On shipping in the _Boxer_, I received three months’ advance, which,
excepting a small sum expended for clothing, fell into the hands of
my rapacious landlord. How much this gentleman contrived to filch
from me, it is not in my power to say; but that he was well paid, I
have no doubt. He had my hundred dollars, my advance, all I earned
for working on the wharves, and nine dollars beside, which I obtained
from the purser. All this, according to his account, I spent in
a few weeks, with the exception of a very small sum laid out for
clothing. As I had no means of proving his statements false, there
was no alternative but submission, and a return to a life of toil and
danger, to earn a fresh supply.
As the method by which I obtained the nine dollars, above mentioned,
from the purser, will exhibit one of the modes in which seamen are
sometimes cheated, I will relate it. While in the _Siren_ I drew but
half my allowance of grog. By the rules of the service, I could claim
the balance in money. This I overlooked when we were paid off, but,
when my funds got low, it came into my mind. I proposed to some of
the boys, who had a similar claim, to visit the purser. They only
laughed at me, and said it would be of no use, for he would not pay
it now we were discharged. Finding they would not join me, I went
alone to the City Hotel, where the purser boarded, and inquired
for him of the bar-tender. He came down stairs, and I spread out
my complaint before him. He blustered and said I had no such claim
allowed; I insisted, and told him it was my right, and he must pay
it. Hoping to get rid of me, he told me to call again the next day.
This I did, when he paid me nine dollars. This will show the reader
one of the ways in which poor Jack is plundered, and that too by
GENTLEMEN!
The _Boxer_ lay at the navy yard, whither we were conducted. The
vacillation of a seaman’s character was illustrated before we got
on board, by one of our hands running away: another went a little
beyond the first. He went on board, where he pretended to lose his
hat overboard. Begging permission to recover it, he seized the rope
which fastened the boat to the shore, dropped over the stern into the
boat, and pushing up to the wharf, leaped ashore and made off. Such
fickle-mindedness is not uncommon among sailors.
We lost another of our crew in a more melancholy manner; he was in my
mess, an Englishman by birth, who had just left a British vessel to
enter the American service. He was at work on the main yard, and by
some means or other, losing his foothold, he fell. Unfortunately, he
struck a carronade screw in his descent, which inflicted a terrible
wound. The poor man suffered excruciating agonies for a short time,
and died. We buried him on shore, in a plain coffin, without form or
ceremony. Such are the contingencies which wait to hurry seamen to
the grave!
We were kept busily at work upon the brig for some time; after which
our commander, Captain Porter, came on board. We soon found him to
belong rather to the race of Fitzroys and Cardens, than to that of
Decaturs, Parkers or Nicholsons. He was inclined to tyranny and
severe discipline.
He soon gave us a specimen of his character in a most illegal act
of punishment. We lay alongside the _Hornet_ or _Peacock_, I forget
which. It happened that her captain and most of her officers were
gone ashore one day. Our captain accidentally saw one of her men
engaged in some act of misconduct: instead of entering a complaint
against the man to his own officers, he ordered him to be seized up
and severely flogged, notwithstanding the earnest entreaties of the
offender for pardon. Why the captain of that vessel did not call
Captain Porter to an account for this manifest invasion of his
prerogatives, I never knew, for we put to sea shortly afterwards. An
officer who would thus gratuitously volunteer his services to punish
a man, must be a tyrant at heart. So at least we thought; while many
misgivings, concerning the future, troubled our minds.
As I was now rated an ordinary seaman, and not a boy, as heretofore,
I had a station assigned me in the fore-top, instead of being a
servant to any of the officers. I was also appointed to be one of the
crew of the captain’s gig. This made my lot one of more fatigue and
exposure than in any former voyage; a proof of which, I very soon
experienced. It being now late in the fall, the weather became very
cold. One afternoon, the pennant having got foul of the royal mast,
an officer ordered me to go up and clear it. I had no mittens on; it
took me some time to perform my task, and before I came down one of
my fingers was frozen. Thus it is, however, with the poor tar; and he
thinks himself happy to escape his dangers with injuries so slight as
this.
The disposition of our commanding officer was still further revealed
to my discomfort one day, while we were at work on the cables.
Something I did, not happening to suit him, he gave me a severe blow
on the head with his fist, not far from the place where I had been
previously injured by the malice of the Malay boy. This unmanly blow
occasioned me violent pains for several days.
Since that time, I have felt a peculiar hostility to a practice,
which is lamentably common in some schools and families; I mean that
of rapping children on the head with a thimble, or with the knuckles,
or anything else. The practice is the result of irrational passion,
it is dangerous, and cannot therefore be too severely reprobated. If
it is pleaded as necessary to enforce obedience and ensure respect,
I know it will fail of such effects; it will only excite feelings of
revenge, ill-will and malice.
