the law was passed, the case would 
 be different, but, at present, it is a manifest wrong. When th© 
 department wants to order these officers to ships for sea service- 
 there is the leave of absence or waiting orders list. Select on© 
 ftoai then); send him orders, oii the receipt of wbich^ he vam\ 
 
NAVAL AND MERCHANT SERVICE. O 
 
 hasten to obey, and leave country and friends without a mur- 
 mur. In fact there are so few, as has been shown, of this 
 grade, that no other method can be pursued, and the depart- 
 ment will not appoint more. 
 
 Another species of oppression has lately been put in force 
 at the department. These officers are not warranted by the 
 president as formerly, but must be satisfied with acting appoint- 
 ments from the Secretary of the Navy. The cause of this 
 may be explained by the department, but I have never as yet 
 heard any reason for not giving these officers warrants signed 
 by the President of the United States, and can attribute it to 
 no other than a wish to keep them more dependant on superi- 
 ors, or those in office. 
 
 Many attempts have been made to create admirals in our 
 navy, and there should be, to entitle it to respect abroad, and 
 procure for its superior officers the etiquette and rank that those 
 of other nations receive. But it may be relied upon that no 
 member of Congress will ever vote in favor of the admiral 
 bill, when he knows that forward officers are withheld their 
 warrants. The same reason that kept the pay bill so long back 
 will ruin this. The superiors wished to have their pay in- 
 creased without any reference to the inferiors. The veil that 
 is thrown over the admiral bill is equally flimsy, and when 
 drawn aside discovers the same latent disposition of the other. 
 
 T would ask whether or not the duty of a boatswain, gunner, 
 
 carpenter, or sailmaker is not as arduous as that of a passed 
 
 midshipman? have they not as much responsibility ? must they 
 
 not dress as gentlemen ? have they not to leave their home and 
 
 families? and why should they have less pay? they are not 
 
 entitled to promotion, tlie others are. A passed midshipman 
 
 has not too much pay, but why should a forward officer have 
 
 less ? The ruin of this grade is that commanders are allowed 
 
 to appoint Tom, Dick, and Harry to fill these stations, when the 
 
 department fails to order a boatswain or gunner to a vessel when 
 
 she fits out. The department very often has none of these 
 
 officers to order. What must our citizens think when they are 
 
 told that we have not officers enough of every grade to order 
 
 to the few ships that we keep in commission for the protection 
 1# 
 
O EVILS AND ABUSES IN TSC 
 
 of our comnfierce. In case of a war, what are we to do? , 
 these officers will not spring up like mushrooms in a night. 
 Then, and not until then, will our citizens see the pernicious 
 effects of keeping well earned promotion from those who ought 
 to be appointed to fill those stations, when it can be done at so 
 paltry an expense, as would leave those who are acquainted 
 with the subject to wonder at the apathy of the department 
 on a matter of so much consequence. When men are tem- 
 porarily appointed to the rank of boatswain or gunner, no more 
 is expected from them than the common conduct of seamen^ 
 viz. dissipation and folly, and they may be turned adrift when- 
 ever it suits the whim of those who appointed them. This 
 operates against the deserving and good to a considerable 
 extent. For admirals we could copy a precedent from Eng- 
 land and other European powers. Let us do so in this respect 
 also, it will hold equally good in both cases. The oldest war- 
 rant officers in the British navy have the largest ships, and the 
 highest pay, and when they are on leave their pay is in pro- 
 portion to the size of the ship in which they last served, or to 
 which they may be entitled, and all are warranted by the 
 Admiralty. Of one hundred and twenty boatswains, gunners,, 
 carpenters and sailmakers in our navy, only fifty-two are war- 
 ranted, making sixty-eiglit under acting appointments. By 
 article thirty-three of the Navy Regulations, '^ all officers not 
 holding commissions or warrants, or who are not entitled to 
 them, are deemed petty officers." Thus it appears that these 
 sixty-eight are to perform the duty of officers, and only receive 
 the respect due to petty officers. If it is said that these officers 
 are entitled to warrants let me ask why they do not receive 
 them ? Such injustice smells rank to heaven. 
 
 Members of Congress are ignorant of these matters, but the 
 Secretary of the Navy is not,, or should not be, and such acts 
 of injustice ought to be made known to the public, who must, 
 in a country like ours,, feel a deep hiterest in the welfare of 
 the navy. The present head of the navy department I do not 
 know, except as a talented writer, but it is to be hoped that 
 such alterations as he can he will make, and not follow in the 
 " steps of his illustrious predecessocv" It has often been a 
 
NATAL AND MERCHANT SERVICE. 7 
 
 matter of surprise to me why any difference should be made in 
 the pay of this class of officers in different class ships. There 
 are no more ropes, rigging, sails, &c. on board of a ship of the 
 luie, than on board a sloop of war. They may be larger, it is 
 true, but therein alone consists the difference. There may be 
 more guns, but the gunner has more men to attend to them, 
 and just so in everything else. A man who is qualified for a 
 forward officer on board of a sloop of war is capable of filling 
 the same station on board of a ship of the line ; in fact the 
 larger the ship, the better accommodations there, and there is 
 not one of this grade who would not rather do duty on board 
 of a frigate, or larger ship, in preference to a schooner or sloop 
 of war: for in the latter it is often necessary that a forward 
 officer should put his own hands to a joh, whereas on board of 
 a large ship such a thing is unknown. The duties of these 
 officers in navy yards are very complicated, and they must 
 attend from sunrise to sunset, the same as common laborers. 
 It, will naturally be asked why these facts were not stated to 
 Congress during the passage of the bill ? Simply because 
 these men had no delegate or political friends, or influence, at 
 the seat of government. Not so with all others. There are 
 very few, if any, of the other officers of the navy but what 
 had relatives or personal friends who took care that their 
 interests should not be neglected. But the forward officers are 
 partly seamen, and there appears to be an apathy towards that 
 useful, but neglected class of men, which cannot be accounted 
 for reasonably.* 
 
 How will the citizens of this enlightened republic be aston- 
 
 * When Congress met last session the forward officers selected one of 
 their number to go to Washington and endeavor to have the \)diy bill equal- 
 ized. This person accordingly went and remained there during the whole 
 session, without being successful in his mission. His expenses were paid 
 by his brother officers; but the air of the capitol appeared to have a won- 
 derful effect upon him. While there he learned that a man by mindinar 
 his own business may make his fortune ; at all events he mana^red to ex- 
 change his C — p — r's warrant for a second lieutenant's commission in the 
 marine corps. His commission will not bring him a much greater salary 
 
 than his former warrant,, but some men have little minds, and Wm. L 
 
 can now mess with the wardroom officers, and sport a green coat, instead 
 of his former blue one ; but if he is no better at dressing off a marine guard 
 than he was at dressing a spar, or if he cannot form a better line wiUi the 
 
8 EVILS AND ABUSES IN THE 
 
 ished when they know that the injustice that these men suffer 
 when ahve, is continued to their wives and offspring after the 
 grave has closed over them, but such is the fact, although I 
 blush to confess that such could be the case in a country like 
 ours. 
 
 When the late Commodore John D. Henley died, w^hile in 
 the command of the West India squadron, the Secretary of 
 the Navy, as the deceased was a Commodore, thought the 
 case of sufficient importance to lay before Congress, to know 
 whether or not the widow of the deceased was to be entitled to 
 a pension amounting to one half of his full, or one half of his 
 leave of absence pay. Congress decided that she should be 
 entitled to one half of the latter. Now here was a decision 
 which ought to govern the department in regard to similar 
 claims of the widows or children of other officers ; and let us 
 see how far it has acted in compliance with the decision of 
 Congress in other cases. If a forward officer dies, the depart- 
 ment thini^s proper only to grant the widow, or children, one 
 half of what his pay was previous to the late pay bill being 
 passed, which w^as only twenty dollars per month, exclusive of 
 rations ; and one half of this is granted as a pension, that is, 
 ten dollars per month, whereas one half of his leavfe of absence 
 pay under the present law would be fifteen dollars per month, 
 and which sum the widow or children of a forward oficer is 
 equally as much entitled to as the lady of Commodore Henley, 
 Here the citizen may see how those who are in office dare to 
 violate every principle of right and justice, dare to deprive the 
 orphan, or widow of the forward officer of bread to eat, and a 
 house to put their heads in, by withholding from iheai one- 
 third of what they are entitled to by law* 
 
 marines than he could in lining off in a mould loft he will not be any oreat 
 acquisition to the corps. He may now associate with the viidcHeSj for of 
 their company he used to be very fond ; but he may now forsake them for 
 something higher, as he did his brother officers, for their society when he 
 was a c — p — r. Long may he wear his laurels. If his present brother 
 officers consider him no greater gain than vhe forward officers did his loss ; 
 there will only be a cypher added to their number. He may find some of 
 the marine officers who look upon his manner of getting among them, in 
 pretty much the same light that the forward officers do upon his manner of 
 leaving them. 
 
NAVAL AND MERCHANT SERVICE. 9 
 
 What a precious thing is office, get into possession and you 
 may trample your fellow men into the dust, keep their rights 
 from them, and they must submit to the decree in silence. 
 Take a navy register and you may find that one of these so 
 trampled on may have joined the service twenty or twenty -five 
 years ago, in which he has been ever since, and look at his 
 oppressor, his name is new to the world, he was never known 
 beyond the circle of his own friends until he became the leader 
 of a political party. I would not have it understood that I 
 wish to cast the smallest reflection on the present secretary ; I 
 hope, and believe him to be too good a man to trample on the 
 rights of another, but there are certain usages at the depart- 
 ment w^hich he must break through, or his name will share the 
 same fate of his predecessors. 1 cannot close this article with- 
 out pointing out a circumstance to show the difference between 
 precept and example. When Commodore Downes took the 
 command of the U. S. frigate Potomac, a part of his instruc- 
 tions at that time have since been published in a work entitled 
 the " Cruise of the Potomac," by Mr. Reynolds. In these 
 instructions the Commodore was directed by the Secretary of 
 the Navy to extend similar indulgences to all the officers under 
 his command, without distinction as to rank. Oh, precious 
 hypocrisy ; Commodore Downes will do injustice to none if he 
 is aware of it, but the Department can preach one lesson and 
 perform another, give the widow of one officer half of her 
 husband's pay, and another only one-third. How truly the 
 instructions from the department to Commodore Downes ful- 
 filled the old adage, " that we often give a lesson to others that 
 we cannot take to ourselves." 
 
10 EVILS AND ABUSES IN THE 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 Petty officers— their pay until 1833 ; then reduced, by whom, and for 
 what reasons — the injustice of the reduction — the U. S. schooner Ex-_ 
 periment— her qualities — increase of our national resources attended 
 by a reduction of petty officers' pay — another alteration made in their 
 pay — rating a rnan one rate and making him do another duty — the pay 
 of yeomen in the navy increased — at whose suggestion — pay of purser's 
 stewards and seamen — mutiny in the British navy at the Nore from 
 neglect to seamen, compared to our present state — a few remarks to 
 seamen. 
 
 Petty Officers are the mechanics, boatswain's mates? 
 gunner's crew, quarter masters, master at arms, captains of tops, 
 forecastle, &:c., &:c. 
 
 The law on the organization of the navy, left the pay of 
 petty officers, seamen, ordinary seamen, he. to be regulated 
 by the department, which, until 1833, was as follows : ^ 
 
 Gunner's mates, $19 per month. 
 
 Boatswain's do. 19 '* " 
 
 Carpenter's do. 19 *' " 
 
 Saihnaker's do. 19 *' <« 
 
 Quarter gunners. 18 *^ '^ 
 
 Quartermasters, 18 " " 
 
 Ship steward, 18 '' " 
 
 Yeoman, . 18 «' " 
 
 Cooper, . 18 " '' 
 
 This was the pay of petty officers, he. for many years, but 
 a new idea entered into the head of the secretary or the navy 
 commissioners, (which I know not.) The latter had tried sev- 
 eral expeiimenis , such as building the U. S. schooner Experi- 
 ment, and being so successful in that, thought that they must try 
 another on the pay of the petty officers. 
 
 To prevent being misunderstood by the reader, I have a 
 word to say in relation to the U. S. schooner Experiment. 
 She was built at Washington, under the eyes of the board of 
 commissioners and secretary of the navy, upon an entire new 
 plan. The use of knees and timbers was voted superfluous, 
 and she was to have none. The use of oakum was ditto, and 
 
 Ship cook. 
 
 $18 per 
 
 month. 
 
 Master at arms, 
 
 18' *' 
 
 
 Armourer, 
 
 18 " 
 
 
 Seamen, 
 
 12 '« 
 
 
 Ordinary seamen 
 
 , 10 " 
 
 
 Landsmen, 
 
 8 *' 
 
 
 Boys, 1st class, 
 
 8 " 
 
 
 " 2nd " . 
 
 G " 
 
 
NAVAL AND MERCHANT SERVICE. 11 
 
 to encourage home produce, she was caulked with cotton and 
 pegs. No grog was to be served to her crew, which was the 
 only good experiment of the whole ; but as they had hit on a 
 ^ood experiment there, it was soon fell through, and grog was 
 served to the crew. Her model was entirely different from all 
 other vessels that I have ever seen. She much resembled that 
 useful article known amongst seamen by the title of serving 
 mallet, by which name she was well known on the West India 
 station. The first mishap that she met with was, in firing a 
 salute on her arrival at Norfolk, Va. The concussion shook 
 her so that the cotton and pegs started from her sides, and 
 she had to be caulked with oakum, to the manifest injury of 
 the cotton planters. I do not remember how many days she 
 was on her passage to Pensacola, but she made a passage from 
 Havana to that port in twenty-five days. A washing tu'b would 
 have made it in a shorter time, but she w^as an experiment. 
 Yet she was not a dead loss to the good people of the United 
 States, fop in consequence of her unfitness to cruise about on 
 the ocean she was kept laying in Pensacola, and saved the ex- 
 pense of rigging a flag-staff at the commander's house to hoist 
 his broad pendant on when the rest of the squadron were on a 
 cruise. When she wanted a supply of beef, bread, or wood, 
 she would go as far as the navy yard, which was an occurrence 
 always duly noted in the Pensacola Gazette, and a superannu- 
 ated land crab would have beat her on the race from the navy 
 yard to the town. The Experiment was finally sent home, 
 and on the passage she proved that she had one good quality, 
 at least, she lost her rudder while laying to in a gale, and none 
 were aware of the fact until it abated. The Experiment was 
 so admirably constructed that she lay to, broad side on, like a 
 crabb, as well without as with a rudder. Every naval officer 
 has reason to be proud that she never was exhibited in any 
 foreign port but Havana, so that few are aware of her exist- 
 ence. She is now employed on the survey of the coast, and 
 may answer for that purpose, if for no other. But to resume. 
 There are in all vessels of war, in each top and on the 
 forecastle, men who are denominated first and second captains, 
 that is one first, and one second captain in each watch. It 
 
12 EVILS AND ABUSES IN Tfetfi 
 
 was concluded at Washington, that these men, who are reck* 
 oned the best in a ship> (after the petty officers) ought to have 
 more pay, which was very reasonable and just ; as in case of 
 anything going wrong, or foul, during any evolution, these men 
 are called and have to answer for any mistakes that are made 
 at their respective stations, and often are answerable for the 
 acts of others. It was thought proper that they should have 
 more pay, and as ideas were crowding thick upon the brain of 
 the discoverer, it was also deemed that the others had too 
 much, and in order to create no additional expense, it was 
 decided that the pay of the petty officei-s should be as fol* 
 lows : 
 
 Quarter masters, $16 per month. 1st captains of the mizen top 
 Quarter gunner, 15 '* " 14 per month. 
 
 Yeomen, . 15 " /' 1st captains of the forecastle 
 
 1st captains of the fore and main 15 per month. 
 
 top, . . 15 per month. 2nd captains of the forecastle 
 2nd captains of the fore and main 14 per month. 
 
 top, . . 14 per month. 
 
 These were the alterations made in the pay of petty 
 officers, and pursers were directed to pay them accordingly. 
 From the time of the war until 1833, the pay of petty officers 
 had been eighteen and nineteen dollars per month, according 
 to their rates. During this time our commerce had trebled 
 under the protection afforded to it by the navy, and a long 
 uninterrupted peace. Our country, during this time, had risen 
 to the first rank amongst the nations of the earth, to a rank 
 unparalleled in the history of any republic ; her progress in the 
 arts and sciences, agriculture, and manufactures, astonished the 
 world. Her flag floated in every sea. Her national debt was 
 extinguished, and the treasury overflowing with surplus revenue* 
 Her gallant little navy had gained itself an honorable name in 
 our struggle with the greatest maratime nation in the worli 
 The navy that had done this, that had filled the brightest page 
 in the proud annals of our land with its deeds, was after the 
 peace employed protecting our commerce — which was making 
 our merchants princes, and conferring wealth and happiness on 
 our citizens and country. So prosperous was the state of our 
 country that the surplus revenue was a bone of contention to 
 
NAVAL AND MERCHANT SERVICE. 13 
 
 ihe different States. The pay of the officers of the navy 
 had been doubled, and shortly afterwards trebled. Seamen 
 who had fought the battles of our country on the ocean, had 
 grown grey in the service, had attained the rank of petty 
 officers, and who were at the bottom of our country's greatness: 
 during this prosperous state of things it was found, by the 
 fertile minds of some who had never, perhaps, seen a shot 
 fired in anger during their lives, that the petty officers had all 
 this time been receiving too much pay. Oh shame ! Oh my 
 country 1 can it possibly be believed that the very men who 
 were nt that time straining every nerve to have their own pay 
 increased, would recommend that the very sinews of the 
 service, the petty officers, should have their's reduced. But 
 so it was. The secretary of the navy could never have, of 
 himself, thought of such an alteration, could not have known 
 that there were such men as captains of the forecastle, or cap- 
 tains of tops. The monstrous, unjust, and despicable plan 
 originated at the navy board, or with some one w^ell acquainted 
 with the details of the navy. His name ought to be given 
 up to the public for the unerring finger of scorn to point at. 
 Shame should be painted upon his forehead. Had It been 
 ^commended to increase the pay of captains of the forecastle 
 and tops, it would have been well, for they are always smart, 
 active, good seamen, and deserve all they now receive ; but if 
 they were formerly receiving too little wages, it did not follow 
 that quarter masters, quarter gunners, and yeomen were re- 
 ceiving too much ; no, but on the contrary, were receiving too 
 little. The petty officers are the best men in the navy, are 
 entrusted with the superintending and performing all important 
 duty ; to them the officers look in time of danger and emer- 
 gency, for support; they must be particular in their dress : 
 are held up as an example for the rest of the crew ; and these 
 deserving men were receiving too much pay. " I pity the 
 man who can travel from Dan to Bersheba and say all Is bar- ., 
 ren.'' There was something in the head of the one who 
 advised that measure that a phrenologist would never have 
 found. 
 
 By a Navy Register just sent me by a friend, it appears that 
 2 
 
J4 EVILS AND ABUSES IN THE 
 
 the department is not yet satisfied with the pay of the sinews 
 of the service, for since I left the navy the pay has again been 
 altered, and now stands as follows : 
 
 Boatswain's, gunner's and carpenter's mates, $19 per month. 
 
 Master at arms, 19 " 
 
 Ship's cooks, ship's stewards, and quarter masters, 18 " 
 
 Quarter gunner's, cooper's, and ship's corporals, 15 " 
 
 Coxswain and captains of forecastle, ... 18 " 
 
 Armorer and officer's steward, . . . . 18 " 
 
 Surgeon's steward and master of band, . . 18 " 
 
 Captains of tops and captains of hold, . . 15 " 
 
 Officer's cooks and sailmaker's mates, . • 15 " 
 
 Seamen and 1st class musicians, . . . 12 *' 
 
 Ordinary seamen and 2nd class musicians, . 10 '* 
 
 Landsmen, . '.) " 
 
 Boys, from 6 to 8 " 
 
 This is certainly a little better, but why is a quarter master's 
 pay, again increased to what it formerly was, and not a quar- 
 ter gunner's ? Why are sailmaker's mates' and cooper's pay 
 reduced ? they must serve a time to their trade and know their 
 business perfectly. Rating officer's stewards captains of hold 
 and loblolly boys will do away with one abuse ; that is, rating a 
 man one thing, and making him perform another duty. Those 
 who are always making alterations must sometimes blunder into 
 what is right in spite of themselves. When I was gunner of the 
 U. S. ship Concord, I was allowed by the regulations of the 
 navy eight quarter gunners and a mate. I had only five and 
 latterly six. The captain of the hold was rated a quarter gun- 
 ner, and some one else, 1 do not now remember who. I was 
 allowed a yeoman, but had none. I made out my own returns 
 of expenditures, and kept my own books ; the rate of my yeo- 
 man was given to a man who wrote for the first lieutenant. 
 When I was on board the Lexington, as a yeoman, I had to do 
 the duty for the boatswain, gunner, carpenter, and sailmaker in 
 that line, and also the writing for the first lieutenant. 1 appeal 
 to Lieut. Bubier for the truth of this statement ; he was first 
 lieutenant for some time. At that time there were three yeo- 
 men allowed to the ship and three were rated, but one was cap- 
 tain of the hold, and the other the surgeon's mate or loblolly 
 boy, as he is more frequently termed, while I had to perform 
 their duty in the store-room; cooped up from morning until 
 
NAVAL AND MERCHANT SERVICE. 15 
 
 night, to be ready for all calls, performing the duty allotted to 
 three men, and receiving the pay of one. It is true when 
 Capt. McKeever and Lieut. Joseph Myers joined the ship, that 
 in consequence of my confinement and writing so much, I was 
 allowed a great many privileges and indulgences more than any 
 of the other petty officers, yet that did not make it right or 
 just. 
 
 The duty of a yeoman is to keep an account of the receipts 
 and expenditures of the boatswain, gunner and carpenter's 
 stores, and to issue them as directed by the executive officer; 
 one is allowed to each department, and under his charge the 
 whole stores for a three years cruise are immediately placed. But 
 it frequently happens that one has to do the whole duty, while 
 the vacant rates are given to others. When I was attached to 
 the U. S. ship Vandalia, 1 wrote on the subject, and published 
 my remarks in the Army and Navy Chronicle, then edited by 
 Benjamin Homans, Esq. The communication elicited no no- 
 tice, and 1 had almost forgotten the circumstance, when on my 
 return from the service of a foreign government, I found the 
 very plan I had recommended, put in force with respect to this 
 grade, viz : to have only one in each ship, and hold him re- 
 sponsible for the whole stores, paying him per month when on 
 board of a schooner eighteen dollars, in a sloop of war twenty 
 five dollars, in a frigate, thirty-five, and in a ship of the line, 
 forty. This plan was not adopted, however, until long after 
 my remarks were published. Although it appears that it was 
 approved of, it was not acted upon until a sufficient time had 
 elapsed to make it appear as a measure of the Department, or 
 or a lucky hit of some wiser head than mine. Don't say, Mr. 
 Secretary, or Navy Commissioner, that you thought of it your- 
 self; if you do, like " PufF in the critic, I thought of it first," 
 and claim it accordingly ; a witness for which claim, can be pro- 
 duced by the columns of the Army and Navy Chronicle. How- 
 ever, if some more of my plans which are founded in justice, 
 reason, and common sense, were adopted, although too late 
 ever to benefit myself in the navy, I shall forgive them being 
 used as the inventions of superiors at the seat of government. 
 
 The pay of a ship's steward is entirely too small, but as the 
 
16 EVILS AND ABUSES IN THE 
 
 purser, under whose direction he comes, has such enormous 
 perquisites, it is naturally expected that he will share the spoils 
 with his subordinate, or, at least, make him up a decent salary, 
 which is invariably done. But as I do not approve of pursers 
 or their stewards being paid out of the hard earnings of the sea- 
 men, it would, to prevent the necessity of doing so, be neces- 
 sary to increase the pay of ship's steward to the same standard 
 as that of yeoman. The pay of an able seaman is entirely too 
 small, when it is considered that he has to clothe himself, pur- 
 chase tea, sugar and tobacco, out of this sum. 
 
 It will be recollected by all our citizens who have read the 
 history of England, that that country was nearly ruined about a 
 half century ago by the mutiny at the Nore, Innumerable 
 evils and abuses existed in the British navy at that time, and 
 many memorials and petitions had been presented by the sea- 
 men praying for a redress of grievances. They were unheeded 
 and treated with contempt ; and what followed ? The men 
 who had in vain sought for redress, turned the arms that they 
 had wielded for the defence of their country, against that coun- 
 try, and with all the bitterness of domestic quarrels, were deter- 
 mined to sacrifice either their country or themselves, in prefer- 
 ence to listening to reason. It would be difficult perhaps, to 
 draw a distinct line between a country and its citizens, so as to 
 mark exactly how far each might go without infringing on the 
 rights of the other, or how long tyranny and oppression are to 
 be suffered, before having recourse to arms for redress. At all 
 events, the people of England saw the arms that had protected 
 them so gallantly from their enemies, turned against themselves, 
 and those who wielded them were like wounded bears, deter- 
 mined to have the last hug. Had these men made sail on the 
 vessels under their control, and given them up to the nation 
 with which England was then at war, the star of Britain's naval 
 ascendency would have set forever. But they loved their coun- 
 try, although that country had proved ungrateful, a'nd only 
 sought the redress of the grievances by force, which had been 
 denied to them by petition and gentle means. The greater 
 portion of British subjects, before that step was taken by their 
 seamen, were perhaps not aware of the existence of the abuses 
 
NAVAL AND MERCHANT SERVICE. 17 
 
 of which they complained. But evils and abuses may exist 
 without being publicly known. 
 
 A republic like the United States has never any danger to 
 apprehend from her seamen, any encroachments upon the rights 
 of her citizens ; not so with an army. An army under the con- 
 trol of an ambitious leader, may destroy the liberties of a people, 
 ane trample them in the dust. But a navy, no matter how 
 powerful it may be, can never do this. So that, in a country 
 like ours, where commerce is the great source of national wealth, 
 the navy ought to be cherished, and every abuse and grievance 
 promptly corrected and removed. The greater part of our cit- 
 izens are not aware that there are either abuses or evils in this 
 branch of the public service ; but I hope to be able to show 
 them that such is the case, and that the seamen of the navy 
 and merchant service have just ground of complaint. It will 
 then remain with the citizens, though their representatives, to 
 have them redressed. 
 
 Who ever heard of seamen having a delegate to represent 
 their grievances to Congress ? No one. All classes of officers 
 have had, and why should seamen not be entitled to the same 
 privilege ? They have more wrongs to complain of than any 
 others, for none of them have ever been redressed or alterations 
 made for their advantage, since the organization of the navy. 
 Now Jack tars, I wish you would raise a sum sufficient to en- 
 able me to take my land tacks aboard, allow me double rations, 
 and send me to Washington to represent your grievances to 
 Congress. I do not know the present honorable secretary, but 
 if I could get him and some honorable representatives seated 
 comfortably in their easy chairs, with a bottle of wine and some 
 cigars before them, and they give me a patient hearing, I would 
 prescribe some doses to be administered to the navy, which if 
 done w^ould purge and impart a more healthy vigour to its con- 
 stitution than it has yet been blessed with. If not, why I am 
 one of the greatest quacks that ever dealt in the healing art. 
 
 I do not doubt that many of the members of Congress would 
 be found ready and willing to extend to you the encouragement 
 and redress that has so long been withheld, and to which you 
 
 are entitled by every priciple of common sense and justice. It 
 
 2# 
 
i 
 
 18 EVILS ANB ABUSES IN THE 
 
 is wrong to accuse Congress of indifference towards you. That 
 body cannot correct evils of which they know nothing. You 
 have borne your injuries in silence ; your complaint has never 
 I cached them. Not so with your fellow citizens on shore ; if 
 any of their number think themselves aggriev^ed, they petition 
 Congress ; and many of them create imaginary evils, in order 
 to show their importance. So that Congress very naturally ex- 
 pects that all real grievances are laid before them, when they 
 see so many petitions for redress of abuses that never existed 
 except in the minds of the party. They petition for the abol- 
 ition of slavery in the southern states ; they do not know that 
 you are in a worse condition than the swarthy brood of Africa. 
 They do not think that you are a body of one hundred thou- 
 sand strong, and yet cut off from a vote or a representation. 
 How long they will remain so, must hereafter be determined. 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 Enlistment and crimping for the navy — advance, how expended — 
 injury dierefrom — amount required .from the purser in three years, and 
 the enormous percentage charged thereon — smal^l pay of pursers — the 
 U. S. ship of the line Delavv^are — her crew deprived of hberty — lewd 
 women allowed on board in lieu thereof and the immoral tendency of 
 the latter— the seamen of the Java on their arrival in the United States 
 —the immense issues made by the purser to the crew — the profits of 
 the purser of the Delaware — purser's clerk, steward, &c. 
 
 Seamen, &c. when they enter the navy, enlist for three 
 years. There is always a number of crimps hanging round the 
 rendezvous where the seamen ship, to induce them to do so, 
 for which they receive a fee, not from the government as is the 
 case when men are enlisted for the army, (for the goverment 
 is sparing of its cash where seamen are concerned) but from the 
 seamen themselves. A bonus must be paid by them for per- 
 mission to enter the service of their country. 
 
 Crimping is a word well understood by all persons acquaint- 
 ed with the navy ; but to the uninitiated it will be necessary 
 to explain it. It does not mean crimping codfish, nor crlmpii>g 
 
NAVAL ANl^ MERCHANT SERVICE. 19 
 
 a frill, but kidnapping men for the navy. A crimp is not a 
 whit more respectable than a body-snatcher, and twin brother 
 to one who bears nearly the same name, and is supported on 
 the establishment of a certain class of females. The crimp 
 persuades the seaman by fine stories to ship, tells him he will 
 have three months advance, gets him to affix his name to the 
 articles, and if he is what is called a green hand induces him 
 to go on board the ship in which he has agreed to serve, 
 for the purpose of looking at her. While there, the crimp 
 produces the certificate of the man having entered at the 
 rendezvous, which is given by the officer who ships the man 
 to the crimp. When this order is once presented to the 
 officer of the receiving ship, the sailor cannot again be 
 permitted to go on shore. The crimp or sailor landlord will 
 then produce a bill against the man amounting to the whole of 
 his three months advance. This may not be direct impress- 
 ment, but it is equally unjust. I do not know how these mat- 
 ters are managed here in Boston, but in New York, I was 
 receiving clerk for upwards of five months on board the Hud- 
 son frigate, and the bills brought against the seamen are gene- 
 rally as follows : 
 
 Services (if a Seaman), $4 00 Tarpanlin Hat, .... 1 50 
 
 Bowl and Boat, ... 2 00 Tin pot, spoon, pan & knife, 1 00 
 
 Landlord's Bill, ... 10 00 Silk Handkcichief, ... 1 00 
 
 Blue Jacket and browsers, 10 00 1 Pair of Shoes, .... 1 00 
 2 Duck frocks andtrowsers, 5 00 Total, $36 
 
 This is a fair and just specimen of the bills. The four dol- 
 lars for services is the bomts received by the crimp for stand- 
 ing the man's security, that is saying to the shipping officer 
 that he would see the man on board the receiving ship by such 
 a time. If the sailor had any friend he could stand the securi- 
 ty, but the crimps would tell them (if they were unacquainted) 
 that they alone can stand the security. Despicable wretches I 
 The shipping officei-s despise them, although necessity compels 
 them, to use the vile creatures, for the same reason that the 
 most noxious poisons are resorted to in medicine. The bowl for 
 which one dollar is charged, is a vile decoction of rum and 
 sugar with the addition of an egg, and not un frequently mixed 
 with opium or some other dmg that produces drunkenness and 
 
20 EVILS AND ABUSES IN THE 
 
 sleep, and in that manner they are frequently carried on board. 
 This dollar paid for the shipping bowl is for the good of the 
 house where the rendezvous is kept — they too, must have their 
 share of the plunder. How preposterous it is to make a man 
 pay a dollar for what he may not want, and which he could 
 procure elsewhere for twelve and a half cents! Does not the 
 government pay for the rooms used by the shipping officers ? 
 and w^by should the seamen be taxed to support sharpers. 
 One dollar is charged for the boat to take him on board, when 
 that would be done by any other boatman for twenty-five cents, 
 but the crimp's boatmen, and those who keep the rendezvous 
 and slop-shop are all linked together and it is no part of their 
 policy to let the seamen escape with a single dollar if it can by 
 any means be prevented. When a recruit is brought on board 
 the receiving ship, their clothing is examined to see that they 
 have the quantity required by the regulations of the ship or 
 enough to last them three months; if so, they are asked by the 
 receiving officer if they are satisfied. If they answer in the 
 affirmative, a receipt is then given to the crimp or landlord, and 
 he draws their advance. If they say that the articles with 
 which they are charged have not been received, the receipt is 
 retained until they are. But it seldom happens but what the 
 crimp, by fair promises, cajoles them into his plans, whereby 
 he obtains their advance. I declare in this public manner, that 
 it is not exaggeration but facts, and very rarely have 1 seen 
 or known a man to receive more than one or two dollars out of 
 his three month's advance. 
 
 When a seaman has been treated in this shameful manner, 
 and comes to his senses, he thinks all the world is against him, 
 becomes dogged and sullen, and the first opportunity that offers 
 he deserts from the service, and thereby injures the navy in 
 the estimation of other seamen, owing to the villainy practised 
 by the crimps. The higher grade of officers in the navy have 
 it in their power to correct this system of robbery and kidnap- 
 ping, but many of them are content to let the less fortunate of 
 their professional brethren fall a prey to the villainy of a few 
 beings who are destitute of every moral principle. Others 
 cannot remove this abuse, it being of too long standing. How 
 
NAVAL AND MERCHANT SERVICE. 21 
 
 much longer seamen are thus to be plundered, must be decided 
 by an enlightened public. It may truly be said that the sailor 
 is somewhat like the whale, the swordfish wounds him under- 
 neath, while the thrasher attacks him from above. The crimps 
 first ship and rob him ; he then falls on the hands of the purser 
 for three years. When he returns home the land-shark is ready 
 to deprive him of what the others have left, so that he is con- 
 tinually the victim of imposition and injustice. He bears his 
 lot contentedly, however. When he has money, it is ever at / 
 the service of the needy or distressed ; the object of poverty *^ 
 never passes by unrelieved. Only tell him that some are poor 
 or distressed and they are instantly relieved. His hard earn- 
 ings are soon spent, and he puts to sea again to encounter hard- 
 ships and dangers of the direst nature, which he meets with 
 manly fortitude. 
 
 I will draw a rough sketch of what a seaman in the navy 
 will have to purchase from the purser, in the course of three 
 years, and show the balance that he will be likely to have at 
 the end of a three years' cruise. 
 
 3 months' advance, ........; 
 
 36 " tea and sugar, at $1 50 per month, 
 
 3G " soap and tobacco, at $1 '' "... 
 
 2 suits of slop clothing, viz: jackets and trowsers, 
 
 2 " fine, do. 
 
 15 duck frocks and 12 pair duck trowsers, or sheeting for the same 
 6 flannel shirts, at $1 50 each ; 4 pair flannel drawers, at 80 cts. 
 G black handkerchiefs, at §1 each ; 10 pair stockings, at 80 cts. 
 10 pair shoes, at ^1 75 per pair, and 2 pea jackets. 
 Tape, needles, thread, ril)bon, niu&tard, pepper,^ 
 
 spoons, knives, pots, pans, jack knives, straw > 
 
 for hats, blacking, &c. &c. ) 
 
 8G. months' hospital fund, at 20 cents per month, 
 
 $36 00 
 
 54 00 
 
 36 00 
 
 18 00 
 
 48 00 
 
 , 36 90 
 
 12 20 
 
 14 00 
 
 27 50 
 
 60 00 
 
 7 20 
 
 Amount drawn from the Purser, .... $349 80 
 
 Total credit for three years, at $12 per month, . . $432 00 
 
 Balance due, at the end of three years, . . . .$ 82 20 
 
 The articles above enumerated, as to quantity and prices, 
 are reasonably supposed ; and there is no deduction made for 
 any liberty money that may have been advanced, or any arti- 
 cles that may have been purchased from the purser to sell 
 again, in order to raise njoney. But it is invariably the case 
 
22 EVILS AND ABUSES IN THE 
 
 that seamen do so ; I have rarely seen one, in the course of 
 eleven years that I served in the navy, but what bought goods 
 of the purser, and sold ihern again on shore at a discount of 
 from forty to sixty per cent. [ have seen gown patterns, pieces 
 of Irish linen, pieces of silk handkerchiefs, broadcloths, linen 
 shirts, and many other superfluous articles, brought on board 
 and sold to the sailors, when it was well known that they could 
 not want such articles for any other purpose than to dispose of 
 again ; yet their purchasing them was overlooked by the supe- 
 rior officers. A captain, when looking over the pay roll, which 
 is made out every six months, could easily perceive, was he so 
 disposed, that there were some transactions of this nature car- 
 ried on, if the men w^ere in debt to the purser after being eigh- 
 teen months or two years shipped ; as is, and frequently has 
 been the case. It is contrary to law, that is certain ; but where 
 is the use of a law" that is never put in force ? It is only such 
 articles as are furnished by the government that are charged as 
 slops, and on these the purser has only a profit often percent., 
 and is not allowed to dispose of more than a certain quantity to 
 each person. But all fancy articles are charged upon the pay 
 roll as cash. A man may be charged with ^'200, as advanced 
 by the purser in money, when he never received five, in cash. 
 K-o-u-g-h-p-h-y does not spell coffee, but what does it spell ? 
 If charging a man with ,$200 in money, when he has never 
 had ten, is not both unjust and improper, to say the least of it, 
 what is it ? It may naturally be asked why pursers are allow^ed 
 to do so ? I can only say that law" and custom, blended to- 
 gether very nicely, is their w^arrant for it. 
 
 Pursers are the disbursing officers for the government, and 
 they are under heavy bonds for a faithful fulfilment and dis- 
 charge of their duty, w^hich is certainly very complicated, and 
 requires a great deal of management — and if this is done it will 
 yield abundantly. The salary of pursers is a mere trifle — only 
 ^480 per annum, exclusive of rations ; but if they are not well 
 paid by government, they are allowed to pay themselves, out 
 of the wages of the poor seamen. They are allowed by law 
 to charge fifty per cent, profit on many articles, and twenty- 
 five upon others. They are not well paid by government, but 
 
NAVAL AND MERCHANT SERVICE. 23 
 
 it hai given them privileges which are tantamount to giving a 
 Yorkshireman a bridle, which will end in his finding a horse. 
 I have heard it remarked, that pursers might as well have sea- 
 men's money, as landlords and lewd women, — which may be 
 true ; but it is not necessary that any of those should have his 
 hard earnings, or that such advantages should be taken of them 
 by one, or that they should be fleeced by the other. Pursers 
 ought to be well paid by the government, and many of them 
 would rather be so than as they are at present. Yet the love 
 of making money has a powerful effect upon the human heart. 
 
 When the navy pay bill was before Congress, a motion was 
 made to regulate the pay and perquisites of pursers also ; but it 
 was withdrawn in consequence of its being proposed to make a 
 separate bill for them, which was a mean subterfuge ; and so it 
 rests, and will rest, until some active measures are taken to 
 press it on the consideration of Congress. Congress has taken 
 care of the officers, and they are left to take care of the men. 
 Whether this is founded in unison with the principles of free 
 government, or not, I shall leave to be decided by the wisdom 
 of the American people. 
 
 The money that is procured for the articles bought from the 
 purser, and sold again at such enormous discount, is generally 
 used for the very worst purposes, — which is either to purchase 
 liquor — smuggled on board — or given to prostitutes. When I 
 was on board the ship of the line Delaware, the first cruise in 
 the Mediterranean, while in Port Mahon, these women were 
 allowed to come on board twice each week, and I have seen 
 five hundred of those lost, degraded creatures, on board at a 
 time ; and if there is a demoralizing spectacle to be looked 
 upon, that was one. All the decks full of them— between the 
 guns and In every direction were these women to be seen with 
 the seamen ; and such things 1 believe are still allowed in that 
 port, and others on that station. Another disgusting spectacle 
 was, when the women come on board in the evening, the mas- 
 ter at arms and ship corporals stand in the gangway as they 
 come over, and pass their hands over every part of their per- 
 sons, to see that they do not smuggle liquor on board. In the 
 morning, before they leave the ship, they go through the s*ame 
 
24 EVILS AND ABUSES tS TItfi 
 
 examination, to prevent tlieir carrying away any of the men's 
 clothing ; but, notwithstanding, they easily contrive to conceal 
 round their body, or under their under-clothes, the reward of 
 their prostitution, wliich may be a piece of silk handkerchiefs, 
 a piece of linen, a gown pattern, or a couple of yards of broad- 
 cloth. These presents are made to the manifest injury of the 
 donor, both as may regard morals and health, but to the advan- 
 tage of the purser, and disgrace of the service. It surely is the 
 duty of the government to prevent such disgraceful proceed- 
 ings, which are so fatal to morals and health. Many men have 
 contracted the seeds of a disease that rendered them loathsome 
 to themselves and others while living, and consigned them to 
 an early grave, under the express sanction of the present cus- 
 toms of the navy. How chaplains can acquit themselves for 
 not exposing such lewdness and debauchery, is lett for the 
 reverend gentlemen to say. They cannot plead ignorance, for 
 such things take place two or three time a week, on board of 
 the most of our vessels of war, when in Port Mahon, Messina, 
 Palermo, and Syracuse. 
 
 The Delaware lay six months in Port Mahon, at her anchors, 
 until she nearly grounded upon the beef bones thrown over- 
 board from her, without the crew ever having liberty to go on 
 shore. Whether it was most prudent to keep the men cooped 
 up like wild beasts in a menagerie, and allowing those women 
 to come on board, and thereby turning that splendid ship into 
 a floating brothel, of the lowest description, is left to the public 
 to decide. The Java frigate, Capt. Dow^nes, made ten cruises 
 where the Delaware made one, but her crew always had lib- 
 erty, on their arrival in port, when the public service would 
 admit of it ; but the crew of the Delaware never had liberty 
 except once, which was only a short time before leaving Port 
 Mahon to return to the United States ; yet many of the crew 
 re-entered for the Java and Lexington, and were in debt after 
 having been two years on the station. The whole of the dry 
 goods stores in Washington Street, do not transact as much 
 business in a week as was done in the purser's store-room of 
 that jhip in the two or three days previous to her sailing. Seve- 
 rn! thousand dollars worth of goods were disposed of. There 
 
Naval and merchant service* 25 
 
 was no waiting to dispute about prices or change ; give the 
 name, take a piece of linen, gown pattern, or a piece of bandana 
 silk handkerchiefs, and walk off. 
 
 It may be said that there are many men who come home 
 with three, four, and sometimes five hundred dollars, due them. 
 This is the truth ; but these are wary old dogs, who, by dint of 
 cooking, washing and sewing, for the less experienced hands, 
 are enabled to save the whole of their pay ; because they pro- 
 cure from others what they require, such as tea, sugar, tobacco, 
 &c., for their services ; but some one is the sufferer. When 
 the frigate Java returned to Norfolk, Va., there were many of 
 her crew who had been absent from the United States four and 
 five years, and many of them were in debt. I was told, by one 
 who knew, that ^1,000 paid eighty of her crew. Some idea U^ 
 may be formed of the profits of the purser, when it is stated 
 that the purser's steward, out of his share, was enabled to pur- 
 chase a brig, and brought her on to Boston. He had, exclu- 
 sive of that, cash, trinkets, and a wardrobe, that few officers in 
 the navy could equal. In the present state of things, if a sea- 
 man has a mother, wife, or sister, to whom he wishes to leave 
 a part of his pay, as is often the case, he will, unless very 
 economical, return home without a dollar due him. The leav- 
 ing of allotments by seamen in the navy, is allowed for a very 
 worthy purpose ; but it often happens that they are left for an 
 unworthy end. I have known a lewd woman to have five dif- 
 ferent tickets of this sort, which left her in possession of thirty 
 dollars per month, to spend in drunkenness and dissipation; 
 but in just such ways do seamen's hard earnings go, and just so 
 they will go until some efficient method is put in force to do 
 away with impositions, of which they are daily made the dupes. 
 But admitting that seamen will spend their money foolishly 
 when on shore, or be robbed of it by crimps and landlords, that 
 is no reason why a few men should be allowed to enrich them- 
 selves at their expense when they are on board of their vessels. 
 Two wrongs never made a right. 
 
 It will be said, by those who wish to criticise this production, 
 that our seamen are better paid than the seamen of Great 
 Britain, from which we are so fond of drawing comparis<fns. 
 3 
 
26 EVILS AND ABUSES IN THE 
 
 That they receive a greater sum total per month I will admit, 
 but that they can save as much during a three years' cruise I 
 deny. I have made inquiry at different times into the regula- 
 tions of the British navy, and have found that an English man- 
 of-war's man cannot purchase things of a purser to sell again, 
 - nor can he dispose of any article of his clothing without being 
 detected and punished, nor can he draw the smallest article 
 from the purser without a written order from the officer of his 
 division. There is such a regulation in our navy, and I have 
 seen it put in force at the commencement of a cruise, but it 
 soon became a dead letter. Every article required for the sea- 
 men of the British navy is furnished by the government, and 
 upon which the purser has only a very small per eentage ; and, 
 owing to the articles being much cheaper in that country than 
 in the United States, a seaman is enabled to save a greater 
 portion of his wages. The tobacco furnished them is the Vir- 
 ginia leaf, taken from the king's stores, without any duty hav- 
 ing been imposed upon it. This is a liberal method of dealing 
 with men whose monthly pay is small. In fact, they are better 
 paid at present than they would be w^ere they to receive the 
 same pay of our seamen, and be subjected to the same mo- 
 nopoly. When they purchase cloth or duck there, buttons, 
 thread, &c. are given in, without any additional charge ; but in 
 our navy all these necessary articles have to be purchased sepa- 
 rate. It is a matter of indifference to the pursers of our navy, 
 whether they purchase the articles required by the seamen at 
 a high or low price ; they put on the per eentage allowed by 
 law, and the seamen alone are the sufferers. The seam?n may 
 not wish to purchase the article at the high price charged him 
 for it, but there is no alternative, he is buying with his own 
 hard-earned money, but he has not that money in his hand, nor 
 can he get it to purchase elsewhere ; he cannot do without 
 clothing, and therefore must pay the price demanded, no mat- 
 ter how extravagant it may be. Suppose, for instance, that 
 fifty seamen want each to get a suit of blue cloth ; a tailor is 
 sent on board to measure them, he has his profits, and if he 
 sells each suit to the purser for eighteen dollars, the purser 
 sticks on his fifty per cent, and delivers them to the crew ; and 
 
NAVAL AND MERCHANT SERVICE. 27 
 
 the capital with which this speculation is carried on is not pri- 
 vate funds, but public money ; for the purser, at the end of 
 every six months, takes credit to himself for all issues to the 
 crew, and draws upon the department or a navy agent, just for 
 such sums as he may require. The officers are not affected by 
 the purser's privileges, they are entitled to their pay every 
 month, and can always purchase what they want on shore. 
 Had it affected them, the law would have been altered long 
 ago ; but as it only concerns the poor friendless seamen, it re- 
 mains unaltered, because those who are benefitted by it have 
 greater influence than those whom it injures. Money gives a 
 man or any body of men influence, and certainly pursers have 
 an easy method of procuring it ; two cruises in a large ship will 
 leave a purser independent, and this is the more grievous when 
 it is considered that they enrich themselves at the expense of 
 a class of men who are ill able to afford it, and whose families 
 are suffering from want, or, in all probability, supported by the 
 public as inmates of a poor house. I heard it asserted by an 
 officer, that the purser of the Delaware cleared a profit of at > 
 least ^60,000, and he who made the remark done so for no ^^ 
 other motive but that of compassion for those who were the 
 sufferers. When Capt. Mix joined that ship, as first lieutenant, 
 he gave an order that no article should be issued to any of the 
 crew by the purser, without a written order from him or the 
 officers of the divisions; but this order was violated. When 
 the purser's steward knew that the first lieutenant would not be 
 coming round the deck, in the evening or at other times, he 
 w^ould open the store-room, and in a short time issue goods to 
 the amount of a thousand dollars or more. This can soon be 
 done, when a man has only to give his name. There was one 
 person charging the individuals with goods, while another was 
 delivering them. I do not mean to say that the purser of that 
 ship ordered this to be done, but he could scarcely be ignorant 
 of it ; he knew that a case of gold watches were brought on 
 board, and when they were all gone he must have known that 
 some persons had bought them — and he could have no reason 
 to suppose that the officers did, with whom he daily messed — 
 and the midshipmen could not afford gold watches, when their 
 
 I 
 
28 EVILS AND ABUSES IN THE 
 
 pay^vas only nineteen dollars per month. The purser of that 
 ship had a clerk and steward both ; the latter received eighteen 
 dollars per month from the government, and the former received 
 his salary from the purser, and was not borne on the ship's 
 books, at all. 
 
 Some purser's stewards have been enabled to support them- 
 selves in a style far above lieutenants or other commissioned 
 officers. I have known one to have a private box in the 
 opera, and be courted and carressed by foreigners for distribu- 
 tion that he had of seamen's money. From these facts which 
 are stated, it will easily be obvious to every man that there are 
 evils in this department which ought to be corrected. I am 
 fully aware of the censure that I may receive for exposing this 
 and other abuses, and the illiberal allusions that will follow. I 
 well know also that truth can only be found by slow and pain- 
 ful progress, and that error is flippant and compendious. It 
 hops with airy and fastidious levity over proofs and arguments, 
 and perches upon assertion, which it calls conclusion. 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 Slop clothing furnished by the government — the losses thereon— its 
 uselessness from being badly made, badly cut, and bad materials — 
 necessity of purcliasing private goods from the purser, and the sacri- 
 fices made by green bands to have them made up— navy commissioners 
 to blame for slop clothing being unsuitable — remarks on that subject — 
 the North Carolina's pay bill — total credit balance due, and purser's 
 profits estimated. 
 
 The clothing furnished by the government for the use of the 
 seamen of the navy are denominated slops. These articles 
 consist of maltrasses, blankets, pea jackets, blue cloth jackets, 
 blue cloth trowsers, duck frocks, duck trowsers, flannel shirts, 
 flannel drawers, shoes, stockings, and black silk handkerchiefs. 
 This clothing is, I believe, generally made up in some of the 
 state prisons, and in the most wretched manner, so much so 
 that every man-of-war's man has to sew them over before they 
 are worn, or immediately afterwar<ls. 
 
