As Things Now Are, Many Masters Are Obliged To Sail Without Knowing
Anything Of Their Crews, Until They Get Out At Sea.
There may be
pirates or mutineers among them; and one bad man will often infect
all the rest; and
It is almost certain that some of them will be
ignorant foreigners, hardly understanding a word of our language,
accustomed all their lives to no influence but force, and perhaps
nearly as familiar with the use of the knife as with that of the
marline-spike. No prudent master, however peaceably inclined,
would go to sea without his pistols and handcuffs. Even with
such a crew as I have supposed, kindness and moderation would be
the best policy, and the duty of every conscientious man; and the
administering of corporal punishment might be dangerous, and of
doubtful use. But the question is not, what a captain ought
generally to do, but whether it shall be put out of the power of
every captain, under any circumstances, to make use of, even
moderate, chastisement. As the law now stands, a parent may
correct moderately his child, and the master his apprentice;
and the case of the shipmaster has been placed upon the same
principle. The statutes, and the common law as expounded in the
decisions of courts, and in the books of commentators, are express
and unanimous to this point, that the captain may inflict moderate
corporal chastisement, for a reasonable cause. If the punishment
is excessive, or the cause not sufficient to justify it, he is
answerable; and the jury are to determine, by their verdict in
each case, whether, under all the circumstances, the punishment
was moderate, and for a justifiable cause.
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