On Board the "Rocket"

by Robert C. Adams

A few years since a dozen American ships, one of them under my command, arrived at a port in Asia. The trade they were engaged in was depressed and they were doomed to remain idle for several months. The ships were manned by foreigners, and the captains deemed it their duty to the owners to avoid paying and feeding full crews for several months, when they had no need of their services. Steamers and vessels in various trades were arriving and departing daily, affording opportunity for the men to obtain employment and leave the port. Application was made to the Consul for permission to discharge the crews, which was given on condition of compliance with the three months' pay law. This no one cared to do; and the "fair means" being deemed unfair to the owner foul means were employed. The captain of the S—— told his men they had better leave, but, hoping to secure the two months' extra pay, they declined. Orders were given to the mate to work them up and drive them out of the ship. He accordingly hung planks over the ship's side, one foot under water, and made the sailors stand on them and scrub the ship's copper with sand, keeping them always on the sunny side of the ship. It was the month of June. The tropical sun poured upon the men's heads, while their feet were in the water, and glanced upon their bodies from the copper they were polishing, giving no small torment. One man ventured to go on deck and complain, but the smart mate soon thrashed him into submission. That night half of the crew deserted.

Attached to the Consul's office was a shipping-master, who gave personal attention to all details of business connected with crews, the Consul merely expounding the laws to inquirers in his inner office, and maintaining the dignity of the U.S. Government in a general way. The shipping-master was in close alliance with the police of the place, and the arrest of the deserters from the S—— was soon reported to him. He thereupon informed the captain that the men must be received on board again, but by mutual agreement a certain sum was paid to the shipping master for each man, and they were reported to the Consul as deserters. The remainder of the crew were soon got rid of, and the rest of the ships followed suit, paying $10 to $15 per man to the shipping-master.

My own crew were much attached to their ship and were unwilling to leave. I would not allow them to be oppressed in order to drive them away, and the owners were forced to submit to the expense of maintaining a large crew, besides the loss occasioned by the idleness of the ship. After some time, half of the crew, knowing that they were not wanted, and were only a burden, consented to leave; but the Consul, in reply to the application, held up the three months' pay law, and my choice was to keep the men or pay sixty dollars each besides the wages due.

In this dilemma the shipping master offered to allow the men to "desert," upon my paying him fourteen dollars apiece, which was to be called "two weeks' board."

I felt compelled in justice to my owners' interest to adopt this plan, and connive at the rascality by which an unjust law was evaded by those entrusted with its enforcement. The matter was arranged so as to do no violence to my conscience in the matter of oath and declaration of desertion.

This shipping master, after a short term of service was able to buy a half interest in a large ship, and probably approves of the three-months' pay law. The previous Consul is said to have taken away eighty thousand dollars after a few years' residence.

The owners of the ship I commanded are a firm on whom Dr. Jewell, in the above-mentioned work, has cast severe aspersions, and it is due to them to say that at the close of the voyage, while admitting that a less humane captain would have made a more economical voyage, they thoroughly approved of my principles, and said they did not mind losing a thousand dollars now and then in support of them. They however remarked that Capt. ——, who was a notorious sailor driver, sailed his ships cheaper than any other captain in their employ, as he never had a sailor remaining by the vessel in port. A few weeks after this conversation it happened that news was received that Capt. ——'s ship had put into Rio Janeiro with a mutinous crew, and some of the sailors had been shot by the captain. Considerable expense and delay to the voyage was caused by this, and the owners were overheard to say that Capt. —— should never have another chance to put one of their ships into port in distress. They saw that the question of economy was not always against the "humane captain."

The above facts, selected as samples from a multitude, illustrate the assertion that the three months' pay law is:

First, An occasion for the exercise of much cruelty to the sailor, and often obliges him to have the disgrace of desertion attached to his name, in order to secure the release from his ship which his interests demand.

Secondly, It obliges captains to resort to wrong or questionable acts to secure their owners' interests, and involves them in many unpleasant controversies.