NAVAL AND MERCHANT SERVICE. 29 
 
 It certainly is not a very laudable plan to have clothing 
 made in state prisons for seamen, when there are so many of 
 their wives and daughters destitute, and cannot procure the 
 employment that is by this means taken from them. While 
 benevolent ladies are spending money and time to find them 
 employment, straining every nerve to make them happy and 
 respected, and endeavoring to exalt them by industry and in- 
 dependence, the United States is getting the clothing for sea- 
 men made in state prisons. Seamen have to pay for the 
 making of this clothing, and certainly they would do so with 
 a better grace if they knew that the money so paid went to 
 the support of an indigent sailor's widow or daughter. This 
 is not all, this clothing is both badly made and badly cut. I 
 never saw a slop jacket or trowsers that ever fitted a man ; and 
 they are not in compliance with any regulation ; on the con- 
 trary they must all be altered to comply with the usage of the 
 service. The blue jackets and trowsers ''fit like a purser's 
 shirt on a handspike." The duck frocks and trowsers are un- 
 bleached, and not fit to be worn at inspection or Sunday mus- 
 ters. All man-of-war's men must have the collars of their 
 frocks fined with blue nankeen, two rows of tape on the same, 
 and sometimes a star in the corner, according to the fancy of 
 the commanding officer of the ship to which they are attached. 
 This is as it should be, uniformity is necessary, and adds to 
 the appearance of any body of men, but this uniform ought to 
 be made on shore, and who so proper to do it as seamen's 
 wives or daughters ? There are many old men-of-war's men 
 who can do their own sewing, and in needle work would put 
 many a female to the blush. Yet these are by far the fewest 
 number, there are hundreds of what are termed green hands ^ 
 (or men who have never been to sea before,) who ship in the 
 navy every year. These men perhaps never sewed a button 
 on in their lives, and how can they be expected to make their 
 own clothes ? Their clothes must be made, and the more ex- 
 perienced hands have to do it for them ; but they must be paid 
 for doing so. Tea and sugar for a month, which possibly may 
 cost ^1.50 is often given for making a shirt or pair of trowsers, 
 w^ien the same could be done by a female for two shillings. 
 3* 
 
30 EVILS AND ABUSES IN TU^ 
 
 It lias often been a matter of surprise to me what these articles 
 are put on board for ; an immense expense is incurred annu- 
 ally by their being damaged by mice, moths, &c. ; they are 
 then surveyed, condemned, and sold for the benefit of " tJncle 
 Sam ;" they were never worth much, but then they are literally 
 worth nothing, and are very frequently sold for one-tenth of 
 their original cost. When I was in Norfolk, (Va.) in 1831, 
 a lady with whom I boarded, who kept a clothing store, pur- 
 chased a quantity of damaged slop clothing for eighty, that 
 cost the government at least one thousand dollars ; she sold 
 them again to people for clothing for their slaves, and realized 
 a very handsome profit ; but if it had not been in a slave state 
 I am ignorant of any who would purchase such clothing, unless 
 to distribute gratuitously. Hundreds of bales of this clothing 
 are laying in our navy yards and in foreign storehouses perish- 
 ing on the hands of the government, and for what use or pur- 
 pose, but to add to the pampered wealth of some fat contractor, 
 w^ho is putting in his pocket the people's money, which would 
 certainly be more profitably expended in furnishing employ- 
 ment to destitute females, of which there are but too many in 
 all our large seaports ; and the want of proper employment for 
 them, by which they could earn enough to keep them from 
 starving, is but too often the forerunner of crime. I well 
 know that there i^ not a man-of-war's man, that has any pride, 
 would go on shore on liberty with a slop jacket or trowsers on; 
 thereby it becomes necessary that seamen should have other 
 clothing, and for that reason the pursers have sheeting &;c. of 
 their own to dispose of to the crew. The shoes are pegged, 
 and of such wretched materials that after being wet in salt 
 water and worn two or three times up and down the rigging, 
 they spread out so as to cover as much of the deck as a shot 
 box would. In consequence of this the pursers must buy other 
 shoes, and those belonging to the government are tossed over 
 for three years and then returned to the navy yard, on the 
 leturn of the ship, to be condemned. These articles are in- 
 variably made in state prisons. The pea jackets are the only 
 articles that are fit to be worn, and only such of those as are 
 made of drab colored cloth ; those tliat are made of what is 
 
Naval and merchant sekvice. 31 
 
 called blue cloth are very near as good to keep out rain as 
 dyed blanket would be. I was ten years in the navy, the 
 greater part of that time as a seaman and petty officer, and I 
 never wore a slop jacket ; in fact the whole slop clothing that 
 1 purchased during that time did not perhaps amount to fifty 
 dollars, and my case was by no means a rare one. Some 
 more efiicient regulation should be njade respecting cloth- 
 ing, by which the government would be saved an enor- 
 mous expense ; although a per centage is charged upon the 
 slops when they are sold to the men, yet that by no means 
 makes up the loss. And in the name of common sense, after 
 what pattern are they made? none certainly that ever I saw on 
 a seaman's back. Tlie frocks have a small square collar, about 
 the size of a shirt collar, when every person who ever saw a 
 man-of-war's man, well knows that the collars worn by them 
 are large enough to turn back over the shoulders. The jackets 
 are made after no model or draft in use since the days of 
 *^ Commodore Trunnion," (farther back than that I dare not 
 venture,) some of them have standing collars and slashed sleeves. 
 The buttons were perhaps once what may have been termed 
 gilt, but every vestige of that has disappeared before they are 
 opened out of the bale. The buttons on the duck trowsers are 
 made of wood, by way of encouraging home growth, there 
 being plenty of that in our forests — in faith, the whole is glori- 
 ous humbug. 
 
 I presume the lionorable commissioners of the navy are to 
 blame for this waste and nonsense. We yearly see long ad- 
 vertisements in the newspapers stating that " sealed proposals 
 will be received for'* so and so, until such a time. God help 
 the little navy if all contracts are as poorly complied with as 
 that of slop clothing. 1 would ask those gentlemen where they 
 got the pattern for this clothing ? As they do not see many 
 seamen at Washington I presume they have got one carved 
 out of wood, to draft from. Did ever any of them, when they 
 commanded sea going vessels, (which, gentle reader is a long 
 time ago,) see a sailor at muster with an unbleeched shirt, with 
 no nankin on the collar, and that only three or four inches 
 broad ? if they did, tliey have beat me, and I am well satisfied 
 
32 EVILS AND ABUSES IN THE 
 
 that I have seen more seamen, and sea service than they have 
 in the last thirty years, at all events. I would not wish to 
 inflict any greater punishment on them, however, for their 
 negligence to affairs concerning seamen, than to see them at 
 the president's levee, or round the navy board, dressed in slop 
 jackets, frocks and trowsers. It would be mutiny for me to 
 laugh (at those who were once my superiors, but who will 
 never control me again) but really I do believe 1 should be 
 guilty of that breach of decorum. Gentlemen, pardon, this is 
 the first time I ever paid you my distresses, I think your suit 
 becomes you much. 1 wish you a long life to wear many 
 such. 
 
 There is a " Seaman's Aid Society" established in Boston, 
 conducted by benevolent ladies, the object of which is to 
 procure employment for seamen's wives, widows, and daugh- 
 ters, and thereby to prevent them from becoming a burthen to 
 themselves, or the public. Surely it were better and more 
 laudable to have seamen's clothing that is required for the use 
 of the navy made by such an establishment when the profits 
 are expended in so benevolent a manner. But at present the 
 contract is given to those who make the clothing worst, hy 
 which niggardly economy, the government in the end becomes 
 the loser to a large amount. Whereas, if the clothing was 
 well made, the frocks lined with blue nankin on the collar, he, 
 the crews would find it to their advantage to purchase them, 
 and no loss would be sustained, and the necessity of purchasing 
 the purser's private stock would be left optional with the pur- 
 chaser, bwt at present the duck trousers are made to come 
 nearly up to a man's neck and fitted for suspenders. Who 
 ever saw a man-of-war's man with suspenders, on board of a 
 ship ? I never did. Some poor lean creature just fresh from 
 the country, who has not his clothing made to fit him, may wear 
 them for a time, but it rarely happens, unless that some crea- 
 ture has no hip bones to keep his trousers up, but is built flush 
 fore and aft like a barber's razor strop. It would be just as 
 natural for a man-of-war's man, to look for a shin cleat to belay 
 his stocking halliards to, as to ask for a pair of suspenders. In 
 the meantime, until some other law is made respecting this evil, 
 
NAVAL AND MERCHANT SERVICE. 33 
 
 the custom of pursers ought to be solicited to assist such establish- 
 ments. It is a matter of indifference to them to whom they 
 pay their money for goods, and I am well aware that they 
 would purchase from ladies, in preference to giving their 
 money to those who could afford to lose their custom without 
 suffering any inconvenience therefrom. Gallantry and benevo- 
 lence would induce the pursers to do this, for those gentlemen 
 are not destitute of either, and their co-operation and influence 
 ought to be solicited until some more efficient law is made 
 respecting slop clothing. 
 
 The U. S. ship North Carolina, has arrived in New York 
 recently, and by an article in the " Boston Daily Times," it 
 appears that the balance due on the pay roll is ^108.000 for 
 a crew of 700 men : this I presume has found its way into the 
 papers from the circumstance of its being an unusual large 
 amount. On the Pacific station the seamen have less opportu- 
 nity to spend their wages than on any other, which may 
 account for it. When the U. S. frigate Constitution arrived 
 in Boston in 1828, from the Mediterranean, Lieut. Randolph 
 drew on the department for 8000 dollars to pay the officers 
 and crew, and after doing so, had 4 or 5000 dollars left in his 
 own hands ; this too, after the vessel had been absent nearly 
 four years. The North Carolina's crew are nearly three years 
 shipped although she has only been absent two years ; and 
 supposing the medium to be thirt}/ -three months, let us see 
 how the account will stand. 
 
 Crew of the North Carolina, Cr. 
 70 Petty officers l>efore being rated at seamen's pay, $12 for 9 months $108 by 70=$ 7,560 
 
 70 «' after " average pay J6 «' 24 " 384 " 70= 26,880 
 
 300 Senmen al 12 " 33 '« 396 <' 300=118,800 
 
 230 Ordinary seamen at 10 " 38 " 330 " 230= 75,900 
 
 100 Landsmen and boys, • • . , . . 8 " 33 '' "264 " 100= 26,400 
 
 100 Mariners, average pay, . . • . . 8 " 24 " 192 »* 100= 19,200 
 
 Total Credit for pay $275,740 
 
 Dr. 
 
 370 Seamen and petty officers to amount of advance, $26 each is $ 13,320 
 
 230 Ordinary seamen, 30 " 6,900 
 
 100 Landsmen and l)oya, . . . • . . . 24 « 2,400 
 
 Amount advanced by purser in slops and luxuries, • . . . . 145,120 
 
 '• Remaining unpaid, 108,000 
 
 $275,740 
 
34 EVILS AND ABUSES IN THE 
 
 By this it would appear that the sum of ^145,120 has 
 been taken from these men since they shipped, for goods pur- 
 chased from the purser. Upon articles so purchased there is 
 charged by law ten, twenty-five and fifty per cent more than 
 cost ; the articles upon which ten and twenty-five per cent is 
 charged, are less used than those denominated luxuries, which 
 pays the purser fifty per cent, and it would be reasonable to 
 allow the profits upon the whole to be forty per cent. If this 
 is the case pursers have cleared from that crew the enormous 
 sum of $'58,048 in three years, exclusive of profits on goods 
 sold to officers. At this rate a purser's situation is preferable 
 to that of President of the United States, for the purser pays 
 no more towards his mess than a lieutenent or master, I have 
 not made the above statements to prove that the purser of that 
 ship has done any thing that is wrong ; but I wish to shew that 
 the law is radically bad and ought to be amended. If from 
 amongst that seven hundred men and one hundred marines, 
 there were two hundred and fifty that had saved three hundred 
 dollars each, as in all probability is the case, it would require 
 $75,000 to pay them, and leave $33,000 to be divided 
 among the remaining five hundred and fifty, which would give 
 the enormous sum of sixty dollars for their thirty-three months 
 servitude. From this any man open to conviction may see 
 what an error there must be in the present system in the navy, 
 and what a small amount may fall to an individual's share, 
 although the sum total $ 108,000, is very considerable. " It 
 is presumed that pursers of the navy do nothing but what 
 they are justified in doing, by law and usage. The question is 
 not with them, but whether the law and usage are right? it 
 must strike any man of mere common sense, and who never 
 had the means of information from actual service, as a curious 
 fact, that where men are supplied with rations, and can, appa- 
 rently, want nothing but garments, that there should be such a 
 thing as money-making, under sanction of the government, in a 
 traffic carried on between a purser and a crew." This is an 
 extract from a small work before me, and many will concur 
 with the author in the opinion. 
 
NAVAL AND MERCHANT SERVICE. 35 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 Naval ration — when regulated by law— changes since that time in 
 public feeling with regard to spirits — evil .tendency of the ration by 
 encouraging drunkenness — mistaken idea respecting sram^3n shipping 
 for grog — injury to seamen from not receiving snudl stores — pay of 
 seamen in the navy compared with that of the niercbant service — 
 hints respecting the ration — want of S( amen caused by the present 
 system, and benefit likely to be derived from remodeling the ration 
 and discontinuing spirits. 
 
 The navy ration was regulated by law on the third of March, 
 1801, now thirty-eight years ago. Since that time several 
 motions have been made in Congress to remodel it, but with- 
 out effect. I know of no evil which so much requires the 
 action of Congress as this. During the last thirty-eight years 
 great changes have been made in the civil, military, and naval 
 affairs, and that which so much requires revising has been neg- 
 lected. Corporeal punishment, which has been so much cen- 
 sured by the citizens of our country, as being degrading and 
 incompatible with the priticiples of our free institutions and 
 government, is perhaps not so productive of pernicious effects, 
 as the tendency of the ration issued by law. The very ration 
 which is at present allowed Is the cause of degrading punish- 
 ments ; our citizens have looked at the effects vvithout being 
 able to form any just opinion as to the cause. Great efforts 
 have lately been made to suppress the evil of intemperance, 
 and that vice as it exists in the public service, must certainly 
 be entitled to some degree of public notice. The present 
 ration directly favors intemperance, and counteracts every effort 
 made by philanthropic individuals to better the condition of 
 seamen, by raising them to that standing In a moral point of 
 view, to which their services so much entitle them, in a politi- 
 cal sense. As long as the ration remains as it now is, an 
 appetite will be created for strong drink; and that appetite will 
 increase, just as long as the means of administering to it can be 
 procured ; and just so long as that is the case, every means 
 and plan of reformation will be reqidered abortive. Take 
 
36 EVILS AND ABUSES IN THE 
 
 that away and the minds of seamen will be fitted to receive 
 'that instruction, which they stand so much in need of. A 
 seaman who has for the period of three years drank half a 
 pint of ardent spirits every day, has acquired a habit that will, 
 in seven cases out of ten, only end with life, and that life will 
 be shortened in proportion to the quantity of spirits consumed. 
 In the navy at present, if a seaman is In conversation, no mat- 
 ter with whom, he will leave them the moment that the drum 
 rolls, and run for his grog, quaff the fatal drug, and return. 
 But this is not done in all cases because the individual really 
 believes that he is benefitted by drinking spirits, but because 
 it is allowed him by law as a part of his ration, and he does 
 not wish to lose it, or that by long habit has become so used 
 to it that he cannot voluntarily lay it aside. The experiments 
 tried on board of many of our merchant vessels, fully prove 
 that seamen may be brought by custom and usage to dispense 
 with grog. There are not any more seamen ship in the navy, 
 wdiere they know they will get grog, than did before it was 
 discontinued in merchant vessels, and vessels find no more 
 difficulty in procuring crews to man them, than when grog 
 was allowed on board of them. Jt has also been clearly proved 
 to the public that fewer shipwrecks and disasters occur now 
 than formerly. I know it to be a fact that seamen in the mer- 
 chant service, when going to ship, never think of asking 
 whether they are to be allowed grog or not, but naturally 
 expect that they will not. The navy does not ship one sea- 
 man more now in a year, than when merchant ships gave their 
 crews grog, which must go to prove that that is not what in- 
 duces them to enter. Was the navy ration remodeled and 
 the pay of seamen increased two or three dollars per month, 
 the secretary of the navy would not have to complain that 
 seamen could not be procured for the exploring, or any other 
 expedition. U we cannot ship seamen enough to man the few 
 ships that we keep in commission for the protection of our 
 commerce, what are we to do in case of war, when we shall 
 require ten times the number that we now employ ? If it is a 
 fact that we cannot get seamen enough for our present limited 
 number of vessels of war, it ought not to be published to the 
 
NAVAL AN1> MERCHANT SERVICE* 37 
 
 World, but a remedy applied in some shape or other. " Tell 
 it not in Gath nor let the sound reach Askelon> lest the 
 Philistines rejoice," that the United States, that boasts so much 
 of her naval excellency, cannot ship seamen enough to man 
 two or three frigates and ten or twelve sloops of war. In 
 case of war many seamen would enter the navy for the honor 
 of serving their country in the liour of need ; but it never will 
 be for the scanty pittance that they receive. But the number 
 that would so enter, would by no means be sufficient, and 
 Congress would have to adopt measures which would cripple 
 our comm.erce and embarrass our merchants. Let some evils 
 and grievances be removed and redressed with regard to the 
 navy, and seamen will ship in it. If not, we shall find out, 
 when too late, the value and the want of the men whose in* 
 lerests have been so shamefully neglected. 
 
 In the event of a war, our merchants and ship owners ought 
 not to be made the sufferers ; they at present bring up enough 
 seamen for their purposes, and a demand for them in the mer- 
 chant service would not greatly increase in time of war ; some 
 hundreds would perhaps be required for privateers, but this 
 would be the only increase of demand. It is the navy that is 
 to blame ; the merchants make seamen for the navy, but the 
 navy seldom makes a seaman for the merchant service. The 
 great evil which exists at present in the navy ration is allow- 
 ing seamen half a pint of ardent spirits per day — an article that 
 they do not require — and not giving them tea and sugar, articles 
 that they do require. Tea and sugar are so commonly 
 used, that although classed with luxuries, they ought rather to 
 be classed with necessaries. Soap is soindispensibly necessary 
 to promote cleanliness, that it ought to be a part of the ration 
 in the navy as well as in the army. These articles are not 
 allowed by the government, and yet must be used, and pur- 
 chased by the seamen out of their pay, at the rate of fifty per 
 cent, higher than they could be purchased on shore, so that 
 the pay of a seaman in the navy, at twelve dollars per month, 
 is no more to him than ten dollars per month would be in the 
 merchant service ; nor so much, for the former has always to 
 dress neat and appear clean, whereas the latter can wear such 
 4 
 
38 EVILS AND ABUSES IN THE 
 
 y 
 
 clothing as he thinks proper ; two flannel shirts and two pair 
 of canvass trowsers will last him a nine month's voyage. Let 
 these things be considered, and cease to wonder why we can- 
 not get seamen for the navy. The revenue cutter service is a 
 branch of our public service. There the officers have less 
 pay, and the seamen have more than those of the navy ; and 
 why should that be ? There is never any want of seamen for 
 the revenue service, for there they only ship for six months, 
 and are employed on our coast, where they can have frequent 
 communication whh their friends, and are allowed greater in- 
 dulgences than in the navy, where they have to go to foreign 
 countries for three years, away from home and friends, and 
 often exposed to sickness unknown on our coast. Why those 
 who suffer most should have the least pay, is a mystery that 
 will not be very easily solved, unless it is asserted that the 
 navy is the most honorable and popular of the two ; but honor 
 V and popularity are sounds that are not much prized by seamen 
 and on which they would find it hard to dine or sup. In the 
 revenue service they do not give the seamen grog, but they 
 allow them tea and sugar, which ought to show that the former 
 should be abolished and the latter given in the navy, for the 
 seamen do not require one more, nor the other less, in either 
 of the services. 
 
 I was on board one vessel and knew it to be the case in 
 another, where the captain gave an order that no man who was 
 in debt to the government, should be allowed to draw a single 
 article from the purser unless he stopped his grog to pay for it. 
 Many were in debt, and sooner than go without tea, sugar, and 
 soap, they relinquished their spirits to pay for them. If a man 
 voluntarily stops his grog he is entitled to six cents per day in 
 lieu of it. And if Congress will pass a law at the next session 
 to give the seamen tea, sugar and soap, as a part of their ration, 
 increase their pay two dollars per month and take away their 
 spirits, paying them at the rate of two dollars per month, on the 
 first of every month for it, the navy will never have to complain 
 of a want of seamen. Their grog will be cheaply purchased 
 at any price, and the money paid them monthly for it, will be 
 sufficient for spending money, and will prevent them from buy- 
 
NAVAL AND MERCHANT SERVICE. 39 
 
 ing clothing or other articles to sell again at such sacrifices as 
 has already been stated. The citizens of the United States 
 will never hesitate to pay public money to purchase public 
 happiness, but just so long as spirits are allowed, all attempts to 
 improve the man-of-war's man will be time and labor lost. 
 Private individuals and societies may build up, but the law will 
 pull down, destroy and trample the very foundation of the 
 goodly fabric into the dust. The law allows the seaman half 
 a pint of spirits a day, and directs him to be flogged if he gets 
 drunk. This is a manifest contradiction ; give a man spirits and 
 punish him for drinking it. It is very wrong and improper to 
 keep money from seamen for thre» years ; they ought to be 
 allowed a part of their pay, and it would answer a much better 
 purpose to give them a certain sum monthly, than give them 
 all they may save in three years at one time to be spent in 
 drunkenness and debauchery. At present the pursers while on 
 foreign stations draw bills on the government, and the money is 
 spent out of the country, although they do not receive it in cash ; 
 so that that can be no objection, for the seamen if they had 
 money advanced would have no occasion to use any subterfuge 
 to get it, and would lay it out in many little articles of which 
 they are at present deprived. It often happens that there are 
 seamen who have friends or relations to whom they would wish 
 to bring or send some small presents, but as it is now, they 
 cannot do so, for want of the means to purchase with. There is 
 never any money given to them except when they are going 
 on liberty and then only two or three dollars. How treasured 
 a small article would be (brought from a foreign country) by 
 the parents, wife, or sister, of a seaman. A tiny thing would 
 save a beloved one from oblivion ; it would be treasured as 
 a relic ; it would serve to show that although away from them, 
 they had not been forgotten. A dress brought from a foreign 
 land, by a husband, son, or brother, would be more prized by a 
 wife, mother, or sister, than the finest one that could be pur- 
 chased in our own country, though of less value. Why, then, 
 deprive a seaman of doing such an action ? or why deprive 
 those for whom such an article might be brought home, the 
 
40 EVILS AND ABUSES IN THE 
 
 pleasure they would experience in receiving such a gift ? To 
 deprive a man of the means of doing good in this manner is 
 shutting up the flood-gates of his heart, searing his feelings 
 which would have been exerted in doing good and conferring 
 happiness. It is but too often the case that seamen have been 
 wild, imprudent young men, but does the affectionate mother 
 love them less on that account? no, when the rest of her chil- 
 dren are by her side at her board, she heaves a sigh for the 
 absent one ; the unbidden tear waters her eyelids when she 
 sees a seaman pass her door, — her thoughts turn upon him that 
 is far away. The pillow is never pressed by her weary head 
 but what she thinks of him ; she never awakes and hears the 
 storm raging without, but what she dreads that her absent 
 one may fall a victim to its rage. To deprive the one so 
 beloved and so much thought of, the satisfaction of proving that 
 that parent's love and interest was reciprocated, is barbarous. 
 This is not the case in a merchant vessel ; the seamen there, 
 are allowed one third of the amount due them at every port of 
 delivery. Why are the seamen of the navy deprived of similar 
 laws ? When the poor seaman returns after a three years' 
 cruise to his paternal hearth or the arms of an affectionate wife, 
 would not the eyes of his dearest friends sparkle when he drew 
 from his chest some token, some pledge of his remembrance. 
 
 There is another reason, and a very powerful one, too, why 
 the ration should be remodelled and the pay increased ; and 
 that is, it would prevent desertion. If the seamen got no grog 
 while on board, they would be less likely to think of it when on 
 shore, in boats, or on duty, and to obtain which, they often 
 commit a breach of discipline, and, for fear of the consequences 
 that are to ensue, they desert. It very rarely happens that a 
 seaman deserts when he is sober. That offence, like many 
 others, has but too often its origin in drunkenness. If seamen 
 were allowed money, they would not have to sacrifice their 
 wages to procure it, and when they had it due they would not 
 run away and leave it. It is when they are in debt after many 
 months' servitude, that induces them to run. They are dis- 
 heartened and escape when an opportunity offers, with a view 
 to better themselves elsewhere. Some years ago they tpok 
 
NAVAL AND MERCHANT SERVICE. 41 
 
 half of the allowance of sph'its from the seamen of the British 
 navy, and now pay them either monthly, or quarterly for it; 
 they only receive one gill per day at the present time, and I 
 have never heard that the measure was productive of any but 
 the most favorable results. 
 
 When the law respecting the present ration in our navy was 
 enacted, it was customary for the officers to have private liquor 
 cases in their state rooms, and the same was the case when I 
 first joined the navy ; but now such a thing is unknown. Many 
 of the naval officers are entirely abstemious ; many temperate, 
 and only a very few otherwise, and the feeling against drinking 
 ardent pirits is becoming so strong that those who do drink to 
 excess will have to quit the service or leave it aside. I do not 
 mean to impeach the character of many of our navy officers 
 with intemperance, but there are exceptions to all general rules. 
 Perfection is not to be expected ; to come as near it as we can, 
 ought to be our object. When I was in the Lexington, 
 on the coast of Brazil, nearly all the midshipmen drew the al- 
 lowance of spirits to which they were entitled by law. I do not 
 mean to say that they all drank it ; but some one did, ehher 
 hammock boys or some one else. Our old stock of seamen 
 are dying off, as is to be expected, and it becomes the duty of 
 the government to guard those that are to follow them against 
 the failing and vices of their predecessors. They may inherit 
 all their manly spirit and daring courage without their bad 
 habits, — which have brought many of them to a premature 
 grave. I have stated in a small tract published on intemperance 
 — how half a pint of ardent spirits per day affected me when 
 I first entered the navy, and I have every reason to believe that 
 it affects all others in the same way ; and if so, to stop the 
 spirits on board of our vessels of war becomes a private, public 
 and christian duty. There is another very important reason, 
 why spirits should be discontinued, in addition to those already 
 enumerated, which ought to be duly considered. When a sea- 
 man is on the sick report, on board of a vessel of war, his grog 
 is stopped by order of the surgeon, as drinking it would prevent 
 the system from concurring with the use of medicine. This 
 induces many to allow a certain disease, which is common to 
 4* 
 
4^' $VILS AN|> ABUSES Iff -tfiBJ 
 
 seamen, to prey oa them until it becomes so wrought into the 
 system, that very often it never can be thoroughly eradicated y 
 or at least not without subjecting the sufferer to a course of 
 medicine, and use of mercury, which destroys his constitu- 
 tion for ever. When this disease is first discovered by an indi- 
 vidual, it might easily be cured by a proper use of medicine, 
 but he will not report himself, nor state his situation to the 
 surgeon, for by so doing his grog would be stopped. It also 
 often happens that men when they are on the sick list, repre- 
 sent themselves to the surgeon to be in a much better state 
 than they actually are, in order to get off the sick list, so that 
 they can draw their grog again. They may go off the sick list, 
 drink their grog, and drive round the decks for a time, and at 
 length are compelled to go on the surgeon's hands again, in a 
 great deal worse state than what they were in the first place. 
 When asked why they do not go on the sick report, they reply, 
 " do you think 1 want to lose my grog." This is the reason 
 why there are so many aggravated cases of this disease on board 
 of our vessels of war. The surgeon is not aware of its existence 
 until it has gone so far as to defy his skill and the power of 
 medicine, except such as, if used, will ruin the constitution. 
 I have known many instances of this nature, and every surgeon 
 in the navy will confirm the same. Drunkenness leads to many 
 other vices, especially lying. I heard the late Captain Mix 
 say that he never would ask a man brought before him for 
 drunkenness, where he got his liquor, for said he, *' he will be 
 sure to tell me that he found it under a gun, or some other im- 
 proper story, thereby adding falsehood to his other offence." 
 In the British navy, the spirits are mixed, one pint of spirits to 
 two of water, but in ours it is frequently served in its pure state 
 in the morning, and what can be more pernicious than drinking 
 one-third of half a pint of spirits on an empty stomach ? We 
 have at present at all our naval stations, a number of boys ship- 
 ped for the navy. By taking away spirits from seamen, these 
 youth when they arrive at manhood, will never think of drink- 
 ing. But let it be daily served before their eyes, and when 
 they arrive at man's years, they will think they ought to drink 
 as a matter of course, and will be of opinion that it will form a 
 
NAVAL AND MERCHANT SERVICE. 43 
 
 very necessary requisite in the character of a seaman. This 
 very period is a time pregnant with every good to the navy 
 and country, and this period ought to be taken advantage of by 
 abohshing the use of ardent spirits as a part of the ration. 
 Every friend to the navy and to seamen ought to make every 
 exertion and strain every nerve, for if this favorable opportu- 
 nity is lost to improve the character of men-of-war's men, it 
 will not be regained ; the breeze will be lost that would have 
 carried them safely through. 
 
 I cannot quit this subject without remarking that I never 
 have known spirits brought on board of a man-of-war or mer- 
 chant vessel by the crew, but that it was productive of some 
 mischief, either disturbances amongst themselves or with the 
 officers, and frequently both ; and very often have I known it 
 to lead to punishments which otherwise would not have taken 
 place. The liquor served in the navy by law, may not pro- 
 duce drunkenness, but it exhilarates the crew so as to make them 
 talkative and noisy ; for a proof of which let any person go on 
 board of one of our vessels of war before the drum rolls to grog 
 and see what harmony and quietness there is among so many 
 men ; half an hour afterwards all is confusion and noise. It 
 would appear as if every tongue was talking ; the officer of the 
 deck may have ordered silence a dozen times, and without 
 effect. The brain is in a whirl with the effects of the liquor just 
 drank. This I have often noticed and heard remarked. By 
 abolishing the use of spirits entirely in the navy, the constitu- 
 tions of those who have suffered from its devouring effects will 
 be enabled to recover their wonted elasticity, and it will pre- 
 vent those entering the service from falling victims to its rava- 
 ges. On board of several vessels in the navy many men have 
 been induced by their commanders voluntarily to relinquish 
 their spirits, and a great inducement for them to do so was to 
 have the money paid to them for it. But that is not always done, 
 and sometimes if any thing goes wrong aloft the topmen are 
 called down and those who do not draw their grog are whipped, 
 while others who do, have it stopped ; so the former to save his 
 back, draws his grog again. 
 
44 EVILS AND ABUSES IN THE 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 Want of native seamen — to the extent that it proceeds — abuses 
 respecting protections, and the neglect of Custom House officers with 
 regard to examining into the abuses— leaving seamen abroad — reasons 
 for not taking apprentices in the merchant service — benefit likely to 
 be derived from taking apprentices, and plan for the same — seamen 
 of the navy, how instructed in their duty— false statements made by 
 former secretaries of the navy respecting the popularity of the navy 
 with seamen, and the injury which has arisen therefrom. 
 
 The want of native seamen for the navy and merchant ser- 
 vice, has long been felt ; but none, except those who are thor- 
 oughly acquainted with both, services, are aware to what an 
 extent this evil really exists. The seamen employed in the 
 coasting and fishing trade, are, in all probabilty, three-fourths 
 naturalized, or native seamen ; but in the navy and merchant 
 service not one third are so. This may appdar somewhat sur- 
 prising, when it is considered that there is a law in existence 
 which declares, that all American ships shall be fully officered, 
 and two-thirds of each crew must be American citizens, and 
 such proof shall be produced, signed by the collector of some 
 port in the United States ; but this is easily elucidated, by show- 
 ing how this law is evaded, and how these certificates of citi- 
 zenship are procured — which are usually called protections. 
 Before the collector of a port gives a protection of this kind, he 
 is required, by law, to have oath made before him, by a respecta- 
 ble witness, that the applicant is an American citizen : but how 
 many are there in all our large seaports, who are so destitute 
 of every moral principle as to trifle with the most sacred obli- 
 gations ? Sailor landlords, or many of them, at least, are ever 
 ready to make oath to any statement, no matter how false it 
 may be, if it will only answer their own purpose, and serve 
 their own interest : indeed I never knew, during the whole of 
 the time that I have been amongst seamen, that a man, who 
 had no protection, ever failed in procuring one, by some means 
 or other. I heard an anecdote of a landlord, who put a newly 
 
NAVAL AND MERCHANT SERVICE. 45 
 
 imported Irishman into a cradle, took him out, carried him be- 
 fore the collector, and made oath that he, the Irishman, was an 
 American, and that he, the landlord, rocked him in the cradle. 
 That false affidavits are taken, out of number, to procure these 
 protections, every master of a merchant ship can attest ; for it 
 is no uncommon occurrence for men to have protections as 
 American seamen, who have not been six months in the United 
 States, and perhaps cannot speak the language. U he is a 
 Frenchman, he will say that he belongs to Louisiana ; if a 
 Spaniard, that he belongs to Florida ; if a Dutchman, that he 
 was born in Pennsylvania, or somewhere about Albany ; — and 
 there is so little difference between the dialect of an American 
 and an Englishman, that it is difficult to perceive the difference ; 
 and so long as the collector receives the proof required by law, 
 he is not obliged to know to the contrary. In New Orleans, 
 the greatest imposition is carried on in that way. When a ship 
 wants a crew, her articles are sent to the shipping office, and 
 there the seamen sign them. If any one has no protection, the 
 landlord furnishes him with one, for. a couple of dollars, be- 
 longing to some other person, and by whose name he ships ; 
 and very often that protection has been stolen from the rightful 
 owner. In many cases captains have protections belonging to 
 seamen who have run away from them, or died, and if seamen 
 who have no protections are scarce, they will use those for them, 
 in preference to waiting, after they are ready for sea, to get a 
 crew of citizens. I am under the impression that masters of 
 vessels have to make oath in the Custom House, before clearing 
 out for a foreign voyage, that all their officers and two-thirds of 
 their crew^ are citizens of the United States. If this is the case, 
 I wonder if he does not consider himself a perjured man, and 
 as such, liable to punishment; for many masters of vessels do 
 clear out, when they are well convinced that the law has not 
 been complied with. I made a voyage to Havre, from New 
 Orleans, and there was only one citizen besides myself in the 
 forecastle. His name was George Bartlett, of Charlestown, 
 Mass., and if he is in the vicinity, he can testify to the fact. 
 On our return, an officer of the customs came on board, above 
 the English turn, to examine our articles. The crew were told 
 
46 EVILS AND ABUSES IN THE 
 
 by the mate, when the officer was in the cabin, to answer to 
 such names as he told them. The officer called these names 
 over, and the crew answered to them. He had protections in 
 his hand, given him by the captain, and had he compared the 
 men's features, age, height, &;c., he could easily have detected 
 the fraud; but he was an old man, and did not appear to take 
 any trouble. The false articles, from which the officer called 
 the names, had been made out for the purpose. 
 
 The next merchant vessel I went on board of was the brig 
 Charles Joseph, of Providence. There, too, we had only two 
 American citizens, but there were protections on board for the 
 rest. Two of these men had never seen, nor signed the arti- 
 cles, but simply agreed to come on board, and did so in a hurry. 
 Five of these men left us in Leghorn. They were not dis- 
 charged, but were paid what was due them, suffered to take 
 their clothing, and depart ; and Italians and other foreigners 
 shipped in their stead. In this case there were three violations 
 of the law. First, the captain had no right to testify, on oath, 
 that two-thirds of his crew were citizens, when he had never 
 seen them. Second, he had no right to receive them on board, 
 unless they had signed articles ; and, thirdly, he had no au- 
 thority to leave them in a foreign port. If they came on board 
 under false protections, it was his duty to bring them home in 
 the vessel, and give up their protections to the custom house 
 officer or collector. What statement he made relative to the 
 men left abroad, 1 know not. The officer who came on board 
 in Philadelphia, when the vessel arrived, only remained a few 
 minutes, t knew that the law had been violated, and that I 
 was entitled to one half of the fine, if I had caused the captain 
 to be sued ; but I never mentioned the circumstance to any one 
 but himself. He was going on to New Orleans, to take charge 
 of the ship Denmark, and I did not wish to give him, or Mr. 
 Bishop, the owner, any trouble, and w^ould not have mentioned 
 the circumstance now, was it not to show that some plan must 
 be adopted to remedy the evil, and do away with the cause. 
 
 In Boston and other northern ports, things may not be so 
 bad ; as it often happens that the owners or captains ship their 
 own crews ; but in New Orleans and many other ports, the cap* 
 
NAVAL AND MERCHANT SERVICE. 47 
 
 tain never sees the crew until they are biought on boaid by the 
 shipping officer, (very often in a deep state of intoxication,) 
 when the vessel is ready to leave the wharf There are many 
 foreigners, who are good seamen and worthy fellows, that wish 
 to remain in the country, and, if they knew the form to be gone 
 through, could soon procure a protection, without being under 
 the necessity of using fraud and deceit to obtain it, which would 
 simply be by declaring their intentions, and renouncing the 
 country of which they were formerly subjects ; but as long as 
 landlords can get their money from them and ship them off, 
 their object is obtained. 
 
 There is a good reason at present why merchants or ship 
 owners do not take apprentices, and thereby raise a sufficient 
 number of native seamen, to navigate our merchant ships and 
 man our navy, unless such a measure was put in force by law, 
 and thereby made general throughout the United States. A boy 
 on board of a vessel for the first two years, would only earn his 
 victuals and clothing ; the third year he would earn w^ages ; and 
 the fourth year, be as good on most occasions as an able sea- 
 man. But at present, if a ship owner or captain takes a boy, 
 he will only remain with him until his services become of some 
 value, and then run away, and ship for an ordinary seaman on 
 board of some other vessel. But if all ships carried appren- 
 tices, agreeable to their tonnage, runaways could not obtain 
 employment ; and by that means would be under the necessity 
 of serving their time out faithfully, which ought never to be 
 less than four years, for that time is absolutely necessary to 
 fully instruct a youth in the various duties of a seaman. If 
 fifteen years of age when he was bound, (and none ought to 
 go to sea younger,) he ought to serve five years ; if sixteen, four 
 years and a half; and if seventeen, four years. If this plan or 
 some other similar one was adopted, a sufficient number of 
 seamen would spring up to supply present wants and future 
 demands ; and some law of this sort must be made, or woe to 
 our country in case of war. The one half of the seamen that 
 are employed in our navy and merchant service at present, are 
 drawn hither by receiving higher wages, and have no other tie 
 to bind them to the country, and would join our enemies to- 
 
48 EVILS AND ABUSES IN THE 
 
 morrow, if we were at war with any natiorij and that nation 
 would give tbem more pay than we do. I do not mean to 
 create any unfavorable opinion against foreigners, even w^ere it 
 in my power to do so ; but they are not the men which a nation 
 ought to depend on, for the protection of her commerce, honor^ 
 or firesides : but we must do so, from stern necessity, until some 
 law is passed to enable us to have those who have a home and 
 a country, and who will be bound to us by other ties than hire- 
 ling pay. The foreigners that we now^ employ, are English, 
 Irish, Scotch, French, Dutch, Danes, Swedes, Spaniards, and 
 Portuguese. These, or many of them, are good hardy tars ; 
 but they are not ro be trusted to, so long as they only serve us 
 for the money they receive. We must have ciii2;ens and na* 
 lives, or woe to us : in the hour of need, our navy will be de- 
 stroyed, our wealth and honor lost, and the stripes and stars 
 will be insulted with impunity, and driven from the ocean, on 
 which at present they w^ave so proudly. The navy has at length 
 taken boys or apprentices ; but that must not be looked to as a 
 matter of any consequence, or be thought of as in any way 
 likely to benefit the merchant service ; the navy may bring up 
 man-of wars' men, but it cannot make such seamen as are ser- 
 viceable on board of a merchant ship, unless some other method 
 of instructing them in their duties be adopted, different from 
 what I have ever seen. Boys in the navy may be put in the 
 inizen top — from that to the fore and main top — and soon learn 
 to splice a rope, or take in or make sail, smartly ; but these 
 things, however requisite, are by no means commensurate with 
 all the duties of a seaman. I have known men in the navy 
 forten years, who had never been an hour at a ship's wheel, 
 in their lives — could not steer a trick, nor swing a hand lead 
 over their heads, nor fit a shroud, if they had been given the 
 ship, when it v/as accomplished. Indeed, the fact is so notori- 
 ous, that very few captains of merchant vessels will ship a man- 
 of-war's man if they know it ; and the man-of-war's man is 
 equally cunning, for he will deny, if asked whether or not he 
 has been in one, being well aware of the prejudice that exists 
 against them. But, independent of their not being so thorough 
 seamen in all respects as the merchant sailor, they have, after 
 
NAVAL AND MERCHANT SERVICE. 49 
 
 being three years in the navy, acquired a habit of drinking grog, 
 that not one in ten of them ever lays aside. I was shipmate 
 with two man-of-war's men in a merchant ship — they were 
 called good men in the navy, and so they were in some respects 
 on board of any ship, but neither of them could steer as they 
 ought to, nor could they put a patch on a sail. They had been 
 in a top their whole time, and only knew the duty of a topman ; 
 so the navy must never be expected to bring up seamen for the 
 wants of the merchants. It is only the forecastle men that take 
 the wheel and lead in our vessels of war. They attend to the 
 fore rigging also. The quarter gunners and quarter masters at- 
 tend to the main rigging, and then there are only the mizen and 
 topmast rigging for two or three hundred men to learn that part 
 of their duty on. A man-of-war's man has never been used to 
 pull on a fall all day, taking in or out cargo, and is soon worn 
 out ; he knows nothing about stowing or breaking out cargo in 
 the hold ; in truth he is at a loss, every which way he may turn 
 himself. I am not hard on this class of seamen ; I spent ten 
 years with them, and I am rather in their favor ; but the truth 
 ought not to be concealed, when it becomes absolutely neces- 
 sary that it should be told, in order to place it before all those 
 who are interested in the welfare of their country, and those 
 who are entrusted with the power, and whose duty it becomes 
 to enact laws for her benefit and protection. Sometime ago, 
 when I was in France, 1 saw an article, copied into a French 
 paper from some of ours, that the secretary of the navy had 
 been called upon by Congress, to know why the exploring ex- 
 pedition had not been despatched. The paper also stated, that 
 seamen were very scarce for our marine, and some other cir- 
 cumstances which I could not properly understand, not being 
 much acquainted with the French language. None were near 
 me when I saw this, yet the blood mounted to my temples with 
 shame, to think that our gallant little navy was suffering for 
 seamen — eating its very heart's core away, as it were, and no 
 hand stretched out to stay its ruin — menibers of Congress still 
 slumbering, or indifferent to this important subject — all scram- 
 bling for offices, and devouring each other on political grounds, 
 but no one lifting his voice to propose a remedy for any of the 
 5 
 
50 EVILS AND ABUSES IN THE 
 
 evils that are laying the axe to the root of our commerce and 
 national honor. Let them not vainly suppose that it will be 
 the same as it was during the last war, should we have a brush 
 with France or England. No. Our navy is now more efficient 
 than it then was in ships and guns, but where are the men to 
 man or work them ? Must they lay all a-taunto in our har- 
 bors, for our citizens to gaze at, while the few that we may be 
 able to send out will be captured or sunk by an overwhelming 
 force ? 
 
 Every Republic heretofore has perished from the corruption 
 and indolence of its citizens ; and we must not expect that the 
 course of things, or nature itself, is to be changed for our 
 especial preservation ; but it would appear so, from the apathy 
 that is evinced towards the correction of evils that are big with 
 ruin to us, as a nation. 
 
 Year after year the secretary of the navy, in his report, has 
 stated to Congress, that the naval service was popular among 
 seamen, when he must have known that such an assertion was 
 opposite to the truth, or else he must have been deceived by 
 the reports of the officers entrusted with the duty of shipping 
 seamen ; and the latter I can scarcely believe to be the case, 
 for the officers w^ell know to the contrary, and have known it 
 ever since I entered the service, at least, which was nearly 
 fourteen years ago. Congress has been deceived by these 
 misrepresentations, until it is almost too late, or at least until 
 the evil has existed for so long a time that it will take many 
 years to remedy the injury that the navy has received by these 
 erroneous statements ; in fact the want of seamen has become 
 so notorious that the department was a short time ago com- 
 pelled, very unwillingly, to confess the truth, for it could no 
 longer be held back or disguised. If the navy was popular 
 with seamen, as represented a short time ago, why is it become 
 unpopular now ? No new i^gulations have been made to cause 
 a falling off, but on the contrary, a number of officers, who 
 have gradually risen to command, are striving by every means 
 in their power, to eradicate evils and abuses which were brought 
 into the service by those w^ho served their apprenticeship in 
 the merchant service, and who crept into the navy through 
 
NAVAL AN1> MERCHANT SERVICE. 51 
 
 the stem ports with an epaulet on their shoulder, and brought 
 such rules with them as they had been accustomed to, but 
 which were entirely out of place on board of a vessel of war. 
 Some years ago a number of landsmen were required for the 
 navy, and even these were recruited away back in the interior 
 of Pennsylvania and New York, where they had never heard 
 of a vessel of war ; but there they were easily captivated by 
 the gloss of the shipping officer's epaulet and treble gilt but- 
 tons, vainly expecting to wear such themselves in course of 
 time, and in that hope were somewhat encouraged by those 
 who were interested in their enlistment. At that time officers 
 had two dollars for every man they shipped, and although no 
 naval officer would assert a falsehood for that sum, yet they 
 would not be so likely to contradict those that were asserted, 
 to serve their own interests. Fancy hat ribbons were kept at 
 the shipping office, which had a considerable effect, having \ 
 painted on them in white letters, " Free trade and sailor's \ 
 rights," " Naval Tar," or some other catch-the-eye motto. If 
 the navy was popular why were landsmen not shipped on the 
 seaboard, and the expense of transporting these men several 
 hundred miles, saved ? It must be obvious to every one, that 
 those near our seaports were too cunning to be so caught, and 
 the department had to practice on the unwary, and at the same 
 time declare the navy was popular. I have been in New 
 York at different times when the rendezvous was open, and 
 sometimes we would receive on board the receiving ship two, 
 three, four, or five men per day ; the latter number was called 
 a great haul of fish, and this was when seamen's wages in the 
 merchant service were very low, say twelve or thirteen dollars 
 per month. At this time had the captain of a merchant ves- 
 sel carried his articles or shipping paper to a shipping officer, 
 he could have had a hundred men where only six or eight 
 were wanted. Seamen that would flock to a shipping office in 
 order to get a chance in a vessel, and who had not a shot in 
 the locker, their pockets so clean swept that there was not 
 enough left to pay toll for a walking-stick, would cast a shy 
 look at the stripes and stars waving from the window of the 
 naval rendezvous, and never would think of shipping there 
 
52 EVILS AND ABUSES IN THE 
 
 until they were compelled by the threats of their landlords or 
 imposed upon by the fictitious stories of a crimp ; and yet the 
 honorable secretary would assert that the navy vvas popular, in 
 the face of thousands who could have testified to the contrary. 
 I do not know what doom befits the slave who sells his country, 
 or the man who neglects the interests of that part of the peo- 
 ple committed to his care, until the public service is ruined by 
 his deceit and neglect. I will follow this matter still further, 
 and prove beyond the prospect of contradiction, that the navy 
 is not popular with seamen, and give many reasons why it 
 should not be. The man-of-war's man ships for three years ; 
 the merchant seaman for a voyage ; the latter goes to a par- 
 ticular port, returns, and receives his discharge ; during tijis 
 voyage he may wear what he pleases, and will have liberty, 
 and one-third of the pay due him at every port of discharge ; 
 the former is enlisted for general service, and may be sent to 
 any vessel or station for three years, receive only a few dollars 
 of his pay in money during that time, and be compelled to 
 wear just such clothes as his officers may direct, and spend his 
 hard-earned pay for soap to wash his clothes every other day, 
 and scrub hammocks and bags once a week. The merchant 
 seaman has his wages in cash, while the greater part of the 
 man-of-war's man's goes to the purser. Let these things be 
 considered, and cease to wonder why the navy should be un- 
 popular. This is without mentioning the very great effect that 
 the word flogging must have on every man's nerves. The 
 fact is notorious, at present, that we have three or four 
 sloops of war and two or three frigates which are nearly ready 
 for sea, and there is not one quarter enough of men to man 
 them, nor can they be shipped, although we have a rendezvous 
 in all our principal seaports for that purpose. There the ves- 
 sels lay, which ought to be protecting our commerce, and 
 giving our officers experience, along side of our navy yards, ^11 
 a-taunto, waiting for men. For shame, to say the navy is pop- 
 ular with seamen. There are perhaps 120,000 seamen in the 
 United States, and it is with the greatest difficulty we can get 
 3,000 (annually) to ship in the navy ; this is about one-twen- 
 tieth of the whole. Say, fellow citizens, can the government 
 
NAVAL AND MERCHANT SERVICE. 53 
 
 be popular which is opposed by nineteen-twentieths of the 
 people ? I despise the whine of office which will sacrifice truth 
 and justice to accomplish its own ends. The former secretaries 
 of the navy were afraid to tell Congress the truth for fear of / 
 its leading to some investigations that they would not like. 
 For God's sake, Mr. Paulding, come out, " tell the truth, and 
 shame the devil." — I know you will next session ; if not, look 
 out for breakers. 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 England's plan for raising seamen for her navy — France — her laws 
 respecting the same — neglect of the U. S. government towards this use- 
 ful class of men, and the ruinous consequences to the navy and n^ier- 
 chants— apprentices in English vessels, and advantage arising from 
 having men and officers educated together, and from being citizens 
 of the same place— sdiool ships in the river Thames — hospital fund — 
 ignorance of seamen — appeal to Congress — bounty given to seamen 
 in the navy — its uselessness — deplorable state of the navy from the 
 ignorance of secretaries — advice to Mr. Paulding. 
 
 Great Britain, from whom we are so fond of drawing 
 comparisons, does not depend upon her navy to instruct her 
 seamen. She has a public school for boys for the navy, at 
 Greenwich ; but into this school none but the orphans or sons 
 of deceased, or worn out public servants are admitted, so that 
 the object of the institution is to provide for them rather than 
 the benefit that they are to the navy. In that country every 
 vessel under one hundred tons, must carry one apprentice ; 
 over one hundred tons and under one hundred and fifty, two ; 
 over the latter, and under two hundred, three, and so on. I 
 am not positively certain that this is the very letter of the 
 law, but it is near akin to it. The coal trade to the north of 
 England, in which so many vessels are employed, is the great 
 nursery of British seamen. They find their way over banks and 
 through narrow channels, in the most dense fogs, by the lead 
 
 alone. They will sling an apprentice over the side in a bar- 
 
 5# 
 
•54 , EVILS AND ABUSES IN TU^ 
 
 rel, and make him heave the lead for a whole watch, when he 
 is so small that only his head and shoulders are seen above the 
 staves. If the weather is cold this keeps the water that drops 
 from the line off from his clothes ; his feet and legs are dry, 
 and his hands alone are exposed. By this means it is not 
 uncommon to find English boys of sixteen years of age that 
 can heave a better lead than many of our seamen, who may 
 have followed the sea as many years as the boy is old. In 
 Woodfall's edition of the Letters of Junius, it is stated that 
 coal to supply the city of London could be dug at Blackheath, 
 and sold for one half the price that the citizens of that place 
 now pay for it, but the government will not suffer the 
 mines to be opened, as it would destroy the nursery for British 
 seamen. England has for centuries been the strongest naval 
 power, depending upon her wooden walls alone for protection, 
 and we ought to benefit by her experience, as far as we can do 
 so, without encroaching upon the liberties of the people. 
 France has had for many years past an especial eye towards 
 the improvement of her navy. She employs several brigs as 
 school ships for conscripts drafted from the interior provinces, 
 only keeping a few old seamen on board. These vessels are 
 not kept laying in port ; they put to sea, and one of them 
 that I visited in Leghorn, surpassed anything that I ever saw 
 in our navy for neatness and perfection. 1 had, previous to 
 that time, thought ours the most perfect vessels afloat, but 
 was unwillingly compelled to alter my opinion. By this means 
 France and England will always have a sufficient number of 
 seamen for any emergency. It ought to be considered that 
 England, during the last war that she had with France, had to 
 impress her seamen, and independent of that odious measure, 
 every seaman so impressed cost the government, on an average, 
 not less than seventy pounds sterling, exclusive of his bounty 
 if he volunteered, and his wages. If our country had to pay 
 three hundred and fifty dollars for a few thousand seamen, 
 besides their wages, it would awaken us up to a sense of the 
 evil, for any demands upon our purse, have a wonderful effect 
 upon our ideas and feelings. It makes us see things in a different 
 light ; what was before dim and obscure has become plain 
 
Naval and merchant service:. 55 
 
 and evident, and this wonderful alteration is produced by the 
 power of money ; and from niggardly economy our country is 
 suffered to run to the brink of ruin. The laws of France do 
 not permit a seaman to leave the country and serve under a 
 foreign flag. Many of them, however, run away from their 
 vessels in foreign ports and enter our navy and merchant ser- 
 vice ; but if ever they are caught again in France, they are 
 sent on board a vessel of war immediately. When I was in 
 the ship Olympia, of New Orleans, we had a Frenchman on 
 board, and on the morning that we were ready to sail from 
 Havre, a gens d'arme took him up and carried him before the 
 police, as it had been ascertained that he was a citizen of 
 France. The man had been a long time in the United States, 
 and told the commissary of the police that he was born in 
 Louisiana. The officer knew from his accent that this vi^as 
 false, but as no proof was adduced to the contrary, the officer 
 did not appear disposed to rob the ship or detain her, and 
 allowed the man to go on board again, telling him to be very 
 careful not to come to Havre again ; and his advice was not 
 thrown away, for the poor sailor was so frightened that it is 
 not to be supposed that ever he will return to his native country 
 again. I cannot forbear repeating a remark made by the com- 
 missary. He said that seamen left France, their native country, 
 to go to the United States for greater wages. He could not 
 see that they were benefitted by the exchange. The French 
 seamen, who remained under their own flag, could dress as 
 well, and apparently have as much money to spend as those 
 who left it. If they did get more wages, they at the same 
 time acquired a habit of spending it in dissipation, which evil 
 more than counterbalanced the difference in the pay. It will 
 be seen from these obvious truths, that those two powerful 
 European nations take an especial interest in the welfare of 
 their seamen, whereas in the United States they are entirely 
 neglected. Can any law be pointed out that has been en- 
 acted for their benefit ? or has any institution been opened for 
 their instruction ? None. Our commerce is daily increasing, 
 and those who are the main springs of that commerce are 
 neglected, and we have to look to foreigners for assistance in 
 
56 EVILS AND ABUSES IN THE 
 
 navigating vessels, because no law has been enacted to en- 
 courage natives to embark in them. 
 
