The captain must be the judge when it is necessary to keep his
crew from their sleep; and sometimes
A retrenching, not of the
necessaries, but of some of the little niceties of their meals,
as, for instance, duff on Sunday, may be a mode of punishment,
though I think generally an injudicious one.
I could not do justice to this subject without noticing one part
of the discipline of a ship, which has been very much discussed
of late, and has brought out strong expressions of indignation from
many, - I mean the infliction of corporal punishment. Those who have
followed me in my narrative will remember that I was witness to an
act of great cruelty inflicted upon my own shipmates; and indeed
I can sincerely say that the simple mention of the word flogging,
brings up in me feelings which I can hardly control. Yet, when the
proposition is made to abolish it entirely and at once; to prohibit
the captain from ever, under any circumstances, inflicting corporal
punishment; I am obliged to pause, and, I must say, to doubt
exceedingly the expediency of making any positive enactment which
shall have that effect. If the design of those who are writing
on this subject is merely to draw public attention to it, and to
discourage the practice of flogging, and bring it into disrepute,
it is well; and, indeed, whatever may be the end they have in view,
the mere agitation of the question will have that effect, and,
so far, must do good. Yet I should not wish to take the command
of a ship to-morrow, running my chance of a crew, as most masters
must, and know, and have my crew know, that I could not, under any
circumstances, inflict even moderate chastisement. I should trust
that I might never have to resort to it; and, indeed, I scarcely
know what risk I would not run, and to what inconvenience I would
not subject myself, rather than do so. Yet not to have the power of
holding it up in terrorem, and indeed of protecting myself, and all
under my charge, by it, if some extreme case should arise, would be
a situation I should not wish to be placed in myself, or to take
the responsibility of placing another in.
Indeed, the difficulties into which masters and officers are
liable to be thrown, are not sufficiently considered by many
whose sympathies are easily excited by stories, frequent enough,
and true enough of outrageous abuse of this power. It is to
be remembered that more than three-fourths of the seamen in our
merchant vessels are foreigners. They are from all parts of the
world. A great many from the north of Europe, beside Frenchmen,
Spaniards, Portuguese, Italians, men from all parts of the
Mediterranean, together with Lascars, Negroes, and, perhaps worst
of all, the off-casts of British men-of-war, and men from our own
country who have gone to sea because they could not be permitted
to live on land.
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