SOME APPEARANCE OF MUTINY QUELLED.
On the voyage from Manila to New York we had the only interruption to our peace. One day we were informed by the steward that some of the men had thrown their beef overboard; that they were excited; and he feared trouble. The captain made inquiry into the cause of disaffection, the ringleaders in it, the nature of their threats.
He called them together on the main deck in the afternoon. All were there except the man at the wheel. They were dressed in their Sunday clothes; they stood round as men do when there is a strike. The passengers kept out of sight, but were within hearing. We had heard of mutinies; perhaps we were now to have some practical experience of them.
The captain told them that the steward had informed him that they found fault with their beef. He believed that there may have been some reason for complaint; that a new barrel had been opened that morning; he believed that the first pieces had been exposed to the air, the brine having been absorbed since leaving New York; that the steward happened to give these pieces to them rather than to the cabin table, but there was no design in doing so; that had we had one of the pieces for dinner that day, we should no doubt have complained that it was not as fresh after coming round Cape Horn as it was on leaving Fulton Market; but we would not for this have abused the steward. Now as we were getting to the last tier of the beef barrels he should have to shorten their allowance a little, especially if they preferred to throw their beef overboard, which they might do if they pleased, but they would gain nothing by it; we were all in the same boat sharing alike. He had heard of some expressions being used which were not right; he hoped he was misinformed; they would find that so long as they showed themselves to be reasonable men they would have no just ground of complaint. They also knew what the consequences would be to any one who should make trouble.
The men separated peacefully, making no more complaint; for we soon drew from deeper brine and the beef proved to be all right.
Perhaps it was accidental, but the captain said that complaints against the grub had been most frequently made by some Irishmen in his different crews. Whether these offenders had been accustomed to the best of fare on shore, and so were less able to bear discomforts in sea life, or whether they were of a more jealous disposition than others from some natural cause in their temperament, he would not say, but he had found it more difficult to suit a man of this class in the matter of grub than others; the shillaleh was too ready to appear at a fancied attempt to get an advantage over him in his food. For quick witted, daring, nimble, nautical feats, none have surpassed Irish sailors. As quick as any one of his watch, you are sure to find an Irishman lying out on the yard arm as far as to the weather earring, in a gale.
It is not right to lay hold of a few cases and impute certain classes of faults to men of one nation, as though these men were all of them specially addicted to that kind of transgression. There is no assignable reason, for example, why an Irishman, rather than a Swede, should be quick to find fault with his grub; if it has so happened that, as a captain told us, he never in a long course of years, had a disturbance in his crew about the grub but an Irishman was sure to be at the bottom of it; that even when in all other respects the Irishman was exemplary in his disposition, grub was sure to be a weak point with him; still we would prefer to hear the experience of others before we drew a conclusion unfavorable to a whole class of men in that particular.