 In England boys are sent to sea very young, and many of 
 them serve an apprenticeship of seven years: but this is wrong. 
 When they are sent to sea so young their education is neg- 
 lected, and they are never calculated to fill any other situation 
 than that of " common Jack." In our country, if boys are 
 sent to sea, they should not be sent so very young ; their 
 principles ought to be formed in some measure before they are 
 thrust out on the world, to buffet with fortune ; and some atten- 
 tion ought to be paid to their education, by which, if merito- 
 rious, they would be found qualified to fill higher stations. Nor 
 should they be subject to the brutal and unfeeling treatment 
 which they but too often receive on board of English vessels. 
 When the demoralizing vice of intemperance is driven out 
 from among seamen, parents will no longer hesitate to send 
 their sons to sea, if such is the bent of their inclination, espe- 
 cially if they can get them apprenticed to good ship owners. 
 And when dissipation no longer exists, seamen will be found 
 ready to receive the moral instruction which they so much 
 require, and immoral, obscene and blasphemous language will 
 no longer be heard on the forecastle nor quarter deck. One 
 of the happy results of having apprentices would be that some 
 would become masters and others mates, by which means a 
 sympathy of reciprocal feeling would exist between the officers 
 and crew, a feeling of respect for each other; the officers 
 would not ill treat the men, and they would be obeyed with 
 alacrity. When the duty was done they could mingle together 
 and talk over the scenes of their boyhood, discourse of absent 
 friends ; and the revolts and mutinies that we daily hear of 
 would no longer take place. These disagreeable and disgrace- 
 ful occurrences, which are a stain upon our country, are as 
 often produced by the tyranny and brutal treatment of officers, 
 as from any predisposition, ill feeling, or bad behaviour on the 
 part of the seamen ; but both these causes would be removed, 
 were officers and seamen citizens of the same place, and bound 
 together by the social ties of country and friends. Apprentices 
 so bound to a ship owner, would make his interest their's ; 
 
NAVAL AND MERCHANT SERVICE. 57 
 
 they would take as much pride in the safety and neat appear- 
 ance of their vessels as the officers, knowing that by good 
 conduct they would become officers themselves. When the 
 vessel to which they belonged arrived home, they could for a 
 time return to their friends, or be sent to school in order to fit 
 them for the promotion that it would be their study to, deserve. 
 There is a school ship in the river Thames, near London, 
 supported by individuals, for the education of youths for the 
 merchant service, who are bound out, after a time, to ship- 
 owners by the trustees of the school, with the consent of their 
 parents ; but before they are so bound they are instructed in 
 the rudiments of their profession, as well as in reading, writing, 
 and arithmetic. Such a vessel in the harbor of Boston or 
 New York, would be a great ornament to them ; and certainly 
 the merchants and ship-owners of both ports are second to none 
 for munificence, benevolence, pliilanthropy and enterprise. 
 But the state and general governments ought to do something 
 of this, or at least do an act of justice by hunting up the hos- 
 pital fund, which has been accumulating for the last thirty-eight 
 years, and expend it in some way for the benefit of seamen, 
 either in the 'erection of schools for the young, hospitals for 
 the sick, or asylums for the disabled or worn out. Were 
 such to be the case, sick and disabled seamen would not have 
 to be maintained by private institutions or benevolent individuals. 
 Much has been done by merchants, ship-owners, &c. for sea- 
 men, during a few years past ; but much remains to be done. 
 The light that has been shed on some of this unfortunate class, 
 only serves to show in a more prominent measure, the dark- 
 ness and ignorance in which others are groping their way, and 
 proving how wide and terrible the devastation ignorance and 
 immorality have produced amongst them. Many imprudent 
 boys are now immured in houses of reformation and refuge 
 who might be sent to sea. It is an old saying, " that the 
 gallows and the sea refuse nothing," but in this I do not entirely 
 concur. A ship is perhaps the best place in which an idle 
 youth could be placed. A restless will, impatient of the re- 
 straints of unvarying labor, sometimes may find a field for hon- 
 est and useful exercise in the adventurous variety of a sailor's 
 
58 EVILS AND ABUSES IN THE 
 
 life. The discipline, too, of a ship is so strict, that idleness is 
 thereby driven out of the course of its ordinary shifts and ex- 
 pedients, so that a sea hfe will often produce a salutary change 
 in the character of an imprudent but not thoroughly corrupted 
 youth. It requires the same qualities to make a good sailor as 
 a good citizen — industry, perseverence, obedience, and inge- 
 nuity. There is a great evil existing from having too many 
 foreign seamen in our ships, which is, that if there is any cause 
 of discontent on board of their vessel, the foreigners curse the 
 country ; this is likely to breed a quarrel between them and 
 the native ; if not, the American so often hears his own coun- 
 try traduced and villified, and other countries praised, that he 
 soon experiences a diminution of the love and regard for his 
 country, which ought so deeply to be rooted in the heart of 
 every American, and he soon begins to look on his own 
 with a morbid feehng, if not with coldness and disgust. On 
 the passage home on board of the last merchant vessel that I 
 was in, the captain harrassed all hands incessantly, and cursing 
 his country and vessel, was an entertainment with the Itahans 
 (who composed a part of the crew) at every meal. One of 
 them even went so far as to propose taking the vessel and run- 
 ning her into a port on the coast of Barbary, where he had 
 once been a prisoner. But he was smartly rebuked by the 
 only American in the forecastle, and backed by two English- 
 men, who had too much honor and principle to do a deed that 
 would haunt them to their grave. And to this circumstance 
 alone the owner was indebted for the vessel, and the merchants 
 for the cargo. His name I do not now remember, but if I 
 , never should hear that he is at the head of a mutiny I shall be 
 very agreeably disappointed. 
 
 No seaman can be shipped for the navy unless he declares 
 himself to be an American, and if his dialect gives the lie direct 
 to his assertion, some other proof may be required, and the 
 crimp will furnish him with a protection answering pretty near 
 to his age, height, and complexion. By the name on the pro- 
 tection, comes what are called purser's names. The protection 
 is returned to answer for another, and so the deceit is carried 
 on. I once heard a first lieutenant when stationing the crew 
 
NAVAL AND MERCHANT SERVICE. 59 
 
 ask every man where he belonged ; some told him the truth, 
 others a falsehood. One said he *' belang fan the ruver Albany- 
 more higher up ;" meaning that he belonged up the North river 
 above Albany, which was not the case. He was a newly-im- 
 ported Dutchman. When the same first lieutenant was select- 
 ing the petty officers, he asked several if they ever had been* 
 petty officers before, one told him he had, " but not in this ser- 
 vice ;" thereby unblushingly declaring that he was a foreigner, 
 and an applicant fot a petty officer's situation in the navy, 
 to the exclusion of the citizen or the native. The ship was 
 the Vandalia, and the lieutenant was J. Mattison, to whose 
 credit it must be told that he did not recommend him for the 
 situation ; and he was afterwards found hicapable of doing it, 
 even if he had been. It may now be seen whether or not this 
 evil ought to be remedied. 1 have confined myself to facts, 
 and any plan that I have submitted, has been done from con- 
 viction ; by experience they would be found beneficial. I 
 would wish this to be considered by every member of Con- 
 gress before it convenes again. It is true, perhaps, that I 
 have not followed the beaten track in bringing such things to 
 the notice of that honorable body. But I am a common sea- 
 man, not a whit better than thousands who are suffering from 
 the evils and abuses complained of, and Congress ought 
 to pay particular attention to me as I am perhaps the first one 
 of that class that has appealed to them. I know that the usual 
 way to gain such points is by flattery and appeals to their gene- 
 rosity. But flattery and soft soap, are commodities that I sel- 
 dom deal in, never to any of the male sex at all events. Even 
 if I were to deviate from my usual rule on this occasion, I could 
 spare so little that they would think themselves slighted. 
 The difference would be so great between what I could afford 
 to use and what they generally receive that they might be dis- 
 satisfied with the change. I am not a sycophant. I am not 
 applying to any one of that body to get me into office, or to 
 solicit the honorable secretary of the navy to reinstate me in 
 my former rank. I am asking them collectively and indivi- 
 dually, to do me and all other seamen, an act of justice. I am 
 asking them to look to the welfare of the navy, and the 
 
60 EVILS AND ABUSES IN THE 
 
 interests of the merchant. I am not craving this as a boon ; 
 I am asking it as a right which every member, if he considers 
 fairly and dehberately will acknowledge. I expect it from 
 policy, I claim it from justice, and I demand it from gratitude. 
 
 Since writing the foregoing part of this chapter, I have been 
 informed that the secretary of the navy has directed a bounty 
 of thirty dollars to be paid to every seaman who enters the 
 navy. If we require three thousand seamen for the navy annu- 
 ally, this will create an additionl expense of ninety thousand 
 dollars, and will go to seamen ; but if he supposes for a mo- 
 ment, that this will answ^er the object expected, 1 beg leave to 
 tell him that he is ignorant of the business with which he is 
 interested. Giving a man thirty dollars will no more induce 
 him to ship in the navy than a Brandreth's pill would cure him 
 of the tooth ache. Unfortunately for seamen they do not look 
 far enough ahead to perceive the benefit that would be derived 
 from this great and new scheme of giving a bounty. At least 
 one half of the seamen that now enter the navy, do so from 
 necessity, not from choice. When their money is spent, they 
 ship in the navy for the advance they receive, as it may enable 
 them to satisfy the demands of a landlord, and leave them a 
 few dollars for a cruise. Since this bounty is given they re- 
 ceive no advance on account of pay, and as the bounty is less 
 than the advance formerly was, the inducement to ship is less- 
 ened in an equal ratio instead of answering the end proposed. 
 
 It is painful to reflect upon the injury done to this arm of 
 national defence, by those in power, and to witness the subter- 
 fuges used to hold an office under government. What will the 
 former secretaries of the navy say when the falsehood of their 
 assertions made to Congress, meets them at every corner, and 
 which is clearly proved by the means resorted to to procure the 
 few seamen that we require for the protection of our commerce ? 
 No man dare say that Mr. Paulding would pay ninety thousand 
 dollars annually to procure seamen, if he could do it without, 
 and the absurdity of the plan will only expose our weakness 
 without removing the evil. It is painful to reflect that our 
 navy, small as it is, cannot be manned without resorting to 
 means never used by any other nation to procure seamen in 
 
NAVAL AND MERCHANT SERVICE. " 61 
 
 time of peace. What avails our fine ships or talented officers, 
 if we cannot get seamen to man the one, and be instructed in 
 the art of naval warfare by the other? and yet men dare to 
 tell Congress that the navy is popular with seamen. If the 
 truth had been told that body years ago, some laws w^ould 
 have been made to remedy the evil, instead of allowing it to 
 eat into the very heart's core of the service. But men pre- 
 ferred office to their country's good, or the benefit of that branch 
 over which they were called to preside. Great Britain at pre- 
 sent employs a navy for the protection of her commerce, equal 
 to the whole of ours including ships on the stocks and in ordi- 
 nary, and yet she has never been compelled to give a bounty 
 to her seamen in time of peace, but on the contrary, she can 
 always have a greater number than she requires. During her 
 wars she gave a large bounty, and even took men by force 
 from their own firesides and put them on board of ships of war. 
 But such an act in our country would be razing the constitu- 
 tion to its base ; and what else could we do, if the services of 
 twen^,y or thirty thousand seamen were required ? Impress- 
 ment would either have to be resorted to, or our vessels would 
 lay at our navy yards without men, and the few that could be 
 manned would be swept from the ocean by the overwhelming 
 force of our adversary. It appears by papers laid before the 
 British House of Commons some time ago, that after being 
 compelled to press seamen for the British navy, every one so 
 impressed cost the government the sum of seventy pounds 
 sterling, exclusive of pay and prize money, and without divine 
 inspiration it cannot be predicted what we are to do in case of 
 collision with any of the maritime powers of Europe, when we 
 cannot ship seamen enough to man the few ships we keep in 
 commission in time of peace. It must not be supposed that 
 there will be seatnen enough found in our country to man the 
 ships of our navy from patriotic motives. This may be a bugbear 
 held up at present to quiet the fears of the ignorant ; but woe 
 to the day when it will become necessary to put it to the test. 
 Jn case of a war, the seamen's wages on board of merchant 
 ships would be increased, and those that now serve in the 
 navy from mercenary motives would quickly abandon it for the 
 6 
 
i(0B EVILS AND ABUSES IN THE 
 
 better pay given them in the merchant service. When that 
 time comes, then will our citizens see how much deceit has 
 been used to blind them to a true state of things, by those 
 whose duty it was to enlighten them on the subject. I cannot 
 call Mr. Paulding, Honored Sir, as I perceive by the Boston 
 Atlas he has been called by an officer of the navy, but I really 
 pity him in his present situation ; he has been appointed to the 
 command of a sinking ship, and it will require his most vigor- 
 ous exertions to get her high enough out of water to stop her 
 leaks. This bounty plan is like plastering a piece of tarred 
 canvass over a hole to keep the water out, and will be washed 
 away as soon as put on. If he is ignorant of the cause of the 
 unpopularity of the navy among seamen, let him find out from 
 other than those who address him Honored Sir, and when he 
 does get to the root of the evil, let him lay a true statement of 
 the facts before Congress ; that body alone has the power to 
 apply a remedy. It is vain in him to suppose that his bounty 
 plaister will ever be productive of any thing but injury. What 
 a handle it will be to those to whom we have boasted about 
 our splendid ships and gallant officers. They will admit the 
 beauty of the one and the gallantry of the other, but will ask 
 us, " where are the men to fight them ? you have not got seamen^ 
 you have to give a bounty to enable you to get two or three 
 thousand annually. What is the use of your ships ?" 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 The ship Olympia, of New Orleans— -conduct of her officers—for- 
 eigners — reasons of their-obseqiiiousness — affiay in PortMahon — beat- 
 ing sailors, and driving them on sliore in foreign ports — tobacco found 
 on board the Olympia — result— shipping men— arbitrary disposition 
 of the mate, and h. Dutchman's appeal to the captain — a man beat with 
 a heavy belaying pin — no redress in New Orleans— injury to merchants 
 and ship owners, from the bad treatment of seamen. 
 
 The ship Olympia was, I believe, built in Boston ; but she 
 is owned by merchants in New Orleans, hails from that place^ 
 
NAVAL AND MERCHANT SERVICE. 63 
 
 and is generally employed in the cotton trade between that 
 port and Havre de Grace. I shipped on board of her in Nfew 
 Orleans, sometime ago. Her name at that time was held ia 
 utter detestation by seamen, but this I was not aware of pre- 
 vious to shipping. However, before the steamboat left us, I 
 saw enough to convince me that she was held so, deservedly. 
 The pilot had not left us at the Balize, before abuse and epi- 
 thets were lavishly used by the officers to the crew. The only 
 American citizen on board, myself excepted, was George Bart- 
 lett, of Charlestown, Mass. He was a man of some education, 
 and one who had seen better days ; and we made up our minds 
 to take things as quietly as possible, and if abused, to seek re- 
 dress at the bar of our country's laws, on our return. The 
 crew, eight in number, consisted of one Frenchman, one Blue- 
 nose, one Scotchman, one Englishman, two Dutchmen, and 
 two Americans, exclusive of officers, cook and boy. The crew 
 w^ere, for the most part, men who could do their duty better 
 than the general run of men shipped in New Orleans, and the 
 voyage might have been made and ended, with pleasure and 
 satisfaction to all parties. We soon discovered that the master 
 was very capable in every respect as a ship master, and would 
 have been a good conjmander if he had not left too much power 
 in the hands of his mate, who was inexperienced, abusive and 
 tyrannical, although very smart, active, and an excellent seaman, 
 for so young a man. The second mate possessed none of the 
 good qualities of the others, but had all their vices. He was 
 ignorant of his duty as a seaman, and utterly unfit for an officer, 
 by merit or education ; but he took care to follow in the steps 
 of the mate, and lavish showers of abuse, on all occasions, which 
 may naturally be expected did not exalt him in the opinion of 
 the crew. The mate had some redeeming qualities : he would 
 always knock off work at a certain hour, and would not, with- 
 out cause, disturb his watch at night ; and when there was work 
 to be done, he was always ready to give a pull, which served 
 to redeem in part some of his less commendable qualities. 
 The second mate had none of these ; and in addition to the 
 vices of the mate, he was two-faced, and a tale bearer ; and a 
 character of that description in a ship, will invariably create dis- 
 
64 EVILS AND ABUSES IN THE 
 
 turbances between tlie officers and crew, where all might have 
 been happiness. The first occasion that the mate resorted to, 
 any thing further than ill language, was by beating one of the 
 Dutchmen, who belonged to his watch, with his fists and the 
 end of the main clue garnet, a three-inch rope, (an unlawful 
 weapon,) for not answering him wdiile going up the main rig- 
 ging, when he ordered him to pull off his monkey jacket. The 
 night was very cold, and the duty could have been done as well 
 with a monkey jacket on, as with it off. The same Dutchman 
 was addicted to sleeping on his watch at night ; and for this 
 offence the mate would beat him with whatever came to his 
 hand, exclusive of keeping him on deck, or aloft, at work, 
 when it vi^as his forenoon watch below. It was wrong to sleep 
 on his look-out, but keeping him on deck for four hours, when 
 he ought to be asleep in his berth, was a sufficient punishment 
 without resorting to blows, or at least should have been deemed 
 as such. On several occasions the mate kicked and beat him 
 at the wheel ; and this was an unlawful proceeding, and as such, 
 ought to have been punished. The other Dutchman, his com- 
 panion, frequently shared the same usage ; he was a stout, 
 smart looking young man, but he took all the mate gave him in 
 the shape of kicks and blows, without resorting to them in self 
 defence. Indeed seamen from the north of Europe are famous 
 for their patient suffering under such treatment ; but this ought 
 not to be attributed to national sycophancy, meanness, or want 
 of courage, but to circumstances. When a German, Swede, 
 Dane, or Prussian, enters on board of an American ship, it very 
 often happens that he cannot speak or understand a word of the 
 English language. He is willing to learn, and make himself 
 useful, in gratitude for the pay that he is receiving, which is 
 probably treble what he would have got in his own country 
 vessels. Every time an officer calls, he runs and answers ; and 
 when an order is given him, he may not comprehend it properly, 
 but shows his willingness to execute it, by a smiling counte- 
 nance. This looks like cringing in him, while it is only ex- 
 pressing by his looks what he cannot give utterance to with 
 his tongue. So strong does this habit become, that before he 
 has learned the language, it is so deep-rooted that it cannot be 
 
NAVAL AND MERCHANT SERVICE. 65 
 
 laid aside. This, together with their national turpitude, pro* 
 cures for them the name of curry-favorers^ amongst English 
 and American seamen. 
 
 There are fewer foreigners in English than in American ves- 
 sels ; for which there are several reasons. The English mer- 
 chant seamen do not receive as high wages as ours, by one- 
 third ; and during the war between England and France, while 
 the English seamen were serving for years in the British navy, 
 and receiving small pay and hard usage, these northern foreign- 
 ers (Dutchmen, as they are called by seamen) were sailing in 
 their merchant vessels, receiving enormous pay, which was 
 caused by the great want of seamen for the navy ; the British 
 subject would be pressed into the navy, and the Dutchman 
 allowed to make the voyage unmolested. This created a great 
 hatred against them, which has been carefully transmitted from 
 father to son, and has been imbibed more or less by American 
 sailors, without knowing why, or wherefore. After the peace 
 between England and France, the Dutchmen were driven from 
 the English marine, and took shelter under the stripes and stars. 
 So strong, even till the present day, is the feeling of British 
 seamen, against these men, that should they ship in English 
 vessels, they would lead a dog's life. This ill feeling exists 
 against them in our vessels, as their ignorance of the language, 
 or habitual sycophancy, prevents them from entering into any 
 measures of opposition, with the crew, against the officers; and 
 as our ship masters are politicians enough to know that where 
 there is not unanimity in a forecastle, little dread may be enter- 
 tained of any opposition to their authority, no matter how unjust, 
 or tyrannical they may be ; and for this reason Dutchmen are 
 very often taken by ship masters in preference to Americans, 
 and for this same reason our seamen are fostering a hate against 
 them equal to the English. 
 
 Between the English and Americans there is less difference. 
 Having one common language, they soon become one people. 
 As to the Italians, Portuguese, Greeks, Spaniards, &;c., that we 
 have in our merchant service, they are parvenus, from princi- 
 ple ; they sucked slavery and sycophancy from their mother's 
 breast, and it cannot be driven out of them : they are as treach- 
 6# 
 
66 ETILS AND ABUSES IN THE 
 
 erous and cowardly, as they are blood-thirsty and subtile. The 
 Frenchman is different from any, and in the merchant service 
 generally agrees better with the American than any other 
 except the English. The Yankee may sometimes call him 
 Mungey the Frog, or John Crapeau, but there is no perma- 
 nent ill feeling between them, and this does not arise from any 
 want of spirit on the part of the Frenchman, who generally re- 
 pays it in the same kind, by calling him Skankey Got d ??. 
 
 The French seamen have a just sense of their rights, as fre- 
 quent affrays between them and our seamen, at Port Mahon, 
 have fully proved. American and French seamen have never 
 niet on shore, in that port, without a row and fight, in which 
 the latter were sure to come off second best. Every American 
 ofHcer and seaman who was there at the time, deplored the 
 fatal termination of one of those scrapes, in which a young 
 French lieutenant was killed by one of the crew of the United 
 States frigate Java. A party of men from the French and 
 American squadron were on shore, and, as was usual, a row 
 was got up between them. The Americans drove a party of 
 French sailors over a very steep hill, which overlooks the har- 
 bor, and maimed and wounded many of them. A number fled 
 to their ships for safety, and related the circumstances. The 
 officer in command sent a party of his men and officers on 
 shore, armed, to separate the combatants and bring off their 
 own men. A young lieutenant, the son of the then port admi- 
 ral of Toulon, heedlessly went among a fighting party and 
 drew his sword to separate them. Some one of the Americans 
 thought it was drawn against him, and, maddened with liquor, 
 wrested the sword from him and run it through his body. The 
 unfortunate sufferer was wrong in going amongst a party of 
 drunken seamen, but he was too fatally punished. Two men, 
 belonging to the Java, were taken up on suspicion of having 
 committed the deed, and were confined in jail many months ; 
 whereas, Commodore Crane, who then commanded the squad- 
 ron, ought to have insisted on their being tried, or given up. 
 After Commodore Biddle took command of the squadron they 
 were quickly liberated, as he was a man not to be trifled with. 
 So great a sensation did this create, that, when the Java after- 
 
NAVAL AND MERCHANT SERVICE. 67 
 
 wards visited Toulon, where the deceased French officer had 
 been very popular, the officers of that ship scarcely dared to 
 land. On sucli scrapes the Americans are generally the ag- 
 p;ressors, for no parrot or monkey is half so impudent as an 
 English or American sailor in a foreign port ; they call every 
 one a foreigner, or poor beggar, while they are the foreigners. 
 But if the native gets their money, in most foreign countries, 
 they are content to put up with their abuse. When the Dutch- 
 men and Americans meet on shore, in Port Mahon, there is 
 no fighting ; the former humor the latter, and for their obsequi- 
 ousness, share their grog and board ; for with seamen, especially 
 when on shore, there is no step between love and hate. By 
 this means the Dutchman fares better than he could upon his 
 own dolder of liberty money, and the American might as well 
 share it with him as any one else. As long as I was upon that 
 station, I never knew any difficulty between an American sailor 
 and the natives. They administer to his wants, from a damsel 
 of fifteen, to a jackass to ride on about the streets — give him 
 wliat he calls for, and he throws them his money. But I have 
 wandered far from my subject ; digressions in poetry, I believe, 
 are allowed; but in prose, I suppose an apology ought to be 
 made ; and as I have none to offer, I will resume. 
 
 When we arrived in the English Channel, in the month of 
 March, the weather was extremely cold, but we had to paint 
 ship outside, and tar the rigging from the truck to the deck ; 
 whereas, in two days in port, we might have done the whole 
 better. But no ; we must do it at sea, and be deprived of our 
 forenoon watch and necessary rest. When we got into Havre, 
 we run the ship on the mud in the basin, as there was not 
 water enough for us to get up to the dock gates. On the re- 
 turn of the flood we were directed, when the vessel floated, to 
 haul in. A watch was set at 8, P. M., with orders to call the 
 mate at 1, A. M., but the Scotchman fell asleep on his watch. 
 The mate awoke before the time, and finding no person on 
 deck, called all hands to find out who had the watch, and it 
 was ascertained who the delinquent was. The mate flogged 
 and beat him with his fists, occasionally kicking him with a pair 
 of sea boots that he had on. 'J he second mata would have 
 
68 EVILS AND ABUSES IN THE 
 
 assisted him, but the mate dedined receiving it, and he was 
 told by the crew to mind his own business. This took place 
 in a foreign port, and the watchmen and dock masters must have 
 formed a very favorable opinion of us, when they ascertained 
 the cause. Bartlett and myself went with the master to sign 
 the protest, the day following, and he inquired the cause of the 
 row. It was stated to him as it had happened; and when he 
 asked our opinion of the affair, we told him that that would be 
 given in a court of justice, in the United States. From this 
 X (after a consultation between the master and mate) it was con- 
 cluded that they must either rid themselves of these men, or 
 Bartlett and myself; and they resolved to do the former. In 
 addition to the two Dutchmen and Scotchmen that had been 
 abused by the mate, the Englishman had fallen under his dis- 
 pleasure, and every means was resorted to in order to harrass, 
 and drive them from the ship. Cne of them had gone on to 
 the wharf to get a glass of grog, and was not absent more than 
 a minute, but he was seen by the mate, and on his return he 
 was flogged and beaten by him till the people on the wharf 
 shouted shame, and hissed. The mate openly told the men, that 
 
 if they did not run away " he would be d d if he did not 
 
 throw them overboard before they got home." The master 
 gave their names to a sailor landlord, and told him if they 
 wanted to run away to give them seven dollars each, that being 
 the amount due them. In preference to suffering a continua- 
 tion of the brutal treatment that they had already experienced, 
 and which they naturally expected would increase instead of 
 diminishing, they took their clothes on shore, at noon day, and 
 left the vessel : the master reported to the consul that they had 
 deserted, and there the matter rested. On the day they left 
 the ship, two pounds of tobacco, belonging to the Englishman, 
 was found in the forecastle, by the custom house officers ; and 
 the law in France is, that all tobacco on board of ships entering 
 their ports, shall be given up to the officers of the customs, and 
 they shall deal it out to the crew as required for use. The 
 men had shipped on board of an American brig, bound to Cadiz, 
 and the master of the Olympia went on board of her, stopped 
 four dollars of the advance of three of the men, and took the 
 
NAVAL AND MERCHANT SERVICE. 69 
 
 whole of the man's advance (sixteen dollars) to whom the 
 tobacco belonged, as well as the seven dollars paid to him by 
 the landlord, under the false pretence that the vessel was fined. 
 And those of us that remained on board were directed to say 
 (if asked by those men) that the ship had been fined. And 
 when Bartlett and myself declared that we would not counte- 
 nance such fiaud, the mate replied, " d — n you, I'll pay you 
 for it if you don't." Thus did the master, after treating these 
 men in the most brutal manner, cheat them out of thirty-five 
 dollars. 
 
 Before we sailed three men were shipped in their place ; a 
 fourth could not be found, so we had to go to sea. one hand 
 short of our complement. French seamen are not permitted 
 (if it is known to the police) to sail under a foreign flag, and 
 we dared not to take one of them. Of the seamen shipped, 
 one was a native Anjerican, one a naturalized citizen, and the 
 third a Dutchman, but an excellent seaman. After we sailed, 
 the Dutchman and the mate had a dispute^ and the mate told 
 him to look out for himself for he would work him up. The 
 Dutchman replied, " you cannot work me up, tell me what 
 you want done, and I will do it." The mate, who had hith- 
 erto received such abject submission from his countrymen, ex- 
 pected no less from him, aad flew into a passion on discovering 
 his error. The master heard the noise, ordered the Dutchman 
 aft, and heaped a torrent of abuse upon him for daring to 
 return an answer to his oflicers. He made use of such lan- 
 guage as I should blush to repeat. When he had vented his 
 wrath, the Dutchman very coolly spoke to him in something 
 like the following terms, " Captain Gray, now I will be heard. 
 You could get no men in Havre when your crew left you, as 
 your ship had a bad name. You told me and the others, when 
 we shipped, that we should be treated like men ; now fulfill 
 your promise — have we been so ? The weather has been 
 very stormy, we have never had a full watch below, and in 
 the afternoon all hands are kept making sinnet, which is not 
 worth one cent a fathom, and bad language is used by you and 
 your officers ; they make threats and you countenance them. 
 I am a man, sir, treat me as such, and I will do my work, but 
 
70 , EVILS AND ABUSES IN THE 
 
 if ever one of your officers strike me with a weapon of any 
 kind, that moment shall be the last of his life. It is in your 
 power to get a good name for your ship before she gets home 
 yet — a thing she never has had. We don't find so much fault 
 with you as with your officers ; restrain them within moderation 
 and all will go well. When you were chief mate of the 
 Marengo, seamen had no fault to find with you, — why is it not 
 so now? Simply because you let your mates do as they 
 please, and you are advised by them ; but they shall not abuse 
 me." These remarks brought tears into Gray's eyes, and he 
 ordered watch and watch to be given until we got clear of the 
 channel, and promised that there should be better treatment. 
 For a time all was comfort and happiness, but the villainy of 
 the mate at length burst out anew. One morning after breaks 
 fast Stillman (the American) was in the galley lighting his pipe, 
 the cook being absent, which was against the mate's orders, 
 who observed him, as he was ever on the watch for something 
 to find fault with, and cried ^'come out of that galley, G — d 
 d — n you." " I will come out of the galley sir, but you need 
 not damn me," replied the man. The mate hesitated not a 
 moment, but dealt the man several blows about the face, which 
 was returned with interest ; finding himself likely to get worsted, 
 the mate drew a turned ash belaying pin from the rail and 
 struck the man with it several times, inflicting deep wounds on 
 the head, as the man's hat was off. The passengers interfered \ 
 the rest of the men were below, and the master, forgetting his 
 former promises, took the man aft and threatened to flog him, 
 and attempted to strike him with another belaying pin, although 
 he was covered with blood, but the passengers prevented him. 
 Here was cruelty without cause — and what was the result ? 
 On our arrival in New Orleans, the man went to seek redress 
 by the usual means, (the law) but he could not get a lawyer to 
 do anything for him, unless he gave him twenty dollars, which 
 he did not have to give, and for want of money was deprived of 
 justice. In our northern ports there are plenty to assist sea* 
 men, but there it was not the case, and the mate and master 
 both escaped with impunity. The Dutchman spoken of soon 
 fell into the usual obsequeous habit of his countrymen, from 
 
Naval and merchant service. 71 
 
 which he had been for a moment roused by the mate. During 
 the rest of the passage he was as smihng as his countrymen 
 had been on the passage out. 
 
 So well do some ship masters know the disposition of sea- 
 men that they treat them badly a whole voyage, until a few 
 days before they arrive, and then change their conduct ; and 
 seamen are of so forgiving a nature that they forget the whole 
 by the time the vessel is along side of the wharf; and for this 
 reason some ship officers say that they can buy a seaman with 
 a chew of tobacco and glass of grog. After our arrival at the 
 Bahze there was nothing to be done of any consequence, but 
 put the vessel to rights, for the very good reason, that before 
 that, we had been kept incessantly at work. The master got 
 some tobacco for the crew, as they had had none for some time 
 previous, and this made them say, " that the ship was not very 
 bad ;" when a few days before they had been swearing to 
 advertise her in every paper in New Orleans. 1 must say that 
 in this ship there were good provisions, and that the master, 
 Edward Gray, was a very capable man, and a good seaman, 
 but he gave his mates too much of their own way. 
 
 1 am one of the last men that would wish to deprive a mas- 
 ter of a merchant vessel of the power sufficient to preserve 
 his authority ; but I know of no situation in which men can be 
 placed where they can be rendered so completely miserable as 
 .on board of a ship, if the officers are disposed to make them 
 so, and the master is a man who will not redress their wTongs ; 
 and is himself actuated and governed by caprice, ill nature, or 
 a tyrannical disposition, rather than by sound judgment, mild- 
 ness and humanity. If he is a man of this description, his 
 vessel becomes a perfect hell, the law has left no alternative 
 for the crew but to suffer his caprices, whims, and tyranny in 
 silence for a long voyage, or else do a deed that will bring 
 them to the scaffold, or haunt them to their grave. Although 
 seam.en are the greatest sufferers, yet merchants and ship-owners 
 are made so in case there is any resistance made to the master's 
 authority, and they should bear in mind the dying words of 
 Wilhelms, executed at New York for piracy, and the mur- 
 der of the master and mate of the Braganza. He said ^^ that 
 
72 EVILS AND ABUSES IN THE 
 
 they (the crew) were obliged to do If; the master treated 
 them so badly, that he should go." There is nothing to pal- 
 liate the crime of piracy ; but certainly every means should be 
 used to have the cause of it removed. Of all the mutinies, 
 piracies, and murders that have been committed on board of 
 our merchant vessels, few of them have been perpetrated from 
 any other motives but revenge for injuries, and bad treatment. 
 The ship Globe, the Braganza, and many others that have no 
 doubt been destroyed and imagined lost, have been taken by 
 their crews, who w^ere actuated solely by these motives. Few 
 indeed have been taken from selfish or mercenary motives 
 although there may be a few exceptions, such as the Vineyard, 
 &LC. I would never advise a seaman to take the law into his 
 own hands ; but really it is hard to draw a line to show how 
 far tyranny ought to go before resisted. Running away to 
 escape is often fatal to the hopes of the seamen, and yet they 
 often resort to it, which in many instances is often injurious to 
 the owners and merchant. A seaman, when he runs away, 
 very seldom betters himself. If he gets a month's ad- 
 vance from the vessel he goes in he spends It, and has to work 
 for it ; if he gets his clothes from the vessel he left he only 
 loses his wages ; but if he loses both, it takes him a long time 
 to make up the lee way. 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 Brig Charles Joseph, of Providence — apparent kindness of the cap- 
 tain — its fallacy proved — flogging a seaman— cause thereof— remon- 
 strance of the crew unheeded — provisions— means of annoyance used 
 to punish the crew, who are driven on shore in Leghorn — character 
 of those shipped in their stead — the captain's penuriousness — digression 
 — impropriety of not having a law to regulate the ration in the mer- 
 chant service— the present law misconstrued. 
 
 When I last sailed from New Orleans, it was on board the 
 brig Charles Joseph, of Providence, George W. Frost, master. 
 I looked around me the first morning, and from what I saw, 
 
NAVAL AND MERCHANT SERVICE. 73 
 
 was rather pleased than otherwise. I thought that as I had got 
 on board of a northern vessel once niore, 1 might expect some 
 pleasure from the voyage ; but it often happens that people 
 reckon without the host. The mates appeared to be fine men ; 
 the chief was a New Yorker, and the second, Charles Hickey, 
 of Portsmouth, N. H., as smart a little sailor as ever trod a 
 plank ; the master appeared to be a pleasant man ; he kept 
 aloof from every one, only giving such orders as were necessary. 
 The mates soon showed that they wished to be obeyed more 
 from love than fear, and used mild language instead of the 
 abuse so common in many ships. As is usually the case out 
 of New Orleans, when we got to sea there was much to be 
 done, which ought to have been done in port, but is not, in con- 
 sequence of the high prices of labor ; but as it was an usual 
 occurrence, we all set about our duty willingly. There were 
 eight men in the forecastle, and they were equally divided into 
 four parts, that is, two Americans, two Frenchmen, two Scotch- 
 men, and two Irishmen. They were all good seamen except 
 the Irishmen, and both of them w^ere useless ; they had both 
 been in a Nantucket whaler, and that was enough to ruin them 
 for life. We had observed at leave off and meal times that 
 the master invariably found something to do that had not been 
 observed before ; but this we ascribed to accident rather than 
 any wish to deprive us of proper time at our meals, or keep 
 us at work later than was requisite or customary. Alas, we 
 were deceived ! It was only the commencement of a system 
 of persecution and annoyance that was only to end with the 
 voyage. I have omitted to state, that one of the men had what 
 is usually termed the horrors, (delirium tremens,) before we 
 reached the Balize, and taking fright at something he jumped 
 overboard, while the steamboat was towing us down ; the stern 
 boat was immediately lowered, and the man being an excellent 
 swimmer, he was picked up and brought on board, much ex- 
 hausted. From the master's conduct to him we were led to 
 judge very favorably of his character for feeling and kindness, 
 and looked forward to the end of the voyage w^ith satisfaction ; 
 but alas ! we were wTctchedly deceived. After we left the 
 Balize the weather was fine, and the winds light, it being in the 
 7 
 
74 EVILS AND ABUSES IN THE 
 
 month of June. About eight days after we had sailed, I was 
 awakened about half past three o'clock A. M. by the master 
 calling loudly for the watch. I got up from off the fore hatch, 
 where 1 had laid down, for the weather was very warm, to 
 endeavor to ascertain what was the matter. The morning was 
 fine, a light breeze scarcely filled the light sails that were set 
 to invite it, and not a cloud was in the sky. It appeared that 
 the main royal halliards had not been shifted to the windward 
 when the ship had been tacked at two o'clock, as was custom- 
 ary, and the master coming on deck observed it, and ordered 
 them to be shifted. One of the watch had gone aloft to do 
 so, when the master only noticed one man on deck with the 
 second mate, and called for the rest of the watch ; there was 
 only one other man belonging to the watch, and he had gone 
 below to take or use some medicine before the waich was 
 called, which delicacy forbade his using in the presence of a 
 third person, and calling for him was the noise which awaken- 
 ed me. 
 
 The second mate had collared the man and was going aft, 
 when the master met him in the gangway (having first thrown 
 off his jacket) and inquired where the man had been. "In 
 the head, sir," was the reply, and " you lie G — d d — n you," 
 was the response of the master, at the same time striking the 
 man several blows in the face with his fists. " Don't strike 
 me, sir, or I will resist it," cried the man. On this he desisted, 
 and called upon the mates and steward for assistance, and 
 ordered the man aft to hoist up the main royal. He walked 
 aft to comply, where he saw the mates ready to seize hold of 
 him, and again ran forward, they pursuing him. In the mean 
 time the steward had brought out one of the master's pistols 
 and laid it upon the capstain, which the man, whose name was 
 Bob, laid hold of when pursued by the master and mates. 
 The other Scotchman, Joe, was at the wheel, and seeing the 
 master passing him in pursuit of the n an, he let go the wheel 
 for a moment and caught hold of the master, asking him if 
 he was going to murder the man. On finding himself laid 
 hold of in this manner, the master snatched the dog vane staff 
 from the rail, which was a heavy ash stick, and soon laid Joe 
 
NAVAL AND MERCHANT SERVICE. 75 
 
 hors de combat. In the mean time Bob, when assured by the 
 mate that no further injury was intended him than confinement, 
 he gave up the pistol and submitted to be put in irons down in 
 the run of the vessel, where he remained several days, fed 
 upon bread and water, and was then released. It would 
 naturally have been expected that the master would have been 
 satisfied with what he had done, but not so ; he caught hold 
 of Joe, assisted by the mates, and seized him up in the main 
 rigging. The crew assembled on the forecastle and went aft, 
 to remonstrate, but without effect. They were ordered for- 
 ward on peril of their lives, and told that they would be called 
 before any measures were resorted to but such as had been 
 taken, and on this assurance, went forward. On board of a 
 vessel, seamen who are ignorant are generally easily advised 
 by those who have any education, they expect that they know 
 more than they really do, and if any person who has education 
 is disposed to be troublesome when a disturbance takes place, 
 may easily become so, or the reverse, as he is inclined. After 
 a few minutes we were called aft, and told what Joe's fault was; 
 but we remonstrated against flogging him, as being a punish- 
 ment greater than the offence required, and likely to be pro- 
 ductive of much evil. But all was unheeded. One of the 
 Frenchmen made a loud appeal against it, he said, " Captain 
 Fross, I been a Chiney, I been every ways, I been ten years 
 aboar Merlcan shep, nevar in me life I see man flogg. I sail a 
 Providance, the Rode Island, Nowvey Yorke, every ways, 
 naver In me life I see man in e riggin in all the same e dat." 
 But Peter's logic would not do ; the master proceeded to cut 
 from the whip of the main top gallant halliards a piece of two 
 or two and a half inch rope, and inflicted upon the man's back, 
 tied in the rigging, fourteen lashes. The master inflicted the 
 blows himself, with his whole strength, and appeared as if he 
 thought that none would have done it so well. When he had 
 given the last blow the man was hanging by the lashings, more 
 dead than alive, his lips perfectly blue and his cheeks of an 
 ashy hue. In this condition he was suffered to remain for some 
 time, and then taken down and sent forward, with one of his 
 arms so much sprained or twisted that he could not use it 
 
76 EVILS AND ABUSES IN THE 
 
 again during the whole passage which was more than seventy 
 days. 
 
 All remained quiet for some time after that, but the master 
 took every means to annoy and harrass us. The weather was 
 fine, and we could not be exercised or our rest broken in upon 
 by reefing ; but trimming sails at meal times, and on Sundays, 
 was repeatedly and unnecessarily resorted to, in order to keep 
 us employed and prevent our taking a minute to ourselves. 
 The provisions were very bad, and molasses which is usually 
 allowed by American ships, on rice and pudding days, was 
 withheld, on the ground that there was but little on board, al- 
 though there was enough to last for thirty days after we arrived 
 in Leghorn. One day Jack, the other American, carried the 
 dinner aft, which conisted of salt beef, upon which there was 
 no more fat than on a block of mahogany, and dry boiled rice, 
 and asked the master if he really thought it such as men could 
 work or live upon ; he replied, '* it is as it is ; if you don't like 
 it you can have beef and bread," and beef and bread became 
 the ration afterwards. On our arrival in Leghorn, we were 
 put under thirty-five days quarantine, and the master soon as- 
 certained that there were plenty of seamen on shore to be had 
 lor ten dollars per month (we had fifteen) and he directed the 
 mate to tell any one that grumbled or found any fault, that he 
 could go on shore and would be paid his wages. He well 
 knew that he had gone too far and was liable to be punished 
 by the law ; he therefore used every means in his power to 
 drive the men from the ship. The two Scotchmen, the two 
 Frenchmen, and the other American left her ; leaving only the 
 two Irishmen and myself The two Irishmen would have gone 
 too, but they knew that they could not do an able seaman's 
 duty. I would have left her also, but 1 could not procure a 
 passport from the American Consul to go to join the naval 
 squadron in Port Mahon, and I could not leave the port with- 
 out one. To have entered under another flag, as the others 
 did, was contrary to my inclination. English, Scotch, Italians, 
 &,c. were shipped in their place, at ten dollars per month ; this 
 was saving five dollars on each man ; and while in port there 
 were plenty of Italian laborers to work as low as half a dollar 
 
NAVAL AND MERCHANT SERVICE. 77 
 
 per day, without their victuals ; so that he saved that also while 
 the vessel lay in Leghorn. Fresh beef was cheaper than salt, 
 and potatoes were cheaper than bread, so that he gave us those 
 two articles to live upon from necessity. I naturally expected 
 that on the passage home, as we had nearly a whole new crew, 
 that the master would make some amends for his conduct on 
 the passage out, but the very reverse was the case, for the 
 weather, owing to the season being further advanced, was un- 
 settled and boisterous, and consequently, his means of annoy- 
 ance fearfully increased. We were thirty days to the Rock of 
 Gibraltar, the greater part of the lime being either a calm or 
 blowing a gale. Indeed we very seldom got a whole watch 
 below. When we applied to the master for the afternoon 
 watch below, instead of knotting old rojDC yarns upon the water 
 casks when the decks were deluged with water, he replied, " no ; 
 if you say much you shan't have your forenoon watch either." 
 After we left Gibraltar and were running down the trades, for 
 we took the southern passage, he hit upon a scheme to pre- 
 vent us from mending our clothes or reading a book on 
 Sundays. We had only one lower studding sail, but on Sun- 
 day he would have a spare topgallant sail got up from below, 
 reeve studding sail gear, rig out the booms and set it as a lower 
 studding sail ; in the afternoon, take it in, make it up, rig in 
 the booms and unreeve the gear. This with slushing masts, 
 trimming yards, and doing other jobs entirely unnecessary, 
 and which had never been thought of on week days, would 
 keep us running the whole day. Repeatedly has he braced 
 and then squared the yards again, without the wind hauling 
 half a point. The reason why we made the passage to 
 the southward, which is unusual, was to give him a chance 
 to work us like horses from sunrise to sunset. Had we 
 gone to the northward that would have been impossible. He 
 was so anxious for work that he would call the forenoon watch 
 before it was twelve o'clock by the sun, and in the evening 
 shift the watch in the binnacle so as to keep us later at night ; 
 that however, became so regular a thing that we used to laugh 
 at it in his hearing. At last he broke the chain of the watch 
 so that we never looked for knock off time until the sun was 
 
78 EVILS AND ABUSES IN THE 
 
 below the horizon. When we had to reef, then was his chance 
 to annoy us. He would never take in more than one reef at 
 a time, from one mast-head to another. We would travel un- 
 til that was done ; then reef the mainsail, come down, reef the 
 foresail and set it, go up and furl the mainsail ; then wind 
 up with reeling the trysail, although it would be blowing too 
 fresh to set it, and the reef would perhaps be shaken out be- 
 fore it was set at all. By this system of oppression, he would 
 sometimes keep us on deck twenty hours out of the twenty- 
 four. 
 
 His cool-blooded villainy was only equalled by his parsi- 
 mony and meanness. A large quantity of potatoes were brought 
 on board at Gibraltar, as they were cheaper than biscuit, and 
 those he would make the cook boil the night before they were 
 wanted for loh-skouse in the morning, and take the skins oft' 
 them when boiled to prevent waste. By this meanness we 
 were deprived of our best meal, for after the potatoes were left 
 in a warm galley all night, they would sour ; and when eaten, 
 after being reboiled, they would produce a griping of the bowels 
 and relax. But to recount all his mean acts would fill a vol- 
 ume. On the passage out, the mate eat withvhim, as is usual 
 in all vessels ; but any article of luxury that was on the table 
 would be placed next to himself, out of the mate's reach ; or 
 there would be so little of it that the mate would be ashamed to 
 touch it. On the passage home we got on the coast in cold 
 weather ; he would not allow the mate a cup of coffee in his 
 morning watch, and did not allow him to eat at the table with 
 him ; and before the chief or second mate came to the table 
 every thing but salt beef or pork would be removed. This is 
 not drawing a picture of what an unprincipled master^ of a 
 vessel may do, but what one has actually done, and I presun}e 
 that none will be more surprised at the developement, than the 
 owner of the vessel, Mr. Bishop, of Providence, who shall be 
 furnished with a copy of this work for Mr. G. W. Frost, hoping 
 that the exposure may benefit him. Had we experienced very 
 rough weather on the coast the vessel would have been lost, 
 for all confidence was gone between the master and the seamen. 
 Had the cutting of a laniard carried away a mast, as is often 
 
NAVAL AND MERCHANT SEKVICE. 79 
 
 the case, I am sure it would have been done, had it not 
 been for the trouble that it would have given us to replace the 
 the damage. I do not owe Mr. Frost any more animosity 
 than I do any other unfeeling man, for 1 must confess he treat- 
 ed me better than any one else in the ship ; but if he had fed 
 me upon chickens and starved the rest, that would not have 
 made the matter look any better in my estimation. 1 will 
 now say something of the crew^, to show of what they were 
 composed ; those shipped in Leghorn were as follows : one 
 Englishman, one Scotchman, one Maltee, one Austrian, and one 
 Italian from the papal territory. Never was there such a medley 
 in an American ship's forecastle. It appeared like a general 
 congress, to which every nation had sent a representative, but 
 a few of which could understand each other, and thereby crea- 
 ted a perfect Babel. The two Irishmen had a gibberish of their 
 own ; the Englishman could speak Maltee, and he and the 
 Maltee formed a pair. The two Italians were another inde- 
 pendent community, so that the Scotchman and myself were 
 the only two that were compelled to resort to the English lan- 
 guage to express our ideas. But their nations were not more 
 different than their habits and tastes. The treatment they re- 
 ceived was bad, and that drove them like a brood of chickens 
 of different colors under one common mother for shelter. There 
 was no subject upon which they all agreed except cursing the 
 vessel and country, and that was an entertainment at every 
 meal. They certainly would have hauled down the American 
 colors, if they could have agreed upon what others were to be 
 hoisted in their stead. If all from the Pope's dominions are 
 like the specimen that we had, his highness certainly ought 
 to be vested with divine power, for never did I come across a 
 more black-hearted villain. Had I been as ready as many 
 others are to find fault wnth the Catholic religion, I should 
 have attributed his villainy to the easy rate at which he could 
 purchase indulgences ; but I too well know that that is only a 
 weapon used by fanatics againgst the religion from which all 
 others have proceeded. It is strange that men should believe 
 in a Christ Jesus, and so openly deviate from his fundamental 
 principle — " good will to all men," — ^as to pursue those who 
 
«P EVILS AND ABUSES IN THE 
 
 differ from them in creed to the very brink of destruction, or to 
 the shedding of man's blood, thinking to please God thereby. 
 It is horrible ! Of the hundreds of different sects and religions, 
 each separately believes himself on the right road to heaven, 
 and will not suffer any one to pursue the journey with him, un- 
 less he sacrifices his opinions to insure him a passport to hea- 
 venly bliss. Catholic, protestant, presbyterian, methodist, and 
 hundreds of others, are all railing against each other; each 
 believing himself right and all others wrong ; he on the road to 
 salvation and all others to damnation. Give me the sailor's 
 way of thinking before all these. When he sees the sun rising 
 from out of the ocean he beholds the hand of his Maker. 
 When the tempest rages around him he ascends the giddy 
 mast ; the forked lightnings flash, but he relies for preser- 
 vation on Him who provides shelter for the birds of the air, 
 and without whose knowledge not one hair of our head falls to 
 the ground. Him he worships by muttering a prayer amid the 
 howling storm, and thinks that the next greatest way to obtain 
 mercy is by doing good to his fellow men. How little are sea- 
 men known, and how much has lately been written concerning 
 them, to show them up to the public as the brute of the field, 
 only governed by instinct, without any of that pure morality or 
 sympathy with their fellow men, which would render them 
 val-uable acquisitions to society. Alas, how false ! But 1 have 
 drifted foul of religion, a thing I don't often do, so will run out a 
 kedge and warp and haul off for fear of a broadside from some 
 religious three decker. But yet I don't see why I should not 
 worship God in my own fashion. When I see the sun rise over 
 the billow and sink behind the same, when I see the tempest 
 raging by his breath, and hushed into a calm by his voice, 
 when I see him hold the waters as it were in the hollow of his 
 hand, and offer him up a prayer for his divine providence 
 and interposition so often manifested for my preservation ; is 
 that prayer not as acceptable as if offered in a temple rais- 
 ed by human hands ? Is it not as acceptable as if echoed by 
 the organ or made before the shrine of a saint, or in the open 
 fields at a camp meeting, by falling down and declaring that 
 divine grace has fallen upon me. Oh man ! oh savage 
 
NAVAL AND MERCHANT SERVICE. 81 
 
 mockery of his holy name ! and yet you will all join in con- 
 demning my way of thinking. Well, let it be so. Every one 
 must join some religion or he is hooted from society ; let him 
 but have hold of the skirts and he is safe. There is wood 
 enough, said to be of the true cross, in different churches, to 
 build a line of battle ship, and petticoats enough, said to have 
 belonged to the virgin Mary, to make sails for her, if they 
 were only of No. 1 flax canvas ; so there must be a great im- 
 position in both cases, as the cross w^as not very large and the 
 virgin's wardrobe not very extensive. And just so in religion ; 
 it is a trade, which is followed from interest more than inclina- 
 tion, where thousands preach to tens of thousands what they 
 do not practice. However, I have deviated from my course, 
 and must bring up lee way. 
 
