History of merchant shipping and ancient commerce, Volume 2 (of 4)

by W. S. Lindsay

Neither of the mates stand watch at night when in harbour, but the chief should always be the first to be called in the morning, as it his duty to summon the men to their work, and apportion to them their respective duties. In cleaning the ship, such as washing down decks, etc., which is done the first thing in the morning, each mate, while at sea, takes charge of it in his watch, in turn, as the one or the other may have the morning watch; but in port the second mate oversees the washing down of the decks, under the chief mate’s general orders.

Tacking “’bout ship.”

We have furnished, in a preceding part of this work, a specimen of the orders given, and of the language employed by masters two hundred years ago; we now give a description of an ordinary manɶuvre in the present century. While at sea, in tacking, wearing, reefing topsails, etc., and in every kind of “all-hands work,” when the master is on deck, the chief mate’s place, as we have said, is forward. In the evolution of tacking ship, the master, finding that the ship will not “lay her course,” instructs him to “see all clear for stays,” or “ready about.” The chief mate then goes forward, orders all hands to their stations, and sees everything clear and ready on the forecastle. The master asks, “All ready forward?” and being answered, “Ay, ay, sir,” motions to the man at the helm to put the wheel down, and calls out, “Helm’s alee,” to which the mate, in order to let the master know he is heard and understood, responds, “Helm’s alee,” and sees that the head sheets are let go. The master then gives the order to “raise tacks and sheets,” which is executed by the mates and the men with them, loosening all the ropes which confine the corners of the lower sails, in order that they may be more readily shifted to the other side. When the ship has turned her head directly to windward, the order is given by the master to “brace about,” turn round all the yards on the main and mizen-masts; the mate attending to the foretack, letting go the bowlines and braces on one side, and as expeditiously drawing them in on the other side, so as to wheel the yards about the masts; the lower corner of the mainsail is then, by means of its tack, pulled down to its station at the chess-tree; and all the after sails are at the same time adjusted to stand upon the other board. Finally, when the ship has fallen off five or six points, the master exclaims, “Let go and haul;” then the sails on the foremast are with great rapidity wheeled about by their braces. In this manɶuvre the mate will see to the adjustment of the fore-yards, while the master usually trims the after-yards, guiding the men at the work by such exclamations as, “Well! the main yard;” “Topsail yard, a small pull on weather braces;” “Topgallant yard, well;” so that every sail may be trimmed up sharp to the wind.

Reefing topsails.

In reefing topsails, the chief mate, except in small vessels, keeps his place forward, and looks out for the men on the yards. But he sometimes goes aloft with the men in vessels of 500 or 600 tons, and takes his place at the weather earring. If both topsails are reefed at once, his place is at the main; but if one sail is reefed at a time, he leads the men from one yard to the other, in all cases taking the weather earring,[415] acting in a similar manner when the courses require to be reefed; but he is not required, as a rule, to work with his hands, except in an emergency, like the second mate and the seamen, his time and attention being sufficiently taken up with superintending and giving orders.[416]

Log-book.

The law looks upon the chief mate as standing in a different relation to the master from that of the second mate or the men. He is considered a confidential person, to whom the owners, shippers, and insurers look, in some measure, for special duties and qualifications. The master, therefore, cannot remove him from office, when abroad, except under very peculiar circumstances, and then must be able to prove his action in the matter justifiable. One of these duties which the law throws upon him, as we have shown, is the keeping of the log-book. This is a very important trust, as the record of the evidence of everything occurring during the voyage, the position of the ship, the sail she was under, the wind, and so forth, at any one given moment, may become matters of great consequence to all concerned. So it is in like manner with reference to anything that may occur between the master or officers and the crew. Each officer, at the end of his watch, not merely enters on the log-slate, which usually lies on the cabin table, or in some convenient place, the courses, distances, wind and weather during his watch, and anything worthy of note that may have occurred, but it is the duty of the chief mate once in twenty-four hours to copy from the slate the entries into the log-book, and to vouch for their accuracy, although the master usually examines it, making any corrections or observations he may consider necessary. The practice, however, of copying from the slate after it had been submitted to the master, led, in many instances, to great abuse, as the chief mate then became only the instrument of the master, and, too frequently, entered in the log-book whatever the latter might dictate. But these abuses have been remedied by the authorization, under the Merchant Shipping Act, of official logs, to which we shall refer hereafter, as well as to the numerous important changes in the merchant service of England which have since been made.

Mate successor in law to the Master.

Mode of address to Chief and Second Mates.

The law also makes the chief mate the successor to the master in case the latter should die, or be unable to perform the duties of his office; and this without any action on the part of the crew when at sea, or of the consignees of the vessel when in harbour abroad. It is always important, therefore, that to the practical seamanship and activity necessary for the discharge of the proper duties of his office the mate should add a sufficient knowledge of navigation, to be able to carry the ship on her voyage should anything happen to the master. In the case of a ship coming from the East Indies, there is a decision that no ship insured can be deemed seaworthy unless she have on board, at the time of sailing, a mate competent to take command of the ship in the event of the death or sickness of the master. This principle, however, can in strictness only be applied to long voyages, and a high American authority calls it in question.[417] Both the chief and second mates are always addressed by their surnames, with the courteous prefix of “Mr.,” and are answered with the addition of “Sir.” This is a requirement of ship’s duty, and an intentional omission of such courtesies constitutes an offence against the rules and understanding of the service.