Nequa; or, The Problem of the Ages

by Alcanoan O. Grigsby; Mary P. Lowe

"That is well thought of," said Captain Ganoe, "and I think it would be well to muster the crew and organize a regular system of employment and amusement. And," turning to me, he continued, "what do you have to say, Jack? I never knew you to be so silent. What is the matter? Have you no opinions to offer, and nothing to suggest?"

"I certainly have opinions and I might offer some suggestions," I remarked, "but before doing so, I want to familiarize myself with existing conditions. Only one thing seems certain, just at present, and that is, that we are locked up in the ice for several months and perhaps for years to come. This will give us ample time for careful reflection. There is no reason that we should be in a hurry to inaugurate a rigid system of any kind just now in order to preserve the discipline of the crew. There is no danger of their deserting the ship and we can well afford to wait until the novelty of our present surroundings has worn away."

"You are right," said the Captain. "There is certainly a novelty in our present surroundings, that will attract the attention of all and prevent ennui for the time being, but this will soon wear away, and the monotony of our imprisonment will become unbearable, except to the best disciplined minds. This will be particularly severe on our common sailors, who are uneducated, and thus deprived of the numberless sources of recreation and amusement to which we have ready access. When this time comes, what would you do?"

"So far as I am concerned," I said, "I have access to the library, and will really enjoy the association that it affords with the brightest intellects and noblest characters of earth, past and present. Now, if I should suggest anything for the relief of the common sailors, outside of such exercise and amusements as are essential to health, I would organize them into a school, and seek to bring these more exalted pleasures within their reach by increasing their knowledge, and giving them broader views of life and higher aspirations. This will also furnish us with needful and elevating employment and will certainly afford us a splendid opportunity to do good to others, and at the same time increase our own knowledge of human nature, and to trace the effects produced by environments, on the masses who have not enjoyed the advantages of a liberal education."

"Your suggestion," said the Captain, "is all right as far as the better educated are concerned, but it would be useless and probably hurtful to the common sailors. Remember the old adage that 'a little learning is a dangerous thing.' To the extent that we could succeed in giving them broader views of life and higher aspirations, we would only succeed in making them dissatisfied with their lot, and thus weaken the discipline on which the safety of all depends. All that we can do for the common sailors is to provide such healthful exercise of the muscles as will give them good appetites and enable them to enjoy rest and sleep. They would not appreciate the mental feast which you in your kindness of heart would set before them. Their training has been physical, and, hence, their enjoyments must be of the same nature. The same rules that apply to trained intellects will not apply to them."

"If that is your opinion," I said, "there is no use for any suggestions from me. You are the owner and senior officer of the Ice King, and, of course, good discipline demands that your will shall be law. You ought to understand the material of which your crew is composed, better than I. My duties have not brought me in contact with your sailors and, of course, I know practically nothing about them, except that I see they are courageous and efficient. But, nevertheless, on general principles, I believe that nature has planted the germs of all that is good and noble in every human soul, and if this is true, all that is good and noble can be developed in them by the proper influences, without detracting in any way from their usefulness as mere workers; besides, the effort to elevate them draws them nearer to us, and it seems to me, would tend to engender feelings of mutual love and confidence, that strengthen instead of weaken that perfect discipline which is of such inestimable importance to an expedition like this, when the safety and well-being of every individual member is of vital importance to the safety and well being of the entire crew."

"I have always had the respect and confidence of my sailors," said the Captain, "not because I tried to lift them up to the same plane that I occupied, but because I provided them with good food, good quarters, never overtaxed their strength, and gave them ample time for rest and such amusements as they could appreciate. I have always had the good-will and cheerful obedience of the common sailors, because I looked out for their physical needs and treated them kindly."

"I have no doubt of that," I said. "But your voyages in the past have been between civilized ports and all your sailors wanted was their pay, and in addition to this, you gave them better treatment than they could get elsewhere. Hence, their selfish impulses held them to you. The relation between you and them was purely physical, and all that was needed to make them loyal to you, was to look out for their physical wants and treat them kindly. From their standpoint, this was an addition to their wages that they could not secure under more heartless employers. But you are now differently situated. You are not expected to come into a civilized port where sailors can spend their wages as sailors usually do. They have nothing to look forward to, and as mere workers they have no interests in common with you. But with the broader views of life to which association with the best intellects and the noblest characters gives access, they would take a more exalted view of the work in which they are engaged, and be true to you from a higher motive than their wages, which they cannot use in the supply of their physical wants. This is why I suggested the school."

"I recognize the force of your reasoning," said the Captain, "and if I regarded your premises as correct, I would come to the same conclusion that you do. But you make the mistake of overlooking the fact that a liberal education can only be secured by years of training in school, from the kindergarten to the college, and should be accompanied by the elevating influences of the home and cultured society, and followed by a life of study and experience in the higher walks of life, before the average man can be reasonably expected to rise above the plane of mere physical existence, and act from the high intellectual and moral impulses which impel the most cultivated and elevated characters. And, you must still further take into consideration the fact, that even if we were imprisoned in the ice for a year or more, we would have time enough to give our sailors only a smattering of what they ought to know, in order to develop the high type of character that you propose, even if we could overcome the influence of their home lives and the low social status of the society in which they have always mingled. You do not realize, my dear Jack, the utter impossibility of the task you would have us undertake. They must still be sailors and perform the hard labor for which they were engaged, and we should be careful not to engender in their minds hopes and aspirations that would make them dissatisfied with their lot."

"I certainly would not do anything," I replied, "that would tend to make them discontented. This is something that should be most carefully avoided. But, nevertheless, I still think my suggestion, if carried out, would have just the opposite tendency. From my own experience, I regard my premises as stronger than my reasoning. I enjoyed all the advantages of a liberal education and the elevating influence of home and cultured society, and still, I have engaged in the most menial employments. Yet, I did not find that my education rendered me dissatisfied with my lot. On the contrary, it did much to enable me to adapt myself to the situation, and to find sources of enjoyment which were inaccessible to my uneducated associates. But, more than this, my experience among the lowly, convinces me that a collegiate education is not essential to the development of the noblest characteristics. I have met sailors before the mast, who had accumulated a vast fund of useful knowledge, and had the broadest and most comprehensive views of life, and its duties. The premises from which I reason, are the results of actual experience with the lowly."