 The law respecting the provisions for seamen is extremely er- 
 roneous. Every vessel bound across the Atlantic must have sixty 
 gallons of water, one hundred pounds of salted meat, and one 
 hundred pounds of wholesome ship bread, for every person on 
 board. These articles are to be well secured below the deck. 
 This law was made to provide against disasters at sea ; but It 
 is violated, for it seldom happens that there is necessity 
 for such provision being below deck ; but as meat, bread, and 
 w^ater are all the provisions enumerated by the law, it is con- 
 cluded that these are all that the seaman can compel the mas- 
 ter to give him. It never was the intention of the law to say 
 that seamen should be fed upon beef and bread, although it is 
 often so interpreted. Happily, however, our ship owners and 
 merchants find it to their interest, to put on board such articles 
 as beans, flour, rice, peas, potatoes, fish, coffee, he. But these 
 are not directed to be put on board by law, nor after they are 
 on board can the seamen compel the master to give them to 
 them as food, so that a seaman may be flogged, starved, worked 
 like a slave, imprisoned, beat, kicked and abused, at the mere 
 whim of the master. What more does he require to make 
 him as despotic as the Sultan of Constantinople, but the small 
 privilege of hanging one or two when he pleases ? Valuable 
 ships and cargoes are sometimes in peril, because the crew are 
 unable to do their duty. This may be caused by scurvy^ 
 
^ 
 
 EVILS AND ABUSES IN THE 
 
 which every man would have after a long voyage, were not 
 ship owners more humane than the law. Seamen certainly 
 require, when hungry and drenched by the storm, somethmg 
 more than beef and bread. Coffee is much better than spirits, 
 which were formerly given, and no merchant ought to send his 
 vessel to sea without a sufficient quantity for the crew. And 
 the law ought not to leave it in the power of a master to stop 
 such things from seamen. In the navy the law expressly de- 
 clares what provisions shall be served to the crew, and the 
 quantity thereof, which is sufficient for any man ; but in the 
 merchant service all must depend upon the caprice of the ship- 
 master. 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 Rules and regulations for the navy — errors therein, and misrepre- 
 sentation — conduct of the depanment in investigating complaints — 
 two courts martial — articles 3d, 15th, andSOth, of the navy rules — how- 
 violated — the U. S. ship Fairfield — cruelty and oppression of her offi- 
 cers—punishment hy Lieut. H — m — r — 'his death and burial— cause 
 thereof— Jimmy Leggs — his villainy and power — his death — disrating 
 officers contrary to law — two officers turned on shore from the St. 
 I^ouis, by orders from M. Dickinson, secretary of the navy. 
 
 The rules and regulations, which are now in force, for the 
 better government of the navy, were passed in Congress at its 
 session of 1799 and 1800, signed by Theodore Sedgwick, 
 speaker of the House of Representatives, Thomas Jefferson, 
 president of the Senate and vice president of the United States, 
 approved by the president, John Adams, on the 23rd of April, 
 1800, and put in force on tlie 1st of June of the same year. 
 That is now thirty-nine years ago ; since that period our navy 
 and commerce have increased in a ratio unparalleled in the his- 
 tory of any nation, whether ancient or modern. With this 
 increase many changes have taken place. How far the laws 
 which are now in force for the navy were applicable to it then 
 is not for a young man to determine, but that they are inade- 
 
NAVAL AND MERCHANT SERVICE. 83 
 
 quate to its wants at present is a fact well known to every one 
 in any way acquainted with the service. At that time, and 
 even now in some respects, England was our model ; but 
 although we may profit by her experience, we ought not heed- 
 lessly to run into her errors. These rules and regulations were 
 in a great measure taken from those in use ibr the British navy, 
 excepting some little alterations which were made in considera- 
 tion of the governments being upon a different basis. Other 
 statutes that w^ere then in force in this country, are no longer 
 in existence. They have fallen before the hand of time and 
 march of intellect. Our navy at that time was entirely diffe- 
 rent from what it is now. The superiors were hard^ weather- 
 beaten fire eaters, and could fight like tigers, but they wanted 
 that polish and education which marks the officers of a similar 
 grade at the present day. Those old sea dogs had a way of 
 interpreting the laws which has been of infinite injury to the 
 service ; and their method of construing them has become so 
 wrought into the navy that nothing but Congress can break it. 
 It is only by comparing the customs of the navy with the laws 
 made by Congress, that the difference will be perceived, as 
 for time immemorial the former has been considered as power- 
 ful as the latter. The navy is purely aristocratic, there is not 
 a democratic feature belonging to it, all are ruled and kept 
 under by the authority vested in the chief. When it becomes 
 necessary to delegate such authority to an individual it is ex- 
 tremely requisite that the person holding it should use it with 
 discretion, or be restrained by law% from using it to the injury 
 of the citizen ; if not, there is no protection for the inferior. 
 Before the present laws were put in force, or since, some evils 
 and abuses have crept into the navy which nothing but the 
 strong arm of the law can eradicate, so that however imperfect 
 the rules and regulations are, they are much more abused than 
 defective. Until some other law is enacted, those in exist- 
 ence should be followed, and wdiere there is no law bearing 
 upon any case, then sound judgment and the customs of the 
 service, might be resorted to, but not until then. He who goes 
 beyond the law in punishing an offence, is as great a criminal, 
 in its eye, as he who commits the offence, and as such ought 
 
84 EVILS AND ABtJSIiS IN THE 
 
 to be punished. By what principle of right or justice can one 
 man punish another for the offence of which he is himself 
 guihy ? When extensive authority is delegated to anybody 
 of men, w^iether military or naval, some will be found to 
 abuse it, to coerce those under him, and if he is high in rank 
 it will be found extremely difficult, in many cases, to bring him 
 to punishment, as the power of his office may be used to pre- 
 vent it. This was clearly proved some years ago. An officer 
 bad received injustice at the hands of his captain, he returned 
 to the United States, prefered hiscomplaint, and sought redress 
 from the secretary of the navy ; it was unheeded, he resigned, 
 and the circumstances of the case found their way into the 
 public papers, and so glaring was the outrage that it w^as loudly 
 disapproved of, and a trial was granted to public opinion, 
 although it had been denied to an individual. The captain w^as 
 tried and found guilty of the charges, and suspended for two 
 years. The punishment was so light that it was the subject 
 of much comment in the papers at the lime. There was 
 another instance of a similar nature took place on board of a 
 sloop of war ; the commander abused some of the officers, 
 especially the sur2;eon or assistant surgeon, or both ; I do not 
 now remember exactly the minute particulars of the affair ; 
 they were tried, the inferior was dismissed, and the commander 
 was sentenced to be suspended for two years, although he was 
 found guilty of a violation of the law for which dismissal was 
 the penalty. The inferior was not satisfied with this method 
 of doing justice, but publicly chastised the superior on the 
 race course at Norfolk, (Va.) Some in our navy have said 
 that the law was not made for captains, and a few have acted 
 as if that were actually the fact. On the former of these cases 
 the navy department would not have acted at all, had it not 
 been for the public press ; and to prevent being misunderstood, 
 I must state that the captain had been guilty of oppression to 
 an officer, and punished him otherwise than by suspension, 
 which the law directs shall be the extent of a captain's or com- 
 mander's authority over an officer. The rules and regulations 
 for the navy expressly state — " Article 3rd, Any officer, or 
 other person m the navy, who shall be guilty of oppression, 
 
NAVAL AND MERCHANT SERVICE. 85 
 
 cruelty, fraud, profane swearing, drunkenness, or any other 
 scandalous conduct, tending to the corruption of good morals, 
 shall, if an officer, be cashiered, or suffer such other punish- 
 ment as a court martial shall adjudge ; if a private, he may 
 be put in irons, or flogged, at the discretion of the captain, not 
 exceeding twelve lashes ; but if the offence require severer 
 punishment, he shall be tried by a court martial, and suffer 
 such punishment as said court shall inflict." There is one 
 portion of this article which is but too often violated, " profane 
 swearing." Any person who has been in the navy, well 
 knows that it is a dead letter, or at least none are punished for 
 it, although many are guilty. It would be difficult to say in 
 what profane swearing consists, if an officer calls upon God to 
 damn a man and goes unpunished. *' The articles of war are 
 equally binding on officers and crew ; but what a dead letter 
 do they become if officers are permitted to break them with 
 impunity ! The captain of a ship will turn hands up to pun- 
 ishment, read the article of war for the transgressing of which 
 the punishment is inflicted, and to show at that time their 
 high respect for the articles of war, the captain and every offi- 
 cer, take off their hats. The moment the hands are piped 
 down, the third article of war, which forbids all swearing, &c. 
 in derogation of God's honor, is immediately disregarded. We 
 are not straight-laced, we care little about an oath, as a mere 
 expletive ; we refer now to swearing at others, to insulting their 
 feelings grossly by coarse and intemperate language. We 
 would not interfere with a man for d — g his awn eyes, but we 
 deny the right of his d — g those of another.'^ The offence 
 following that has repeatedly been committed, but less at the 
 present day than formerly. In this article and several others, 
 it is expressly stated that for any of the offences enumerated 
 *'an offender may be put in irons, or flogged, at the discretion 
 of the captain, not exceeding twelve lashes,^' But how often 
 does it happen that a man is put in irons and flogged for the 
 same offence, and few captains pay much attention to that part 
 of the law respecting the number of lashes. It very seldom 
 happens that conflnement in irons is considered as a punish- 
 ment. Seamen lay two or three weeks with their hands and 
 8 
 
80 EVILS AND ABUSES IN THE 
 
 feet in irons, like common felons, and are then flogged. The 
 old expounders of the law understood it, and flogged, instead 
 ofj or flogged, and that interpretation has been so carefully 
 handed down from father to son, that it is only by referring to 
 the statute that we can perceive their error. 
 
 There is only one offence (theft under twenty dollars) for 
 which a captain can, of his own authority, inflict more than 
 twelve lashes, and yet it often happens that seamen receive twice 
 and even thrice that number. 
 
 " Article 15. No person in the navy shall quarrel with any 
 other person in the navy, or use provoking or reproachful 
 words, gestures, or menaces, on pain of such punishment as a 
 court martial shall adjudge." I have heard a captain tell a 
 boatswain that he was not worth his salt, and swear by God, 
 he would throw him overboard. " Article 30. No command- 
 ing officer shall, of his own authority, discharge a commissioned 
 or warrant officer, nor strike, nor punish him otherwise than by 
 suspension or confinement ; nor shall he, of his own authority, 
 inflict a punishment on any private beyond twelve lashes, with 
 a cat of nine tails, nor shall he suffer any wired, or other than 
 a plain cat of nine tails to be used on board his ship ; nor shall 
 any officer who may command by accident, or in the absence 
 of the commanding officer (except such commander be absent 
 for a time by leave) order or inflict any other punishment than 
 confinement, for which he shall account on the return of such 
 commanding officer. Nor shall any commanding officer receive 
 on board any petty officers or men turned over from any other 
 vessel to him, unless each of such officers and men produce 
 to him an account, signed by the captain and purser of the 
 vessel from which they came, specifying the date of such offi- 
 cer's or man's entry, the period and term of service, the sums 
 paid and balance due him, and the quality in which he was 
 rated on board such ship. Nor shall any commanding officer, 
 having received any petty officer, or man, as afor*esaid, rate 
 him in a lower or worse station than that in which he formei'ly 
 served. Any commanding officer offending herein, shall be 
 punished, at the discretion of a court martial." These articles 
 already quoted are those which are most frequently violated. 
 
NAVAL AND MERCHANT SERVICE. 87 
 
 On board of the United States ship of the line Delaware, in 
 1829, I have seen the cats, with which prisoners were to be 
 flogged, put into the harness cask, amongst the pickle in which 
 the salt beef had been, in order to make them hard and wiry, 
 and to increase the pain when the skin was broken by the lash. 
 The commodore who commanded that ship, perhaps did not 
 order that to be done, and he may have been ignorant of it ; 
 but if so, he was the only person in the ship ignorant of the 
 cruelty ; for the punishment that he ordered to be inflicted at 
 the gangway was inflicted with the cats, just taken out of the 
 pickle barrel. 
 
 Relative to men being furnished with their accounts, &:c., on 
 leaving a vessel, or the captain not rating them lower than the 
 station in which they formerly served, is a mere dead letter. 
 Men's accounts are transferred from purser to purser, without 
 their ever seeing them ; and a captain, when a petty officer is 
 brought before him for punishment, will tell the purser to dis- 
 rate him, and give him a flogging at the same time. He will 
 then turn round, and tell the purser to rate him again, when in 
 fact he never has been disrated ; and the words are merely 
 made use of to double the law. I am far from asserting that ^ 
 every captain will so trifle with the laws made to govern him ; ^ 
 but many have done it, openly ; and in order to place the mat- 
 ter fully at rest, 1 shall quote instances, which I have seen, and 
 for any statement of this nature I am answerable, at any time. 
 My object is not to expose persons ; but things ought not to be 
 done which will not bear exposure. My object is to benefit 
 seamen, and to remove those evils and abuses which no good 
 officer can wish to exist in the navy. We (the crew) were 
 drafted on board the United States ship Fairfield, on the 3d of 
 August, 1828, and from that time until she was paid off, which 
 was in May, 1831, I do not believe that a single day elapsed 
 that punishment, by flogging, did not take place,-— at least, for 
 the nine months that I remained on board, I can answer for the 
 fact. At that time there was a custom in the service, (directly 
 contrary to law,) whereby any officer of the deck could inflict 
 punishment ; but for the credit of the navy it must be told, 
 that this has very seldom been the case of late years, for few 
 
88 EVILS AND ABUSES IN THE 
 
 captains will allow it, at the present day, to be done on board 
 of their vessels. This was not punishment with the cat, which 
 the law directs to be the instrument of punishment, but with 
 what is termed '*acolt:" this is a piece of eighteen-thread 
 ratline, or one-inch rope, and generally has one or two hard 
 twine whippings upon each end. Twelve lashes with this, 
 over a thin frock or shirt, gave greater pain and bruised the 
 flesh more than the cat would have done ; and it was with this 
 instrument that the deck officers of the Fairfield punished the 
 men, and there was no limit to the number of lashes, but just 
 as many as it might please the officer to order — sometimes one, 
 and at other times as many as three, dozen. Such punishment 
 frequently brought the blood through the shirt, and often left 
 the flesh black for two or three weeks, and then yellow for as ' 
 many more, before it healed perfectly. 
 
 Punishment on board that vessel was not always inflicted in 
 the face of day ; many a cruel deed has the pale moon wit- 
 nessed upon her deck. This was directly contrary to the law, 
 which only vests captains with power to punish, and then not 
 exceeding twelve lashes for any one offence. Tiiere is no single 
 offence but what two or more may be made of it, if such is the 
 captain's wish. Drunkenness, for instance, is drunkenness, 
 disobedience of orders — very likely, neglect of duty, insolence, 
 and insubordination ; for when liquor is in, wit is out, and the 
 offences which a man may then commit will subject him to 
 three or four dozen lashes. I will relate some occurrences, 
 which took place after 1 left the Fairfield, as I knew them to 
 be. One night, while the ship was on her way from Smyrna to 
 
 Mahon, it fell calm, and the officer of the deck, Lieut. H r, 
 
 ordered the forecastle men and fore top men to man the fore 
 clue garnets and buntlines, and stand by to haul up the foresail. 
 The v^ord was given, and the sail hauled up, but not so quickly 
 as he wished it to be. The yards were braced sharp up, and, 
 as there was no wind, the fore tack and sheet blocks caught in 
 the lee fore rigging, on the ratlines, and a man had to clear 
 them. Nothing, however, would be taken as an excuse, and 
 he flogged the whole watch of the forecastle and fore top men, 
 giving them one dozen each, apd ordered them forward to set 
 
NAVAL AND MERCHANT SERVICE. 89 
 
 the sail again. It was set, and they were ordered to man the 
 clue garnets and buntlines, to haul it up again. The lee clue 
 caught in the rigging as before, and he flogged them all again. 
 Once more the sail was set, and hauled up with the same re- 
 sults ; in fact, it was a moral impossibility to run the lee clue 
 right up, as the heavy blocks would catch in the rigging ; and 
 the men were flogged three times, in less than one hour. 
 There were eleven men in the fore top, and twelve on the 
 forecastle, making twenty-three men, punished with three dozen 
 lashes each, for no offence under the face of heaven. Eight 
 bells (midnight) were struck, and before the tyrant was relieved 
 by another officer, he ordered one of the midshipmen to tell 
 the purser's steward to stop their grog for twenty-four hours. 
 This caitiff, this monster, however, did not long survive the act. 
 His wicked, abominable soul, tempted him, after the ship ar- 
 rived in port, to propose the commission of a crime for which 
 there is no punishment prescribed in the naval code of laws — 
 it being too unnatural for the legislators of our country ever to 
 think of On this horrible affair being reported to the captain, 
 he was suspended ; and finding that no human being could ever 
 again countenance him, he shot himself, in his state room. 
 The sentinel, when his remains passed over the larboard gang- 
 way, turned his back. No funeral note was heard. He was 
 huddled into the grave by a single officer and boat's crew. 
 A fit end for tyrants ! 
 
 There was an individual on board of that ship whose name 
 was Sterritt ; but he was better known in the navy, by the cog- 
 nomen of " Jimmey Leggs." He had been on board the frigate 
 Constitution, as a master at arms, and had there incurred such 
 hatred, for his tyranny and villainy, that his life was unsafe. 
 On the arrival of that ship in Boston, he was sent on shore, in 
 order to give him a chance to escape the vengeance of the 
 crew. He fled to New York, where he was pursued by the 
 sailors, and he took refuge by shipping again in the navy, on 
 board of the receiving ship ; and when the Fairfield was com- 
 missioned he was taken on board, in his former capacity of 
 master at arms, where free liberty was given him to indulge his 
 
 disposition. This man was destitute of every moral or honora- 
 
 8* 
 
90 EVILS AND ABUSES IN THE 
 
 ble principle — destitute alike of every good feeling that reigns 
 in the human breast ; and the punishment which he had at 
 different times received from seamen, for his cruelty towards 
 them, only increased his malignity and hatred. He had been 
 several times so badly bruised and injured by them, that his 
 life was despaired of — and on one occasion, they had committed 
 an act upon his person which left him of the neuter gender, or 
 of " no sex, at all," as Byron expresses it. But he recovered ; 
 and the seamen, who are ever ready to ascribe to supernatural 
 agency the most common occurrences, believed him to be in 
 league with his great prototype, the devil. When the Fairfield 
 was in Marseilles, the crew attempted to hang him. It w^as in 
 the evening, and he was sitting at the galley, drinking a pot of 
 coffee, which he had gotten by the fears of one of the cooks ; 
 for none would have given him any thing, from love. A rope 
 was passed dow^n the fore scuttle, with the hangman's knot in 
 it, and thrown over his head ; the rest of the conspirators hauled 
 upon deck, for it was 'rove through a block on the fore yard ; 
 but, unfortunately, he caught under one of the hammocks w^hile 
 making his unexpected exit, and got his hands between his 
 neck and the rope, which gave him a chance to shout murder, 
 and he was rescued by the marines. A number of the crew 
 were put in irons, on suspicion, but nothing transpired to prove 
 who were concerned in the affair. His own brother w^as on 
 board, but he hated him as much as any man. Had he not 
 caught under the hammock, he would have died the death be- 
 fitting such a man. This monster was allowed to carry a ''colt,'' 
 and use it upon any man that he thought proper ; thus giving 
 him the same power that the law vests in a captain. He would 
 flog a man on the berth deck, and then report him to the 
 officer of the deck, who would flog him again. I w^as witness 
 to one instance of his having a man punished. One morning, 
 when the hammocks were piped up, Ned Edwards, captain of 
 the fore top, was the last one in lashing up his, and the master 
 of arms hauled out his colt to strike him. The man said, 
 ^' Do n't strike me, master at arms ; if I have done any thing 
 wrong, report me to the officer of the deck." He did strike, 
 however, and Edwards knocked him down. For this he was 
 
NAVAL AND MERCHANT SERVICE. 91 
 
 put in irons, and sometime afterwards brought before the cap- 
 tain to he flogged for the same offence. The captain asked 
 him how he came to do the deed. The man stated the circum- 
 stance, which the master at arms did not deny ; but he was 
 flogged, arnd received eighteen lashes, while the first offender 
 went unpunished. This is only one instance, but I could quote 
 hundreds. This notorious character was the brother of the 
 O'Hare who was hung at Baltimore, many years ago, for rob- 
 bing the mail. After the death of his brother, he assumed an- 
 other name. He fell, the first victim to the cholera morbus, in 
 1834, on board the receiving ship Hudson, at New York — 
 dying, despised and hated by all who knew him, without one 
 friend to console him in his last moments, or close his eyes in 
 death. Had that fell disease only carried off such as he was, 
 it would have been a blessing instead of a scourge. 
 
 Previous to our sailing from New York, D. Lloyd came on 
 board as a master's mate, and Isaac Hadsor, as gunner. The 
 latter w^as^ appointed to this ofiice by Commodore Chauncey, 
 the commandant of the navy yard, and both these persons wore 
 the uniform belonging to their respective ranks. The former 
 was one of the best practical navigators that we ever had in the 
 navy, and is now in the service of Texas, as a master. He 
 incurred the displeasure of the commander, for some offence, 
 and for which, w^ithout any form of trial, he was disrated from 
 bis rank, and compelled to serve as a common seaman, in the 
 fore top, in direct contradiction to the law. If he was guilty 
 of any ofl:ence he ought to have been tried and punished, but 
 that punishmiCnt could not extend further than to his dismissal. 
 He came on board as an officer, and messed with the midship- 
 men. He had never signed any articles of agreement by which 
 he was bound to serve in another capacity. He applied for his 
 discharge, but it was denied him, on the grounds that his name 
 being on the books was a sufficient warrant to detain him. But 
 the same reasoning could be applied to any other officer, and 
 the same unlawful measures put in force against him. The 
 gunner was also disrated, without any form of trial, and put to 
 serve as a seaman, on the forecastle, although the time for 
 which he had enlisted had long expired. The carpenter was 
 
92 ^ EVILS AND ABUSES IN THE 
 
 an old man, but his age did not protect him Irom insult. He 
 was often told, '' You are a worthless old rascal — 1 would not 
 give your mate for a dozen of you ; you are not worth your 
 salt," he. The man was so annoyed, that, as soon as he saved 
 money enough from his small pay, which was then only twenty 
 dollars per month and two rations, he returned to the United 
 States, in a private vessel. At the end of nine months, I joined 
 the Delaware, with the late Capt., then Lieut. Mix ; and the 
 same usage still continued on board the Fairfield. 
 ^ With regard to the dismissal of officers, the Department set 
 a pretty example, when Mr. Dickerson was at the head of it. 
 Some secret report w^as made against the boatswain and car- 
 penter of the St. Louis, and orders w^ere sent to the commander 
 to turn them both on shore ; and that was carried out in the 
 same spirit with the order, for they were compelled to leave 
 the ship in half an hour. What the nature of their offence was 
 they knew not, and had no chance to reply to it. The law 
 respecting courts martial, says, that an officer preferring charges 
 against another, shall forward such charges to the Department, 
 giving the accused a copy ; but in thi? case neither was done. 
 They -were dismissed without a reason being stated, except 
 that such w^as the will and pleasure of the secretary of the 
 navy. The President may have a right to dismiss an officer ; 
 but I have too much respect for General Jackson, to suppose 
 that he would have done so, had he known the state of the 
 case. How much more honorable it would have been to have 
 given those men a trial, and allowed them the privilege of de- 
 fending their character from calumny and misrepresentation ; and 
 driving them out of the ship, in half an hour, was a meanness 
 for which there can be no excuse. Both of the men were 
 warrant officers. 
 
 There has been a change made under the sanction of the pre- 
 sent secretary of the navy, which I record the more willingly as I 
 am convinced that Mr. Paulding permitted the traffic, without 
 reflecting on the consequences, or considering that he was 
 wronging a deserving officer. 
 
 The boatswain of one of our navy yards (not a hundred 
 i^Jles from Charlestown) died, or rather came by an untimely 
 
NAVAL AND MERCHANT SERVICE. 93 
 
 death, and his situation as a matter of course became vacated. 
 A short time afterwards an appointment with orders to the navy 
 yard was sent by the department to the foreman of the late 
 boatswain, who was a worthy deserving man, but he dechned 
 accepting either ; as he knew that so doing would render him 
 liable to be sent to sea at any moment, and preferred what he 
 earned by his daily labor, in the bosom of his family and 
 friends, to the trappings of office and absence from them for 
 three years at a time. There was an old boatswain on the sta- 
 tion who had served long and faithfully, and had received an 
 injury while in active service which rendered him unfit for 
 duty on board of a sea-going vessel, but that did not incapaci- 
 tate him from performing his duty in a navy yard, and which 
 he naturally looked forward to as the reward of his long ser- 
 vices, and applied for the vacant situation. He did not re- 
 ceive it. It happened that there was an old warranted gunner 
 on the station, who had formerly been gunner of the yard, 
 but was removed on the arrival of the Potomac from a cruise 
 round the world, as he had been longer than his usual time in 
 the yard, to make room for another who had been in active 
 sea service ever since the war, and who more than any other 
 of his grade was entitled to a navy yard. This other gunner 
 has several times tried to get into the yard again, but he has 
 been unsuccessful. On the death of the boatswain he offered 
 to resign his gunner's warrant for a boatswain's appointment 
 and orders to the navy yard, and strancrn to say, hla ofFer was 
 accepted, and lie has now got the yard. If this man has paid 
 the attention that he ought to his duty as a gunner he cannot 
 be fit for a boatswain, although he may be a good seaman, any 
 more than a salesman in a dry goods store would be fit for the 
 same situation in a grocery. Making such an offer must entitle 
 him to the scorn and detestation of his brother officers. Upon 
 the same principle he may, should the gunner's situation in the 
 yard become vacant, apply for his warrant again, and shift back 
 to the manifest injury of others. If he had no more regard for 
 his warrant than to be ready to barter it for an appointment, he 
 is not deserving of either ; for it is apparent to all that he is 
 only making a tool of the service to serve his own ends, with- 
 
94 EVILS AND ABUSES IN THE 
 
 out having the least esprit du corps. It is not his meanness and 
 consummate impudence that so much entitles him to scorn and 
 detestation, as his want of principle and sense of justice, for he 
 knew that he had not the most remote claim on the vacant 
 situation ; and if he got it, he knew that he had done so at the 
 expense of a brother officer who had just claims, and that he 
 was gouging him and taking the very bread from his mouth. 
 A man who can do an act of this sort is unworthy of a place on 
 the rolls of the navy, " where every principle tending to honor 
 is taught, if followed." That the boatswain who was set aside 
 for this ci devant gunner is capable of 611ing the situation, is 
 proved by the length of time that he has held his appointment, 
 and there is nothing against his moral character. If Mr. Paul- 
 ding has that sense of justice, and is disposed to do justice to 
 those over whom he holds the reins of authority without refer- 
 ence to rank and favoritism, and for such an intention I am 
 willing to give him credit, he must look upon this in the same 
 light that all others do, viz. as an act of rank injustice. He may 
 reconsider it and set all right again by making each of the par- 
 ties resume their proper place. If this gunner is anxious for 
 active service, let him go to sea, or wait patiently upon his 
 leave of absence pay until a chance turns up for him in the 
 course of service, as many better men have to do. But he has 
 shown to what acts of meanness men will sometimes bend, and 
 fixed a blot upon his charar.ter that will not easily be erased 
 
 or forgotten. 
 
 In justice to myself and the parties alluded to, I must state 
 that I do not know the gunner, am only slightly acquainted 
 with the boatswain, and that I have not seen nor received any 
 letter or message from the latter, either directly or indirectly, 
 and that in exposing the afiair I am actuated by a sense of jus- 
 tice alone. 
 
 For some time past Commodore Chauncey has acted as sec- 
 retary of the navy, and by him the officers were ordered to the 
 'U. S. frigate United States and sloop-of-war Marion. The 
 carpenters of Portsmouth and Charlestown yards have both been 
 ordered to them ; the former to the Marion, where his pay is 
 five hundred dollars, and the latter to the United States, at six 
 
Naval and MfiRciiANi' service. 95 
 
 hundred dollars per annum* The former is senior to the lat- 
 ter by the date of his warrant, and served on board the Vanda- 
 lia on the West India station for nearly four years, and was the 
 only officer who remained in that ship the whole cruise. She 
 had several captains and sets of other officers who soon became 
 invalids from the unhealthiness of the climate. Now this offi- 
 cer is ordered to a sloop-of-war again, while another who has 
 not seen so much service is ordered to a frigate. In point of 
 quahfications and moral character neither can claim precedence 
 over the other, as both of the gentlemen are an ornament to 
 their grade, therefore justice ought to have been done in regard 
 to the class of the vessel to which they were ordered. 
 
 Commodore Chauncey cannot plead ignorance as an excuse, 
 for he surely knows enough of the service to suppose that the 
 injured party must have felt aggrieved at the slight thrown 
 upon him. How would the commodore like being ordered to a 
 sloop-of-war while a junior had command of a frigate on the 
 same station. He would swell up like the frog in the fable, 
 and threaten the navy with destruction by resigning. The anti 
 administration papers would take up his cause, and terrible 
 would be the splash of ink. The Commodore's gallant ex- 
 ploits would be rehearsed and his arduous services (in navy 
 yards and at the navy board for the last twenty years) would 
 be enumerated, and more ink spilled in his defence than he 
 ever could shed of enemy's blood. Crocodile tears would be 
 shed by the bucket full ; aye, as plentiful and fully sincere as 
 those that watered the grave of a late member of Congress, 
 who fell in a duel. 
 
 Ah, Commodore, hard have you tried to get an admiral's 
 flag, and you deserve it, but never will it fly at your main-mast 
 head, so long as you show a disposition to trample upon inferi- 
 ors. You must have forgotten the principle features in the 
 declaration of independence and constitution of our country : 
 " All men are born equal." But you would prevent the toe of ^-^ 
 the plebeian from grazing the kibe of the patrician. Haply how- 
 ever, the members of our national legislature are not so aristo- 
 cratic in their notions as you are. Your commission may allow 
 you to trample on your inferiors in rank, but you cannot sway 
 
96 EVILS AND ABUSES IN THE 
 
 the councils of the nation. To do to others as you would be 
 done by, is a good precept, but you often deviate from it. 
 You have now arrived at a time of life when it is natural to sup- 
 pose that you would issue the edicts of your office as much in 
 accordance vt^ith justice as possible. But no, you still give 
 proof of that despotic disposition which formerly was your fail- 
 ing. I once loved and esteemed you, but both must cease 
 when I see you do that to a warrant officer that you dare not 
 do to a commissioned one. You ought to bear in mind too, 
 that forward officers are not now what they were when you com- 
 manded a vessel. " A change has come o'er the spirit of their 
 dream ;" they are now gentlemen with ties of kindred, home and 
 friends to bind them to their country, and have a lively sense 
 of injustice, and cannot be curbed and brow-beat like the fire- 
 eaters of your day, who budded in the sunshine of your favor 
 or withered under the ungenial shade of your frown and dis- 
 pleasure. Your days are now drawing to a close, and 'twere 
 well to spend the few remaining, in endeavoring to better the 
 condition of a class of men too long neglected- You have in- 
 fluence, use it in their behalf, and let their tears and prayers 
 follow you to your grave. You ought by this time to cast 
 aside ambition (and leave it to your gallant sons who are fol- 
 lowing the path of glory and are an honor to any father,) and 
 do something for common sailors whom you have heretofore 
 neglected. Do so, and when you are taken from amongst us, 
 they will drop a sympathetic tear on the sod consecrated to 
 your remains. 
 
NAVAL AND MERCHANT SERVICE. 97 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 Flogging on board the Fairfield, seen from the Delaware's tops, and 
 the cause — purser and first lieutenant at loggerheads— subsequent con* 
 duct of the first lieutenant— crew allowed to draw articles from the 
 ]jurser without limitation— bright work— the U. S. ship Lexington, 
 
 Capt. D n — instances of unjust punishment — Wm. Mclntire — his 
 
 death— l.t. St gs — his ignorance — Captain D n instructs him 
 
 how to take in sail — liberty given the crew for ninety -nine years — 
 Captain McKeever takes the ship--his kindness. 
 
 One morning, after I had joined the Delaware, we were 
 aloft squaring yards, when we observed an unusual deal of pun- 
 ishment inflicted on board the Fairfield, that lay close to'^us. 
 She being a small vessel, we could look down from our tops 
 upon her decks. Two boatswain's mates, under the direction 
 of the first lieutenant, were employed for upwards of half an 
 hour flogging men. When one of her boats came alongside 
 of us we ascertained the cause. It appeared that all men 
 who had put down upon the mess bills for more than one 
 jack knife, or pound of tobacco, or for a case of razors, were 
 flogged for so doing. The mess bills are printed and issued 
 monthly, with the articles in columns, which the purser has 
 for sale, such as needles, tape, tea and sugar, knives, tobacco, 
 &;c., and every man is expected to put down on them for what 
 he pleases, then they are sent to the first lieutenant, and by 
 him to the captain, for approval, before the articles are issued. 
 They are merely requisitions, which the captain may approve 
 of or not, as he thinks fit, and if he sees any man has put 
 down for more things than he thinks he actually requires for 
 his own use, he may cross it out or alter it to what he thinks 
 proper. In the name of justice what were these bills given to 
 the men for if they were to be punished for putting down for 
 articles on them ? It was the most tyrannical act I ever knew 
 committed in the navy. Upwards of six hundred lashes were 
 inflicted on men that morning, and can only be explained by- 
 informing the public that the first lieutenant and the purser 
 9 
 
9d EVILS AND ABUSES IN THE 
 
 were on bad terms, and the former could find no other way to 
 show his spleen, or to annoy the latter, than by flogging the 
 men for buying his goods. It was not done with any view to 
 save the men their wages, but to the contrary. The purser 
 left the ship and another purser joined her, yet when the ship 
 went into Marseilles some time afterwards, the same first 
 lieutenant allowed the purser's store-room to be opened for a 
 week, and the men were permitted to purchase what they chose, 
 to sell it again ; and so well did they avail themselves of the in- 
 dulgence that many of them returned to the United States, 
 after being absent two years and nine months, without having 
 a dollar due them. In addition to the severe punishments in- 
 flicted, the most harrassing and unnecessary work was done on 
 board that ship ; every handspike, crow-bar, and belay ing-pin 
 was scoured bright ; the iron straps of snatch blocks, iron trav- 
 ellers round the masts, linchpins of the guns, ringbolts in the 
 deck, trainbolts in the gun carriages, iron rail round the fore- 
 castle, and the iron straps of the cat blocks were all kept as 
 bright as silver; and many hundreds of floggings did keeping 
 these bright occasion ; which was entirely out of ord(?r, and as 
 such was laughed at by the rest of the officers on the station. 
 In 1834, an officer told me that *' he had had a comi'iirnent 
 paid him on the Fairfield." He said, '' Commodore Oovvnes," 
 who was then in New York, after returning in the Potomao 
 from her cruise round the world, '* said that the Fairfield was 
 the neatest ship he had ever seen in his life, and that he had 
 only one fault to find, that was, that there was too much bright 
 work on board of her." Had the gallant Commodore known 
 all, he would have had more to condemn than bright work. 
 She was what is termed a strict ship, by disciplinarians, " God 
 save the mark," and keep every seaman from such a vessel. 
 She was a hell afloat, a perfect floating home of cruelty, 
 tyranny, and oppression. It cannot well be imagined, the in- 
 jury that is done to a young officer by serving on board of such 
 a ship as the Fairfield; they come on board with their sympa- 
 thies and feelings warm from the paternal hearth, and have 
 them so chilled and warped by being thrust into such a den of 
 cruelty and oppression, that it will aflfect them for the rest of 
 
NAVAL AND MERCHANT SERYICE.. 99 
 
 their lives. They are young, and enter upon a profession of 
 which they have not the most distant idea, and the impressions 
 that are first made upon them will be the most lasting ; what 
 they first see they will suppose to be right, and thereby may 
 remain in error for the rest of their lives. If they are predis- 
 posed to tyrannise, it becomes rooted, for they have an ample 
 opportunity to indulge in it, and their word or report at any 
 time will cause the lash to be inflicted. I would not willingly 
 say anything against the captain who commanded the ship, for 
 I have seen him since in a navy yard, where he appeared to 
 treat every one with kindness ; but there is no excuse, with 
 regard to his not knowing that these things occurred on board 
 of his ship, for men were repeatedly punished while he was 
 walking the deck, without his interfering or saying that it was 
 wrong ; and when the most severe punishments took place he 
 could hear the sound of every lash, sitting in his cabin, inde- 
 pendent of the cries of the victims from pain, or their suppli- 
 cations for mercy, so that nothing could have been expected 
 from him in the way of redress. All reports had to go to hira 
 through the first lieutenant, to whom no man, who had any re- 
 gard for his back, would have made a report against any officer. 
 Some notice was taken of the abuse of power in that ship, 
 by the newspapers, after she arrived ; and the Globe, the re- 
 cognised organ of the administration, stated that it could scarcely 
 be the case, as all reports made to the department of his nature 
 were attended to, and investigated ; but where officers have 
 been unable to procure redress, another fate for complaints 
 from seamen could barely be expected. That the officers of 
 the Fairfield were to blame for their treatment of the crew will 
 not admit of a doubt; but the greatest portion of that blame 
 rests with the Captain, for in him the power is vested to cor- 
 rect all such as are guilty of offences against the law, whether 
 officer or private, and had he given an order that no officer 
 should punish a private, he would not have dared to have 
 done it in opposition to the orders of his commander, from fear 
 of being court martialed. I am well satisfied that the captain 
 of that ship has often regretted his neglect in not preventing 
 the cruelty that was so common under his command, and 
 
100 EVILS AND ABUSES IN THE 
 
 as his next ship will be a frigate, it is to be hoped that he will 
 make atonement for the past. 
 
 I was on board the Lexington, on the coast of Brazil, from 
 1831 to 1834, and during the first part of her cruise several 
 very severe and unjust punishments took place. The captain 
 was a kind man, but often very passionate, and when so, very 
 unjust. He allowed no punishment on board but what he in- 
 flicted himself; but he sometimes went far beyond the law in 
 punishing petty offences. When w^e were at the Falkland 
 Islands, the men were put on allow^ance, in consequence of the 
 provisions on board being likely to run short. Having gone 
 from a warm climate to a cold one, their appetites increased 
 and made the allowance too little, and this created a ferment 
 among the crew. One day they had been called aft, and a 
 vehement lecture read them by the captain ; they were sent 
 forward, and the yeoman made some remark, which was over- 
 heard by Lieutenant J. S gs, who immediately reported it 
 
 to the captain. All hands were instantly called to witness 
 punishment. The marines were turned out with fixed bayonets, 
 and the captain brought a pair of ship's pistols from the cabin, 
 loaded with ball cartridges, which he laid upon the capstan ; 
 the man was then ordered to strip, which he did without a 
 murmur, as he knew that to attempt to appease the captain 
 would be like trymg to stop the sea from raging. He was 
 seized up, and received twenty-four lashes, without a stop. 
 The weather was extremely cold, being in so high a latitude, 
 but the man bore his punishment in silence ; his lips writhed, 
 but no complaint escaped him. He w^as taken down and 
 warned not to grumble about provisions again, under penalty of 
 receiving twice the number of lashes. He spoke not, but those 
 who looked upon his calmness, knew that it was the calmness 
 of resolution. Had Capt. D. lived until that man returned to 
 the United States, it would have been bad for both of them. 
 This punishment was inflicted directly contrary to law, for it 
 declares that a captain shall only punish a private, and this 
 man was a petty ofiicer ; he shall not punish beyond twelve 
 lashes, and yet he inflicted twenty-four. 
 
 About the same time a more severe punishment took place* 
 
NAVAL AND MERCHANT SERVICE. 101 
 
 Win. Mclntire, a tailor, who was employed by the captain in 
 his cabin, had persuaded one of the cabin boys to ^ive him 
 some of the captain's brandy, whic^h t-^e steward miss%d, and 
 reported. The man was not drunk,* But he had ^rank the 
 brandy, and for so doing was brought to the gangway fci-d pun- 
 ished with three dozen lashes upon tile ^hdte back.* ' It was his 
 first and last flogging ; he did not long survive it ; it sank deep 
 into his heart, and he nevermore held up his head. He sleeps 
 the sleep of death, on the bleak, barren Falkland Islands, far 
 from his hom.e and friends. I dare the medical men that were 
 on board that ship to say that he did not die in consequence of 
 the flogging he received, and the victim of cruelty and oppres- 
 sion. 
 
 In Rio de Janeiro, some time afterwards, a number of men 
 had been confined in irons, and were brought to the gangway 
 to be punished ; one of them, Collin Lament, said, loud enough 
 to be heard by the captain, when he was ordered to take off 
 his shirt, '^ if you go on this w^ay you will soon make a ship 
 of her." The captain's passion so overcame him that he did 
 not wait to draw his sword, but beat the man about the head 
 and face with it in the scabbard, for some time ; and when his 
 strength failed, he ordered him to be seized to the gratings, 
 and inflicted thirty-eight lashes upon his bare back, and would 
 have gone further, but the surgeon interfered, and declared the 
 man to be unable to bear any more at that time. He was 
 taken from the gratings, more dead than alive, and put into 
 double irons, in order to prepare him for a second part of the 
 punishment intended for him ; but the passion which overruled 
 the captain when he first punished him gave way to reason, 
 and he ordered him to be released. 
 
 Such were some of the proceedings on board that ship. It 
 may naturally be supposed that it showed a littleness in the 
 lieutenant, who had the man punished at the Falkland Islands, 
 to work upon the irritable feelings of his commander, when 
 he knew him. to be so liable to go to extremes when under the 
 influence of passion, but he had no other way that he could 
 show his zeal, or gain his commander's affections. He was 
 utterly incapable as an officer, and could not give the orders 
 9^ 
 
102 EVILS AND ABUSES IN THE 
 
 properly to take in the light sails. So notorious was the fact 
 that the whole crew frequently openly laughed at his ignorance, 
 which .kidi^ced the 'captain to say, in the general order book of 
 the ship, that the 'proper r>rder to be given on an occasion allu- 
 ded to,> was to- say, ^^^ In royak and topgallant studding sails, 
 down fiyin<g jib." ' Th^e .smallest midshipman in the ship knew 
 
 this ; but Lt. S gs did not. As a scholar or mathameti- 
 
 cian he is far below mediocrity ; he may do well enough where 
 he is now, on board of a steamship, but he ought never to be 
 entrusted with the charge of the deck on board of any other 
 vessel. Poor creature, he would look upon men with sovereign 
 contempt, when he was on board the Lexington, who were 
 his superiors in every point except in rank ; but I will not ex- 
 pose him further, as my object is general good, not personal 
 injury. 
 
 The captain of the Lexington, when he was not angry, was 
 a kind-hearted man, and would extend every indulgence to his 
 crew. If a man carried him a requisition on the purser for 
 money he would always sign it, and never would deny a man 
 liberty to go on shore if he applied to him when he was in 
 good humor. Before the ship sailed from Norfolk, he allowed 
 ten or fifteen men to go on shore every night, and although 
 they had been newly shipped, and were in debt to the govern- 
 ment, only one deserted out of the whole crew. He went 
 upon the plan that a man who would desert was not worth 
 retaining, and carried this to an extreme extent on the coast of 
 Brazil. He said that he could not discharge the men in a for- 
 eign port, but he would give them liberty for ninety-nine years. 
 He could not pay them their wages, but he would let them buy 
 clothing from the purser to the amount of what was due them. 
 Under this plan many of the most valuable men left the ship, 
 and foreign musicians to the number of twenty-five were ship- 
 ped in their place. Those that left the ship in this manner 
 were marked upon the muster roll as deserters, while in 
 fact they were not, which was a fraud practiced to blind the 
 navy department to the true state of things. Captain D. was a 
 strictly temperate man, very rarely even drank wine, but he 
 would not punish a man for drunkenness who had not been 
 
NAVAL AND MERCHANT SERVICE. 103 
 
 guilty of any other offence ; and if a man took French liberty, 
 that is, went on shore without permission, if he returned of his 
 own accord, he would not be flogged. Those that stopped 
 their ration of spirits he directed the purser to pay them for it 
 every month, or when the ship arrived in port, which was an 
 excellent plan, and ought to be adopted in all our vessels of 
 war, in order to discountenance the use of ardent spirits until 
 some law is made upon the subject. Captain D. was too 
 severe in some cases, and too lenient in otliers, and the ship 
 became a perfect bedlam ; but fortunately he w^as relieved 
 by an officer the very reverse. Captain McKeever, and Lieu- 
 tenant Joseph Myers came out to join the ship, after we had 
 been upwards of a year upon the station ; the former as com- 
 mander, and the latter as first lieutenant, and a change soon took 
 place, so that there was less punishment, better discipline, 
 and more real happiness on board of her, than in any vessel 
 in which I have ever served. Were all commanders like Cap- 
 tain McKeever the navy w^ould never want seamen. I do not 
 think that there was ever a man that sailed with him who 
 would not be happy to do so again. The officer and gentle- 
 man were apparent in all that he did. He did not consider it 
 any disgrace to bring liberty men off with him in his gig, when 
 they were drunk and likely to be hurt by remaining on shore. 
 This, and a thousand other acts of kindness soon endeared him 
 to his men, who would have followed him, from love and 
 choice, to the cannon's mouth. It affords me pleasure to do 
 him a small portion of the justice that he deserves, for his 
 humanity and kindness to the men whom he was appointed to 
 command. The day that he joined the ship all hands were 
 called to muster; he addressed the crew for some time, and 
 then said, '' Drunkenness is the bane of every naval service, 
 and is the cause of much otherwise unnecessary punishment ; 
 were it not for this cause seamen would be taken into the 
 bosom of society and receive the same attention there that 
 others do ; but until they have laid aside that vice they must 
 be content to remain beyond the line that virtuous people have 
 drawn to prevent the approach of evil. Drunkenness is a 
 crime, (he continued) which I never will forgive, except where 
 
104 EVILS AND ABUSES IN THE 
 
 a man may have been on liberty. The government has vested 
 me with power to punish and forgive ; but lenity never will 
 be extended to those, who in open violation of the laws en- 
 acted for their good, wilfully commit this offence. In other 
 cases I shall be governed by the feelings of regard which I 
 must ever entertain for those whom I command, and to whom 
 I will allow all the privileges and liberty that the laws of the 
 service or the nature of the case will admit of. There is no 
 sentinel at my cabin door, and those who have any complaints 
 to make, or redress to seek, may come to me ; 1 am always 
 ready to listen to the one and redress the other ; and any man 
 who makes a complaint from ignorance, I shall endeavor to 
 convince, but never punish. If any one imagines that I have 
 done wrong I am ready to listen to, and will try to show him 
 that I have done right. All the by-laws and general orders 
 of my predecessor will remain in force, and when it becomes 
 necessary to alter any of them it shall be communicated to 
 you through the first lieutenant. Pipe down sir." This 
 address, for the above is the substance of it, had a good effect 
 upon the men, who swore at once that they loved him, and 
 that love increased as they became better acquainted with his 
 many virtues and amiable qualities. Punishment was a rare 
 occurrence afterwards ; months would pass by without a man 
 being on the report. A commodore came out, some time 
 after Captain McKeever joined the ship, to take command of 
 the squadron, and made the Lexington his flag ship ; he lived 
 on board of her, but left the entire command of the ship to the 
 captain. He said, one day in my hearing, that he would 
 always, when in command of a ship, take the master-at-arms' 
 report and punish all upon it, urging as a reason, that unless a 
 man deserved punishment he would not be confined by the 
 officer of the deck. Captain McKeever replied, " I will differ 
 with you, sir ; I am judge of the conduct of officers as well as 
 men, both are liable to err, and I shall always punish the one 
 as quick as I would the other." Tliis practice of punishing 
 from the report was but too common in the navy among those 
 old fellows who had crept into the cabin windows, but it is 
 daily becoming less so. Where officers of the deck are not 
 
NAVAL AND MERCHANT SERVICE. 105 
 
 allowed to punish men, they have the power to order them to 
 be confined in irons, and tell the master-at-arms what offence 
 they were guilty of. He then makes out a report, stating 
 the man's name, when he was confined, how, and by whom 
 confined, and his offence ; this report goes to the captain 
 daily, and fi'om it many have been in the habit of punishing 
 without hearing one word from the accused in mitigation of the 
 offence, and without being permitted to call any witness to 
 prove that he was not guilty. Indeed, I have seen a captain 
 come out of his cabin, order a man to strip and be flogged, 
 when the man could have proved that he was not the guilty 
 person ; but the captain would order him to keep silence, 
 under penalty of receiving a double punishment. When young 
 officers are on board of a ship with such a captain they often 
 give way to animosity or hatred, and have the objects of them 
 punished ; in proof of which, I will relate an occurrence of this 
 nature that I was informed took place on board the frigate 
 Potomac, when under the command of Commodore Downes. 
 A man had been confined in irons for being insolent to an offi- 
 cer, and was brought up before the commodore for punishment. 
 The commodore asked the officer if the man had been very 
 insolent to him, and he replied in the affirmative; "what did 
 you say to the officer, my man ?" continued the commodore, 
 addressing the accused. " 1 told him sir," said the man, putting 
 aside his grey hair, for he was old, " when he said ' God d — n 
 you, I'll jump down your throat,' that I did not want to take a 
 puke." " A very proper reply to such a remark," said the 
 commodore ; " go about your business." If Commodore 
 Downes did not afterwards censure the officer, he did enough 
 to show him that he disapproved of such language. 
 
 The legislators who framed the rules and regulations for the 
 navy, altered them very materially from the English laws ; they 
 thought that if British seamen could stand from one to six 
 hundred lashes, that there would be no danger in vesting a 
 court martial with power to inflict one hundred lashes on a sea- 
 man, and this they fixed as the greatest extent of their power. 
 And they supposed that punishments in such cases are inflicted 
 in a similar manner in both services, although ninety in a hun- 
 
106 EVILS AND ABUSES IN THE 
 
 dred of our naval officers of the present day think that the 
 mode and instrument of punishment are the same, which is 
 not the case. In the British navy, when a seaman is to be 
 punished, pursuant to the sentence of a court martial, he is 
 stripped and a kind of cushion fixed under his arms and round 
 his body and small of the back, which exposes only his shoul- 
 ders to the lash ; w^iereas in the American navy the culprit is 
 stripped to his waist, and seized up, and as the boatswain's 
 mates cannot always strike in one place, his whole back is cut 
 with the lash, including under his arms and upon the ribs, &lc., 
 which is extremely painful, as any seaman can testify who has 
 ever been flogged ; so that one hundred lashes in our service, 
 according to our mode, is as great an injury to the constitution, 
 and produces greater pain and suffering than four times- the 
 number would,' according to the English fashion. On this 
 subject none of our naval officers have ever spoken, which is 
 to be attributed to their ignorance of the fact, rather than any 
 wish to create greater suffering than the law allows in such 
 extreme cases ; but when the navy regulations are revised it is 
 
 to be hoped that this wnll not be overlooked. Captain S r 
 
 of the Warren supported charges against a man, in 1829, and 
 had him sentenced to receive the extreme of the punishment 
 allowed by the law. He struck an officer when he was drunk 
 on shore, and that officer had not the generosity to forgive him 
 for the offence. The man went through the squadron, receiv- 
 ing thirty-four lashes on board the Delaware, thirty -three on 
 board the Java, and thirty -three on board the Warren ; on board 
 the Delaw^are and Warren the punishment was inflicted as 
 severely as if he had to receive only one dozen, but on board 
 the Java, Captain Downestold the boatswain's mate to remem- 
 ber that the man had to go through the fleet. The man is 
 long since in his grave, and the officer who reported him was 
 dismissed because he could not pass an examination, after 
 receiving seven or eight year's pay in the navy. The cap- 
 tain passes for a religious character, but I wonder if his con- 
 duct on board the Warren showed it. The boatswain was a 
 stout man, and the captain was under the impression that ho 
 eould flog harder than his mates, and on one occasion ordered 
 
NAVAL AN1> MERCHANT SEHVldE. 10? 
 
 him to take the cats ; it was an unusual and improper order, 
 but he knew if he refused, that his captain would bring him to 
 a court martial for some offence or other, but he was determined 
 not to answer his expectations by being made the tool of tyran- 
 ny. The firsi lash the boatswain gave the man, the captain 
 ordered him to lay down the cats, observing that it would take 
 six dozen of such lashes to wake a man up. He would very 
 often ask a man if the dozen lashes that he had received 
 was as good as a glass of Castle street (in Mahon) bitters to him. 
 He despised drinking, and like many others, went to extremes 
 in preventing it. If such acts as he was guilty of on board 
 the Warren, are precepts inculcated by his religion, I hope 
 every captain in the American navy will steer clear of his 
 church. 
 
 Captain Marryatt says, in Midshipman Easy, " We have 
 pointed out errors which have existed, and still do exist, in a 
 service which is an honor to its country ; for what is there on 
 earth that is perfect, or into which, if it once was perfect, 
 abuses will not creep ? Unfortunately, others have written to 
 decry the service, and many have raised up their voices against 
 our writings, because they felt that in exposing error we were 
 exposing them." Here the case is different, I am exposing 
 individuals, and not the whole service. The medicine might 
 have the same benefit and be more palatable, in the form of 
 fiction, and not so likely to be refused or nauseated ; but that 
 species of writing cannot be attempted by a common seaman, 
 who is therefore compelled to have resource to plain matter of 
 fact. 
 
108 EVILS AND ABUSES IN THE 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 The United States ship Delaware taken out by Capt. Downes— the 
 commodore makes one cruise in her, and joins the Fairfield — the 
 treaty with the Turks concluded by Commodore Biddle — digression — 
 expenses of the Delaware, while laying in Mak on— injury to junior 
 officers, from that cause — the crew deprived of liberty, and abused — 
 the cons(3quences— the conimodore's conduct in Carthagena — his or- 
 ders, and reserved habits — his treatment of Commodore Staines — the 
 Warren — conduct of the captain and officers — kindness of Lieut. 
 Junius J. Boyle. 
 
 The United Stales ship of the line Delaware sailed from 
 Hampton Roads, for the Medlierranean, in the beginning of 
 the year 1828. She carried one of the Bonaparte family to 
 Leghorn, and then went to Port Mahon, when the commodore 
 transferred his flag to her, and Capt. Downes assumed the com- 
 mand of the frigate Java. Soon after this, the Delaware sailed 
 on a short cruise and returned to Mahon, where we found her, 
 on our arrival in the United States ship Fairfield. As soon as 
 we had watered ship, the commodore came on board of us, and 
 w-e carried him to Smyrna, for the purpose, it was said, of co- 
 operating with an envoy that we had carried out to negotiate 
 a treaty with the Turks, to have our trade extended into the 
 Black Sea. But both were unsuccessful, and it was left for 
 Commodore Biddle to accomplish w^hat diplomatists had tried 
 in vain. We carried that gallant little officer to Smyrna, some 
 time afterwards, in the Lexington ; from which place he took 
 a conveyance, and, accompanied by his secretary and Dr. Adee, 
 started for Constantinople. On his arrival there he soon as- 
 certained, that if he followed in the steps of those who had pre- 
 ceded him, he w^ould meet with the same success ; as on busi- 
 pess days, the sultan and his ministers were surrounded by the 
 British and other ambassadors, who would have gone further 
 to keep our trade out of the Black Sea, than we would to have 
 it extended there. Commodore Biddle saw, at a glance, how 
 matters stood, and that if he depended upon pressing his suit, 
 
NAVAL AND MERCHANT SERVICE. 109 
 
 on audience days, he would come out of the small end of the 
 horn. He soon found, or rather took, an opportunity to press 
 his suit, and was successful. He returned to Smyrna, after be- 
 ing absent only eight or ten days, where several merchant ves- 
 sels were waiting freight, and on hearing that the treaty was 
 signed, made sail for the Black Sea. So that the first intima- 
 tion the British minister had of the treaty being concluded, was 
 the sight of the stripes and stars waving off the sublime porte, on 
 their way to the Black Sea. This alone, if no other, ought to 
 show our government the propriety of entrusting such missions 
 oftener to our military and naval officers, who, by their educa- 
 tion and general knowledge, are better acquainted, and have a 
 great advantage over men whose merits but too often consist in 
 their successfully having supported their party — and whose 
 whole time and study have been devoted to that object, and 
 who are, very frequently, totally ignorant of the affairs, man- 
 ners and customs, of foreign courts. But alas ! of what am I 
 writing ? We well know, when a critter is killed in the slaugh- 
 ter house of the state, that there are enough of hungry dogs 
 always ready to devour, not only the choice cuts, but even the 
 neck, flanks, shin bones, and shank painters. If any of this 
 herd are dissatisfied with what may fall to their lot, they are 
 silenced by the head butcher, who tells them to be content with 
 what they get, and look for better next time. They are, gene- 
 rally, obedient curs, who stretch themselves before the shamble 
 door, with their bone between their fore paws, which they 
 never relinquisli until it is completely cleared of all nutritious 
 substance, or, at least, until they expect another, when it is left 
 to the more ignoble of their species, a swarm of which are 
 always in the back ground, ready to take the place of those 
 who become glutted to satiety. These latter generally consist 
 of petty postmasters, and dejjuty collectors, who do not collect 
 enough, very often, to pay them for their arduous services, and 
 the contempt that they receive from their fellow citizens; but 
 yet they must be paid, as they are very useful, especially about 
 election time, in picking up stragglers from the convoy, who 
 might otherwise fall into the hands of the enemy. Every shot 
 fired at that time, whether from a bum boat or ship of the line, 
 10 
 
110 EVILS AND ABUSES IN THE 
 
 tells. Perhaps the reader will say, especially if he is an office 
 holder, that I, being a sailor, had better confine myself to tar- 
 ring riggino^ and strapping blocks, than to be meddling with 
 politics. True, it is, that the former is not so dirty a job as the 
 latter, nor are people so well paid for it ; but yet I must have 
 my laugh at those who would dare to call themselves superior 
 to a poor son of the ocean. How I should like to see the office 
 holders mustered round the capstan, on a Sunday. My eye, 
 I reckon some of them would get their grog stopped, for being 
 dirty, or having uncombed locks. How they would look, if 
 paraded on Boston common, with the postmaster general, the 
 father of office holders, at their head. " Blue spirits and white, 
 green spirits and grey," all looking towards their leader, with 
 looks of filial love. 
 
 y " Honest, honest Amos! if that thou art a devil, 
 
 iy 1 cannot kill thee." 
 
 But avast heaving ; I must resume. We returned to Ma- 
 hon, in the Fairfield, after being absent six months. During 
 this time the Delaware had been laying in port, at an expense 
 of nearly $20,000 per month, exclusive of expenses of outfits 
 and wear and tear, keeping the schooner Porpoise running be- 
 tween Mahon and Gibraltar to supply her with small stores: 
 and if we wished foreigners to know that we had a ship of the 
 line on the station, we had to tell them so; for they never saw 
 her, unless they visited Mahon, where she lay snugly moored, 
 with upwards of nine hundred as brave officers and men on 
 board as ever trod a plank, cursing lethargy and indolence. At 
 length she got under way and made a cruise, which was her 
 second and last, during the whole two years that she was upon 
 . the station, and that was in laying off and on Cape de Gatt, 
 until we got short of water, and had to run into Carthagena for 
 a supply. 
 
 When we cannot employ our ships of v^ar in a more proper 
 manner than the Delaware was, during her first cruise, we had 
 better let them rot, at our navy yards, than be used to draw 
 money from the public, to be squandered amongst pimps and 
 prostitutes, in Port Mahon, and thereby corrupting both men 
 
NAVAL AND MERCHANT SERVICE. Ill 
 
 and officers. What experience could midshipmen get, on board 
 of that ship, to qualify them to perform the duties of lieuten- 
 ants ? Smart, indeed, must they have been, if they could learn 
 their duty, with the chances afforded them in that ship. A mid- 
 shipman is required to see three years' sea service, to entitle 
 him to an examination ; but they could have seen as much sea 
 service in a receiving ship, along side of a navy yard, as they 
 did in the Delaware. The consequence of her laying so long 
 in port, was, that nearly every officer got deeply in debt, and 
 had to get remittances from home, — and those who could not, 
 had to join other vessels and live upon their rations, until their 
 debts were paid ; and several were tried by a court martial, for 
 fraud, when Commodore Biddle took command of the squadron. 
 Nothing else could be expected, where young men were allowed 
 to go on shore every third day, in a port where beauty only 
 makes a victim more conspicuous, sets a higher price upon 
 prostitution, and where virtue is pandered for money, to the 
 highest bidder. I have said virtue. There is not such a word 
 in their whole vocabulary : the seeds of it are seldom or never 
 sown ; and if so, it is crushed in the bud, or before it can ripen 
 into maturity. This being the case, it could not be expected 
 that young officers would escape contamination, either of body 
 or mind. During the whole of this time the crew never had 
 liberty to go on shore ; while those of other ships, that did not 
 lay in port more than a month at a time, had liberty given them 
 frequently. Some of the officers of the Delaware did not hesi- 
 tate to blame Capt. Downes, for extending that indulgence to 
 his crew so often ; as they would come along side of the Dela- 
 ware in shore boats, when on liberty, which tended to make 
 her crew, who were deprived of such indulgence, more and 
 more discontented. But they ought to have looked at the 
 other side of the question, and let their disapprobation fall on 
 their own commodore, for denying his men what it was in his 
 power to have granted, without injury to the public service. 
 Liberty could not have been denied to that crew on the grounds 
 of the public requiring their services on board, or for fear of 
 their abusing it ; for it is well known, that the longer seamen 
 are pooped up within the narrow precincts of a vessel of war, 
 
112 EVILS AND ABUSES IN THE 
 
 the more likely they are to run into excesses, and abuse liberty, 
 when they get on shore. There was a combination of other 
 circumstances which tended to foster discontent on board of the 
 Delaware. For instance, one side of the head was reserved 
 for the marines and petty officers. Consequently, seven hun- 
 dred men had to use the other side, where the pump was, and 
 where all the cooks had to empty their dishwater and clean 
 their provision. Such petty and unnecessary annoyances were 
 very likely to make men discontented, who knew them to be 
 uncalled for and tyrannical. No person was allowed to remain 
 on the orlop deck, and none on the lower gun deck, except the 
 cooks ; the larboard side of the main deck was the parade of the 
 officers, and the starboard side was occupied with the commo- 
 dore's tailors, shoemakers, and cabinetmakers ; forward of these, 
 the carpenters' and armorers' benches were erected. The 
 starboard side of the spar deck was, of course, kept clear. The 
 marines, in uniform, occupied the larboard side of the quarter 
 deck — and the forecastle men, the larboard side of the forecas- 
 tle ; so that the space between the fore and mainmasts was all 
 that was left for the body of the crew, say five hundred men, 
 and there they were huddled together like a parcel of sheep, 
 from morning until night, without room to move. All the 
 iron stanchions between decks were burnished as bright as sil- 
 ver, so that every common seaman in the ship had to spend 
 two or three hours, every day, in polishing iron stanchions, 
 ring bolts, &;c. These were only a few of the abuses in this 
 ship. Flogging men with pickled cats, has been mentioned 
 elsewhere. An anonymous letter was written to the commo- 
 dore, setting forth the evils and abuses in existence on board 
 the ship. This letter he received, and gave it to the first lieu- 
 tenant, with a request to find out the author of it ; but the 
 abuses were not redressed. Some of those abuses may be 
 charged to the first lieutenant, but not all of them, by any 
 means; — and when the commodore received that letter, and 
 failed to correct the abuses complained of, or, in taking any 
 steps to find out whether they were real or imaginary, the 
 blame afterwards rested wholly with him ; and depriving the 
 men of liberty was an act of his own, entirely— as the first lieu* 
 
NA\rAt A^D MERCHANT SERVICE. 113 
 
 tenant, of himself, had not power to grant thena that indulgence. 
 I sailed with the first lieutenant, afterwards, when he became a 
 commander, and his treatment to his men then, gave the lie di- 
 rect to any who may have accused him of being the author of 
 the mean, tyrannical acts, on board of the Delaware. When 
 he commanded the sloop of war Concord, the crew were well 
 treated, and he paid much attention to their wants and comfort : 
 rarely, indeed, did he ever go to the extent of the law in pun* 
 ishing an offender ; and punishments, of any kind, on board of 
 that ship were few and far between. He was my friend, from 
 boyhood. I honored and esteemed him. With him I served 
 as boy, man, and officer ; but that would not induce me to utter 
 a sentiment which is not in unison with the truth, for he now 
 moulders in his parent earth. To him, blame and praise are 
 alike — he heeds them not ; but this heart, while it has a per- 
 ception remaining, will cherish his memory with sentiments of 
 respect and filial gratitude. The green sod now decks his 
 grave, but it will be watered by the tears of many a tar who 
 knew and loved him. 
 
 There are some officers in our navy who wish to command 
 rather from love than from fear, and who wish their men to 
 look upon them as their common father. But there are others 
 who would be considered as chiefs, before whom all must 
 tremble, and be obeyed from fear of the boatswain's mate's 
 arm, and the lash of the cat. Of the latter number was our 
 commodore. When one officer relinquishes the command of a 
 ship of war to another, it is customary before so doing, either 
 to punish or forgive persons who are charged with offences. 
 But when captain Downes gave up the command of the Dela- 
 ware this had not been done, probably at the instigation of the 
 Commodore who wished to let his crew know what they might 
 expect, by giving them a fore-taste of his iron rule. The side 
 was piped, the drum rolled, and the Commodore rolled or 
 hobbled over the gangway, as his flag fluttered at the mast- 
 head. He bowed to the officers, and directed the first lieut. to 
 bring up the prisoners, which was done, and he came to the 
 gangway with the report in his hand. " David Burns, boat- 
 swain's mate, I break you,'' said the commodore; " strip ; seize 
 10* 
 
114 EVILS AND ABUSES IN THE 
 
 him up, and boatswain's mate, do your duty." The man done 
 so, and received two dozen lashes, and in the same manner he 
 served the whole. One of them said, while undergoing the 
 torture, " Oh, commodore, do forgive me ; I will never get drunk 
 again." " If I forgive you,^^ said the commodore, " 1 hope God 
 will never forgive we." These were his words. All the pri- 
 soners were punished with two dozen each, without any parley, 
 or investigation as to the truth of the offences with which they 
 were charged. Many of them were petty officers, and the 
 crimes were generally drunkenness. Now it remains for the com- 
 modore to say in what part of the rules and regulations, made 
 by Congress for the better government of the navy, he derived 
 his authority to break petty officers that he had not rated, and 
 punish them with two dozen lashes. He violated the laws as 
 much by going beyond them to punish, (and thereby become 
 as great a criminal,) as the men he punished. 
 
 I will not attempt to analyze the motives by which the com- 
 modore was actuated in depriving the men of liberty for so 
 long a period, but confine myself to stating the results, which 
 were of a very alarming nature. On our arrival in Carthagena 
 the crew were very discontented, and as the utmost expedition 
 was used in watering the ship, they were harrassed a great deal. 
 When the last cask of water was ready to be hoisted out of the 
 launch, the crew run it up to the yard until the tackle was block 
 and block, and kept it suspended there for some time, then let it 
 go by the run upon deck. This was the first open act of dis- 
 affection that they evinced. The officers went among them to 
 find out the ringleaders, but their inquiries were answered by 
 sullen looks. For this they were kept without their hammocks 
 until ten o'clock at night, which, instead of allaying, increased 
 their discontent. A short time after our arrival in Mahon, 
 they respectfully asked leave to go on shore, to which they re- 
 ceived no definite answer ; at the same time the Java's men 
 were on liberty and sailing round the harbor, which tended to 
 foster the spirit of discontent that was ready to burst into open 
 mutiny. When the hands were turned to, one day, shoitly 
 after our arrival, the master's mate and boatswain, as usual, 
 went on the berth deck to drive the men up ; but four or five 
 
NAVAL AND MERCHANT SERVICE. 115 
 
 hundred of them refused to go, and triced up all the ladders 
 fore and aft, except the after one, to prevent any one doing so, 
 and swore venixeance aojainst all who dared to let thum down. 
 Word was carried to the first lieutenant that the crew were in 
 a state of mutiny. I was by his side when the report was 
 made. His countenance underwent a slight change, but his 
 compressed lips told that his resolution was taken. He went 
 down the after ladder and ordered the men on deck, who had 
 by this time collected in a body between the guns and abaft 
 the sick bay ; one of them said, " Mr. M , we want liber- 
 ty ; we have been on the station nearly two years and never 
 had any, while the crews of all other vessels have. Why can'i 
 we have the same ? what have we done ?" The first lieut. 
 replied in his usual tone, " This is a pretty way to get liberty 
 you rascals ; you ouglit to be ashamed to disgrace yourselves 
 in this way ; the commodore will give you liberty in proper 
 time ; let down the ladders and go on deck ; don't let me see 
 any more of such nonsense as this." They did as he ordered 
 them ; but had it not been for the coolness that he displayed, 
 and the light manner in which he treated their contempt for 
 the authority of the boatswain and master's mate, a scene 
 would have taken place that afternoon that would have dis- 
 graced our navy and caused the shedding of innocent blood. 
 If the first lieutenant had called the marines to drive them up 
 by force, as many officers would have done, that would have 
 been the signal for a general revolt. The muskets would have 
 been taken from the marines before they could have fixed their 
 bayonets, and would have been used against them. 
 
 If the commodore had become decrepid from excesses, and 
 could not enjoy pleasure, either on board or on shore, that was 
 not any reason why he should have deprived the seamen under 
 him from doing so, or that he should have endeavored to make 
 those around him as miserable as he was himself. If he envied 
 them the good health and strength that they were enjoying, 
 he ought to have reflected that tiie same would have been his 
 lot if he had not indulged too far in luxuries which will debili- 
 tate and impair the strongest mind and constitution ; '' it is the 
 curse of greatness." Seamen who earn their bread by hard 
 
116 liVlLS AND abuses tJJTHEl 
 
 labor, are never troubled with the gout, their faculties, of both 
 body and mind, remain unimpaired to the last. Not so with 
 many officers ; they become a burthen to themselves and an an- 
 noyance to those around them, even while they ought to be 
 in the prime of life. Such men have many griefs, yet meet 
 with no compassion. Look at those whose whole pleasure 
 and enjoyment consists in the delicacy of the wine and the 
 sumptuousness of the board. Their hours of jollity and riot 
 are followed by tedious days of pain and dejection, they de- 
 bauch and pall their appetites ; from votaries they become 
 victims, the just and natural consequences which God has or- 
 dained in the constitution of things for those who abuse his 
 gifts. They become enfeebled, and pampered with luxury, 
 softened by sloth, strength soon forsakes their limbs, and health 
 their constitution. How different seamen are ? they continue 
 healthy and active until they are taken from the world. 
 
 [ will pursue matters still further, and show what little things 
 great men will sometimes be guilty of. I wish perfectly to be 
 understood. There are no insinuations in this chapter, nor in 
 any others of the book ; all is intended that the words convey, 
 and nothing more. I should shrink from making any assertions 
 in this public manner that I did not know to be truth, and I too 
 would scorn to bow the knee to any great-little man, because 
 he was high in office ; or keep any thing from the public which 
 should be known to it. With this explanation I will proceed 
 to relate some occurrences which took place on board of the 
 Delaware while in Carthagena. ,On our arrival in that port 
 the news spread rapidly that an American ship of the line had 
 arrived. Thousands flocked to see her, as it is, or was seldom 
 that any of our vessels of war touched there. 
 
 Many of the Spaniards were no doubt allured to visit her 
 from the recollection that she came from the New World, dis- 
 covered by those under their flag, and which discovery had so 
 greatly tended to exalt them as a nation. Such recollections 
 were calculated to call forth the latent spirit of the once proud 
 Spaniard, to the days when their country's flag waved over a 
 new continent, and which brought to their treasury the gold 
 and gems that made them the most powerful nation in Europe^ 
 
NAVAL AND MERCHANT SERVICE. 117 
 
 For the first two days after our arrival, great numbers flock- 
 ed to see the ship, and on the last of our stay there was a per- 
 fect fleet of boats around her from morning until sundown. The 
 visitors were of the most respectable class, for no others could 
 afford to pay for a conveyance, so great was the demand for 
 boats. The governor and suite also visited her. with a great 
 number of military officers, and received a salute ; and again 
 came on board attended by a number of ladies and gentlemen 
 of the first rank. But none of these were received by the com- 
 modore, who confined himself to his cabin. The officers as a 
 matter of course, w^ished to show the governor and party every 
 part of the ship, and obtained permission to show them the cabin. 
 But the commodore had no idea that they should see him, for 
 after directing refreshments to be placed upon the table, he 
 withdrew to one of the state-rooms, as a bear would into a hol- 
 low tree. The Spaniards were his equals in rank, and if so, 
 what kept him from showing them the courtesy and attention 
 which common decency demanded ? During this time the first 
 lieut. had directed the officer of the deck to cease hoisting in 
 the w^ater, as the decks were so crowded with strangers, that 
 the men in running fore and aft with the yard and stay tackles 
 were running over them. The commodore soon ascertained 
 the cause of the cessation, and as his orders were commonly 
 written upon slips of paper, one to the following effect w^as 
 handed to the first lieut. by the orderly at the cabin door. 
 
 " Sir, — The work of the ship must not be stopped, if we are 
 to be visited by the royal family. 
 
 To Lieut. M. P. M." 
 
 The launch was again brought to the gangway and the 
 operation of hoisting in the water commenced, regardless of 
 the consequences. So great was the desire to see the ship, 
 that nobility from the interior of the country, even came on board 
 in the poorest fishing boats, sooner than be disappointed in the 
 object of their visit to the city. Never have 1 seen so many 
 boats around any one vessel. On returning from the shore in 
 a boat, I could not get near the gangway, but stepped from 
 one boat to another for upwards of a hundred yards, to get on 
 board. On the afternoon of the third day, a great many ladies 
 
118 EVILS AND ABUSES IN THE 
 
 were on board ; the band was turned up, and the officers and 
 ladies were dancing on tiie main deck and in the ward-room ; 
 but another note from the commodore ended that amusement. 
 
 " Sir, — 1 believe our worthless band to be the cause of so 
 many visitors. 
 
 To Lieut. M. P. M." 
 
 On the receipt of this, the band was dismissed, but the offi- 
 cers tried by every means in their power to make up for the 
 want of courtesy of their commodore, and succeeded ; for a finer 
 set of fellows never went on board of a ship. Tjieut. J. S. P. 
 was a perfect master of the Spanish and French languages, and 
 
 Lieut. E. B. commonly called Ned B ns could speak no 
 
 tongue but English, and yet he was so lively a dog that 
 every one could understand him without an interpreter, for the 
 governor's lady declined the assistance of Lieut J. S. P. in that 
 
 capacity, declaring that she perfectly understood Mr. B , 
 
 and preferred his company without the presence of a third per- 
 son. Lieuts. L. M. G. and J. S. C. were also on board, and 
 were calculated to shine in any company. All was joy and 
 pleasure, until another of the commodore's orders came along. 
 The water had by this time been all got on board, and the or- 
 der ran as follows : 
 
 " Sir, — You will unship the side ladder, pass the messenger, 
 and prepare the ship for sea. 
 
 To Lieut. M. P. M." 
 
 The first lieut. said be would delay unshipping the side lad* 
 der for twenty minutes, to enable the officers to get the visitors 
 out of the ship. During this time the master's mates, master 
 at arms and ship corporals, were hurrying the more humble part 
 over the side. But at the end of the appointed tinje, a num- 
 ber of ladies and gentlemen were in the ward-room, and deli- 
 cacy forbade the officers telling them that their absence would 
 be more agreeable than their company. The twenty minutes 
 expired. The yard and stay tackles were hooked on to the 
 gangway ladder, and it was swung in-board, leaving the Dela- 
 ware's side apparently inaccessible, and frowning with the muz- 
 zles of heavy pieces of artillery. To obviate this difficulty a 
 
Naval and merchant service. 119 
 
 chair was rigged, and the ladies got over the side in that man- 
 ner. Some of the officers, however, may remember an occur- 
 rence that took place that evening. A very pretty Spanish 
 girl, of fifteen, had been very gay and witty all the afternoon, 
 and appeared to be much pleased ; she got into the chair, the 
 word was given, and she swung over the hammocks suspended 
 from the main yard, at which she was so excited as to spring 
 a le — (I almost said it.) Lieut. G. was in the boat, ready to 
 take her out, and was sprinkled with something, — no matter 
 what, — suffice it to say, it was not eau de cologne, at least so 
 went the report ; whether it was only a yarn of Mr. B.'s or 
 not, your deponent saith not. 
 
 A splendid party was given at the governor's that evening, 
 to which our officers were invited, and the next day we made 
 sail for Cape de Gatt again. Why we could not have re- 
 mained a few days longer in Carthagena, instead of returning 
 to Mahon, must be answered by the commodore. In the for- 
 mer place there was the best society, and our young officers 
 could have been both amused and instructed ; but in the latter 
 there w^as no society, and the very air was pregnant with pros- 
 titution and wickedness. 
 
 When the commodore wished to visit the once celebrated 
 arsenal in Carthagena he went early in the morning, when the 
 officers could not pay the respect to him that they could have 
 wished, had they been aware of his visit. He appeared to 
 shun receiving all marks of respect, as the acerbity of his 
 nature would not allow him to return them. When he was on 
 board of the Fairfield, in Smyrna, it was well known to all 
 the English officers that he was on board, although he did not 
 hoist his broad pendant. Commodore Staines, of the British 
 frigate Isis visited the Fairfield, but our commodore hid himself 
 in the quarter gallery, and left the captain to receive him and 
 return his visit. This slight to Commodore Staines was, no 
 doubt, felt by him, and wondered at. Commodore Staines was 
 very nearly the equal of our commodore in rank, and in years, 
 service, and brilliant actions, he was vastly his superior. When 
 our governrrent cannot find officers to command our squadrons 
 on foreign stations, who are willing to give and receive those 
 
ISO EVILS AND ABUSES IN THE 
 
 visits which are so productive of benefit, and which tend to a 
 cultivation of intimacy and friendship between our officers and 
 those of other nations, it would be better to keep them at 
 home, and save the expense of supporting them abroad. If 
 such men have got into ilie service, keep them at home, in 
 navy yards, where their high flown, aristocratic notions will be 
 repaid by tlie contempt of their fellow citizens, who, of all 
 others, know how best to treat men who are guilty of such little 
 mean acts. 
 
 I joined the Warren for a few months, in 1829, under the 
 
 command of Captain H r ; here the same rules were in 
 
 existence as on board the Fairfield. Every officer of the deck 
 was allowed to flog who, and when he pleased, and there was 
 one (who was afterwards tried by a court martial, for similar 
 acts and suspended for two years, which induced him to resign) 
 who never had the deck but what he would flog some person ; 
 if he only relieved another officer to his meals he would pick 
 a fault and flog some person before he went below. Several 
 of the other officers carried a high hand, but they were not so 
 destitute of humane feelings as he. 
 
 We lay in Smyrna during the winter, when it was very cold, 
 but the moment that the sound was out of the bell at four 
 o'clock, A. M. the pipe was in the boatswain's mouth to pipe 
 the hammocks up ; then it would be either wash clothes, scrub 
 hammocks, or holy stone decks, although it was not daylight 
 until after six o'clock. Every man had to strip off his shoes 
 and stockings and walk about in the cold water for three hours ; 
 and all this exposure might have been avoided. At the same 
 time the crew of the Java weie not turned out of their ham- 
 mocks until seven o'clock. 
 
 The captain, when a man was reported to him, never pun- 
 ished with less than two dozen lashes ; and that too for an 
 offence of which none were oftener guilty than himself. He 
 would flog a sailor for being drunk, when his own eyes were 
 blood-shot, and he was suffering from the effects of the previous 
 night's debauch. Happy am I to state that there was one 
 officer on board, who by his kindness and humanity, redeemed, 
 in part, the obloquy attached to the whole. His name was 
 
NAVAL AND MERCHANT SERVICE. 121 
 
 J, J. Boyle, and a better fellow never drew the breath of life ; 
 he felt as much pain in punishing a man, as his messmates did 
 pleasure in doing the same thing. If he called one man to do 
 any duty, twenty were ready to jump to do his bidding. There 
 are many such officers growing up in the navy ; but, on the 
 other hand, there are many who are of a very different disposi- 
 tion. On one occasion, a negro lost the dirt tub overboard, 
 and the captain, who was walking the poop, ordered a boat to 
 pick it up, and directed Mr. Boyle, who had the deck, to pun- 
 ish the man for losing it by accident, Mr. Boyle did so ; but 
 he only made the boatswain's mate give him two lashes, and 
 told him that the next time he would get as much again. 
 Had some of his brother officers been in his stead, the poor 
 negro w^ould have got a dozen or more. There was a lieuten-7 
 ant on board, W. P. P., who took delight in whipping the 
 cook's mate upon all occasions ; but he never could draw any 
 demonstration of pain from the lips of the black. He flogged 
 him over the back and the seat of honor, but with the same 
 success. At length he made him stand upon the side ladder 
 and directed the boatswain's mate to flog him over the shins ; 
 this was the negro's tender part, and he shouted from pain. 
 
 " Ha, you d d nigger, I have found out your heart, have 
 
 I ?" at the same time smiling in savage barbarity, and looking 
 forward to the men for approval for his ingenuity, but in their 
 looks he read nothing but hatred and scorn. After an act like ) 
 this, let our northern people talk about slaves and slave-driversJ 
 In this chapter I have not given names in full, but any officer 
 who was in the navy eleven years ago, knows who are in- 
 tended — and my object is to show that abuses exist and, where , 
 they have taken place, without wishing to lay the names of the 
 authors before the public. 
 
 To account for my being in so many vessels in the Medi- 
 terranean, I must state that I went out in the Fairfield, joined 
 the Delaware with Lieut. M. P. M,, and when she sailed for the 
 United States, I went on board the Lexington. Shortly after- 
 wards Capt. H r, of the Lexington, took command of the 
 
 Warren, and took twelve men with him, of which I was on^^ 
 11 
 
1221 EVILS AND ABUSES IN THE 
 
 He again took the Lexington, and we returned with him, and 
 came to Norfolk in her in November, 1830. 
 
 Relative to the notes or orders of the commodore, which 
 are inserted here, I have to say that I was about the person of 
 the first lieutenant, and saw these orders and many others that, 
 I forbear inserting, in this edition at least, and I kept a journal 
 during the whole ten years that I was in the navy, and by that 
 means I am enabled to refer to facts which otherwise might 
 have escaped the memory ; and this may account for my being 
 so particular as to dates, &ic. Without this explanation, the 
 reader may think that I have colored from fiction instead of 
 drawing from facts. 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 Receiving ships — what they ought to be — Hudson—Columbus — 
 
 Congress — The Java, and Lieut. S r — his drunkenness, abuse, 
 
 tyranny, and oppression— lines written to him — Lewis an<l Lieut. 
 S r & Co. — Scandal — Lieut. S r — his character — his bad ex- 
 ample to junior officers— slaves held on board the Java, contrary to 
 law, and their masters receiving their pay. 
 
 It is generally believed that first impressions are the most 
 lasting. If this is the case, great care ought to be taken in se- 
 lecting the officers for our receiving ships ; for if any thing hap- 
 pens to give a man a distaste for the service, when he enters it, 
 it will be found very difficult to eradicate that impression or dis- 
 taste ; so that receiving ships, of all others, ought to be well 
 regulated and conducted. I know of no better method to do 
 this, than to have their commanders live on board of them, with 
 their families. This was the case when I was on board of the 
 receiving ship Hudson, at New York, and I believe that the 
 same is the case on board the Columbus, at Charlestown navy 
 yard. The lady of the captain, even of a sea-going vessel, if 
 she went with him, would be productive of much good. She 
 would be a bridle on the tongues of officers, as well as on their 
 actions, if they were disposed to indulge in abuse or oppression ; 
 
NAVAL AND MERCHANT SERVICE." 123 
 
 for no man would heedlessly forfeit the good opinion of a virtuous 
 lady. Many officers are of opinion that they must dress better 
 when there is a lady on board ; but every person, unless a fop, 
 must know that a sensible female's good opinion is not to be 
 purchased by a showy appearance : w^omen generally look for 
 something more substantial than a handsome coat and gaudy 
 dress. It has been said, rather unjustly, that women are 
 troublesome on board of a vessel of war; but all the little 
 trouble they would cause, would be amply repaid by the re- 
 straint that their presence would impose upon those who were 
 in any way disposed to trifle with or abuse the authority with 
 which the law had vested them. On board the Hudson, at 
 New York, we had several hundred men on board at different 
 times. Punishment was seldom inflicted, and never, when it 
 could by any means be avoided. Citizens were allowed to 
 come on board, and visit any of their friends or acquaintance 
 that might be in the ship ; and the same is the case at the yard 
 in Charlestown. By this means the crews are made to expe- 
 rience as much happiness as their situation is capable of 
 allowing. 
 
 In order that I may be understood by the landsmen, I must 
 state, that receiving ships are vessels which are kept near the 
 navy yards, to receive men from the rendezvous, and keep 
 them until they are required to go on board of some vessel for 
 active service. What are termed ordinary men, also live on 
 board of them. They are persons shipped for the navy, gene- 
 rally landsmen ; they do not go to sea, but are usually em- 
 ployed in the navy yard, or on board of vessels not in com- 
 mission. 
 
 When I was on board the receiving ship Congress, at Norfolk, 
 In 1831, the captain did not live on board, but the first lieutenant 
 did, and had his wife with him, and there was little punishment 
 on board of her. When I returned to that place again, in 1834, 
 every thing had changed. The Java was receiving ship ; the 
 captain lived on shore, and the first lieutenant lived on board — 
 yet he had no wife, — and I do not believe that any woman, 
 well acquainted with him, would think the offer of his hand a 
 compliment. He was a man totally unfitted for the station. 
 
124 EVILS AND ABUSES IN THE 
 
 He was forbid, by the general orders, to punish any person, on his 
 own authority ; yet he often violated the orders, and was the most 
 abusive, tyrannical officer, that I ever knew. He would not 
 hesitate to couple God's name with curses and profane oaths, 
 and hi the same breath would blast the honor of a man's mother, 
 on the most trivial occasions, when the captain was absent. In 
 truth, he was so ignorant as to suppose that this was the only 
 way to make himself obeyed and respected, and thought that 
 such conduct was proof of a good officer. Vain man ! had he 
 only known the utter contempt felt for him, by the men whom 
 he looked upon as inferiors, he would have sunk into the earth, 
 with a sense of his own littleness. From him there was no 
 appeal. He had the ear of the captain, which he poisoned 
 with falsehoods against the men, — and no man dared to write 
 to the commodore, who was perhaps ignorant of his conduct, — 
 and the secretary of the navy could not be addressed but 
 through the commodore ; so from the barriers that were placed 
 between men and redress, he reigned secure. In order to show 
 the opinion formed of him by the crew, some man, who had a 
 smattering of education, wrote the following lines on him, which 
 he found out, and ascribed to me ; and, like many better men, 
 I had to lay under the weight of another's bad writings, which 
 made me no favorite with him ; and anxiously did he look, in 
 vain however, for an opportunity to bring me to the gangway. 
 
 Lines to A. G. S r., First Lieut, of the Frigate Java, 
 
 On ocean's brine, to place a swine, 
 
 Dame Nature once bethought Iier ; 
 But then, again, she changed her plan, 
 
 And from the swine she made a man, 
 And called him A. G. S r. 
 
 This nondescript the sailors whip'd, 
 
 Because it was his notion ; 
 But ne'er could learn to take his turn 
 
 At watch, upon the ocean. 
 
 The boatswain's mates he roundly rate^, 
 
 And calls them sons of b es, 
 
 If their crack should fail to break 
 
 The purser's good sound stitches, 
 
NAt^AL AND MERCHANT SERVICE. 125 
 
 For nine long years his name appears, 
 
 As a reefer^ in our navy, 
 Till by a chance, he met advance, t 
 
 And now struts on board the Java. 
 
 The galley cooks, his sour looks 
 \ Must patiently endure, 
 
 Save he who makes his good pound cakes — 
 Old Lewis, to be sure. 
 
 The rhyme was much longer, but I presme this is enough 
 for the reader's amusement. That he was ignorant of his duty 
 as a seaman, was well known to every person ; and the old 
 Lewis alluded to was his cook, who was allowed to bring things 
 on board to sell to the men, for the pound cakes and other 
 
 good things that he made for Lieut. S r. Many did not 
 
 hesitate to say that he and the darJcey were in company, in the 
 bum boat line, as it was a monopoly business ; for none were 
 allowed to carry it on but Lewis. But this, of course, was only 
 slander, in consequence of the hatred felt by our citizens for a * 
 monopoly, of any kind. The pound cakes were, no doubt, all 
 
 that Lieut. S r received for the charter to Lewis. But Lewis 
 
 and his friend at last quarrelled, as partners will sometimes do. 
 Lewis's trade was stopped, and he brought in a bill against his 
 silent partner, for the pound cakes consumed by him ; and how 
 far the affair would have went it would be hard to say. Lieut. 
 S r threatened to use the colt, and Lewis escaped by vol- 
 unteering as Commodore Dallas's cook, and thereby the bill 
 
 for the cakes was lost. Lieut. S r would sometimes come 
 
 forward when under the influence of liquor, which was about 
 every evening, and try to make the men sing to him — as Saul 
 made David do, when he was possessed of the evil spirit ; but 
 few were willing to humor him, except one who had stolen his 
 
 shipmate's blankets, and was forgiven by Mr. S r, and he 
 
 thought it would show his gratitude by singing for his amuse- 
 
 * A midshipman. 
 
 t Lieut. S r was not examined, and passed, as is the custom at present. 
 
 He received an acting appointment as lieutenant, and it was confirmed by 
 the department, before the law went into force respecting the examination 
 of midshipmen, 
 
 11* 
 
126 EVILS AND ABUSES IN THE 
 
 ment, — and as the man was compelled to give back the stolen 
 
 blankets, Mr. S r gave him two, of his own. On other 
 
 occasions, when the men were singing for their own amusement, 
 he would knock them off and drive them to their hammocks. 
 One evening, a little after sunset, when I was in the netting, 
 throwing out the men's hammocks, (1 was then rated gunner's 
 
 mate,) Lieut. S r was brought on board, by two persons, 
 
 in a beastly state of intoxication — so drunk that he could not 
 walk. He was carried below, and the same evening he sent 
 his servant on shore to bring on board a mulatto girl, well 
 known to every seaman and marine as a common low prosti- 
 tute. This happened about eight o'clock, and the sentinel de- 
 tained her in the gangway until the corporal of the guard passed 
 
 her in by orders from Lieut. S r. I will not follow the 
 
 pair to the cabin, nor repeat the reports current next day 
 among the servants and quarter masters, as it would not be be- 
 lieved of a commissioned officer, nor, of any man who has the 
 standing in society that our officers of the navy have ; more- 
 over, it would shock delicate ears. He was cowardly and ig- 
 norant. He insulted a gentleman, who challenged him ; yet he 
 refused to meet him, as he was not his equal in rank, but pre- 
 ferred charges against him, and had him broke by a court mar- 
 tial. The President of the United States, however, reinstated 
 him. Of drunkenness, in the worst sense of the word, 1 do 
 
 accuse Lieut. S r, fairly and openly, and am ready to prove 
 
 it against him. He returned from the Straits, in the United 
 States ship of the line Delaware, in 1829, and did not go to 
 sea again until some time in 1837. He always had some ex- 
 cuse to beg off with, when ordered to sea. To sum up the 
 man's character in a few words, he was the terror of subordi- 
 nates, and the sycophant of superiors — by turns the mastiff and 
 the spaniel. It needs no inspiration to predict, that he will 
 through life be detested, unlamented in death, and in the grave 
 forgotten. 
 
 While I was on board the Java some persons were always 
 at work for him, rigging little ships, making mats, or some 
 other such things, to present to his acquaintances. The 
 last time I was on board three men were employed for upwards 
 
NAVAL AND MERCHANT SERVICE. 127 
 
 of a month on one small model of a vessel of war for him, 
 while others were employed in the navy yard. The aged or 
 infirm were compelled to labor in the yard daily, unless upon 
 the sick list, while he could employ several men at his own 
 private work. His conduct and treatment of the crew of the 
 Vandalia and others have created a hatred against him, among 
 seamen, that no after conduct can atone for. The authority 
 that he gave men so destitute of principle as his aids, Webster 
 and Goodhues, cannot be looked over : they were allowed to 
 carry rattans with bullets on the ends of them, and knock 
 down and confine in irons whoever they pleased. Had hell 
 been raked with a fine tooth comb, two such villains would not 
 have been found. They are so contemptible, so much below 
 everything deserving of notice, that I will not prostitute my 
 pen by describing them. Many young officers were on board 
 
 that vessel, attached to the naval school, for whom S r 
 
 was a pretty model ; had a parent known his son in such a den 
 he would have torn him from it as from the flames. You 
 never dreamed, vain drunkard, that when you were uttering 
 menaces at which the poor creatures under you trembled, that 
 there was one there who would hold you up in your true colors 
 to the public, w^iose laws you have violated, and whose un- 
 worthy servant you are. Deny not a word I have said, or I 
 will brand you with more, and produce proofs, if you raise 
 your voice to gainsay me. It may have been possible that the 
 commodore of the yard was ignorant of these things, but he 
 is not ignorant of the law which declares that no slave or per- 
 son liable to be sold as a slave, shall be borne on the books of 
 any vessel of the U. S. navy, and he knows that there were 
 slaves on board the Java, that their masters received their pay, 
 and that slaves are employed in the navy yard as laborers, to 
 the exclusion of white people and free persons of color. From 
 what has been stated it will appear that the defect is not so 
 much in the laws as in the abuse of them. 
 
133 EVILS AND ABUSES IN THE 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 Flogging seamen in the navy and merchant service — injury there- 
 from in the latter— difference between English and American laws re- 
 specting seamen — want of redress for common sailors who have been 
 maltreated and abused — whalers — their w^ant of seamen — their adver 
 tisements — young men's prospects who ship in them — number of sea- 
 men confined in Boston jail previous to the 15th of May, 1839, and for 
 what cause — crew of the Shylock — their wrongs, trial, acquittal, and 
 recovery of their wages. 
 
 Our citizens have repeatedly expressed their disapprobation 
 of corporeal punishment in the navy, in explicit terms, and 
 several plans have been proposed to discontinue it, by substitu- 
 ting some other in its stead less degrading, and more in accord- 
 ance with the principles of a free government. For this kind 
 of punishment in the navy v^e have a precedent from all the 
 maritime powers of Europe ; yet that does not cause our citi- 
 zens to view it with less horror and disgust ; but for punish- 
 ment by the lash in the merchant service, we have no prece- 
 dent whatever. To our everlasting disgrace be it told, that we 
 are the first nation in the world that have authorized the mas- 
 ters of merchant ships to enforce obedience, or correct seamen 
 by whipping them with a rope's end, and we should blush to 
 confess that it either should he given or used. Never let 
 American citizens in the northern states rail at slavery, or the 
 punishment inflicted on slaves, or say that it is wrong, so long 
 as their own sons, their own flesh and blood, their own seamen, 
 their own free citizens, and the men to whom they look for 
 protection in case of w^ar, are daily subject to the same treat- 
 ment as the slaves, whose degraded situation in the southern 
 states calls forth, so justly, the warmest sensibilities of the 
 heart and nature of philanthropists. The late John Randolph 
 openly declared, in the legislative halls of Congress, that he had 
 witnessed more flogging on board the vessel of war that carried 
 him to Russia, in a few months, than had taken place during 
 ten years on his plantation, where there were five hundred 
 
NAVAL AND MERCHANT SERVICE. 129 
 
 slaves. This was asserted in the presence of our most en- 
 lightened statesmen, without any motion being made to inquire 
 into, or correct the abuse. Oh, Americans, to what are you 
 coming ! the blood of your ancestors is turned to water in your 
 veins. Those who exclaim loudest against slavery, had better 
 turn their attention to objects of suffering and benevolence at 
 home, before they look for them abroad, hundreds of whom 
 will be found to stand as much in need of their assistance, 
 and emancipation from the yoke of tyranny and oppression, as 
 the swarthy sons and daughters of Africa. At present, mas- 
 ters of merchant vessels are vested with greater authority than 
 the magistrates or judges, and with the same power as the 
 negro driver, or slaveholder, who has so often been stigmatized 
 with the epithets of tyrants and brutes, by a society whose 
 object is declared to be equal rights and privileges to all, and 
 yet these men pass by the seaman, whom they daily see in 
 the streets, and who is liable to, and often receives worse treat- 
 ment than the slave, in whose behalf so many petitions have 
 been presented, and such efforts been made as have nearly 
 turned one half of the union against the other ; if such men 
 want objects of compassion, and their object is the welfare of 
 mankind, let them turn to the common seaman. As long as 
 this suffering class are permitted to remain as they now are, 
 the efforts of anti-slavery societies can pass for nothing more 
 than a wish on their part to join in the cry raised by individuals 
 in Great Britain, who knew as little of slavery as their breth- 
 ren on this side of the Atlantic. '^ Those who live in glass 
 houses should be careful how they throw stones." Those who 
 rail at negro slavery should take care that none of their own 
 servants are receiving the treatment of slaves. 
 
 A judge, with whose abilities and qualifications the public 
 are well acquainted, and who has risen to that station by merit 
 and integrity, has not the power delegated to him that the 
 master of a merchant vessel has ; the former are men of probity 
 and honor, the latter, in many cases, are destitute of either, 
 and very often ignorant and dissipated, raised from the very 
 dregs of society, often, by some chance rather than merit ; a 
 master of a vessel to-day, and by the word from an owner. 
 
130 EVILS AND ABUSES IN THE 
 
 reduced to a common seaman to-morrow ; often governed by 
 neither humane nor moral principles, and slaves to their own 
 passions ; yet they have greater power than any man in the 
 United States. No judge can order a lash to be inflicted on a 
 citizen or alien, yet the master of a merchant vessel can be 
 the accuser, the judge, and the executor of his own sentence ; 
 seize to the rigging and flog any seaman who may have, even 
 through ignorance, violated any of his orders ; that person may 
 have received honorable scars in defence of your country and 
 rights, and yet he may be flogged like a dog. This is not a 
 law that sleeps in the statute book, it is daily put in force, 
 under a flag which is declared to be the emblem of liberty, 
 It has cost merchants and ship owners millions of dollars, and 
 citizens their lives. And it fosters mutiny, revolt, and shipwreck. 
 Thousands of our citizens are not aware of this execrable law, 
 as the victims of it cannot make known their sufferings ; they 
 hear of mutinies and rev^olts, but can form no just opinion as 
 to the cause. Punishments in pursuance of this law, do not 
 take place in our harbors, but they are perpetrated on the bosom 
 of the wave, or in foreign ports, and reach not the American 
 public ; those who suffer from it are driven on shore, in nine 
 cases out of ten, and if ever they reach the United States it 
 may be too late to seek redress ; no matter how severe or 
 unjust their sufferings may have been, the perpetrator is gone 
 to commit anew fresh outrages, or witnesses to prove that the 
 punishment was unjust, are wanting, and the poor seaman must 
 suffer his wrongs in silence. Where is the parent that will 
 suffer his son to go to sea if he is aware of the existence of 
 such a law ? He would sooner see him dead at his feet 
 than liable to such treatment. Not one in fifty of our seamen 
 are aware of the existence of a law which authorizes a master 
 of a vessel to flog them ; and hence arises the mutinies and 
 revolts of which we daily read. Seamen know that they are 
 born free, and freemen will never submit to the lash of slavery. 
 Why is not this law expressly stated in a ship's printed articles 
 or shipping paper ? It dare not be done, no American worthy 
 of the name, would ever affix his name to an agreement that 
 would vest another with power to flog him, and that too by 
 
NAVAL AND MERCHANT SERVICE. 131 
 
 men of no character or standing, and governed by no prin- 
 ciple, but their own caprice. 
 
 It is admitted, to their everlasting disgrace, that in England / 
 and America, seamen are treated with greater brutality than inf 
 any other country ; but in this respect we have far outstrippedi 
 the former country. The government of Great Britain is aris- 
 tocratic and ours is democratic, but the former has never vested 
 the masters of their merchant ships with power to flog their 
 seamen. The celebrated East India company's ships, which 
 vied with the British navy, and whose officers wore uniforms 
 and were descended from the first families in the kingdom, were 
 never vested with the power of inflicting punishment by the 
 lash on the seamen in their employ ; they applied for that 
 authority in vain ; there was spirit and freedom enough in the 
 British senate to treat the application with scorn and contempt, 
 yet America, which declares freedom to be inseparable from 
 her soil, has granted what an aristocratic government withheld. 
 The East India company's officers did flog their men, but were 
 invariably sued, and heavy damages recovered. I was in 
 London in 1824, when a seaman received two hundred and 
 forty pounds sterling as damages for having received twenty- 
 four lashes on board of one of their ships. The officers well 
 knew that if sued in a court of justice heavy damages would 
 be recovered, and in order to meet this, had a fund to which 
 every one subscribed a certain sum, and from this fund the 
 damages were paid. In London the doctors commons are 
 ever ready to take up such prosecutions, but in our country, 
 when a seaman comes home, unless he has money, he cannot 
 get a suit entered against the wretch who has abused him and 
 trampled on his rights, even if he should have the witnesses 
 to prove that the punishment he received was severer than the 
 offence required ; and of this fact masters of merchant vessels 
 are well aw^are. In the English merchant service such a thing 
 as flogging is unknown, a master of a vessel dare not attempt 
 it. There was a villain who had command of a merchant 
 vessel out of Greenock, who committed some offence of the 
 kind, some years ago ; the crew rose and deprived him of the 
 command, confined him in the main top, night and day, until 
 
132 EVILS AND ABUSES IN TKH 
 
 the vessel arrived home, and when the case was tried, he was^ 
 in addition to a heavy fine, declared to be incapable of com- 
 mand, and ordered by Lloyd's agents never to seek employ- 
 ment as master of a vessel again. He goes by the cognomen 
 of streakum strokum. I have seen him, and so have most 
 seamen who have been in Greenock or port Glasgow, for he is 
 pointed out by all who know him ; but in the United States a 
 man who has cut the skin from the back of a seaman, will 
 strut about without considering that he has been guilty of any 
 crime. In the navy, the case is different, although a wrong ; 
 for where there are so many men, of so many diiferent dispo- 
 sitions confined together as there is on board of a vessel of war, 
 punishment becomes indispensibly necessary in order to ensure 
 obedience and respect. On the organization of the navy this 
 was duly considered, and power was delegated to commanders 
 to inflict corporeal punishment to a certain extent; but this 
 extent has been exceeded, as has been shown, and the law 
 which limits punishment has been but too often violated by 
 those entrusted with their administration. There is a prece- 
 dent for flogging in the navy, but in the merchant service there 
 is none, nor does the law specify to what extent a man may 
 be punished in the latter, further than vesting the master with 
 power to correct according to the oiFence. In the navy the 
 officers are men of education, and gentlemen, (with very few 
 exceptions,) they rise gradually, and serve many years before 
 they get command, or are vested by law with authority to flog 
 a seaman ; and when this is done it is generally after due in- 
 vestigation in the presence of the whole crew and officers, and 
 when this is not the case, a violation of the law is committed. 
 Moreover the captains in our navy, who alone are vested with 
 this authority, are public officers, and men of character and 
 standing, and who have a commission at stake, independent 
 of the value which they must ever place on public opinion ; 
 they are always to be found, and redress may be obtained for 
 any undue stretch of authority of which they may be guilty, 
 by application to the proper authority ; or an appeal can be 
 made to the people through the medium of the public press, 
 that great palladium of a free people. In a merchant vessel 
 
naVal and merchant service. 133 
 
 it is entirely different, the masters of them often find character 
 unnecessary to carry to sea, but leave it on shore, to answer 
 their turn in the presence of their owners, and proper redress 
 for an injury from them is not to be expected. Where w^ould 
 the use be in publishing a Captain Smith, or Brown 1 there 
 are too many such names afloat to attract any notice ; but not 
 so with a Commodore Hull, or Downes, although I know that 
 the name of these gallant officers will never be used in such a 
 case ; but w^ere such a thing to take place, the public would 
 know, from one end of the union to the other, w^ho were allu- 
 ded to ; not so with the petty master of a merchant vessel. 
 Were masters of merchant vessels amenable and liable, like 
 captains in the navy, the evil of entrusting them with such 
 authority would not be so great, nor so likely to be abused ; 
 but in both cases it is unnecessary, and sometimes abused in 
 both, although seldom in the latter. The masters of merchant 
 vessels have not that education or refinement which are so 
 necessary to the character • of a gentleman or one who com- 
 mands; but I do not intend this impeachment to apply to all 
 mastersof merchant vessels. There are very few crying evils of 
 a public nature without some honorable exceptions to redeem 
 in part the obloquy attached to many of them, and I have much 
 pleasure in stating, from personal knowledge and other sources 
 entitled to the most implicit confidence, that there are many 
 masters of vessels what they ought to be, and in vessels under 
 their command, difficulties with seamen never occur; were this 
 the case in all, there would be no necessity for advertisements 
 such as the following, from the New York Sun of June 14th, 
 1839: 
 
 '^Wanted immediately, one hundred enterprising young men, 
 Americans, to go on whaling voyages, in first rate ships. Car- 
 penters, coopers, and blacksmiths also wanted, to whom extra 
 pay will be given. The present is a very desirable opportu- 
 nity for those that wish to take a voyage to sea to learn navi- 
 gation or nautical improvement. All clothing and other 
 necessary articles furnished on credit. Apply to S. & J. N. 
 Luckey, 106 South street, up stairs." 
 
 " Wanted, thirty men for the three ships at New Bedford, 
 12 
 
134 EVILS AND ABUSES IN THE 
 
 twenty-five men for two ships at Falrhaven, twelve men for a 
 ship at New London, ten men for a ship at Sag Harbor. By- 
 applying immediately at Thomas Lewis's clothing store. No. 15 
 James Slip, they can have their choice of ships and places. All 
 clothing furnished on credit." This is like the secretary of the 
 navy sending to ship men for the navy in the back woods and 
 declaring to Congress that the " navy was popular with sea- 
 menJ^ It is well known that whale ships are very carefully 
 shunned by all seamen who have ever sailed in them before, 
 not so muQh on account of the swindling system usually practised 
 in them, as the bad treatment that they receive from their com- 
 manders, who are beyond the reach of the law for two or three 
 years, and who by a system of tyranny and oppression very 
 often drive the men to some indiscreet act, for which they on 
 their return to the United States, incarcerate them in a prison, 
 on some false oath or spurious statement, and pay them for their 
 hardships and privations, by imprisoning them in a county jail. 
 When these things are known, it is not to be wondered that 
 they are forced to send to ports where seamen are ignorant of 
 these atrocities, in order to procure crews to man them. If I 
 know any trade that is likely to ruin a young man, and render 
 him worthless as a seaman for ever after, it is a whaling voy- 
 age ; there they learn nothing but to kill and take care of 
 whales, and try blubber. Their superiors who ought to in- 
 struct them in their profession are as ignorant as themselves. 
 They have no idea that there is any other science in the 
 world, save that of taking care of a whale, and believe that;, 
 the summit of human greatness, and that no business carried on 
 is so likely to enlighttn the world as whaling and breaking 
 black skin. So that the enterprising young men advertised for, 
 have only to grease themselves up to the neck in sperm oil, 
 and thereby slip into a sailor's shoes. But the chances are, 
 that ere they return, the masters, or captains, as they are term- 
 ed by courtesy, may break their skin as well as grease it. 
 However that is immaterial, and a young; man, unless he in- 
 tends to pass his days in a state of single blessedness, must dart 
 a harpoon into something of the whale kind, and bedaub him- 
 self with head matter, ere Cupid's dart will have any effect on 
 
NAVAL AND MERCHANT SERVICE. 135 
 
 the girls about a whaling port. So ir.y young men, go an He- 
 ing for one voyage, and my word on it you will be sufficiently 
 amused. It has been ascertained that young seamen about 
 Boston can no longer be deceived by the hundrelh and seventieth 
 lay for a whaling voyage ; and necessity compels them to send 
 to New York and pay the expense of transporting them to 
 New Bedford, Fairhaven, &.c. Were seamen properly treated 
 out of those ports, the risk and danger of a whaling voyage 
 would not be taken into consideration by them ; but so long as 
 they see numbers incarcerated in the county jail after their re- 
 turn from a long voyage, instead of being paid their wages, 
 it is not to be expected they will run headlong on to the weapon 
 that has destroyed others. Before I proceed to detail other 
 circumstances, I would remark, and advise the public to judge 
 for itself, whether or not it does not appear singular that the re- 
 volts of which seamen are accused (and for which many of 
 them have lately been imprisoned in the county jail in Boston) 
 always happen on the homeward-bound passage, after the ves- 
 sels leave the Pacific, or the whaling grounds, for the U. States. 
 This circumstance alone would induce us to suspect that the 
 difficulties which occur, are brought on by the conduct of the 
 master, who by trumping up a charge of revolt, is enabled to 
 keep from the poor fellows the share of the oil which they have 
 ventured life and limb to obtain. Seamen who have suffered 
 for a long voyage would not wantonly commit any act which 
 would exclude them from its benefit. The fate of the officers 
 of the Globe, is beginning to be an old tale, and it is to be 
 hoped for the credit of the country, that it will be long ere 
 such another tragedy is acted. Previous to the 15th of May, 
 there was no less than eighteen seamen in the Suffolk county jail, 
 either as principals or witnesses against those who were guilty 
 of a A^iolation of the laws, by abusing the authority vested in 
 them. And on their trials enough was elicited to prove to the 
 public beyond a doubt, that some measures ought to be taken 
 to correct an evil of such an alarming nature. The sum that 
 these prosecutions cost the government in this state alone, with- 
 in the last six months, did not fall short of, but perhaps ex^- 
 ceeded, two thousand dollars. I have seen a journal written on 
 
136 EVILS AND ABUSES IN THE 
 
 board of the Shylock ; seven of her crew were confined from 
 the 14th of Dec. 1838, to the 20th of May, 1839, and 1 feel 
 perfectly satisfied that there was the greatest injustice done those 
 men by the master, Tabor ; and the mate, Slott ; if the alleg- 
 gations against the latter were founded on fact, he ought to be 
 hooted from society. Many men were ready to assert upon 
 oath that he had attempted the commission of a crime, so un- 
 natural that decency shudders at the thought of it. These 
 men were accused of attempting a revolt, but as the vessel had 
 only a register and no license, the court had no pov/er to take 
 cognisance of the affair. But it appeared that the master, 
 Tabor, after continuing a system of tyranny during the voyage, 
 on the passage home was going to put one of the crew in irons, 
 and on this part of the performance the crew remonstrated, and 
 begged to be heard on a complaint that they had against the 
 mate, but no hearing would be granted them ; and they refused 
 to do duty. I am far from attempting to prove that by so 
 doing they were right, on the contrary, they were wrong ; for 
 the master confining one man did not justifiy them in refusing 
 to do their duty ; but they erred from ignorance and not from 
 any predisposition to revolt against any lawful authority. They 
 were not justifiable in making themselves a party to the quar- 
 rels of another, but seamen often err in this manner. The 
 moment they refused to do duty they were driven below and 
 secured there, the master openly avowing that he was glad of 
 it, as by that means he would save his provisions ; and until 
 their arrival in the United States they were fed upon a scanty 
 allowance of bread and water. When the vessel arrived they 
 were delivered over to the marshal, charged with revolt. Now 
 refusing to do duty is not a revolt, but is an ofl^ence punishable 
 by loss of wages and confiscation of clothing. I do not mean 
 to discuss a point of law, but am governed by the decision 
 given by a jwdge in New York, some years ago, to that effect. 
 When these men were set at liberty, they immediately sued 
 for their wages, and Tabor having perceived that there wei^ 
 some individuals interested in their behalf, who would assist 
 them to claim justice, a lawyer was sent on to pay them their 
 wages. Nov^^ Tstbor well knew that if he had jusi grounds of 
 
NAVAL AND MERCHANT SERVICE. 137 
 
 complaint against these men, that they had forfeited their wages, 
 but he saw that, backed as they were by two gentlemen of the 
 bar, some facts would be brought to light which would have 
 placed him in a very unenviable light ; so he paid the wages 
 and expenses, and they pocketed the six month's confinement, 
 which was no hardship, after having served with him and lived 
 two months on bread and water. 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 Crew of the Halcyon as witnesses against the mate — his conviction 
 and paltry punishment — crew of the Octavia liberated without trial — 
 crew of the Orientis imprisoned in Pernambuco — their treatment — 
 two of them sent on board the Effort — one of them maltreated, carried 
 on shore and left — the treatment of the other — Captain Nichols and 
 Wm. Couch found guilty of cruelty resulting in death — Judge Story's 
 sentence — article from the Boston Morning Post. 
 
 Three of the crew of the Halcyon were confined as wit- 
 nesses against the mate, (who was a foreigner,) from the 23rd 
 of November, 1838, to the 20th of May, 1839, at an expense 
 to the government of one dollar and twenty-five cents per day, 
 exclusive of board. The mate, when in Trieste, had a quarrel 
 with one of the crew, and struck him with his fist ; finding 
 himself likely to succeed but very little to his satisfaction by 
 that means, he applied to the master to flog the man, w^hich, 
 however, the master refused to do. This did not appease the 
 mate's vindictive feelings, and in order to obtain revenge he sent 
 the man down below, into the half deck, to look for a spun- 
 yarn winch, and while there, beat him with a billet of wood 
 until his cries brought the crew to his assistance. The blows 
 that were inflicted fractured the man's arm, broke the sheath 
 knife by his side, and otherwise injured him so much that he 
 fainted when carried on deck. Thus by the brutality of a 
 person who in all probability is serving under a false protection, 
 and w^ho never was, by right, entitled to an officer's situation 
 on board of an American vessel, the government was put to 
 12* 
 
138 EVILS AND ABUSES IN THE 
 
 an expense of several hundred dollars, to prosecute a foreigner. 
 And after being convicted, his punishment was so trifling as to 
 exceed belief; he was, if I am correctly informed, fined one 
 hundred dollars and sentenced to ninety days imprisonment. 
 The fdur men of the Oetavia were liberated, as there was 
 no statute to convict them on, as the ship was not licensed^ 
 One man of the Orientis, for mutiny or revolt, was sent home 
 in the barque Effort from Pernambuco ; his journal of the 
 cause of the disturbance I also saw, and after making every 
 allowance for the feelings under which it was written, 1 have 
 rarely read an account of greater tyranny and oppression. Be- 
 fore the arrival of the vessel in Pernambuco, the mate had 
 maltreated some of the crew, the master took his part, and 
 stabbed two of them with a sword ; this, however, was passed 
 over. After the arrival of the vessel the master fell into the 
 hold of another vessel, while drunk, and was left on board that 
 vessel, until his own ship was nearly ready for sea. Some of 
 the crew were allowed to go on liberty, and when they returned 
 the mate beat one or two of them, for some alleged cause or 
 other, and the rest refused to go to sea in the vessel unless 
 some guarantee was given them that they should not be subject 
 to similar treatment. The vessel was ready for sea, but they 
 would not w^eigh the anchor. Some other masters of vessels 
 came on board and used threats, but in vain ; they were re- 
 solved, and soldiers were sent for and the whole of them lodged 
 in jail, where they remained. The vessel went to sea, which 
 carried their whole stock of clothing with her, except what 
 they had on. During the whole of this time the consul, 
 w^iose duty it was to have investigated the affair, never visited 
 them, but kept them confined in a loathsome prison, without 
 wholesome food or fresh air, until they became covered with 
 rags and vermin. The merchant vessels which had supplied 
 their vessel with a crew now wanted hands, and all of them 
 except two entered on board of them, in order to escape actual 
 starvation and the gloom of a prison. These two were con- 
 fined for a long time, until they became emaciated and worn 
 out from sickness and suffering. At length the consul's clerk 
 informed them that they were to be sent home in the Effort^ 
 
NAVAL AND MERCHANT SERVICE. 139 
 
 and as they were destitute of clothing, a shirt and pair of 
 trowsers were given to each, and they were carried on hoard 
 the Effort to make a passage to the United States, sick and 
 without clothing, in the winter season. When they were de- 
 livered to the master of the Effort, he maltreated them in a 
 shocking manner, hy beating and kicking those, over whom he 
 had no control except as prisoners. One of them fainted 
 from the effects of his brutality, and was carried on shore 
 again, to die in prison and find a grave in a foreign land, among 
 strangers, far from his country and friends, and far from those 
 whose care and attention would have softened the pangs of 
 death. The one that was brought home, was suffered to go at 
 liberty, on his arrival in Boston ; but in a few days the master 
 of the Effort induced his landlord to bring him in a carriage 
 to his lodgings, where he was tied with cords and kept until he 
 was delivered up to the civil authorities. When he was laying 
 thus bound, the master of the Effort used threats and menaces 
 to prevent his making any unfavorable representation respect- 
 ing him when examined at the police court, as he said " it 
 would do no good, and get him (the master) into a scrape." 
 The man, however did make a complaint, and the master was 
 suffered to go on bail in the sum of one hundred dollars. The 
 sailor, after all his sufferings, was locked up in jail ; but an 
 American prison was a paradise in comparison with the one 
 he had left. What his sentence was, or the result of his trial, 
 I have not heard. 1 presume the advocates of tyranny will 
 look in vain for the law by which the master of the Effort 
 acted, when he beat and maltreated a prisoner committed to 
 his charge by the consul; and the master of the Effort daring 
 to tie a seaman and throw him upon the floor of his room in 
 the city of Boston, after having suffered that man to go at 
 liberty on his arrival, may serve to give the public some idea 
 of what such a man would do entrusted with authority, when 
 beyond the reach of the civil law. 
 
 The manner in which the consul acted towards this crew is in 
 unison with the treatment that seamen receive at the hands of • 
 consuls generally. Had be reasoned with these men, and in- 
 vestigated the cause of their grievances^ he could no doubt 
 
14Q EVILS AND ABUSES IN THE 
 
 have induced them to proceed on their voyage. But as the 
 master of their vessel said, '^ the consul loved his bottle better 
 than his business," and he was in consequence allowed to leave 
 the men in jail, without their clothing and wages, with no 
 proof of insubordination or revolt against them but his own 
 statement. How long consuls are to be the puppets that they 
 are in the hands of masters of vessels. Congress must deter- 
 mine ; at present their whole dependence for a salary rests 
 with masters of merchant vessels, and they of course will do 
 nothing to disoblige their employers. The poor seamen do 
 not contribute to support consuls, and why should they take 
 any interest in their welfare ? 
 
 Last, not least, comes the crew of the ship Caravan against 
 the master, Nichols^ and the mate, for cruelty resulting in death. 
 The ship Caravan, while in Liverpool, shipped several men ; 
 among them the deceased, Henry Burr, who had shipped as 
 cook, and after the ship had got to sea it was found that he 
 could not perform his duty as cook, and another was put in his 
 place in the galley, and he was turned forward. Not being a 
 seaman, he was employed in cleaning after the pigs, and other 
 menial duties, and repeatedly beaten by the master and mate 
 with their fists and a rope's end. Finding that these instru- 
 ments did not inflict a sufficient degree of pain, they invented 
 a torture w^orthy of the inquisition, which was by affixing a 
 sail needle in a bamboo cane and pricking him with it in the 
 legs and body until he became a mass of punctures and swell- 
 ings. The day previous to his death he was beat with a rope's 
 end by the mate, who knocked him down and jumped upon 
 him whh his feet. The man was covered with blood, and 
 nearly choaked with it, and his mouth was cleaned and washed 
 by one of the seamen. Subsequent to this the master, Nichols, 
 ordered him to be brought on deck — he was carried to the 
 quarter deck and seated on a spar — the master gave him some 
 medicine, and he was kept on deck the whole day, although 
 the weather was cold and rainy. In the evening, having 
 fallen into a state of insensibility upon deck, he was lowered 
 into the forecastle, placed in a wet berth, and the next morn- 
 ing he was dead. On the trial no mitigating circumstances 
 
NAVAL AND MERCHANT SERVICE. 141 
 
 were brought forward. The attorney for Nichols alledged that 
 pricking with a sail needle was not a cruel punishment, but his 
 sophistry was cut to pieces by the judge in his charge to 
 the jury, who brought in a verdict of guilty against Nichols 
 and the mate, but recommended the latter to mercy, being 
 subject to Nichols' orders. Here was one of the most cold 
 blooded acts of cruelty that could be perpetrated. How often 
 have our citizens expressed their horror at hearing of the 
 Spanish bull-bating, but here an individual, under their own 
 laws, was guilty of the same inhumanity to a human bein^; 
 that the Matadores inflict upon the bull ; and his cruelty was 
 even more refined ; the pikes with which the Spaniards goad 
 their bulls are not sharp pointed, but here a sail needle is used 
 in the same manner upon a man, who has not the hide of a 
 bull to protect him. A wound from a sail needle is extremely 
 painful, as every sailmaker and seaman can testify, and an 
 incision made with it is a more excruciating pain than a simi- 
 lar wound would occasion if made with any sharp round in- 
 strument. Whether this is owing to its being three square or 
 not I cannot tell, but am well convinced, from experience, of 
 the fact. Although I never had the master of a vessel amuse 
 himself pricking me with one, I have often pricked myself 
 when mending sails or covering straps. 
 
 If the man had shipped to perform a duty that he was in- 
 capable of, the law points out a punishment, without leaving it 
 to the discretion of the master, who may have been im- 
 posed upon in that manner. But the question will naturally 
 arise, what became of the Americans that took the ship to 
 Liverpool, how they came to leave her there, by which means 
 others had to be shipped? When the Caravan left the United 
 States two-thirds of her crew must have been American citi- 
 zens, and if they were such, they could not be discharged in 
 a foreign port, unless three month's extra pay was paid into 
 the consul's hands, for each man so discharged. If these men 
 deserted, what was their reason for doing so? It is very seU 
 dom that an American seaman will run away from his ship in 
 a British port unless he has been badly treated ; if two-thirds 
 of her former grew were not American citizens, then is Nichols 
 
142 EVILS AND ABUSES IN THE 
 
 a perjured man, for he must have sworn at the custom- 
 house, previous to his clearing out, that to the best of his 
 knowledge, such was the case. But it appears from the whole, 
 that Nichols is unworthy of command, and that he has acted 
 in so barbarous a manner that he strongly calls to our remem- 
 brance the Roman amphitheatre, — the arena and gladiators. 
 The mate was recommneded to mercy. In this case the jury 
 were too lenient ; the mate was subject to the orders of Nichols, 
 but he must have known that if ordered to maltreat a man, 
 that that order was unlawful. And it appeared that he 
 jumped upon the man's breast, while he was lying upon the 
 deck, from malignity and wanton depravity of disposition, and 
 not from any orders that he had received. 
 
 It so seldom happens that masters of vessels are prosecuted 
 to conviction for the outrages committed on seamen, that the 
 public were led to expect that a heavy punishment would be 
 the penalty in this case, — as the outrage was so atrocious, and 
 no mitigating circumstances connected with the affair, the 
 offender would be sentenced to the extent of the law, as a 
 warning to others : but their expectations were not realized. 
 Nichols was, as Judge Story said, a young man, and was sen- 
 tenced to ninety days imprisonment, and to pay a fine of one 
 hundred dollars; the mate, to pay a fine of ten dollars, and 
 thirty days imprisonment. The outrage on the rights of the 
 people, in the lenity of the sentence, can only be equalled by 
 the enormity of the crime. Can Judge Story lay one hand 
 upon his heart, the other on the Bible, and look to the throne 
 of heaven and declare that he faithfully discharged his duty as 
 an administrator of the law, and that he verily believes the 
 sentence was commensurate with the offence ? If so, his lack 
 of judgment renders him unfit for a seat at a judicial tribunal, 
 and he ought to be hurled from the bench, as utterly inade- 
 quate to a discharge of the duties assigned him. I would ask 
 him if there was no motive but commisseration for the youth of 
 the criminal, that actuated him ? Was there no application 
 made to him beforehand, in behalf of the prisoner, by wealthy 
 relatives or friends ? If not, he has brought himself, and the 
 bench at which he presides, into the most ineffable contempt, 
 
NAVAL AND MERCHANT SERVlCli. 143 
 
 from no motive but excess of generosity. The man who has 
 so much of the milk of human kindness in his veins that he 
 cannot decide for the good of the pubhc, in opposition to his 
 own feelings, is unworthy of his place. *' Out of thine own 
 mouth will 1 condemn thee," thou wicked one. Hear what 
 Joseph Story, L. L. D., in the Constitutional Class Book, says ; 
 " Without justice being fully, freely, and impartially adminis- 
 tered, neither our persons, nor our rights, nor our property, can 
 be protected. Call the form of government whatever you may, 
 if justice cannot be equally obtained by all classes of our citi- 
 zens, bigb and low, rich and poor, it is a mere despotism." 
 Now we see how far the precept, inculcated by Judge Story, is in 
 accordance with the example of the law which he pretends to 
 follow. Had a common seaman stood in the place of Nichols, 
 what would his sentence have been ? Would Judge Story 
 have considered his youth as an extenuation of his crime ? 
 No. He would have used that against him, as evincing the 
 tyranny of his disposition, and have sent him to eat the bitter 
 bread of punishment within the walls of the state prison, which 
 he would have deserved. He would have availed himself of 
 the occasion, mounted his hobby, (incessant talk) and read a 
 long lecture to the criminal and the audience, on the depravity, 
 ignorance, degradation, and vicious habits of seamen; he would 
 have held them up as monsters in human shape ; but the young 
 Captain Nichols stood at the bar, 'who happened to have a 
 father who was born before him, worth thousands, which ma- 
 terially altered the case. How horrible it would have been to 
 have sent him to the state prison ! him who had been used to 
 luxury, to tear him from the arms of his affectionate family, 
 and incarcerate him in a dungeon, like one of the common 
 herd, would be monstrous. It is the first time that I have 
 ever known youth to be received as a mitigation of such an 
 offence ; on the contrary, youth acts on the other scale of the 
 balance, and the decisions of our courts of justice prove it, as 
 at the May term of the municipal court, Richard Stanwood, a 
 boy, was convicted of stealing eight dollars from the desk of 
 Hiram Wellington, Esq., and he was sentenced to the house of 
 correction for three years ; but the mild, gentle^ young Cap- 
 
144 EVILS Ai^D ABUSES i^ triM 
 
 tain Nichols, who had been accessary to a man's death, by 
 foul means, was let off with three months. Can the public 
 look upon such an act without horror? I solemnly declare 
 that if it was my kst breath 1 would spend it in declaring that 
 1 detest men who can have the face to commit such flagrant 
 breaches of their trust before the eye of an enlightened public. 
 Had an American read such an account in Capt. Hall's or 
 Mrs. Trollope's works on America, they would have declared 
 that it was a caricature on the judicial character of their coun- 
 try. This is not the extent of the lenity shown, however, for 
 Judge Story very kindly softened the sentence which he had 
 passed (to please those who might have found fault if not pun- 
 ished at all) by allowing him a choice of jails, so that Nichols 
 went down where he belonged, and where he had influential 
 relatives, and passed his three month's confinement in the com- 
 pany of friends, surrounded by every luxury that the taste of 
 young gentleman could wish. Had Nichols been a man who 
 had long held the command of a vessel, he might have become 
 so accustomed to obedience from those around him, so habitu- 
 ated to command, that when he was in any way opposed, he 
 would be likely to resort to harsh measures ; but here the 
 reverse is the case, he is a young, depraved, tyrannical man, 
 and in three months is set at liberty to commit anew similar 
 offences. Next time, however, he may do those acts in for- 
 eign countries, or suborn witnesses, and escape punishment. 
 This slight punishment will not cure him of the vice*, it will 
 only cause him to be more wary and artful in order to escape 
 detection. 
 
 If this man is so young that his youth is to excuse his crimes 
 how has he become invested with the command of a ship ? 
 Has he arrived at that command by his merit, or has he crept 
 through the cabin windows by means of his father's wealth ? 
 I do not know him, neither will any man of feeling wish an 
 introduction to him ; yet I strongly suspect that he is some 
 ship's cousin. Had he been placed upon a vessel's forecastle 
 and compelled to work his way aft by his merit, it is more than 
 probable that he would have been' messing in a forecastle at 
 this time, and subject to such treatment as he has wantonly 
 
NAVAL AND MERCHANT SERVICE. 145 
 
 inflicted on others. I am the last person who would wish to 
 countenance a man who ships to perform a duty of which he 
 is ignorant, and this is an offence for which an individual ought 
 to be punished ; and if flogging is to be resorted to to punish 
 offences, I know of none, except that of raising a weapon 
 against the master of a vessel, where it would be so deservedly 
 inflicted, as in this. But that punishment ought to be inflicted 
 in a proper manner, and should not extend so far as to deprive a 
 man of his life. From the state of our merchant service at 
 present, and there being no law to regulate apprentices, as has 
 been shown, young men are enabled to make a voyage or two 
 to sea and then ship as able seamen, to the injury of the owner 
 and master of the vessel. These impositions are very fre- 
 quent, and they cannot be detected in time to remedy the evi]. 
 On shore, if a man employs another and he cannot perform 
 the duty for which he was engaged, he may be discharged ; 
 but on board of a ship the case is very different ; a man may 
 have the appearance of a seaman, and if he says he is such, his 
 word must be taken, for it is not until the vessel has been to 
 sea that it can be proven ; hence the positive necessity for some 
 law to guard against such abuses. If a man is found incapable 
 of doing the duty for which he shipped, he cannot be dis- 
 charged in a foreign port. The vessel is bound to bring him 
 home, and during the voyage others have to do his duty. 
 The master of the vessel may stop his pay, or a part of it, but 
 this does not satisfy those who have to do his duty in addition 
 to their own. This happens very often out of New Orleans, 
 as the high rate of seaman's wages induce rapacious landlords 
 to send any creature on board of a ship as a seaman, so lono- 
 as they can receive his advance ; they are perfectly indifferent 
 as to his qualifications. Such impositions create trouble with 
 officers and men, as those who are guilty of them are as much 
 detested by the seamen who have to do their duty, as by the 
 master whom they have deceived. It is a great evil, and one 
 that will not be removed until apprentices are bound to ship- 
 owners for a term of years sufficient to instruct them in the 
 various and complicated duties of a seaman. But however 
 great the provocation may have been, Nichols was no less a 
 13 
 
146 iiVILS AND ABUSES IN TitE 
 
 criminal for the brutal punishment that he inflicted, nor is Judge 
 Story less to blame for suffering him to escape with so paltry 
 a punishment. By the wisdom of the framers of the consti- 
 tution, the judiciary is placed beyond the reach of caprice or 
 political influence, as judges are appointed and remain in office 
 during good behavior, and if Judge Story's behavior has been 
 in this instance such as was expected of him, my saying that 
 I do not consider it so, cannot affect him, as I am only a sea- 
 man, and as such, can have no weight in his eyes. Unfortu- 
 nately for him, however, others are of the same opinion as my- 
 self, which is manifest by the following article from the Boston 
 Morning Post, of May 31, 1839 : 
 
 JUDGE story's sentence. 
 
 The sentence passed by Judge Story, in the circuit court, upon Nicholer 
 and Couch, master and mate of ship Caravan, wns a disappointment lo 
 every person present, and will do more to throw contempt upon the admin- 
 istration of criminal law in the United States than any sentence upon re- 
 cord. These individuals were indicted under a statute of the United States, 
 which forbids tlie infliction of '* cruel and unusual punishments from malice, 
 hatred, or revenge," under the penalty of " a fine of $1000, or five years 
 imprisonment, either or both, according to the nature and aggravation of 
 the offence." The facts in the case have been already stated in the papers 
 of the day, and are briefly these : — One Henry Burr, a German, shipped 
 at Liverpool, on board of Nichols's ship, as a cook, and turned out to be 
 grossly and utterly incompetent to the office. He was accordmgly dis- 
 placed and sent into the forecastle. But, not satisfied with this, he was 
 made the object of incessant and cruel persecution by these fiends in hu- 
 man shape, until death at last snatched him from their clutclies. It was 
 in evidence that lie was beaten every day but one, (and then he "Was con- 
 fined to his berth from the effects of previous beatings,) by the captain or 
 mate, and sometimes by both. The captain would sometimes order him to 
 draw bucket after bucket of water, and dash them over him successively. 
 One of the witnesses, being asked if he ever saw him wet more than once, 
 answered that he *•'- hardly ever saw him dry.'* But, as if to fill up the 
 measure of their barbarity, these wretches devised a new instrument of 
 torture, by fixing a sail needle in the end of a piece of bamboo, with which 
 they pricked the miserable object of their malice, to beguile the leisure 
 hours of a tedious passage, laughing inhumanly at the wincings and con- 
 tortions of their victim. When death at last ransomed him, he was pitched 
 into the deep like a dead dog, no prayer being uttered, and only the most 
 trivial notice taken of the circumstance in the log-book. One witness 
 seemed to have it upon his conscience to declare repeatedly, that this was 
 the first burial at sea he ever saw without a prayer. 
 
 The defence in this case was as frivolous as the crime was atrocious. 
 The counsel laboriously argued that the punishment, with the pricker. 
 
NAVAL AND MERCHANT SERVICE. 147 
 
 though '* unusual^'' was not " cruel," — as many would " prefer a few pricks 
 with a needle to being beaten with a rope's end — that the discipline of the 
 ship required that Burr should be punished for neglect of duty — (as if a 
 scamari's duty could be required of him when he had pretended only to be 
 a cook, and not to have any knowledge of a seaman s life) — and, lastly, 
 that the punishment was not greater than the occasion justified. Unhap- 
 pily for the defence, there was not the discrepancy in the testimony usual 
 in maritime cases — no material fact being negatived by the witnesses for 
 the defendants. 
 
 The web of sophistry which had been woven by the counsel for the de- 
 fendants, was mercilessly cleft to pieces by the charge of the judge. It 
 was a noble charge, and did justice to the moral indignation which burnt 
 in the hearts of the numerous auditors with which the court-room was 
 thronged. He animadverted in fit terms upon the atrocious cruelty and 
 heartleasness of the offence — the barbarity and relentlessness of the perse- 
 cution which they had inflicted, and the cool, satanic hate, with which it 
 had been devised and persisted in. The consequence was a verdict of 
 guilty — Couch, however, beintr recommended to mercy — probably because 
 he was supposed to have acted at the instigation, and in fear of the cap- 
 tain. 
 
 What punishment, then, was due to that captain .'' I say, without fear of 
 contradiction, that the imagination of man cannot conceive of an additional 
 circumstance to heighten the acrgravation of Captain Nichols's offence. 
 The provocation was but slight — a disappointment, rather than a provoca- 
 tion — while the punishment was excessive, inhuman, continuous, cold- * 
 blooded, and implacable. If ever a man deserved to taste the unmitigated 
 penalty of violated law, that man was Nichols. Five years imprisonment 
 and a thousand dollars fine, as a mild portion for one who was only not 
 indicted for manslaughter or murder, because, from the well known reluc- 
 tance of juries to convict, it was feared he would escape altogether. But 
 instead of any proportionate sentence, the judge, afler a deal of twattle 
 about the youth of the parties, and his own sympathy with the maritime 
 interest, proceeded to sentence Couch to ten dollars Jine and thirty days 
 imprisonment^ and Nichols, the instigator of all the cruelty and the perpe- 
 trator of most of it ; Nichols, one of the most heartless and merciless of 
 monsters, to one hundred dollars fine and kisety days imprisonment! 
 And all the time he seemed to beg their pardon for sentencing them at all, 
 and very politely gave them their choice of jails ! They laughed in his 
 face, as well they might; and would have (|Uoted, had they known it, 
 ** Partvriunt montes, nascitur ridiculus mvs'^ — so frivolus seemed the sen- 
 tence, when compared with the stern, but just, severity of the charge. 
 
 Every man in the audience was disappointed, nay, shocked. It was ob- 
 vious, that such a sentence was a mere farce — it " kept the" statute " to the 
 ear and broke it to the hope." Who could help reflecting upon the care- 
 less indifference with which a poor loafer is deprived of liberty, and sent 
 to the house of correction merely for drunkenness — or to the state prison 
 for a year for some row in a brothel, while here, the most unrelenting and 
 savage atrocity, resulting in the death of an innocent man, was visited 
 with a paltry fine and as paltry a confinement.'' If we are to have criminal 
 laws, let us have them administered. The next thing to having none, is 
 to have them judicially abrogated. If the life of a man is held so cheap 
 in our courts, we ri.eed not wonder thz^t it is held still cheaper, and even 
 
148 EVILS AND ABUSES IN THE 
 
 worthless, at sea. It is time that the remorseless cruelty of barbarian sea- 
 captains was arrested, and they made to feel, that though rulers, they may 
 not be tyrants, and that the broad ^gis of the law is over the very hum- 
 blest citizen, for his protection, on the remotest wave or shore of the deep. 
 
 A few more such flagrant instances of judicial weakness will make the 
 name of justice a laughing stock among us, — and the homeless and house^ 
 less mariner will have more to dread from the unrestrained passions and 
 unpunishable ferocity of man, than from all the perils of the waves, or the 
 asperities of the most inhospitable regions. 
 
 We invoke no vindictive punishments. Let justice always be tempered 
 with mercy. But if five years imprisonment and a thousand dollars fine 
 be a disproporii(mate punishment for such offenders as Nichols, it is high 
 time our criminal code was reformed, and the punishment of arson and 
 hicrhway robbery made confinement for a few years instead of death, and 
 of°theft, and forgery, and adultery, reduced to months instead of years. 
 Let the severity of the punishment be proportioned to the guilt, rather than 
 the wealth, or family of the offender, — and be administered with an inflex- 
 ible and uncompromising sternness, worthy the importance of the interests 
 which penal laws are enacted to protect. 
 
 ^^ Fiat justitia — mat cerium'' An On-looker. 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 Great care requisite in the selection of officers for tlie merchant 
 service — probable losses from their ignorance — ignorance of seamen 
 — efforts of individuals to improve their condition — assistance required 
 from the general government — seamen on the lakes compared with 
 those on our sea board — education — want thereof—proposals to effect 
 that object — want of teachers for seamen of the navy. 
 
 Never let our citizens express their horror or disapprobation 
 of punishment in the navy, when they know that one individual 
 hired by another, is daily exercising the same power without 
 having the same restraints imposed upon them that public offi- 
 cers have. It very often happens that mates are more to 
 blame than masters, therefore great care ought to be taken in 
 their selection, and they should be examined previous to being 
 engaged. The master of a vessel is bound to support his 
 mates, but he ought to be clear-sighted enough to see how far 
 that support is required, and whether the cause be a just one, 
 I never commanded a merchant vessel, but I have commanded 
 men, and during the whole of my experience in th^ pavy ^n^ 
 
NAVAL AND MERCHANT SERVICE* 
 
 149 
 
 merchant service, I have ever found that men will obey with 
 more alacrity if mild language is used, than by violence or 
 abuse, and will obey quicker from love than from fear. The 
 proper qualifications to command respect and obedience has 
 not received that attention that the importance of the subject 
 demands. It is impossible to state with any degree of exact- 
 ness, the immense losses that our merchants annually sustain, 
 by revolts, mutinies, and other causes, inseparable from our 
 present system of nautical arrangements ; but even if this could 
 be done, the sum would be so enormous as to exceed belief. 
 Much of this loss is occasioned by the incompetence and igno- 
 rance of officers. It is not only necessary that a ship-master 
 should be an experienced practical seaman and navigator, but 
 he should also thoroughly understand the laws of gravitation and 
 buoyancy. For in consequence of their ignorance on these im- 
 portant subjects, Ve frequently hear of vessels being abandoned, 
 and picked up at sea months afterwards, with masts standing, 
 yards across, and sails bent, and in some instances without 
 water in the hold. A shipmaster who thus abandons his ves- 
 sel ought never again to be intrusted with command. That all 
 masters and officers of ships should be sober men will be ad- 
 mitted ; but that all are so will admit of a doubt. From intem^ 
 perance among both officers and men much evil arises. By 
 an article in the " Boston Morning Post," copied from the 
 Sailor's Magazine of January, 1836, it appears ** that three 
 hundred and sixteen vessels, and eight hundred and twenty- 
 six lives were lost in 1826. Estimating the value of each ves- 
 sel and cargo at $20,000, we have the amount of $6,320,000 
 lost in one year by shipwrecks." A vessel may often be 
 wrecked by the splitting of a sail, for the loss of it may pre- 
 vent Jier from clearing some known danger, and that sail 
 might have been saved if that unanimity and reciprocity of 
 feeling existed between officers and men, which is so absolutely 
 necessary to insure the prompt execution of any arduous duty. 
 *' You may lead a horse to water, but you cannot make him 
 drink," is an old adage, but no less true. You may order a sea- 
 man aloft to reef or furl a sail, but you cannot make him go with 
 alacrity, or do the duty assigned him with the same speed or 
 13* 
 
150 EVILS AND ABUSES IN THE 
 
 interest, if he has been badly treated, that he otherwise would. 
 From this cause many disasters occur. It would be within 
 bounds to suppose that three-fourths of the shipwrecks of 1826, 
 were occasioned by other causes than the violence of the gales 
 or the dispensations of Divine Providence ; if that is the case, 
 in that year alone, there was a loss of ^4,740,000, either to 
 merchants, ship-owners, or insurance offices, and this ought 
 surely to demand their attention. I am well aware that'such cal- 
 culations are frequently made and brought before the public, by 
 those who are vastly my superiors in education, and there fore- 
 could dress their remarks and coincidences in better language 
 than a common sailor. But these deductions are often made 
 to favor some plan of the writer, who is very probably as igno- 
 rant of seamen's manners and habits while on board of a ship, 
 as a ringtail monkey is of logarithms. I have no object to 
 accomplish but that of benefiting the merchant and seaman, for 
 their interests are inseparable ; and if my style is uncouth, I 
 have at least the advantage of practical experience and a know- 
 ledge of what I would describe, although 1 may be very defi- 
 cient in scholastic education, nor need that be wondered at 
 when the disadvantages under which I have labored are duly- 
 considered. With regard to the instances already enumerated, 
 it must be obvious to every reader that there is a radical wrong 
 existing some where, whether in the incapability of the officers, 
 or seamen, the insufficiency of the laws for their protection 
 and encouragement, or in all three ; must be judged by the 
 public. But that there is a wrong or an evil existing can no 
 longer be doubted, and it ought to be remedied. That great 
 difficulties arise from the ignorance of seamen respecting the 
 law, I am well satisfied. They are under the impression that 
 under certain circumstances they may refuse to do duty with- 
 out a violation of them, or rendering themselves liable to pun- 
 ishment ; and this would easily be removed by having more at- 
 tention paid to their instruction. For some time past many 
 philanthrophic individuals in Boston, New York, and other 
 northern ports, have given much of their attention to the moral 
 condition of seamen. But until that becomes general through- 
 out the Union, the benefits arising from their exertions will be 
 
NaVal and merchant service. 151 
 
 but little felt. It is true that seamen when they go to sea from 
 ports sober and steady, they will be enabled to do their duty 
 better ; but further than that, there is no benefit to be derived 
 from such a course. If on their arrival in a southern port they 
 are enticed into haunts of infamy and dissipation, what they 
 save at the north serves to enrich bawds and landlords at the 
 south ; who are beings destitute of every moral principle. 
 Keeping a seaman sober while in Boston and plunging him 
 into dissipation in New Orleans, is like placing him in a warm 
 bath when nearly frozen, and when restored to comfort thrust- 
 ing him out again into the cold piercing blast ; his constitution 
 receives a greater shock by it, and he looks back to the short 
 time that he enjoyed comfort and happiness, as a spot of sun- 
 shine lingering unfaded amid a dark and dreary waste. The 
 mercliants, shipmasters, and citizens of New Orleans, have at 
 length awakened to a sense of this evil, and the destitute con- 
 dition of seamen. And such being the case, the great river city 
 will not, it is hoped, be backward in assisting to produce the 
 very requisite reformation in the character of so useful a class 
 of men. Let a strenuous effort be once made throughout the 
 Union, and in a short time the monsters that chained seamen 
 in their iron grasp will be laid in the dust. Intemperance and 
 ignorance, their most deadly enemies, will be banished from 
 among them, and whatever remains to be accomplished will 
 go hand and hand with the continued diffusion of useful know- 
 ledge. It must be gratifying to every philanthropic and liberal 
 minded man, every merchant, every ship-owner, every friend 
 of seamen, and every American citizen, to know that vigorous 
 efforts are being'put in force in many of our sea ports to accom- 
 plish this very desirable object. In a country like the United 
 States, every citizen must feel interested in the welfare of this 
 class of men, for on them, in a great measure, depends the 
 w*elfare of the country. There are very few indeed, on our 
 extensive sea-board, who are not in some way connected with 
 seamen ; the merchant, ship-owner, those who hold shares in 
 insurance ofHces, and those who have friends who follow the 
 sea. Persons who take passage either on business, for recrea- 
 tion, health, or improvement, are more or less interested, as 
 
152 EVILS AND ABUSES IN THE 
 
 well as the nation at large ; for upon seamen the duty devolves 
 to bring those articles to our shores on which the duty is paid, 
 that fills our treasury, and enables us to meet our national ex- 
 penses. 
 
 The government, long ere this, ought to have done some- 
 thing for seamen ; but while it has been carefully scrutinizing 
 the intellectual improvement of the naval officers, it has evinced 
 an apathy towards seamen, which would imply a total incapacity 
 on their part to arrive at any other standard of moral excellence, 
 than is to be found in the character of the honest and redoubta- 
 ble " Tom Pipes." The truth is, if the condition of seamen is 
 left to be ameliorated by the government, it will be done about 
 the time that the celebrated Charles Fox agreed to pay his 
 debts — that was the day after the day of judgment. Who are 
 they who look upon seamen as incapable of any further ad- 
 vances towards perfectability ? And who do not believe that 
 the cause of truth and virtue are marching onward? We have 
 only to draw a comparison between the seamen on the sea coast 
 and those upon the lakes, to see what they are capable of On 
 the lakes we hear of them holding meetings and entering into 
 resolutions to respect the Sabbath, attending the worship of 
 Almighty God, and appropriating a part of their monthly pay 
 for the relief of those who are disabled, by sickness or accident, 
 from earning a subsistence for themselves — but drawing a 
 clause, whereby none of such a fund should be appropriated 
 for those who brought disease upon themselves. With such 
 ocular demonstration before us, we can no longer imagine that 
 seamen are incapable of social duties, nor look upon them as 
 irrational beings — an error which many have fallen into respect- 
 ing them. But much of what requires to be done, ought to be 
 accomplished by the general and state governments, and this 
 subject ought to be introduced to the notice of Congress, at 
 an early period. That body is, no doubt, liberally disposed 
 towards seamen, and especially those of the navy ; and was 
 some proper plan laid before them for improving their condi- 
 tion, there can be no doubt but what it would meet with their 
 concurrence and support, — and some method might be taken to 
 instil into their minds "those protecting principles which at 
 
NAVAL AND MERCHANT SERVICE. 153 
 
 once guard, consecrate, and sweeten, the social intercourse 
 which constitutes man's purity, his best protection." Seamen 
 certainly have a right to expect some amelioration of their con- 
 dition, from policy — to claim it from justice, and demand it from 
 gratitude ; or are they to be left to drift, without chart, helm, 
 anchor or compass, into the shoreless ocean of impiety ? Per- 
 haps their tameness and submission may be construed into a 
 proof of apathy — and my daring to raise my voice, feeble as it 
 is, in their behalf, may be construed into audacity. 
 
 Hitherto there has been no attention paid to tlie education of 
 seamen, either in the merchant or naval service, although in the 
 latter there are teachers allowed and provision made by law. 
 Whether the teachers are to instruct officers only, in addition 
 to the professors, I cannot attempt to determine. I should sup- 
 pose that a person receiving one hundred dollars per month, 
 could afford to instruct the officers, and let the teachers turn 
 their attention to the boys and youngsters of the crew. There 
 are many young men in the navy who, in three years, could 
 receive as much or more instruction than they could in a year 
 at school, where their whole time and attention would be de^ 
 voted to it, and that, too, without at all interfering with their 
 duty, was it only properly attended to. If a bent was once 
 given to their inclination in this w^ay, they would follow it, and 
 much good would be the result. When I was a youngster, on 
 board the ship Venus, of New York, the crew were all Ameri- 
 cans, and w^e used to sit up during our forenoon watch, and in- 
 struct ourselves — and on Sunday, if the weather was fine, we 
 would all assemble on the forecastle, and read or otherwise 
 amuse ourselves — -thereby combining amusement with instruc- 
 tion ; and the same is the case at present, on board of some of 
 our northern vessels, although rarely, which is possibly to be 
 attributed to the great increase of our commerce, without the 
 corresponding increase of native seamen, and a consequent 
 influx of foreigners, whose tastes and habits are so dissimilar to 
 those of the native ; so that at the present day the young sea- 
 man, instead of improving himself, except in his profession, soon 
 forgets all that he has learned — loses that respect for religion 
 which is so essentially necessary in the character of everj^ man, 
 
154 EVILS AND ABUSES IN THE 
 
 let his station in life be what it may, — thus having no restraint 
 placed upon his inclinations by a fear of God, he runs into de- 
 bauchery and vice. 
 
 There are many individuals in our northern ports who devote 
 much of their time to the instruction, and bettering the condi- 
 tion, of seamen : the most prominent of whicli is the Rev. 
 E. T. Taylor, of Boston ; but I must differ from them, as to 
 the manner by which they wish to impart that instruction. 
 They expect too much at first, from the sailor. They place 
 books in his hands, commonly tracts, of an entire religious 
 nature, and thereby disgust him at once. In fact, I never 
 knew any real benefit derived from these tracts, and I have 
 seen hundreds of them on board of our ships. The numerous 
 certificates that I have seen published, purporting to be certifi- 
 cates of the good done by them, I rather take to be fiction, for 
 some interested motives, or else the signers of them were so 
 enthusiastic that they were easily deceived by the seamen, who 
 possibly laughed at their gullibillity when their backs were 
 turned. It is true that a seaman, on Sunday, who has nothing 
 to do at sea if the weather is fine, would rather read a tract, if 
 he can read, than be without reading at all — but give him ro- 
 mance, travels and history, and see if those who are believed to 
 be the most pious, will not take either of those in preference to 
 tracts. The first step, in my opinion, to be taken with regard 
 to the improvement of seamen, must be in destroying the fabric^ 
 of their bad habits and vices. When this is razed to the foun- 
 dation, and not one stone left standing upon another, then com- 
 mence to lay the foundation of improvement — but raise it not 
 too hastily, or it will soon crumble to pieces — let every stone 
 be placed and firmly cemented, before another is laid upon it- — 
 and let the last one be religion, which will come to its place of 
 itself, without much efl:brt on the part of the builder. There is 
 a Bible to each mess on board of our ships of war, but they are 
 not used in any way except as an ornament on the top of the 
 mess can, on the mess chest. The cook of a mess will be 
 flogged if the Bible is not in its place as an ornament, but 
 nothing will be said to him for not applying it to the use for 
 which it was intended, 
 
NA^AL AND MERChrANT^ SERVICE, l5^ 
 
 By the general directions fronn the President of the United 
 Stales, (I know not what date, as it is torn off, in the work before 
 me, but the owner's name is in it, dated 1812,) and signed by 
 Benjannin Homans, acting secretary of the navy, schoohnasters 
 are directed to teach junior officers, and whoever else the cap- 
 tain may direct. But were there ever any instructed by those 
 schoolmasters, except officers ? Never, since I knew the navy. 
 A short time after 1 was appointed a gunner in the navy, 1 was 
 ordered to the United States ship Concord, and on board of her 
 there was one of the professors appointed under the new regu- 
 lations. 1 was anxious to increase my limited knowledge of" 
 mathematics, as I consider a knowledge of that branch essen- 
 tially necessary for a gunner, who ought to be, as in the French 
 service, the officer to instruct the junior officers and the seamen 
 in the use of the great guns and small arms, which is also the 
 case in the British service, although not in ours. The lieuten- 
 ants, in our navy, have to instruct the seamen in the exercise 
 of the great guns — and a sargeant, or corporal of marines, the 
 use of the small arms — and that is one great reason why seamen 
 are so much opposed to this necessary branch of their educa- 
 tion as defenders of our country, and this also serves to foster 
 the ill feeling between soldiers and seamen — for however great 
 their respect may be for a sargeant or corporal, the moment 
 that he is placed over them to drill them, their hatred com- 
 mences ; whereas, if a gunner, who has risen from among them, 
 was capable of instructng them, the case would be different, and 
 the improvement under his tuition would be more rapid. But 
 to resume. I did not wish, on my joining the Concord, to ap- 
 ply to the professor to instruct me in mathematics, although I 
 dare say Professor McGowan would have done so ; but as he 
 had just entered the service, and was ignorant of its rules and 
 customs, I was under the impression that he would afterwards 
 have thought that I had taken advantage of his ignorance. 
 The captain was my personal friend, but him I could not apply 
 to for an order to that effect, as it was unusual, and would have 
 been construed into a wish on my part to receive greater favors 
 and indulgencies than had hitherto been customary in the ser- 
 vice ; so that during the long time we lay at Tampa Bay^ 
 
156 EVlLS AND ABtJSJfiS IN THE 
 
 when most of the officers were absent on expeditions, and little 
 was carried on, on board, I was compelled to solve the problems 
 in Hutton and Euclid, as best I might. The disadvantage 
 which I labored under when a boy, still followed me when I 
 became an officer, except that the increase of my pay enabled 
 me to purchase such books as 1 wanted, and in my state room 
 I could study when I pleased ; and nothing more was wanting 
 but a teacher to direct my studies. 
 
 Schoolmasters, of talent and education, have at different 
 times been appointed in the navy; but they, and chaplains, 
 whose duty it ought to be, have never pointed out any plan for 
 education, except in regard to officers. They have v^ritten 
 amusing volumes, but have studiously avoided pointing out any 
 of the abuses, which they must have observed, and which they 
 could have done with a greater prospect of success than can be 
 anticipated from any production of a man like myself, who has 
 had to pick up his education as chance offered, and that, too, 
 at a time when there was not the attention paid to boys that 
 there is at present. When I entered the navy, boys were al- 
 lowed to drink half a pint of spirits per day, and "get monkeys' 
 allowance," as Capt. Marryat has it, that is, " more kicks than 
 half pence." It may truly be said of education, " of all the 
 blessings which it has pleased Providence to allow us to culti- 
 vate, there is none which breathes a purer fragrance, or bears a 
 more heavenly aspect. It is a companion that no misfortune 
 can depress, no clime destroy, no enemy alienate, no despotism 
 enslave : at home a friend, abroad an introduction, in solitude a 
 solace, in society an ornament : it chastens vice, it guides virtue, 
 it gives at once a grace and government to genius. Without it 
 what is man ? A splendid slave 1 a reasoning savage." " All 
 the superstitions which enslave, the prejudices which debase, 
 vanish before education." 
 
 With regard to the plan for the improvement and education 
 of seamen, I will venture to say but little, and leave it in abler 
 hands than my own. But it appears that there ought to be 
 one or more schools in all our sea ports (according to their size) 
 provided with books, maps, charts, and teachers properly quali- 
 fied to instruct seamen in the use of them, a knowledge of which 
 
NAVAL AND MERCHANT SERVICE. 157 
 
 IS SO essentially necessary to enable theni to perform their duty 
 as seamen and citizens. I would not recommend to make every 
 seaman a finished scholar, for that were impracticable; but 
 " there is always this advantage in aiming at higher results — that 
 the failure is never total, and that, though the end accomplished 
 may fall far short of that proposed, it cannot but reach far in 
 advance of the point from which we start* There is never any 
 great and permanent good accomplished but by hoping for, and 
 aiming at, something still greater." Another advantage would 
 be gained by establishing schools — that is, that mental occupa- 
 tion would keep seamen from dissipation. Nothing is truer 
 than that a man who has nought to do, generally tries to kill 
 time by resorting to places where he sooner or later kills him- 
 self How incalculable, then, would be the benefit from having 
 schools, if the listlessness and ennui which prompts ihem to a 
 use of ardent spirits were removed, and the school room made 
 more attractive than the neighboring grog shop* 
 
 It is shocking to the mind of any liberal-minded man, to re- 
 flect that so many of his brethren are daily passing before his 
 eyes, who are totally uneducated. The ignorant Indian believes 
 in the existence of a great spirit — the Hindoo kneels to his 
 wooden god, and solicits assistance from an inanimate block of 
 Avood : the cause of this is ignorance, which is the parent of 
 credulity and scepticism. Then why wonder that the seamen, 
 who are nearly as ignorant, should believ^e in the existence of 
 " a flying Dutchman," or that Friday is an unlucky day ? Had 
 the money which has been expended on foreign missionaries 
 been expended upon seamen, who are equally in as much need 
 of instruction as the heathen, they would, long ere this, have 
 borne a different character. I may say, with a celebrated 
 orator, that " you traverse the ocean to emancipate the African ; 
 you cross the line to convert the Hindoo," and Sandwich 
 Islander; "but your brethren at home, who speak the same 
 tongue, acknowledge the same law, and kneel to the same God, 
 cannot get one visit from your itinerant humanity. Such a sys- 
 tem is almost too abominable for a name ; it is a monster of 
 impiety, impolicy, ingratitude and injustice ! The Pagan na- 
 tions of antiquity scarcely acted upon such barbarous principles." 
 14 
 
158 EVILS AND ABUSES IN THE 
 
 This language was used in behalf of the Irish Catholics, but it 
 may be equally applied to the American seamen. '' To justify 
 this enormity there is no argument ; now is the time to concede 
 with dignity what has never been denied without injustice." 
 The attention of the general government ought to be turned to 
 this subject ; and I regret that the duty of bringing it to public 
 notice has devolved on one so unable to fulfil the task ; but " he 
 who waits for an opportunity to do much at once, may breathe 
 out his life in idle wishes, and regret, in his last hour, his use- 
 less intentions and barren zeal." 
 
 C H AFTER XVII. 
 
 "Degradation of seamen" — subscriptions — want of a library for the 
 crews of sliips of war and merchant vessels — Sandwich Islanders — 
 their supply of books — the navy slush fund — its mal appropriation — 
 -books and education provided for by hunting up and applying the hos- 
 pital fund— abuse respecting it and its estimated amount — naval hos- 
 pitals and medical department of ships in the navy. 
 
 '^The degradation of seamen is a fruitful theme with those 
 who know nothing about them, or who are interested in such 
 misrepresentations. It is evident that people who tell about 
 the degradation of seamen, do not know in what degradation 
 consists. The miserly rascal who would withhold a copper 
 from a starving child, while he swindles the seaman out of his 
 hard earnings, will whine about the degradation of the whole 
 class. No doubt he thinks it perfectly right to cheat him, lay- 
 ing this unction to his conscience, that his victim is a degraded 
 being. The parson, while he takes all the sailor's change to 
 assist him in converting the heathen, tells about the degradation 
 of the contributor, and from the manner in which he speaks of 
 him, one would suppose that he thought it right to take the 
 devil's money to build'churches with. He would not eat nor 
 drink with the hardy son of the ocean, but he is very willing 
 to take his money. The judge, bolstered up on his high seat, 
 tells about the degradation of seamen, and makes this an ex- 
 
NAVAL AND MERCHANT SERVICE. 159 
 
 cuse for tilting the scales of justice, of violating even handed 
 justice, and dealing to him punishment where he should receive 
 damages ! Yes, a judge, whose whole life has been spent in 
 the closet or on the bench, who knows no more of a vessel, 
 or the conduct of seamen on board of one of them than a 
 ring tailed monkey does of the law, very gravely tells the pub- 
 lic that sailors are a degraded class of beings. (Here the 
 worTc from which I extract is mutilated,^ * * Yes, degraded 
 because, through storm and tempest, they bring him, from dis- 
 tant shores, the tea which he sips at night, the broadcloth which 
 covers him, and the china which shines in his cupboard — de- 
 graded, because when he is snoring in bed, under the effects 
 of a brandy potion, they are buffeting the storm upon the 
 white surges of the ocean — degraded, because while he is 
 hobbling about with the rheumatism, gout, or some filthy disor- 
 der, they are hale, fearless, and wholesome. 
 
 " Every little chimney corner whipper snapper is permitted 
 to start up and tell of the degradation of seamen — men of whom 
 he is totally ignorant, whom he never saw in their accustomed 
 element, and of whose customs and conduct at sea he must, of 
 course, be profoundly ignorant. On the other hand, many 
 shipmasters and officers are glad to take advantage of this 
 opinion which landsmen have formed of seamen, as it affords 
 an excuse for oppressing them, and keeping them under as 
 much as possible. If seamen are degraded, the public gene- 
 rally, and sea officers in particular, go the right way to work 
 to keep them so. But degradation does not consist in wearing 
 a tarpaulin hat and a blue jacket. It rather consists in false- 
 hood, avarice, and oppression, all of which qualities are most 
 conspicuous in the traducers of seamen." 
 
 There are too many truths in the foregoing extract. On 
 board of our vessels of war, especially, there are always some^ y 
 object or other for which the crews are solicited to subscribe. V 
 A preacher came on board the U. S. ship Delaware, to solicit 
 contributions to build a church at Washington, where there is 
 scarcely a seaman to be seen. A subscription was got up at 
 Pensacola, some years ago, for the same purpose, although 
 there is not a church there that they wish to see a seaman en- 
 
160 EVILS AND ABUSES IN THE 
 
 ter. Churches for seamen have generally been built by the 
 merchants and citizens, while the sums raised from seamen 
 have generally filled the pockets of those who solicited their 
 money. On board the Lexington, during a cruise on the 
 coast of Brazil, a subscription was raised to purchase instru- 
 ments for a band of musicians, another to purchase a piece of 
 ground in Bahia for a burying ground, where there is not one 
 man-of-war's man dies in five years, another for some object 
 that I have forgotten. This method of taking money from sea- 
 men is unprincipled, and the officers ought to guard them from 
 impositions of this nature, for if a seaman is asked to subscribe 
 to anything, no matter what, he instantly puts down his name, 
 if he sees the captain's down before him. There is no pur- 
 pose for which a subscription could be got up on board of a 
 vessel of war, from which so much benefit would be derived, 
 as for a library, and this is seldom done, and the want of such 
 books as would instruct and amuse, is much felt. There is a 
 library furnished by the government for every vessel of war, 
 but the books are, like the teachers, only for the officers ; nei- 
 ther are the books such as sailors require. They are chiefly 
 professional, and large, handsomely bound volumes, which 
 could not be distributed to the crew, for was one volume to be 
 lost or destroyed, the whole sett would be ruined, which cost 
 two or three hundred dollars. When I was on board the Lex- 
 ington in 1831-32 and 33, I read every book that I could pro- 
 cure from the officers, but T never could get one from the 
 
 library until after Capt. McK r took the command, and 
 
 even then I had to bow and scringe to his clerk, to get me the 
 books which I was allowed by the captain, which was very 
 mortifying to my feelings. I was often kept several days waiting 
 for a volume, and I at length gave it up in despair, after having 
 read Gibbon's decline and fall of the Roman Empire, Botta's 
 History of the United States and life of Washington, Irving's 
 Columbus, Mutiny of the Bounty, and Cooper's novels. When 
 I had these books I used to go on the forecastle, or between two 
 guns, and read aloud to a knot of perhaps twenty or thirty, 
 who would gather round and listen. Many of these men could 
 have read themselves, if they had had the books to read. 
 
Naval and merchant service. 161 
 
 Captain McK r observed this^ for nothing escaped his no- 
 tice that tended to the comfort of his men, and he gave me 
 all the small works in the library, and several of his own, for 
 the use of the crew ; this created such a taste for reading that 
 a number of us subscribed a small sum each, and Lieut. Myers 
 bought us books in Buenos Ayres. The officers, also, gave 
 several volumes, and by this means we raised a small library, 
 which was arranged on shelves along the beams in the store- 
 room ; and to prevent its interfering with the ship's duty, from 
 one to two, P. M. was the hour appointed to return and re- 
 ceive books, and this plan was productive of much benefit, as 
 the time devoted to reading would have been spent in idleness, 
 or relating, or listening to immoral stories. Those who could 
 not read, listened to others who could, and read aloud for 
 their edification ; thus all were benefited. There are some 
 instances where the crews of ships are permitted to subscribe 
 a dollar or two each, to purchase books for themselves before 
 they leave the United States, where books can be purchased so 
 cheap. This was the case on board the frigate Potomac, when 
 under the command of Commodore Downes, and is so on board 
 several vessels, and has always been found to be beneficial, 
 and producing a moral tendency. While seamen are left with- 
 out books, huge bundles of tracts are sent to the Sandwich 
 Islands, on drunkenness, usury, mail robbery, and dissoluteness. 
 Missionaries are appointed with handsome salaries, which they 
 increase by selling or exchanging these tracts for a fat chicken 
 or other dainty pleasing to the palate. And all that remains to 
 be accomplished, in this land of blindness and insufficient good 
 works, is the rearing of prisons to incarcerate debtors, statutes 
 to hang men for murder, and a touch of negro slavery. 
 
 There are ample resources for furnishing seamen of the mer- 
 chant and naval service with books and education, if they could 
 only be allowed the use of their own. The sailors in the navy 
 are allowed, on Sunday and Thursday, one and one-fourth, and 
 on Tuesday one pound of salt beef, on Monday, Wednesday, 
 and Saturday, one pound of pork. From this provision, when 
 cooked, after being for a long time in salt, as is usually the 
 case, nearly all the fat boils off; this is carefully skimmed 
 14# 
 
162 fiVILS AND ABUSES IN TEtfi 
 
 from the boilers, or coppers, as they are called, and put into 
 empty beef or pork barrels, and sold, and the money so received 
 IS called the slush fund. As the provision is weighed to the 
 crew before being boiled, all that comes from it ought to be 
 given to them, as it forms a component part of their ration. 
 The coppers are furnished by the government, and a cook 
 paid to attend them, so that all the slush that is saved by him 
 belongs to the crew, and the money received for the sale of 
 that article ought to be given to them or laid out for their 
 benefit. Hitherto this has not been done, but on the contrary, 
 it has been expended to purchase such fancy articles as are 
 not allowed by the regulations, such as cushions for boats, musi- 
 cal instruments, gold leaf, and I have known a carpet bought 
 for a ward-room, and Turkish rugs for a cabin, with this money, 
 thereby making a fair division of the spoil unlawfully taken 
 from the crew. It has been the custom of the service to leave 
 this fund at the disposal of the first lieutenant, but that is no 
 reason why it should continue to be, for such a practice is wrong, 
 and the amount received for the slush during a cruise could be 
 recovered by the crew by a course of law. It may be said 
 that if the first lieutenant cannot use this fund as he pleases he 
 may make the cook throw it overboard. A first lieutenant has 
 certainly great power, but it can hardly be supposed that he 
 would use it in this manner, for it would be similar to telling a 
 man if he did not give him his property he would make him 
 destroy it. Happily the officers of our navy are more con- 
 scientious about such matters than they formerly were, and I 
 am convinced that this abuse only requires to be pointed out 
 to them in order to ensure its correction. If the government 
 will not provide books for seamen, they should be allowed 
 what belongs to them, and which could be appropriated for that 
 purpose. 1 have known one hundred and twenty dollars to be 
 advanced by the purser of a sloop of war, on the credit of this 
 fund, to purchase musical instruments ; and musicians are not 
 allowed on board of vessels of that class, by the regulations, 
 and having them is an abuse. They receive seamen's rates 
 on the books of the ship, and do nothing but play for the 
 amusement of parties, while others have to perform their duty. 
 
NAVAL AND MERCHANT SERVICE. 163 
 
 Where musicians are required, they are allowed, and instru- 
 ments furnished by the government ; where they are not, the 
 sailor's ration ought not to be taken to support them. Any 
 bookseller would furnish three or four hundred dollars worth of 
 books on the credit of this fund, which could be remitted to 
 him as chance offered, or the money might be advanced by 
 the purser previous to the sailing of the vessels, with as much 
 propriety, for this purpose, as for musical instruments. I can- 
 not form a correct estimate of what this fund would amount to 
 during a three year's cruise of a sloop of war or frigate, but it 
 is very considerable, possibly four hundred and fifty dollars in 
 the former, and eight hundred in the latter. If this money 
 was laid out as it ought to be, the crews of vessels of w^ar 
 could have a handsome library, as well as be furnished with 
 the popular newspapers and periodicals, from difTerent parts of 
 the United Stales ; and a chain of communication would be 
 kept open between a sailor and his country, which none but 
 those who have experienced the want of, can fully appreciate. 
 As it is at present, a seaman or marine may go a cruise of three 
 years, and when he returns, be ignorant of who is the chief 
 magistrate of the state or country where he was born. That 
 men should be kept in this state, is unpardonable. I despise 
 those who have eyes and see not, a heart and feel not, or that 
 cowardice and sycophancy that dare not expose such glaring 
 wrongs. There are a number of vessels now fitting out, and 
 the first commander and executive officer who will set the ex- 
 ample of appropriating the slush fund for books, &c., for the 
 use of their crew, will deserve the thanks and gratitude of sea- 
 men, exclusive of doing an act of long delayed justice, and I 
 hope that the public will hear that some one has set an example 
 which others would be compelled to follow. 
 
 For books for seamen of the merchant service there appears 
 to be no fund, unless one year's hospital fund be appropriated. 
 If we have 125,000 seamen in the United States, one year's 
 hospital fund would be ^300,000; if $50,000 is to be de- 
 ducted from this for the time that they may be on shore, it 
 would still leave $250,000, which, if laid out in books, would 
 furnish every ship that goes on a foreign voyage, with a small 
 
164 EVILS AND ABUSES IN THE 
 
 library. Those that go a coasting would not require them, if 
 there were schools and libraries in every port, for seamen. 
 The want of a small compilation of the laws made by Congress 
 respecting commerce and seamen, is much felt. If an abridg- 
 ed and suitable work of this kind was in every ship's forecastle, 
 it wogld lessen the number of disturbances, revolts, &:c., as in 
 that case both officers and crew would know how they stood 
 in relation to each other, and would know how far to go with- 
 out laying themselves liable to the penalties of the law, or in- 
 fringing on the statutes. If such a work was published, the 
 merchants would be gainers by furnishing their ships with two 
 copies each, at their own expense. I have had a small work 
 of this kind sent me by the Rev. E. T. Taylor, written by 
 William Sullivan, Esq., counsellor at law; but although it is a 
 good little work, yet it is by no means comprehensive enough 
 for the purpose required. The statutes ought to be copied ver- 
 batim, and the intricate points elucidated so as to render it 
 suitable to the comprehension of men of limited education. 
 
 With regard to schools for the education of seamen, the 
 hospital fund which has been accumulating for the last forty 
 years, is amply sufficient, and if it was laid out in such a way, 
 a seaman would have a place to go to while on shore, where 
 he could instruct and amuse himself, instead of rambling from 
 one grog shop to another, where he spends his money and bru- 
 talizes his mind. It is now nearly forty years since the law 
 was passed, directing twenty cents per month to be deducted 
 from the pay of every seaman sailing in vessels belonging to 
 individuals in the United States. This sum was directed to be 
 paid to the collectors of ports, and by them into the treasury, 
 to be applied by the President for the erection of hospitals for ^ 
 sick and disabled seamen. The same law extended to the 
 seamen of the navy, but the fund raised from them is separate 
 from that of the merchant service. The sum received by this 
 law from merchant seamen is enormous, and to what purpose 
 has it been applied ? none can answer. In the name of justice 
 and humanity will our citizens stand tamely and see men rob- 
 bed of their hard earnings in this manner? Our country is 
 rising in a commercial point of view, to the first rank among 
 
NAVAL AND MERCHANT SERVICE. 165 
 
 the nations of the earth ; seamen are at the bottom of this great- 
 ness, and what has our government done for them ? What at- 
 tention has it paid to their education or to qualify them to fill 
 their hard stations in life with ability ? Was this money only 
 hunted up and expended in the erection of schools, in our large 
 seaports for seamen, much good would be done thereby. But 
 no, they are left on the hands of philanthrophic individuals, 
 while their own hard earnings are withheld from them by the 
 government. This must surely be brought to the notice of 
 Congress ; an outrage so glaring, certainly will not be suffered 
 to exist much longer. If we had 60,000 seamen in the United 
 States, and they have increased 1,500 annually since that law 
 was passed, it would make 1 20,000, at the present period. And 
 the sum taken from them during this time would amount with 
 interest to nine million and a half of dollars. If this money, or 
 even the interest of it, was expended for the benefit of those 
 to whom it belongs, it would soon give a different feature to 
 the character of the seamen of the merchant service. If a rich 
 individual was to withhold from a poor man his wages, he would 
 merit the scorn and contempt of all good men, but how much 
 more unpardonable must it be in a government or its officers, to 
 keep this from seamen. I have been in every sea port of any 
 consequence on our sea coast, from Maine to Mississippi, but 
 have never been able to pick out any institutions erected 
 out of this fund. The marine hospital at Chelsea, near Boston, 
 is open for seamen of the merchant service, and there they are 
 well attended and every necessary furnished that men may re- 
 quire. But there they can only remain four months, at the 
 end of that time they are thrust out and their next asylum 
 is the alms house ; at least such would be the case if the let- 
 ter of the law was complied with, but the physician has re- 
 peatedly written to the secretary of the treasury, and from 
 time to time obtained permission for men to remain for a long- 
 er period in this institution. Has obtained leave for sailors to 
 remain in an institution built with their own money ! * This is 
 
 * In a small work written some time ago by Wm. Sullivan, Esq. he 
 stated that he had been informed that the accommodations at the Chelsea 
 hospital were very poor. This was a mistake ; the rooms or wards are 
 
tQ$ EVILS AND ABUSES IN THE 
 
 the way that seamen are treated, they are left for support on 
 charitable institutions, whereas if their own hard earnings was 
 expended as they ought to be, when sick or disabled they 
 w^ould have a house, and not perish from want and sickness. 
 Has this nine milhon been taken to patch up defalcations, such 
 as those of Swartwout and Price ? If so, it is high time that 
 it should be stopped ; $250,000 annually is a pretty large sum 
 to leave unaccounted for. If by chance this money is still in 
 the treasury, how does it come that we do not hear of it? 
 and why is the President not solicited to distribute it as directed 
 by Congress. Whenever an investigation takes place on this 
 subject, some things will be brought to light which ought to have 
 been discovered years ago. I am under the impression that sec- 
 retary Woodbury will be put to his trumps to rake up the half 
 of nine million, instead of the whole of this fund. That there 
 has been unpardonable neglect, if not mismanagement and 
 peculation in this affair, cannot for a moment admit of a doubt. 
 While the poor sailor when in distress, is thus left to shift 
 for himself, he is shunned by those harpies who enrich them- 
 selves at his expense while in prosperity. When the seaman 
 has a dollar in his pocket, the distressed never apply to him in 
 vain. He is as generous with his cash, as he is of his blood in 
 defence of his country and rights. But with all his noble dar- 
 ing, his generosity, and good nature, he is unlawfully deprived 
 of his own, and feeble are the efforts made to do him justice. 
 Was the like injustice done to any other body of men, their 
 case would have given rise to innumerable meetings, resolu- 
 tions, and petitions, and the wrong would have been redressed. 
 But 1 20,000 seamen who are deprived of vote or voice in the 
 legislature, must suffer injustice in silence. I have said that 
 the same law existed with regard to seamen and marines in 
 the navy, and that the fund was separate from that of the mer- 
 chant service. Out of the naval fund there has been three 
 splendid buildings erected, which resemble palaces more tliaa 
 
 large, spacious, and airy ; and every necessary is provided for the sick, 
 and every attention paid them by the physician, and weie there such es- 
 tablishments in all our large sea-ports we could find no fault in the way of 
 hospitals. 
 
NAVAL AND MERCHANT SERVICE. 167 
 
 hospitals for seamen. One of them is at Norfolk, Va., one on 
 the Schuylkill, west of Philadelphia, where a sailor is seldom 
 seen, and the third one is at the Wallabout on Long Island, 
 near New York. The apartments in them for seamen are 
 comfortably fitted up ; but those intended for officers are splen- 
 did. Mahogany sofas, bureaux, chairs, and rich carpets, 
 equalling any thing of the kind to be found in the first drawing 
 rooms in the United States. Why officers should be enthled 
 to such splendid apartments in hospitals built with seamen's 
 money, may be answered by those whose imagination is more 
 fertile in divination than my own. Was the hospital fund 
 raised by a certain per centage on the pay of individuals in 
 the navy, then would officers pay the most towards it, accord- 
 ing to their number ; but as it is, the seaman pays as much 
 out of his eight dollars per month, as the commodore does out 
 of his three hundred and seventy-five, and therefore ought to be 
 entitled to the same accommodations. The apartments for 
 officers in these hospitals are all separate, according to their 
 rank, and occupy a great portion of the buildings ; while the 
 seamen's cots and plain camp stool seats, are huddled together 
 as if to form the extreme of contrast with the sofas, mirrors, 
 and tables of the superiors. 
 
 There is another of these splendid hospitals built at Chelsea, 
 near the navy yard, Charlestown, Mass. and every article neces- 
 sary for such an institution has been purchased for it, although 
 it has only been occupied for a short time. At present the 
 sick are huddled into a close confined dirty chapel, and the 
 excuse for not using the hospital is, that seamen desert from it. 
 After many thousand dollars have been expended in the erec- 
 tion of the building, wise heads have ascertained that seamen 
 would run away if sent there ! I would ask some of the great 
 ones whether or not their heads are capable of containing more 
 than one idea ! and whether a fence could not be built at a 
 very trifling expense to prevent men running away, and in the 
 meantime, or until a fence was built, could not a marine guard 
 keep seamen within its walls ? It would be paying a poor 
 compliment to the marine corps to say they could not. At 
 present the seamen of the marine hospital are ten times better 
 
168 EVILS AND ABUSES IN THE 
 
 provided for than the seamen in the naval hospital, and there 
 are no quarters at the present naval hospital suitable for officers 
 at all. Jf they are sick they must remain at their lodgings and 
 be attended by the surgeon of the station, and every thing ex- 
 cept medicine they must pay for themselves. 
 
 In these hospitals none but the seamen of the navy are 
 admitted, and that can only be done by an order from the com- 
 mandant of the navy yard where the hospitals are situated. If 
 a sailor is discharged from the navy and taken sick, who is go- 
 ing to the commodore to solicit a permit for to get him into the 
 hospital ? If he has money they will keep him until that is 
 gone, and then thrust him out of doors; even if an application 
 was made for that purpose, the commodore would possibly re- 
 quire more certificates as to who the man was, than could be 
 procured. These hospitals may be an ornament to the places 
 where they are erected, but the benefit that seamen will derive 
 from them will not be great ; and I scarcely know under what 
 contingency, we could expect to see half men enough in them to 
 fill them. There are few men-of-war's men who live to be old 
 enough, to render them unfit for service by age. Their hard 
 laborious life, cause them to find a grave, but too often, in a 
 foreign land, or a shroud from the sea weeds under the wave. 
 There are in the navy at present about 8,500 seamen, marines, 
 &c. and 1,160 officers, making in all, 9,960, at twenty cents • 
 per month, will give an annual amount of .^* 23,904 which is 
 by no means a small sum to be taken from them and given to 
 institutions from which not more than one in twenty will ever 
 derive any benefit. 
 
 The difference between seamen's and officers' quarters in 
 hospitals would not be a matter of much consequence, but the 
 same unequal distribution extends to the good things of the 
 hospital department, on board of the ships. There is abun- 
 dance of wines, porter, and other things of the sort, furnished 
 for the use of the sick, on board of ships in commission ; but in 
 the course of eleven years, I declare, with the greatest regard 
 to truth, that I never saw or knew a half dozen of wine to be 
 given to the crews during that period ; but I have known a 
 commissioned officer allowed a bottle of porter every day, and 
 
NAVAL AND MERCHANT SERVICE. 169 
 
 a bottle of wine every two days, when he was sick with a dis- 
 ease that he had brought on himself. The only article that 
 sailors usually receive, if very sick, is a little sago or arrow root^ 
 and then it is very seldom that any wine is put into it, to make 
 it palatable. I never can forget what I heard a dying man say, 
 on board the Lexington, at Buenos Ayres When the doctor 
 was very anxious to do something for him, he replied, " It's too 
 late, now, doctor ; if you had tried to do something before, you 
 might have done me good ; but now it's too late* I want my 
 will made out, and my wages left to my mother : she lives in 
 Richmond, Va." These were nearly the last words he spoke ; 
 in an hour he was a corpse. Deny this who can. There are 
 generally chickens put on board for the use of the sick, but it 
 rarely happens that any of them ever find their way to the 
 mouth of a seaman. If a chicken dies, during the day or night, 
 it is sure to be one belonging the doctor — at least, it is put into 
 his coop, by the cabin or ward-room steward, and a live one 
 taken out and put into their own — as these worthies take par- 
 ticular delight in weathering the doctor, and keeping their own 
 stock good. A coroner's inquest will be held under the fore- 
 castle, who will report that the doctor's chicken came to its 
 death by some cause unknown, and the body is committed to 
 the sharks. Pandora's box holds nothing that does not fall to 
 the lot of the doctor's fowls, on board of a ship of war. 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 Promotion for privates in the navy— masters' mates—duties of passed 
 midshipmen — second masters and passed midshipmen, different from 
 each other— conduct of the navy department with regard to promo- 
 tion — leaving seamen in foreicjn jails— Havana— the conduct of our 
 consul there— two men of the Constellation— their sufferings— remarks 
 on the want of laws to i)rotect seamen from outrages— letters from the 
 Boston Atlas— popularity in the navy, and reasons for publishing this 
 work. 
 
 As long as the chances for promotion in the navy are so 
 small as they are at the present day, no young American, who 
 15 
 
170 fit^ILS AJTD ABUSES IN THE 
 
 has any ambition, will enter it ; for no matter how deserving of 
 capable he may be, there is no promotion for him, except it 
 may be to the rank of gunner or boatswain — nor can that be 
 obtained, unless by many years servitude — and when obtained, 
 it is a life of constant toil. They come home, from a three 
 years cruise, get three months leave of absence, and then off to 
 sea again. The very limited number of these officers gives a 
 chance to one in five hundred of the seamen in the navy to at- 
 tain that rank annually, which must give great hopes to aspiring 
 young men ; one will attain the goal, and four hundred and 
 ninety-nine l3e disappointed. To the rank of petty officer, one 
 in eight will be appointed in three years. The old grade of 
 masters' mates is now entirely extinct: they were generally 
 seamen, appointed to that rank, which was equal to a mate's 
 berth in the merchant service. When the pay bill was passed 
 by Congress, provision was made for warranted masters' mates ; 
 but why a law was made relative to a grade that does not and 
 is not likely to exist, must be left to others to determine. Had 
 this grade been such as would have enabled the department to 
 have filled it up with the particular friends of particular admin- 
 istration men, it would have been quickly filled, instead of be- 
 ing permitted to dwindle into nothingness ; but as masters' 
 mates would have to be made from the rank and file of the 
 navy, promoting them would be doing a virtuous action, which 
 our government seldom performs towards those under its con- 
 trol. The duty of a master's mate is to look after the hold, 
 stowage of water tanks, casks and provisions, and taking care of 
 the cables and other articles, coming under the charge of the 
 sailing master. Masters' mates of the main, lower, and orlop 
 decks, of ships of the line — of the main and berth decks of 
 frigates, and berth decks of smaller vessels, might be deserving 
 men, appointed from among the crews, as in the case of boat- 
 swains and gunners; but at present our passed midshipmen, 
 who are growing grey, waiting for promotion, have (after serv- 
 ing five years as midshipmen, and passed a severe examination) 
 to learn, in addition to what they already know, to retail stink- 
 ing whiskey by the gill, and the mystery of sweeping the decks 
 and whitewashing overhead, cleaning the iron hoops on mess 
 
NAVAL AND MERCHANT SERVICE. 171 
 
 kidds, cans and spit-boxes, and superintending the tasteful ar- 
 rangement of mess platters, &:c. in the mess chests. Now 
 these are accomplishments which cannot be deemed necessary 
 to the formation of the character of an officer or gentleman. In 
 fact our passed midshipmen are no more than boss whitewash- 
 ers, bag stowers, sweepers and scourers — pretty employment 
 for young aspirants after naval glory — isn't it? But as the 
 government is letting them become grey-headed, and the fath- 
 ers of families, before it promotes them, it very properly in- 
 structs them in the above mentioned necessary household du- 
 ties. It seems to strike me forcibly, that it were better to let 
 these officers go into the country, if their leave-of-absence pay 
 will not support them in a city, and conduct country belles to 
 and from the church or village ball, and thereby keep the rust 
 off their manners, than it is to keep them superintending a par- 
 cel of cooks, polishing iron hoops, &ic. ; and there let them in- 
 hale the fresh air, which would be better for their health than 
 inhaling dust and lime, at every respiration, on a berth deck. 
 
 When passed midshipman G. M. W was appointed to a 
 
 station of this kind, on board of the Concord, he requested us 
 never to call him an officer, but to designate him as a retailer 
 of the rye. To make a young officer attend serving to others 
 what he does not use himself, and the smell of which pains him, 
 must be unpardonable. If there is no other employment for 
 him, the secretary of the navy might, with as much propriety, 
 order him to attend bar, in a grog shop. That it is necessary 
 that some person should attend to those duties, will be admit- 
 ted ; but why not let it be done by master's mates, and thereby 
 give a chance of promotion to the petty officers or seamen ? 
 
 There is another rank which is not filled, that is, second 
 masters. It never was the intention of the law that these 
 should be passed midshipmen, although they now perform that 
 duty. The law allows a second master, when attached to a 
 vessel for sea service, ^750 per annum ; on other duty, $500 ; 
 on leave of absence, or waiting orders, $*400. The pay of a 
 passed midshipman is, on duty, $750 per annum ; waiting or- 
 ders, $600. So that a passed midshipman, doing the duty of a 
 ffecond master, would receive no more pay ; but on leave of ab- 
 
172 EVILS AND ABUSES IN THE 
 
 sence, or waiting orders, would be a loser of ^200 per annum. 
 If the department will not understand these things, and inter- 
 pret the laws of Congress as they are written, why, it ought to 
 be made to do so — that 's all. The grades of second master 
 and passed midshipman are entirely different, and ought to be 
 acted upon as such. Masters' mates ought to be made so as to 
 give the meritorious some hopes of promotion, and thereby cre- 
 ate emulation, and ambition to excel and render themselves 
 worthy of it. The law fixed the pay of warranted masters' 
 mates at $440 per annum, on duty, and ,$300, while on leave 
 of absence. Since that time the department has fixed the pay 
 of masters' mates, not being warrant officers, at twenty-five dol- 
 lars per month. What is the meaning of either, when there 
 are none in the service? There are some things about the 
 navy department " never dream'd of in my philosophy." In 
 the merchant service there is every chance for a young man, — 
 let him persevere, and success is sure to follow — all depends 
 upon his own exertions — in six years he may be master of a 
 vessel ; but in the navy he can only rise to the rank of a petty 
 officer, and one in five hundred to the rank of boatswain or 
 gunner, and these cannot be obtained under eight or ten years 
 servitude. Young men can judge of these things, and never 
 will enter the navy until some greater reward is laid open for 
 them to attain. Will not the government correct some of the 
 blunders that it has stumbled on, and do an act of long-delayed 
 justice ? 
 
 As this was intended to be the last chapter, I condensed it 
 as much as possible — for much that ought to be taken notice of, 
 must remain for a second edition : but there is one evil, of so 
 pernicious a nature, that it must not be overlooked — that is, the 
 imprisoning of American seamen in foreign ports. In doing so 
 I will not carry my reader to a far distant land, to point out 
 instances of the outrages upon seamen from this cause — and by 
 taking a foreign port as near as possible, it will give a better 
 opportunity to the consul (for upon him 1 shall fix the crime) 
 to refute my assertions if he can do so — that is, if any of his 
 friends should send him a copy of my work. So I shall take 
 the port of Havana, of which N. P. Trist is consul. 
 
NAVAL AND MERCHANT SERVICE. 173 
 
 A judge of one of the inferior courts in Philadelphia, lately, 
 where a case of this kind was tried, gave a seaman his 
 wages, who had been left in jail in Rio de Janeiro ; an appeal 
 was made by the defendant to the supreme court, and the 
 judge of it fully confirmed the sentence of the lower court, 
 and said that had the case been tried before him he would even 
 have went further, and given damages as well as wages. The 
 judge of one of the courts remarked that never had he known 
 a consul to refuse a master of a vessel a certificate for impris- 
 oning a man, where they had been applied to, and that those 
 certificates, where he presided, would never have any more 
 weight than ex-parie statements, for he said that consuls had 
 no salary and were merely commercial agents, and would do 
 all in their power to oblige masters of vessels who were their 
 employers, or who could make favorable representations in 
 their behalf: he further said that every petty disturbance on 
 board of a vessel was used as a pretence for incarcerating a 
 seaman in prison in an unhealthy climate, and that consuls per- 
 mitted them to do so on the strength of the statements made 
 by the master or officers, who were as often in fault as the sea- 
 men. Nothing, he said, short of an actual attempt to deprive 
 the master of a ship of his command, would justify imprisoning 
 and leaving in a foreign port, an American seaman. The law 
 vested a master of a vessel with sufficient power to correct 
 offences, without resorting to such measures. Such was the 
 substance of his remarks, as I read them in the newspapers. 
 Some occurrences of this nature passed under my own obser- 
 vation (while on the West India station) in Havana. The 
 crew of the brig Otis, of Philadelphia, (Norbury master) were 
 put in prison there for some offence or other, and were com- 
 pelled to labor as criminals, breaking stone with a shackle round 
 their ankle, only allowed sufficient food to keep them from 
 starvation, and forced by the Spaniards to do all the menial 
 duties of the prison. I saw them while they were at Castle 
 Blanco ; Norbury had been there the day previous to ask them 
 how they liked their new boarding house, and tantalize them 
 with the wretchedness of their situation. I gave them all the 
 money I had (three dollars) to purchase food, and never have 
 15* 
 
174^ EVILS AND ABUSES IN THE 
 
 I seen Americans in such a situation. They were dirty, covered 
 with vermin, hair uncombed, the clothes which they had on 
 were in rags, and they were not allowed to get any of their 
 own from the vessel. One dollar of the money I gave them 
 they had to give to the mayoral, or boss driver, to keep the 
 prisoners from taking the rest from them. These men, for 
 some petty offence, were confined among, and forced to labor 
 the same as men stained with the darkest crimes. The consul 
 had never seen them, but had ordered them to be confined, on 
 the strength of the master's representation ; and yet that man 
 still remains in office, and as I heard, has lately imprisoned the 
 master of a vessel. A poor seaman is a mere cypher, but a 
 ship master is somebody, and he may be brought up at last, 
 with a round turn, and the punishment that I would award him 
 for the whole of his crimes, would be one week's confinement 
 in the same manner and place that he has confined others who 
 were less guilty than his vile self. For this violation of the 
 law the master was sued in Philadelphia, and damages recov- 
 ered. On a subsequent voyage he had men confined again in 
 Havana, but owing to an order issued by the Captain General, 
 (Tacon,) they were not sent to labor, as his order forbid the 
 like, except to such as had received sentence from a judicial 
 tribunal. Before the Otis sailed, they were taken on board and 
 put in irons. Finding that they could not be terrified by this 
 means, Norbury discharged them in the consul's office, as he 
 was afraid to take them to Philadelphia, for fear of the dam- 
 ages that they could have recovered, and the displeasure of 
 his owners. The three month's pay, which the law directs to 
 be paid into the consul's hands, two months of which the sea- 
 man is entitled to when discharged in a foreign port, was not 
 received by them, it was comprised between Norbury and the 
 consul ; but the former had to pay the jail expenses himself, as 
 well as paying them up to the day of settlement. 
 
 Two seamen from the Commodore's gig of the frigate Con- 
 stellation left the boat on the morning that she sailed from Ha- 
 vana, got drunk, and the ship left them behind. They went 
 to sleep in the house of a Spaniard, he put a watch into one 
 of their pockets, and then waked them up, and accused them 
 
NAVAL AND MERCHANT SERVICE. 175 
 
 of theft, when they searched their pockets and found the watch. 
 They had no knowledge of how it came there, and offered to 
 return it, but the Spaniard refused to receive it unless they gave 
 him four dollars, which they refused to do. During the time 
 they had been asleep he had stolen from them all the change 
 they had in their pockets ; but each of them had a little bag 
 slung around his neck (as seamen usually have) in which there 
 were a few dollars, and as they would not give him that too, he 
 had them arrested and put in jail, where they were kept at 
 hard labor, breaking stones, in the same manner as the crew of 
 the Otis, with scarcely a rag to cover their nakedness except 
 such as they received from the American sailors who sometimes 
 visited them, on Sundays. Their food consisted of a small 
 loaf, weighing about four ounces, in the morning, and one-half 
 the size in the evening ; at noon they had a small quantity of 
 boiled beans and two ounces of meat. At the end of six 
 months, they were removed over to Carcel Nuevo, or new 
 prison, on the Havana side, and as the governor had issued his 
 order already alluded to, they had not to do any more work ; 
 still the Spaniards, of which there were upwards of three hun- 
 dred in the same gallery, imposed the drudgery and menial 
 duties upon them, as they were foreigners, which consisted of 
 emptying the tubs that they used ; and with the greatest diffi- 
 culty they kept the Spaniards from committing a crime upon 
 their persons at which humanity and decency shudders, and 
 which I cannot mention to christian citizens. They remained 
 eight months in the new prison, without any form of trial. 
 They had written various letters to the consul, but received no 
 answer, nor had he ever came to see them, nor sent them a 
 single cent, although he knew them to be starving and naked. 
 At length a letter was written to Mr Trist in their behalf, by 
 a person who shall be nameless, and he sent them word that 
 they had been tried for stealing a watch and money, and that 
 as soon as a vessel of war of the Unhed States arrived, they 
 would be sent on board. This was after having suffered four- 
 teen months imprisonment, without ever having any trial, that 
 they knew of; and had Commodore Dallas been informed of 
 the fact, and the governor, Tacon, requested to give them up, 
 
176 EVILS AND ABUSES IN THE 
 
 he would have done so, as the sequel plainly showed. Even 
 admitting that they had stolen the watch, Tacon would have 
 given them up to the commodore to be punished by him ; but 
 whether Mr. Trist ever solicited their release, or informed 
 Commodore Dallas of their situation, he is at liberty to declare. 
 From what I know of the humane and gentlemanly disposition 
 of the commodore, I clear him of all participation in the affair, 
 and charge the whole upon N. P. Trist, Esq., U. S. consul at 
 Havana. Two seamen were sent home in the Grampus, to 
 Norfolk, when I w^as gunner of her, to be tried for some offence, 
 which goes to prove that General Tacon did not wish to try 
 American citizens for alleged offences, who were not residents 
 of the port, and was ready to give them up when required to 
 do so by the consul. 1 have many similar charges against the 
 same individual, and other consuls, which, for want of room, I 
 must keep back ; but they will serve to throw in the face of 
 any of his friends who may attempt to justify him, or say that 
 he has not been guilty of crimes which ought to be punished 
 by removal from office, as the lowest punishment. 
 
 TO THE EDITOR OF THE ATLAS : 
 
 Sir, — I send you an extract of a letter, from a Boston gentleman at 
 Havana — 
 
 " Captain Howell has gained his suit against our American consul — 
 which was tried in the Spanish court, for the detention of the vessel he 
 commanded last summer, and also for damages arising from his personal 
 imprisonment by N. P. Trist. The Spanish court, in giving in their ver- 
 dict, state, that the American consul exceeded the bounds of his authority 
 in meddling with the Spanish flag, and that he is held liable for the same. 
 The consul must sign the documents, and it will make him appear in no 
 very enviable character. 
 
 " It now remains to be seen what funds the consul has to indemnify the 
 damages sustained by Captain Howell and his Spanish owners." 
 
 Your paper of May^5th contained a long account of the imprisonment 
 of American seamen at Havana, and the noble doings of the officers and 
 crew of the United States sloop of war Boston to relieve their sufferings. 
 It also expressed the desire of the American residents and ship masters at 
 Havana that our government would investigate the acts of the consul. 1 
 would ask, Mr. Editor, if anything has been done at Washington for the 
 removal of so odious a character as N. P. Trist from the consulate. 
 
 An American. 
 
naVal and merchant service. 177 
 
 The following is an extract of a letter written by an American gentle- 
 man in Havana, dated 
 
 April 13, 1839. 
 
 The United States sloop of war Boston, Captain Babbitt, commander, is 
 now ready for sea, bound to New York. His departure will be deeply re- 
 gretted by every American, as this distinguished and benevolent officer has 
 rendered very important services to the Americans incarcerated here, and 
 underiroing punishment. In consequence of the neglect and pusillanimous 
 behavior of the United States consul, the crews of several American vessels 
 are still suffering in a Spanish prison. Among these are the crew of the 
 American ship Wm. Engs, of whom I have given you an account in a for- 
 mer letter. They are unjustly still in chains, suffering punishment at hard 
 labor, on an accusation of mutiny in this harbor. Captain Babbitt, upon 
 receiving a communication from several hundred Americans, applied to the 
 United States consul for information respecting various Americans in prison, 
 undergoing punishment. Not receiving satisfactory facts in relation there- 
 to, but on the contrary having been given to understand that his co-opera- 
 tion was neither solicited nor required. Captain Babbitt immedirtely ad- 
 dressed himself to the captain general, for that information which the Uni- 
 ted States consul had, for his own reputation, refused to give. The facts 
 elicited in the case of the VVm. Engs are, that on the Uth of July, ultimo, 
 the consul wrote to the captain general asking a speedy trial by the Spanish 
 law, instead of sending them to the United States, — and that in violation 
 of the treaty made with fepain, they were not allowed an advocate, nor 
 were permitted to produce witnesses favorable to their case — and neither 
 would the consul be present, and see that justice was done them, or assist 
 them in any way, although they often wrote to him requesting his protec- 
 tion, and stating they were Americans. 
 
 In this situation. Captain Babbitt finding the case (and perceiving that 
 the consul would not interest himself in behalf of innocent men, and 
 being importuned by several hundreds of Americans) applied to the captain 
 general to deliver the seamen over to him to be carried to the United States 
 for trial — this was refused. 
 
 Captain Babbitt and his officers have acted nobly. They have interested 
 themselves in every honorable way to deliver these men ; but I am sorry 
 to say, have not succeeded. 
 
 This morning Captain Babbitt visited the Royal prison at the Punta, and 
 afler inquiring of the American prisoners the cause of their imprisonment, 
 he assured them that he was ever ready to render such assistance as their 
 cases merited. Not finding the crew of the Wm. Engs there, he proceeded 
 with Purser Southall and Mr. Ferdinand Clark to the Cabanos, where the 
 governor of the Castle brought before them such Americans as were pres- 
 ent. Captain Babbitt stated to them that he had labored to obtain their 
 liberation from their unjust punishment — that he had now submitted the 
 matter to the government at home, but as some time would elapse before 
 any course could be adopted for their release, he had brought them a bag 
 of money, one hundred and forty-three dollars, donated by the officers and 
 crew of his ship, for the purpose of relieving their present wants, and as a 
 testimony of their sympathy in their behalf— and that this money he should - 
 place in the hands of Mr. Ferdinand Clark, to be appropriated in moderate 
 sums for their daily support and comfort — at the same time promising them 
 that he should not relax his endeavors to have them released as speedily as 
 
178 EYILS AND ABUSES IN THE ' 
 
 possible ; — and although he should be absent a short time, he should not 
 forget them. The commodore was soon expected here, and wiould, no 
 doubt, from his known patriotism, protect them, i&c, &c. The poor pris- 
 oners shed tears while the gallant Capt. Babbitt addressed them. 
 
 For a long time we have been expecting another American consul, but 
 none has yet been appointed; but it is believed that when the United 
 States government receives all Capt. Babbitt's documents in relation to the 
 present occupant, that there will be no further delay in forthwith sending 
 to this port a consul, whose abilities and interests will protect the interests 
 of his countrymen here. 
 
 The conduct of N. P. Trist, in the affair of Purser Southall and others, 
 has been such, as to compel Captain Babbitt to write the consul in the 
 severest terms ; and as the whole correspondence is to be laid before the 
 government, we may soon expect some important result. The Americans 
 here are well satisfied that the present consul has an unfriendly feeling to- 
 wards his countrymen, and it is hoped by all that he may be speedily re- 
 moved from this important port. 
 
 We published, day before yesterday, a letter from an American gentle- 
 man in Havana, concerning the affair of the ship William Engs. The fol- 
 lowing are extracts from letters by the United States consul at Havana, in 
 relation to the same matter. 
 
 Consulate of th^ U. S. of America. 
 Havana, April 13, 1839. 
 To John Mills, Esq., Attorney of the U, S., Boston. 
 
 Sir — In acknowledgment of your favor of the 16th ult., which came to 
 hand on the 11th inst., I have to state that a full report of the case of the 
 ship William Engs will be made very shortly to the Secretary of State, 
 with the recommendation from me that an application should be made by 
 our government to that of Madrid, for the pardon of Isaac Clark and his 
 comrades, upon the ground that though they were convicted of a mutiny 
 of a very serious character in this port, the sentence grounded thereon was 
 inordinate; and further, that there are circumstances averred by them (in 
 favor of which averments my experience in the office creates a decided 
 presuniplion) which, if true, were justification of the mutin}''. So, at 
 least, would be my decision as a judge, and my counsl as a father, had I 
 (which Heaven forbid !) a son a sailor under our flag. 
 
 I am, sir, very respectfully, your obedient servant, 
 
 N, P. Trist. 
 
 Extract from the American consul's letter, dated Havana, December 18, 
 1838. 
 
 Capt. Edward B. Babbitt, commander U. S. ship Boston. 
 
 Sir — In regard to the crew of the Wm. Engs the case is different; 
 they were arrested by the Spanish authorities, at a>call from their captain, 
 prosecuted for mutiny, convicted and condemned. " As to the fact of the 
 mutiny," or conflict on board the ship, there can be no doubt; *'with re- 
 gard to the origin^'' the story told by them is, I am sorry to say, but too 
 probable on the face of it, judging from my experience of such matters. 
 If true, the captain ought to be now engaged in cracking stones in their 
 Btead. 
 
Naval aNd merchant sehtice* 179 
 
 Upon becoming aware of their account of the affair, which was not unti^ 
 after their condemnation, ray belief in its probability led me to take steps 
 ill their behalf, w^hich will, I hope, be attended, before long, with a favor- 
 able result. N. P. Trist. 
 
 These remarks of mine were written previous to my hav- 
 ing seen the extracts which have been made from the Atlas. 
 Mr Trist, in his letter to Mr. Rlills, says that " there were 
 circumstances averred by them, which, if true, were a justifica- 
 tion of the mutiny." In this respect I must differ from Mr. 
 Trist, I do not know what can justify mutiny, and I presume 
 the law would hesitate to accept of any justification. He says 
 in his letter to Captain Babbitt, that he was not aware of their 
 statement of the affair until after their condemnation. This 
 is a plain confession of neglect of duty on his part, for those 
 men were not tried immediately after their arrest. The Span- 
 ish courts never decide upon cases under several months, and 
 it was Mr. Trist's duty to have seen those men and provided 
 them counsel and such other assistance as they required, but I 
 have known many seamen confined in Havana, who wrote to 
 Mr. Trist, and he never returned them an answer. When I 
 was in Havana in the spring of 1837, the crew of the Wm. 
 Engs were in jail ; whether they are the same men or not I 
 cannot tell, if not, the captain of the William Engs must be a 
 tyrant, and it will be seen on his return whether or not the 
 owners of the ship will countenance such a man, or show their 
 disapprobation of such villainy by dismissing him from the 
 vessel. 
 
 From what I have already stated relative to the crew of the 
 Shylock, and the case of Mr. Nichols, and Judge Story, some 
 may be disposed to think that I have overshot the mark by 
 being too severe ; but I have made those remarks from con- 
 viction that the persons alluded to have acted unjustly, so much 
 so as to make them criminals in my opinion ; if wrong, it rests 
 with myself and conscience, for which 1 am only amenable to 
 my maker. I deny the right and justice of the law which 
 vests a master of a merchant vessel with authority to flog a 
 seaman. In the navy the offences are pointed out, and the 
 degree of punishment to be inflicted, but in the merchant ser- 
 
180 EVILS ANi) ABUSES IN THE 
 
 vice neither the one nor the other is the case, but both are to 
 be judged by the master. I never was in a merchant vessel but 
 that I performed a full voyage, and never had a weapon of any 
 kind raised to me ; but in that respect I have been more fortu- 
 nate than many men equally deserving. Had it been other- 
 wise I should have sought redress at the bar of my country's 
 laws ; had it been denied me, I would have sought it even to 
 the cannon's mouth, would have pursued my victim " through 
 paths where wolves would fear to prey." The man who would 
 take advantage of my situation I would have punished when 
 on a par with him, or released from his command. Of the 
 low scurrilous abuse so commonly used by some officers I have 
 had my share, " but words break no bones," and I wish that 
 all would do as I have done in that respect ; that is, to take no 
 notice whatever of ungenteel language. Our government is 
 based upon the principle that an injury to one is an injury to 
 all. As soon as one man is vested with power to flog another, 
 one stone is taken from the base of the constitution, which is 
 cemented with the blood of the heroes who fell in the revolution. 
 To preserve it entire is the duty of every American citizen. 
 To prevent the disturbances which disgrace our merchant ser- 
 vice more than that of any other nation, it would be necessary 
 to revise the whole marine law, which was passed when our 
 commerce was young, and is totally inadequate to its wants at 
 the present day ; and it becomes a public duty to enforce it 
 upon the consideration of Congress at as early a period as pos- 
 sible, for the merchants and ship owners are annually great losers 
 by its inefficiency. Giving a good shipmaster more authority 
 than he ever has any occasion to use, is placing a dangerous 
 weapon in the hands of a bad one. " It is an old principle in 
 the law, that freight is the mother of wages. If a ship does 
 not earn freight, seamen do not earn wages. If a vessel goes 
 to a port in ballast a seaman earns no wages." This is great in- 
 justice. '^ If a shipmaster wilfully and maliciously forces a 
 seaman on shore, and leaves him in a foreign country, or if he 
 does not force him on shore, but leaves him behind, and re- 
 fuses to bring him home, such captain is liable to fine and im- 
 prisonment, besides paying damages to the seaman." These, 
 
NAVAL AND MERCHANT SERVICE. 181 
 
 and many olher evils^ that I have passed over for want of space> 
 (as an enumeration of them all would go beyond the limits 1 
 have proposed for the present edition,) are not forgotten by me, 
 and much require amendment. It often happens that when 
 seamen want to leave a vessel the master pays their wages 
 and allows them to go on shore at noon day, and then say» 
 that they have run. This is most generally done when the 
 wages are lower at the port where the seamen leave, than what 
 they were receiving ; others are shipped in their place, the 
 difference goes into the master's pocket, and the protection, 
 which he keeps, is made to answer for foreigners* This re- 
 quires particular notice, as protections are national affairs, and 
 they ought to be given and used with the greatest caution* 
 
 With regard to the foregoing declarations respecting the navy, 
 they are not hap-hazard assertions, nor the exaggerations of 
 fiction, conjured up to carry a point, nor are they the rhapso- 
 dies of enthusiasm, nor crude conclusions jumped at by hasty 
 and imperfect investigation, nor the aimless outpourings either 
 of sympathy or poetry ; but they are the proclamation of de- 
 liberate, well weighed convictions, produced by experience and 
 proof, which, if necessary, can be sustained by the affirmations 
 and affidavits of thousands who have seen all, and much more, 
 than I have described. No doubt, unless deprived of the 
 weapon, some will say that the letters of thanks very often 
 published by a committee of the crews of ships, expressing 
 their thanks for the kindness they have received from their 
 commanders and officers, gives the lie direct to my assertions. 
 I must say that many of these letters are glorious humbug. It 
 must be gratifying to the feelings of good officers when these 
 tokens of friendship are fairly received. When they are ob- 
 tained by indirect means and insinuations, they are a fraud. I 
 shall relate two instances of the latter, and then let the matter 
 rest. 
 
 When we returned from the Mediterranean in the L- 
 
 in 1830, the crew were discharged, and some time afterwards 
 a letter appeared in the Norfolk Beacon, or Herald, giving the 
 commander and first lieutenant thanks for their kindness and 
 lenity. This letter was signed by three petty officers^ said to 
 16 
 
182 EVILS AND ABUSES IN THE 
 
 be a committee selected by the crew for that purpose. There 
 never was a greater falsehood ! could men thank a commander 
 who would inflict two dozen lashes for the offence of which 
 none were oftener guilty than himself? Could they return thanks 
 to a first lieutenant who gave them two and three dozen over 
 the bare back with a piece of eighteen thread ratline, when 
 the captain was absent ? The letter was got up by one who 
 had good right to be grateful. He was an Englishman that we 
 shipped in Smyrna, who had never seen the United States, and 
 was rated a quarter master, by those he praised, as if there 
 had been no Americans in the ship. And after all, he was 
 useless trash, and got two other men, one a drunken quarter 
 gunner, to put their mark to the paper, ignorant of its contents. 
 Many of the crew had gone off and others shipped in the ser- 
 vice again before the letter came out ; but such as did see it 
 would have torn the caitiff's liver out who wrote it if he could 
 have been found. Another of the same kind was sent to 
 Captain D. when he relinquished the command of the same 
 ship to Captain McKeever, on the coast of Brazil, and a copy 
 sent home with him to be published in the same paper. Some 
 months afterwards the paper was received by G. G. William- 
 son, at that time our saihng master, and that was the first time 
 that any but the writers ever heard of it, and the crew were in 
 a rage. The man who had flogged another until the doctor 
 interfered, as has been already related, could not make syco- 
 phants of two hundred men, and make tliem kiss the hand 
 that dealt them death. I have served in the navy long, and 
 the esteem and regard that I feel for many of its officers will 
 go to my grave with me. Although I am no longer amongst 
 them, yet I feci as much regard as they ever can, for its wel- 
 fare, and this exposure has been made with a view to make it 
 more perfect, and to place "a round, unvarnished tale'' of facts 
 before the people of the United States, who alone, through 
 their representatives, can make the required alterations, and 
 insist on some plan for bettering the condition of seamen. As 
 for any hints respecting the navy commissioners and former 
 secretaries of the navy, I can only say that to get praise from 
 me, (whatever that praise may be worth) they must first de- 
 
NAVAL AND MERCHANT SERVICE. 183 
 
 serve it. " For neither pension, post nor place, am I their 
 humble debtor." Some may say that this production is the 
 effusion of a disappointed man, as I was dismissed from the 
 navy when gunner ; this weapon too, I want to deprive them of 
 by stating that case, in order to set those officers right respect- 
 ing the affair, who only, perhaps, heard the sentence of the 
 court, and those officers that were on board at the time, may 
 correct me if I deviate from the truth, in stating the occur- 
 rence to the public. 
 
 I 
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 Court Tnartial— charges— -conduct of the court — witnesses— John 
 Beggs — his character and testimony — advice to JohnB — d — e — kind- 
 ness of Commodore A. J. Dallas and Lt. Henry A. Adams — remarks 
 and conclusion. 
 
 It can be proved, if necessary, by letters written to my wife 
 previous to my dismissal, that it had been my intention to 
 leave the navy and join the cause of an oppressed people at 
 that time struggling for their independence against a powerful 
 nation who had vowed to wage a war of extermination against 
 them, even to the scalping knife. For some slight reproof 
 from the first Lieut, of the U. S. ship Concord, to which ship 
 [ was attached, lying in the harbor of Havana, about the 4th 
 of Nov. 1836, I determined to put my intentions in execution, 
 and for that purpose 1 wrote to Commodore A. J. Dallas, then 
 on board, to accept of my resignation, or to permit me to return 
 to the United States in order to tender it myself to the proper 
 authority. Lieut. Adams informed me by letter, that he was 
 directed by the commodore to inform me that my request could 
 not be complied with. 1 then wrote to the commodore to say- 
 that my reasons were of a private and confidential nature, and if 
 I could see him privately they would be explained. To this 
 no reply was made. I then wrote a third to say that in be- 
 coming an officer I still retained the rights of a citizen, and 
 
f84 EVILS AND ABUSES IN THE 
 
 was constrained to say, that unless permitted to resign, I should 
 decline doing any more duty on board the ship. Immediately 
 after this letter had been received, I was suspended from duty. 
 On that evening I had an engagement on shore that 1 could 
 not break, without forfeiting my word solemnly pledged, and 
 in order to keep it, I attempted to leave the ship without per- 
 misssion, but was prevented from doing so by the officer of the 
 deck ; when reported to the commodore that such had been my 
 intention, I was arrested and a sentinel placed at my state- 
 room door. I had not attempted to break an arrest but merely 
 a suspension, as I had not been arrested previously. After 
 three or four days passed away and no charges sent me, I con- 
 cluded that 1 was not to be tried by a court martial, as I had at 
 first expected, for the law directs that when an officer is to be 
 tried, a copy of his charges must be sent him within forty -eight 
 hours aft er^ his arrest. Not having received such charges, I 
 wrote an explanatory letter to the officers, in order to elucidate 
 my conduct on the night that I attempted to leave the ship. 
 What was my astonishment on the 10th to receive a copy of 
 my charges, with a letter stating that a court martial would 
 convene for my trial on the 14th, and one of the charges was 
 grounded upon confessions and explanations made in my letter 
 to the officers, and which I had looked upon as one of a confi- 
 dential nature. On the morning of the 13th (Sunday) the 
 articles which I had in my state-room belonging to the gun- 
 ners' department were removed, and by that act I was told as 
 plain as if spoken in words, that I never was to have any more 
 official control over them, and that " the glory had departed 
 from Israel." The first 1/ieut. then informed me that I was at 
 liberty to speak to or send for any individual that I wanted. 
 Before that time I had not been allowed to speak to any 
 person but my servant who brought my victuals into my room, 
 which was an arbitrary and unnecessary restriction. Monday 
 morning came bright and clear with the wind from the land. 
 All nature seemed gay, ; the town of Matanzas, where we 
 were then laying, seemed as quiet and still as if nothing was to 
 happen, the decks had been washed and dried as usual, and as 
 I passed to the water closet, the poor tars got out of my way 
 
NAVAL AND MERCHANT SERVICE. 185 
 
 quicker, and looked upon me with more respect than they 
 would if I had been in all my glory, instead of being shorn of 
 my splendor. How different it is with political office holders ? 
 the iijoment that they are deprived of power, their satelites fly 
 them, and pay court to their successors. JNot so with the 
 generous tars of the navy. Four bells, (ten o'clock, A. M.) 
 was struck, the jack was hoisted at the mizen, and the report 
 of a twenty-four pounder, that had often roared to the apphca- 
 tion of the match by my own hand, gave warning that the 
 farce was about to commence. The roar of the cannon rolled 
 away among the mountains like distant thunder, and the jack 
 hung listlessly at the mizen mast head, like the raven flapping 
 his funeral wing. I had heard and fired many guns before, 
 and afterwards saw and heard them fired where they carried the 
 iron globe of death, which accompanied its course with the 
 tearing of the plank, cutting of the rigging and spars, and the 
 cries and groans of the dying and wounded, but never did any 
 have the effect upon my heart that that one had, and yet I 
 was indifferent as to the consequence, as the power of the court 
 could only extend to dismissal. Not so with the poor seaman 
 who goes before such a tribunal ; he turns pale when he knows 
 that the very flesh can be cut from his back by that barbarous 
 instrument of punishment, the lash, by those whom he thinks his 
 fellow men. Alas ! their feelings, sympathies, all are different. 
 So different as to appear made by difierent hands, and of differ- 
 ent materials, instead of having one common father, one parent 
 earth. The court was held on the poop, the awning and side 
 curtains had been spread, a table placed there with the prayer 
 book and writing materials. The members met in full dress, 
 and I appeared in the same. The president was Lieut. Mc- 
 intosh, then commanding the schooner Grampus, Lieuts. Stal- 
 lings and Cox, of the same vessel, Lieuts. Wm. Howard and 
 Thos. Lieb, of the Concord, with Thos. Miller, Commodore's 
 secretary, as judge advocate. The commodore was present 
 and treated me with politeness, condescension and kindness ; 
 he handed me a chair, and by one or two remarks endeavored 
 to relieve me from the momentary embarrassment and excite- 
 ment that I was laboring under. The order was read for con- 
 16* 
 
186 EVILS AND ABUSES IN THE 
 
 veiling the court with the names of the members, and I was 
 asked if I objected to any of them sitting on my trial, and re- 
 plied in the negative. I cannot however but remark, that I 
 had seen two, or one of them at least, as drunk as any man 
 ever saw me, and that offence was my chief charge. One 
 of them I had seen so drunk, that he was like the " crooked 
 stick, could not lay still.'' No man that breathes ever saw me 
 so, yet I was content to let him sit on my trial, as objecting 
 would have compelled me to make some declarations that 
 would have injured him ; yet I knew that none were so apt to 
 condemn faults in others as those who were guilty of them 
 themselves. Although I was advised by some of the officers 
 to object to his sitting as a member, I declined doing so in con- 
 sideration of his having a family. I hope, should he ever see 
 this, that he will correct that habit, and put it out of the power 
 of any other man ever to do him the like favor, if he should be 
 placed under such circumstances. Lieut. Henry A. Adams, 
 the prosecutor, was called, and the only part of his testimony 
 at which I was offended was his accusing me of neglect of 
 duty, when a few days previous to my arrest he stated to me 
 personally, that I had done my dnty to his entire satisfaction, 
 and that the ship's battery looked neater than any other he had 
 ever seen. This was a contradiction, for which 1 forgive him, 
 and I take pleasure in publicly stating that he is a gentlemanly, 
 humane, and good officer, and after my leaving the Concord 
 he performed an act of kindness to one dear to me, which has 
 laid me under a lasting and never to be forgotten obligation ; 
 and that act of kindness he performed from no motives but 
 those of generosity and kindness of heart. In the mean time, 
 as the weather changed and the clouds wept o'er the deed, the 
 court adjourned to the forward cabin. The letter that I had 
 written to the officers was produced, also the one written to the 
 commodore, wherein I declined to do duty. The conciliatory 
 one, wherein I stated that I would explain my reasons for wish- 
 ing to resign, was not produced. I objected to the reading of 
 the first of these letters, as being a private one, and was writ- 
 ten after the time specified in the charges ; but the court after 
 being cleared and sitting with closed doors, decided that it 
 
NATAL AND MERCHANT SERVICE. 187 
 
 should be read. So much for nautical jurisprudence. The 
 rest of the witnesses were passed, midshipman G. M. White, 
 midshipman T. B. Barret, carpenter Jonas Dibble, and last, 
 not least, sailmaker John Beggs. The three first witnesses 
 testified as gentlemen and men of honor would do, but the 
 fourth, John Beggs, oh, heavens 1 Come forward John and show 
 the public how you look. He is one of the most contemptible 
 puppies, gentle reader, that it ever was my misfortune to be ac- 
 quainted with. If you do not know him you ought to be thank- 
 ful that you have escaped that calamity. He is below the 
 middle stature, his body denotes strength, and his head stupidi- 
 ty, a certain lacivious lear rests in his eye which makes him 
 fond of the society of a certain class of ladies. On joining the 
 Concord I had been advised by a brother officer who had 
 formerly sailed with him, to keep him at a distance until I 
 knew him better, and then 1 should be sure to do so. This 
 advice I acted upon, and we remained on the coldest terms, as 
 I soon found in him all the meanness and littleness of soul of 
 which 1 had formerly read, but never belore saw in the 
 human form. He went by the cognomens of Squire Parrot 
 and Paul Pry, the former of these the officers of the Concord 
 knew how he merited, and the latter he deserved from his like- 
 ness to the original. He imagined that what was one man's 
 business was every body's, and by incessant prying and ques- 
 tioning he had learned the private history of every officer and 
 man in the ship, galley cooks included. He was sometimes 
 called Don Quixote for having made a Sanco Pancho of a 
 black servant to carry a verbal challenge or insulting message 
 to an officer^ but for this he ought not to be blamed as neces- 
 sity compelled him to make use of such a squire, as no other 
 could be found to do his errand, and the poor mess boy was 
 forced lo do so, through fear of disobeying his superior. I had 
 frequently held him up to scorn and turned the laugh against 
 him, in order to correct him of his vile prying habit, and now 
 came his turn to pay me for the whole. When he was sworn, 
 I would have given much to have said, now John, pay me 
 good, but it would have been unnecessary. He stated that he 
 had repeatedly seen me intoxicated ; this, too, from him whom I 
 
188 EVILS AND ABUSES IN THB 
 
 had seen so drunk, that he foamed at the mouth like a mad 
 dog, while laying in his berth. He related many conversations 
 that passed privately at the mess table ; and so convinced w^as 
 the court of his design to injure me from malicious motives 
 ratlierthan a sense of justice, that he was pointedly directed to 
 tell nothing but what had a bearing upon the case. But he 
 had made up his mind to tell his tale, and was determined to 
 go through, and when he concluded, I felt such a perfect disgust 
 for the man, that I would not condescend to ask him a ques- 
 tion. John, I told you the day I was tried that 1 owed you 
 one. I owe it to you still ; this is only arraigning you at the bar 
 of public opinion, and acknowledging the debt. During the 
 past few months, 1 have had much leisure time, and I have 
 many pages of manuscript by me ; in them I have drawn a cha- 
 racter that will become you. It is the reverse of every thing 
 great or good ; it is such a character as devils love and chris- 
 tians hate, and will appear in a volume under the title of" Fag 
 Ends," and the public will see how you look in your own clothes. 
 While my hand is in, I wish to tell one of nearly the same stamp 
 
 ^J B — d — e) that if he does not haul down the false 
 
 colors that have been flying at his gaff end for some time past, 
 and cease to represent himself as a single man to the unmarried 
 ladies at a certain naval station, not a hundred miles from Ports- 
 mouth, I shall devote a couple of chapters, and draw a character 
 for him ; strip the peacock of his borrowed plumes, and hold 
 the buzzard up in his own dress. Ladies beware of the wolf 
 in sheep's clothing ! you will find him out by his baying. J — 
 take warning in time, sink to your proper level, do not think 
 yourself above a mechanic, neither your education nor your 
 income, nor your behaviour (lately) entides you to the charac- 
 ter or standing of a gendeman. But, to resume. The testi- 
 mony for the prosecution, on the court martial, was all given in 
 by three o'clock. They asked me to send for my witnesses, 
 I replied, that I should not call any. The judge advocate 
 wrote down that I had none to call. I smiled, and as the 
 members were getting hungry, they very graciously allowed me 
 until next day at ten o'clock to prepare my defence. Now, 
 reader, the time that a naval court martial takes to try an of- 
 
NAVAL AND MERCHANT SERVICE. 189 
 
 ficer is exactly in proportion to his rank. For a seaman, one 
 day ; for a forward officer, two days ; for a commissioned offi- 
 cer, lieut. &1C. one week ; and for a post captain, &;c. a month 
 or longer, ad libitum. The next morning the same gun was 
 fired, and up went the same blue flag. The defence was read 
 to the court, and all the rest of the officers that could be 
 spared attended, except John Beggs, wlio declined going, re- 
 membering the adage that " he who listens will hear no good 
 of himself." But it sometimes happens in this world, as PufF 
 says in the Critic, " that we always have some d — d good na- 
 tured friend or other to tell us such things ;" and so with John, 
 who was woefully hurt at the disclosure, and but little sympa- 
 thy was felt for him ehher by the men or the officers. I made 
 no great exertions in the defence, as from the first I saw " how 
 the cat was going to jump," and thought it as well to sail with 
 the current as to attempt to breast it ; as both were to end in 
 destruction, it would have been a useless waste of strength to 
 struggle against it. I saw with unblanched cheek, the fate 
 that was to overwhelm me, and stood ready to " bid a long 
 farewell to all my greatness," greatness acquired by years of 
 sufTering, and thrown away in a moment of thoughtless excite- 
 ment. Lieut. Howard, when Lieut. Adams was under ex- 
 amination, asked him if he did not consider me intoxicated on 
 a morning other than that specified in the charges, thereby 
 availing himself of knowledge acquired by being with me in 
 the same ship, instead of trying me by the charges before the 
 court. It was like asking a witness in a court of justice, if the 
 accused had not murdered as well as robbed him. And on the 
 morning that my defence was handed in, the same gentleman 
 rose from his seat after the court had convened, and held a 
 conversation apart, with the prosecutor. Who ever heard ol a 
 juryman leaving his seat in the jury box, after being sworn, to 
 hold a conversation apart with a prosecutor ? Lieut. Howard 
 was detailed from duty to sit upon my trial, and could have 
 nothing relative to his duty as a lieut. to say to the prosecutor, 
 and his doing so was laying himself liable to foul suspicions. 
 When one officer prefers charges against another, it is necessa- 
 ry to bis character that he should prove them, if not he suflfers 
 
190 EVILS AND ABUSES IN THE 
 
 nearly as much as the accused would, if convicted. When a 
 first lieutenant prefers charges against an inferior he seldom fails 
 to convict him, as the judges are often the messmates of the 
 prosecutor, and if they have any bent, it is towards the prose- 
 cutor instead of the accused, whereas gentlemen of a civil jury 
 are always supposed to lean to mercy ; hence arises the saying 
 in the navy, " that there is no use in going to law with the 
 devil if the court is held in h — 1." If an inferior officer or 
 seaman was tried by those of his own rank he would often be 
 acquitted where he is now convicted. I only mention these 
 circumstances at this late 'period of the action, to show those gen- 
 tlemen who composed the court that although 1 did not state 
 to them my conviction that I was unfairly tried, I was aware 
 of the fact, and that I am not as ignorant of such things as 
 they suspected me to be, even if I was brought up on the fore- 
 castle instead of the quarter deck. That I had been intoxi- 
 cated on board that ship was true, and I was ready to admit 
 the fact, and give up my appointment, without the paraphar- 
 nelia of a court martial ; and so too were several others, al- 
 though I w^as the only one punished ; and if my dismissal was 
 a warning to them, I was ready to suffer, more especially, as I 
 did not wish to remain in the navy at that time. I left the 
 ship on the 20th of November, with orders to report myself to 
 the navy department, which I did, on my arrival at New Or- 
 leans, a short time afterwards, but more as a duty and mark of 
 respect to the secretary of the navy, than from any other motive. 
 1 waiced in vain for an answer, and went to Texas, whither I 
 had made up my mind to go, even if not dismissed, and the 
 first official information that I had of the decision of the court 
 martial was in last February (1839.) 
 
 Reader, I must beg your pardon for saying to much of self, 
 but I have done so with a view to show you how impartial 
 courts martial can be, and how members act when they think 
 that they are dealing with a man who has been brought up be- 
 fore the mast. To Commodore Dallas I return my warmest 
 thanks for the courtesy which he showed me during and after 
 the trial ; and Lieut. Adams, (although he was my prosecutor) 
 I shall ever think and speak of him with kindness, and should 
 
NAVAL AND MERCHANT SEtlVlCE. 19l 
 
 I ever be in the navy again, I should wish to sail under no 
 better officer, as the only fault for which he ever censured me 
 is forever removed. 
 
 With regard to my motives for publishing this work, they 
 will hardly be misunderstood ; 1 have had no personal animos- 
 ity to gratify, for most of the individuals alluded to never did 
 me any personal wrong, nor have 1 received any favors from 
 those that I have praised. As for John Beggs and John 
 B — d — e, I have touched them a little, but it is with a view to 
 their benefit, and to guard others against them. Had they 
 been worthy of any other punishment, I should long ago have 
 inflicted it ; and am now ready to satisfy them for this in any 
 way most agreeable to their code of honor. Every candid 
 reader will perceive that I could not have been such a con- 
 sumate egotist as to write for praise or credit for the composi- 
 tion, for while I have education sufficient to know, love, and 
 appreciate ele^^ant composition, yet it does not enable me to 
 attempt it, but only points out my utter inability to do so. The 
 foregoing pages have nothing but truth and good intentions to 
 recommend them, and as such they are presented to the pub- 
 lic. My object, wholly and solely, is the benefit of my breth- 
 ren of the sea ; and if my production is uncouth, the liberal 
 will pardon its being so, when they reflect that I have been 
 deprived of the advantages that a regular education must ever 
 give. The public is very seldom troubled with any productions 
 from common sailors, and I wish to make a merit of that cir- 
 cumstance to my own advantage. 
 
 I scarcely dare look over w^iat I have written, for fear of 
 feeling so just a sense of my own inability to do the subject 
 justice on which I have touched, as to make me destroy the 
 whole and leave every seaman to work out his own salvation 
 as he best could ; but I have spent some time on it, and paid 
 my last two-and-sixpence for the paper on which it is written, 
 so that I am determined to let it go, sink or swim. How has 
 my soul been wrung in glancing over what I have written, to 
 see errors in every page, that I cannot correct, as the little 
 education that I have has been picked up as chance offered, on 
 board of our ships of war, which are, or rather were not the 
 best seminaries in the world to graduate in. There, too, I 
 
102 tVlLS APTD ABtJSfcS IN TUfi 
 
 was deprived of the books necessary to instruct niyself. How 
 true it is that lime squandered or misspent, is never to be re- 
 gained ; money or properly may be so by care and industry, but 
 time may be followed and chased to the end of our lives and 
 yet we fall astern of the lighter. Often do I regret, when 
 taking a retrospection of my past hfe, the many hours spent 
 in a man-of-war's top, or between two guns, playing checkers. 
 Often do 1 regret the days and weeks that I have spent in 
 perusing the fictious, but graphic and lively descriptions, of 
 Scott, Cooper, IVIarryatt, and others ; I have been chained as 
 if by magic to their pages, until I expected to see a Highlander, 
 in kilt and claymore, stand before me, if 1 moved my eyes from 
 the book ; or an Indian chief start from under the bows of the 
 launch, clad in feathers and war paint, ready to utter the thril- 
 ling war whoop. Often has fancy pictured to me some follower 
 of the Red Rover, in the rough, weather-beaten countenance 
 of an old quarter gunner or boatswain's mate ; I could conjure 
 the quarter master on the poop, into a second edition of " long 
 Tom Coffin," of glorious memory ; I could fancy the " hissing 
 globe of death" passing over my head, or the rage of the hur- 
 ricane sweeping through the rigging ; I could look on the lee 
 side of the quarter deck and see some Peter Simple, sent to sea 
 for being so unfortunate as to be the fool of the family, and by 
 his side some good natured O'Brien, who was so ready to 
 give him " such striking proofs of his disinterestedness ;" I 
 could look on the other side of the deck and see a young 
 " Kings Own," who had just mounted the epaulet, and dream- 
 ing of love and honor; or such a character as " Bob Straw," 
 in the " Patrician at Sea ;" but I never could find " a Snayr- 
 leyow." There was a good-natured " Chucks" and *^ Chips," 
 pn the forecastle, and everything tending to favor the illusion. 
 Thus would I dream aw^ay my time until a main-top-man would 
 rouse me, to sw^eep where I was sitting. Had I spent the hours 
 so wasted, in making myself acquainted with the rules of 
 Lindley IMurray, grammatical errors would not offend the 
 reader in every page, as is the case. Yet I have succeeded 
 better than many of my poor shipmates, who remain to this 
 day without knowing a letter of the alphabet. But truce to 
 vain regrets, " what is done can't be helped ; better luck next 
 
Naval and merchant service. 193 
 
 time." My craft, such as she is, is ready to launch forth on 
 the waves of public opiriion, and a short time will determine 
 wliether she is to stand the thunder bolts that may be launched 
 against her by some modern Prometheus, or be dashed against 
 the rocks of neglect, and go to pieces ; if the latter is the case, 
 I hope that some abler hand will set her up again^ All the 
 fault lays in her erection^ none in the model. It is a pity she 
 should perish, as she is bound on a rough voyage for the benefit 
 of a poor, neglected, but deserving, generous class of men. She 
 has no paint, her bare plank is exposed to the action of the 
 weather and the inspection of the observer, who may see of 
 what she is built ; and none have ever seen or corrected a line 
 on her until she was sent to be set up. No good-natured friend 
 to point out defects, or correct inaccuracies. I gaze upon her, 
 not as the lover gazes upon his bride, nor as the young wife 
 looks upon the first pledge of mutual love, nor with the rap- 
 tures that the poet surveys his humble strains ; but with a 
 mingled feeling of sorrow and regret that she is not more per- 
 fect. You will say, gentle reader, that I ought to have brought 
 forward my division of apologies in my preface, but the reasoti 
 why I have said any thing now is, because I had a page of my 
 quire of foolscap left, that I wished to fill up, and as that is 
 nearly done and the devil (printer's) is at my elbow ready to 
 bear it to his master, I must conclude by saying to the public 
 that should it suffer this to pass without censure, I may be 
 heard from again in a gayer style, under the title of " Fag 
 Ends." The truth is often stranger than fiction, and if you for- 
 give this, what follows may be gayer and more interesting* 
 Gentle editors, 1 have escaped drowning a dozen times ; and 
 the last time that 1 fell overboard in the Mississippi, I had a 
 narrow escape from becoming a snack for an alligator. The 
 lightning's flash has passed in many a bitter blast, and left me 
 unscathed, and the shot of the Mexicans refused to kill me, 
 while in the service of TeKas. So my dear fellows, don't put 
 me to death by a stroke of your pen, or an unkind paragraph* 
 Hoping that I have bespoke a good word for my craft, I trust 
 her to your mercy, and take my leave ; the sheet is full. 
 17 
 
154 EVILS Af^i) ABUSES IN THE 
 
 SUPPLEMENT. 
 
 Since the manuscript of this work was prepared for the 
 press, I have been enabled to obtain information on several 
 subjects of which I was formerly ignorant. With regard to the 
 system of crimping alluded to in chapter third, I have to say 
 that such is not the case in Boston, and less frequent in New 
 York than formerly. In Boston, any one can stand a man's 
 security, nor is the person shipped compelled to buy the 
 clothing that he may require from any particular individual, as 
 used to be the case in New York, and that excellent regulation 
 induces double the number of seamen to ship for the navy that 
 did formerly in Boston. But there is another reason why more 
 seamen do not ship for the navy. The landlords, generally, 
 are opposed to entering them, as out of their advance they will 
 receive no more than if they had shipped in a merchant vessel, 
 and if they enter in the latter they will return in a few months, 
 whereas in the former, they may be absent three years, and 
 then are likely to be discharged at some other naval station, 
 and their wages pass into other hands. 
 
 In chapter fifth, I have treated of the evil tendency of the 
 ration, and now say that had the navy commissioners urged 
 this important subject upon the notice of Congress as strongly 
 as they put forward their own claims, it would long ago have 
 been remodelled, and seamen would not now be compelled 
 to purchase, what may from general use, be termed necessaries 
 of life, (tea and sugar,) nor would they be contracting habits 
 under the sanction of the law, that would make them miserable 
 for life. There is one fact that ought not to be disguised, that 
 is, the board of commissioners have been a humbug from begin- 
 ning to end, and have done more to injure the navy than can 
 well be imagined. That board has always been composed of 
 narrow-minded, illiberal,^ and selfish men, who had imbibed 
 notions in their youth which followed them to their graves ; and 
 they were ever averse to any change or improvement for which 
 they could not derive the whole credit, and although these are 
 
NATAL AND MERCHANT SERVICE. 195 
 
 now in the minority yet they have followers who may be cal- 
 led the Tories or Toadies of the navy, or rather men who can- 
 not think for themselves, and therefore suffer those old codgers 
 to think for them. It has never been proposed to Congress 
 to make a law to give the seamen of the navy liberty at stated 
 periods. No. That is a prerogative which should be left in 
 the hands of commanders, but there is no just reason why it 
 should be so. In the British navy seamen are allowed liberty 
 and spending money every three months, and the law is not 
 attended with any difficulty there, and why should it be in our 
 navy ? It could be attended with none except improving the 
 condition of seamen, and giving them some rights, a thing that 
 navy commissioners have heretofore been very averse to do. 
 
 In the British navy if seamen are injured they receive what 
 is termed smart money ^ in proportion to the extent of the in- 
 jury, and at the same time they receive their full pay from the 
 ship to which they may be attached, and after twenty-one 
 years they are entitled to a pension, whether disabled or not. 
 In our navy, if a seaman sustains an injury, he may receive a 
 small pension, but if he ships again that compensation ceases 
 altogether. This tends to encourage idleness, or to deprive a 
 man of the price of his wounds, and if he should remain in the 
 service forty years, he receives no pension unless disabled. 
 
 With regard to the trials by court martial, mentioned in 
 chapter tenth, I have since been informed that the doctor was 
 found guilty by the court, contrary to law, and evidence ; at 
 least, the attorney general so expressed his opinion, and the 
 doctor was reinstated by the President. The commander was 
 suspended, and sentenced to be placed lower upon the list. 
 The latter part of the sentence was set aside, as being im- 
 proper. 
 
 The captain who triced an officer to the mast-head, by the 
 royal halliards, ought to have been dismissed ; but he was let 
 off, with a limited suspension. 
 
 The naval judiciary is very defective ; there is no reason 
 why punishment should be left discretionary with courts martial. 
 The offences and punishments could be as clearly marked out 
 05 in civil and criminal codes, on shore. But a great struggle 
 
196 EVILS AND ABUSES IN THE 
 
 would be made before members of a court martial would re- 
 linquish the prerogative of screening their messmates, and pun- 
 ishing their inferiors. If we have not the shadow of aristocracy, 
 we have the substance, and in no branch of our public service 
 is it more apparent than in the navy. 
 
 As to the trials of Nichols and Couch, I have only to say 
 that it is by no means the first time that the laws have been 
 trifled with in screening men from punishment who have been 
 found guilty of cruelty and oppression ; but I took this case, as 
 being a recent one, and the more likely to be remembered by 
 our citizens. The cowardly attack made upon me by Nichols, 
 has had no share whatever in inducing me to take his case 
 to illustrate my subject, as that part of my work was in the 
 press previous to the assault; and his father challenging me 
 to a fist-fight, in the street, drew nothing from me but pity 
 and contempt. 
 
 " Seamen have long been considered, by our courts and 
 merchants, not as citizens, or even as men — but as a kind of 
 cattle, made only for the use of commerce, and of accumu- 
 lating property, and they are not entitled to the protection of 
 the law, or even to the rights of humanity. Where are those 
 who preach to sailors, in behalf of the merchants, the doc- 
 trine of passive obedience, non-resistance, and submission ? Do 
 they exert themselves, as they might and should do, to secure 
 poor, unprotected sailors from injustice, abuse, and excessive 
 cruelty ? " 
 
 In all probability, the reason why our marine laws vest ship^ 
 masters with so much power, is because that at the time they 
 were enacted native seamen were very scarce, and as foreigners 
 from all European countries were to be employed, it was deemed 
 necessary to delegate extraordinary powers to masters of ves^ 
 sels. Those very laws have prevented our stock of native sea-^ 
 men from increasing. When young men enter on board of 
 vessels, they think themselves free ; but when they find 
 that they receive the treatment of slaves, they abandon the 
 sea, and seek other employment, where they can enjoy the 
 rights and exercise the duties of citizens. 
 
 If we carefully exaniine the revolts and mutini^5 th^t ocQwr 
 
NAVAL AND MERCHANT SERVICE. 197 
 
 in our merchant ships, we will find that three-fourths of them 
 are caused by foreigners : not because these men wish to create 
 disturbances, but because on board of the vessels in which 
 they have been brought up, they are allowed to speak their 
 
 minds, like men. If an officer in an English vessel d ns 
 
 a man, the man will d n him, in return ; — but should he do 
 
 so on board of an American ship, he is knocked down — and if 
 he resists, it is called revolt or mutiny — or the man will be 
 flogged. Flogging a seaman was never productive of any 
 benefit : if he is a bad man, flogging will not make him better — 
 if a good one, it will ruin him ; for no man who has any re- 
 gard for himself, or has any decent pride, can feel otherwise 
 than a slave, after he has been treated as one. This I know 
 to be the real fact, although it may be set down as misrepre- 
 sentation. 
 
 It will be seen, by the following article from the Boston 
 Morning Post, of Nov. 2Ist, 1838, that others think as I do 
 upon the same subject. 
 
 MERCHANT SAILORS AFLOAT. 
 
 In the '^ Annual Reports of the Seamens' Friend and Aid Societies," the 
 consequent immorality of seamen, through boarding in houses in which 
 ardent spirits are sold, and the chicanery of those who keep such establish- 
 ments, are dwelt upon at considerable length, but little, if anything, is 
 said of a class of monsters not second to any under heaven for tyranny and 
 fraud, and from whom no back door of escape presents itself to the ill-fated 
 subjects of their despotism. We allude to masters of vessels, whose harsh 
 treatment of sailors while on the ocean, is oftentimes the cause of their 
 debauchery and intemperance when on land. How many captains are 
 there, who, not satisfied with the most implicit and prompt obedience of 
 those placed under their command, in all that relates to their duty as sea- 
 men, under the most frivolous pretences, inflict barbarities on them from 
 which even a cannibal would turn away with loathing and disgust. When 
 he deprives iiis foe of life, and afterwards feasts on his body, he but acts in 
 conformity with the established customs of his tribe ; but the sea-tyrant, in 
 direct opposition to the established customs of the community who employ 
 and support him, instead of consulting the welfare of those under his com- 
 mand — in order to rob them of their hard earnings — in many instances 
 exercises, with unielenting rigor, a species of tyranny without a parallel, 
 even in the annals of slavery. 
 
 lu the " Ninth Annual Report of the Seamens' Friend Society," ii an 
 extract of a communication from a shipmaster in New Orleans, which ap- 
 
 E eared in the Sailor's Magazine of April, 1837, in which he complains of 
 aving to pay seventy-five dollars a month advance wages, to a whole .?^'»'s 
 
 17* 
 
198 EVILS AND ABUSES IN THE 
 
 company, [he should have said for the passage to the port of destination, 
 whether long or short] and very handsomely attaches the blame to sailor 
 landlords, as the cause of such unusual expense. Now, we do not believe 
 that there is an individual in existence who abhors these beasts of jjrey 
 more than we do, or one who more ardently desires their reformation ; but, 
 *' to give the deril his due," we must confess, that shipmasters themselves, 
 in this particular, are as much to blame as the land-sharks, if not more so. 
 If they will continue to tyrannize over their crews, they surely cannot 
 consistently blame them if they run away; for what man, possessed of 
 common feeling, would remain in a vessel where he is addressed as a dog, 
 and who, if he retorts by even a meie look of disapprobation, is knocked 
 down v/ith the cook's axe, the soft end of a handspike, or whatever may 
 be within the reach of his tyrant, especially when more wages and achance 
 for milder treatment offers ? We fancy men poi?sessed of such feelings 
 are " few and far between." We have not occasion to traverse the globe 
 in order to find tyrannical shipmasters — for they are here, even at our door; 
 — yes — from the port of Boston sail such men. An instance — 
 
 A certain ship sailed from this port some time since, bound for New Or-^ 
 leans, having nearly a temperate crew on board. Jt is true, two of them 
 had some grog in their chests ; but, independent of this, they were all of 
 temperate habits, and capable of performing their duty. The ship had not 
 cleared the bay, when the captain — as was his usual custom on such occa- 
 sions — had the crew employed aloft, and then ordered the mate to break 
 open their chests, and if he found any grog, to bring it aft, or throw it over- 
 board. This was heard by the man at the helm. In conformity to these 
 orders, the mate descended into the forecastle, and with a crow-bar com- 
 menced prying the lids of the sailors' cliests. The noise he made in his 
 operations, attracted the notice of some of the crew who were employed 
 in the fore-top ; and^ suspecting that all was not right below, they commu- 
 nicated their suspicions to their shipmates, and, thus united, they all de- 
 scended and put a stop to his proceedings. Finding the crow-bar mode of 
 opening chests rendered useless, the mate demanded their keys. They 
 inquired " if anything had been stolen, that he wished to have their chests 
 searched." " No," replied the mate," but it is the captain's orders that I 
 carry all the grog in the forecastle aft." <' O, if that be all," answered two- 
 of the crew, opening their chests, (without the aid of keys, the mate having 
 nlready saved them that trouble.) and putting the groginto his possession, 
 *• here is our's, the rest may do as they please." Tiie others, in like man- 
 ner, opened their chests, and assured him that they had no grog; hut, not 
 believing thern, he insisted upon having their contents bundled out, in short, 
 to have their chests turned bottom up. To this they answered, " that their 
 chests were their own, and as there was no grog in them, they would not 
 have their clothes turned topsy-turvy, because he didn't feel inclined to be- 
 lieve them." Had the parties been on deck, and had the mate there re- 
 ceived such an answer, they would have felt the weight of his crow-bar; 
 but believing them sincere, relative to what they asserted, he took, in 
 reality, all the grog that was in the forecastle, and "left them. They then 
 hastened on deck, and proceeded to finish their several jobs. By this time 
 the mate had informed the captain of the resistance on the part of the crew, 
 
 to having their chests searched. " D n them," said the captain, walk- 
 
 ing forward, "I'll see whether they will or not." When he came abreast 
 of the galley, he seized a sailor, who was passing aft, by the collar, and i» 
 
NAVAL AND MERCHANT SERVICE. 199 
 
 characteristic language, demanded the key of his chest. Before he had 
 time to answer, the mate, armed with the cook's axe, struck him on the 
 head — the blood followed, and senseless he fell into the armsof the captain. 
 In this situation he was dragged aft, and seized up by the wrists, to the 
 starboard side of the main rigging. The captain then called the crew aft, 
 and with the assistance of his mates and passengers, succeeded in seizing 
 them all up, the man at the helm excepted. Having thus secured them, 
 he descended into the forecastle, and finished breaking open their chests ; 
 which he turned bottom up : but found no grog. 
 
 Providing himself with a cowhide, he next questioned the crew, indi- 
 vidually, " if they were not sorry for what they had done .?" All but two 
 answered in the affirmative, and were liberated. He who had been knocked 
 down by the mate was one of those who answered in the negative. En- 
 raged at the unyielding replies he received from these two innocent men, 
 the captain swore he'd " see their back-bones before he was done with 
 them," — and swinging the cowhide twice or thrice round his head, he 
 rushed towards the wounded sailor, as if he inteaded to devour him, and 
 commenced lashing him most unmercifully. When his rage had some- 
 what subsided, he again demanded, " if he was not sorry ?" " No," re- 
 plied the sailor, " I've done nothing to be sorry for— and though you and 
 the mate have half murdered me already, and still thirst for my blood — you 
 may drink it; but if this should be the last word I may speak — once for 
 all, and forever, I answer, no I no ! no!" Cursing and swearing, the cap- 
 tain turned toward the mate, and ordered him " to strip the scoundrels." 
 When their clothes had been torn off their backs, the captain again com- 
 menced flogging the wounded sailorj the flesh and blood following almost 
 every lash, until he fainted. Then turning to the other, who had been 
 pretty fortunate so far, he demanded, " if he was not sorry .?" '' No," was 
 the only answer he received. *' By God, then," said the captain, '* I'll 
 make you sorry before I'm done with you," and commenced flogging him, 
 without intermission, until he had given him forty-five lashes. In the 
 meantime, the mate, in order to recover the sailor who had fainted, threw 
 several buckets of salt water over him, which, entering into his lacerated 
 back, restored him to consciousness, and increased his sufferings. *' Is that 
 fellow recovered yet!" inquired the captain, as he rested upon the comb- 
 ings of the after-hatchway. ''Yes, sir," answered the mate. "That's 
 right," returned the captain, rising and walking towards him ; "for I in- 
 tend to see if he will not be sorry before I'm done with him." Again he 
 flogged him, until again he fainted, having received, in all, ninety-six 
 lashes. They were then cast adrift, and bundled into the between decks, 
 and put in irons. Suffice it to relate, that they were liberated next day ; 
 but were unable to perform their duty during the passage to New Orleans. 
 They both went to the hospital, where they remained, until the ship 
 sailed for Liverpool. As might have been expected, the whole crew de- 
 serted. 
 
 It may be said, that the crew must have been a cowardly set of fellows, 
 to stand by and see their shipmates flogged, without attempting their res- 
 cue ; but we say, such was not the case. They were strangers to each 
 other, and they knew, that if they interfered, the captain would run the 
 ship back, and have them indict<id for mutiny; and, having the first story, 
 would make it appear that the safety of the ship and cargo rendered such 
 a course of proceeding necessary. Besides this, there were passengers on 
 
200 KVILS AND ABUSES IN tttfi 
 
 board J who would have sided with the captain, as others have done lil 
 similar cases. Added to this, he would also have made it appear that he 
 was engaged in the " righteous cause of temperance," — though more thaii 
 half drunk himself at the time, — and thus have rallied to his support, many 
 of the self styled virtuous ])ortion of the community, to whom the de- 
 struction of a gallon of rum is a matter of more consequence than the suf- 
 ferings of a thousand sailors. Aware of these facts, and being perfectly 
 sober, the crew acted in accordance to the dictates of sound judgment,"iu 
 remaming passive. A contest between the parties would, in all proba- 
 bility, have resulted in the death of some of those engaged in it; and it 
 needs but a very small portion of sagacity to enable any one to see how 
 the affair would have terminated. Hud any of the sailors fallen, the cap- 
 tain and his supporters would not only have been justified by the ministers 
 of the law, but would have been looked upon by many as right brave and 
 gallant gentlemen, who perilled their lives, against fearful odds, in the 
 support of law, justice, and, more than all the rest, the temperance reform I 
 Reverse the case, and what do we behold ? What would have been the 
 result to the friendless mariners, had the captain, or any of those aiding 
 him, been slain by their hands.? Why, a conscientious jury would most 
 conscientiously have pronounced them guilty of mutiny and murder on 
 the high seas, and a short shrift and a high gallows, blackened memories 
 and dishonored graves, would have iormed their award. Let the reader 
 reflect on these things, before he pronounces the conduct of the uon-resist- 
 ing crew as being but the result of cowardice. 
 
 n the crew had been half drunk, the captain would not have attempted 
 to break open their chests , for, in that state, they would have defended 
 their grog at the risk of their lives. If our premises be correct, it follows, 
 then, as a natural conclusion, that they were either sober or dead drunk. 
 If the latter, it hut adds a darker coloring to the brutal cruelty of the cap- 
 tain ; for he could have had nothing to fear from men in a state of utter 
 intoxication, and no good effect could have been produced by punishing 
 them when in such a state. Even in the navy, when men are punished 
 for drunkenness, it is not until they have become sobered that such pun- 
 ishment is inflicted. 
 
 But let us follow this sea tyrant, and we shall find him resorting to the 
 same means to rob the sailor as that employed by the land-sharks. He 
 shipped a crew in New Orleans, at from twenty-two to twenty-five dollars 
 a month, each man. When the vessel arrived in Liverpool, three hands 
 left her. In lieu of them he shipped tliree foreigners. He then brought 
 several hampers of wine on board, and had it stowed in a part of the ship 
 to which the crew could obtain access at any time. The baited trap thus 
 set for them had the desired effect. The foreigners, having received a 
 month's advance wages, would have but little, if anything, due at the end 
 of the voyage. Having nothing to lose, they broached the wine, and during 
 the passage drank several doaen bottles of it. Upon the ship's arrival at 
 the port of destination, the crew took their chests and hammocks ashore, 
 and called upon the captain, to ascertain when he intended to pay them. 
 When the cargo was discharged, he replied. Taking this for an answer, 
 they made themselves easy ; and called not again until the cargo was dis- 
 charged. But what was their surprise, when he charged them with em- 
 bezzling the cargo, and threatened them with prosecution and the state 
 prison, if they again had the assurance to trouble him, and to consider 
 
NAVAL. AND MERCHANT SERVICE. 201 
 
 themselves well off by his letting the affair drop so quietly. In vain they 
 protested and swore they were innocent. The more they protested the 
 more he threatened them with the state prison, until, at last, losing all 
 patience, at thus finding themselves dup^d,in the bitteruess of their hearts 
 they cursed him as a tyrant and a robber. Who can blame them ? They 
 had been nearly five months in the ship, and had only received two month*' 
 wages, and if we may be permitted to use the expression, had been in a 
 *' hell afloat" all that time ! 
 
 Cursing and swearing, they left the robber, and instead of seeking legal 
 redress, hurried into a '' sailor's hell," and there, in the worship of Bacchus, 
 forg:ot their misfortunes. On the following day they were shipped by 
 their landlord, and carted drunk to their vessel — he having secured their 
 advance to defray their expenses, which, to do him justice, did no more. 
 
 We doubt not but the landlord and captain co-operated in thus hurrying 
 them to sea, though we have no positive proof that they did ; but we know 
 such has been the case in many instances of a similar character. Be this 
 as it may, the captain made a handsome sum by it. The wages of nine 
 men — say at $22 per month, for three months — about $594, was not amiss 
 for the loss of a few dozen bottles of wine. 
 
 And yet, we doubt not, after having tyrannized over his crew, as was 
 the case in the first instance, thereby compelling them to run away, he 
 would write a long letter to his owner, complaining of the expenses in- 
 curred in consequence of their desertion. And, in the second instance, 
 the enormous sum of from twenty-two to twenty-five dollars per month, 
 each man, for another crew, and other incidental expenses, would not pass 
 unnoticed. But the true and only cause of these expenses — himself — 
 would attach the whole blame to sailor landlords. Not a word relative to 
 the faithful services of his second crew, or the $594 he had so cunningly 
 swindled them out of, would be noticed. O, no ! it would come in for 
 pocket money — it numbered with his perquisites ! 
 
 Let the friends of seamen cast a glance on the ocean. Let them take 
 into consideration, that on it the sailor spends the greater part of his time. 
 That there he is removed from the protection of the law, and governed 
 only, in many instances, by the whims of lawless tyrants. Let them look 
 at the above instance of tyranny and fraud, and then inquire if the welfare 
 of the seaman afloat deserves not more attention than it has hitherto elic- 
 ited ? Let them not wonder when they hear of mutiny while tyranny 
 exists ; for sailors, with all their faults, are men, and love to lequite a favor 
 conferred, or resent an injury received as well as others. We except the 
 naval service. Would to God the merchant service had no more abuses 
 to reform than the naval. In the one, a man is respected as such — while, 
 in the other, in too many instances, he is treated worse than a dog. Let 
 the friends of seamen look to this, and use some means to place the one on 
 a footing with the other. 
 
 We do not censure or disapprove of any of the measures of those who 
 profess to be laboring for the sailor's welfare. Far from it ; we concur 
 with them in all things ; but wish them to take into more serious conside- 
 ration the welfare of the sailor afloat. To this end, then, we propose that 
 such part of the maritime laws as relate to the protection of sailors, and 
 the duty of the officers, be published and distributed throughout the mer- 
 chant shipping, until every sailor in the United States has them by heart. 
 By this means, they will become acquainted with what is legally right, and 
 ivhen wronged will know how to seek redress, Neptune. 
 
E R R A T A • 
 
 Page 7, line 10 from top, for accommodations there ^ read ac- 
 commodations are. 
 
 Page 14, line 3 from the bottom, for surgeon^ s mate, read 
 surgeon^s attendant. 
 
 Page 19, last article in the bill, for one dollar, read one 
 dollar and fifty cents. 
 
 Page 28, line 10, omit easily. 
 
 Page 33, line 20 from top, for 8000 read 80,000 ; and in 21, 
 for 4 or 5000, read 40 or 50,000. 
 
 Page 33, 5th line from bottom, for 26 each, read 36 each. 
 
 ^ 
 
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