We now received sailing orders, and were very soon under weigh,
bound to the Balize at the mouth of the Mississippi. On this passage
we had further opportunities of learning the character of our
officers. Although Captain Porter was stern and severe, yet he never
used bad language. He always spoke with the utmost deliberation, but
with such obvious indications of feeling, that we often trembled
to hear his voice. Most of the other officers were by no means
novitiates in the art of swearing; but our sailing-master exceeded
all the rest in this diabolical habit. Whenever it was his watch on
deck, he exercised his voice, and practised the use of his choice
and varied vocabulary of oaths, by hallooing and threatening the
men continually. Whenever we had to set on sail, or to reef, he was
especially diligent in these matters; mingling with his curses,
threats of the lash to those who were tardy, or whose movements did
not exactly suit his taste. If such officers could only apprehend the
profound contempt and bitter hatred with which they are regarded by
their maddened crew, they would both tremble for safety, and despise
their own littleness of soul. No really great man would enact the
childish vagaries of a petty tyrant.
There was one respect in which we were more annoyed in the _Boxer_
than I had been in the _Macedonian_. In this latter ship, none but
the captain could order a man to be flogged; in the _Boxer_, the
lieutenant or the officer of the watch could send a man to the
gangway, and order the boatswain to lay on with a rope’s-end. This
is a liberty which the laws of the navy should prohibit. A man
should be secured the rights of a citizen, as well on the _planks_
as on the _soil_ of his country. True, it may be said, severity of
discipline is necessary to good order in a ship. Not _severity_,
but _strictness_, is what is wanted. Let a strict discipline be
enforced, with pleasant looks, and a “Hurrah my lads, bear a hand!”
and obedience will be more prompt and more perfect than when every
order is accompanied with a “Damn you,” and with an exhibition of the
rope’s-end or cat-o’-nine-tails. Common sense, as well as experience,
will sustain this opinion.
While these matters were passing on board, our little brig was
dashing through the waves in fine style. We arrived at the Balize,
from whence we dropped down to Ship Island, where we took in water.
A share of this severe task fell to my lot, for I was here taken out
of the gig, and placed in the jolly-boat, to make way for a smaller
and lighter lad in the former. We obtained our water by digging large
holes in the sand, into which we placed our casks; the salt water,
by passing through so much sand, would be so thoroughly filtrated,
that by the time it reached our casks it was fit for use. We then
emptied it into ten-gallon kegs, called breakers, which we carried
on our shoulders to the boat. This of itself was hard work, but we
had certain tormentors on this island, which made it a task of much
suffering. These were hosts of hungry, gigantic moschetos, which
assailed our persons, and especially our naked feet, in flying
squadrons, with a ferocity that indicated an uncontrollable thirst
for blood. But even these were not our worst persecutors. They
were attended by armies of large, yellow horseflies, which our men
called gallinippers. These merciless insect savages were always sure
to attack the very spot we had rubbed sore, after the bite of a
moscheto. Their bite felt like the thrust of a small sword; I still
retain scars on my feet occasioned by these fierce gallinippers.
This island bore marks of the battle of New Orleans; for we found
various articles bearing the broad arrow and stamped G. R. We also
remarked several mounds, which had the appearance of being large
graves. We afterwards learned that this was the place where the
British brought their dead, after their unsuccessful attack on the
city of New Orleans.
From Ship Island, we proceeded to New Orleans. This was a laborious
passage; the current ran down the river with amazing force, bearing
huge logs on its bosom, which, if suffered to strike either our bows
or cables, were capable of doing much damage: to avoid them required
no trifling exertions. Sometimes we endeavored to track her, or draw
her along with ropes, as canal-boats are drawn by horses. But, as
this brought us into shallow water, it was abandoned.
The banks of the river displayed large numbers of alligators,
luxuriating on the numerous logs that were fast in the mud. We made
many attempts to get near enough to these scaly monsters to pierce
them with a boat-hook; but they kept too sharp a look-out for us;
invariably diving into the stream before our boat got near enough
for us to strike them. But, if we failed in capturing alligators, we
obtained an abundance of palm-leaf, from the shore, with which we
furnished ourselves with hats.
An instance of our commander’s tyranny occurred while we were
ascending the river. He had requested a seaman, named Daily, who was
somewhat acquainted with the river, to act as pilot. By accident
or negligence, he suffered the brig to strike the bottom, though
without the least injury. The captain flew into a passion, ordered
him to the gangway, and commanded the boatswain’s mate to lay on
with his rope’s-end. I did not witness this flogging, for the hands
were not called up to witness punishment, unless administered by the
cat-o’-nine-tails, but one of my messmates said that he received at
least one hundred lashes. I saw him several days afterwards, with
his back looking as if it had been roasted, and he unable to stand
upright. He wore the same shirt in which he was flogged for some
time afterwards. It was torn to rags, and showed the state of his
back beneath. His object in wearing it was to mortify and shame the
captain for his brutality.
The severity of flogging with the rope’s end is justly described in
Mr. Dana’s excellent book, called “Two Years before the Mast.” Though
not _so_ cruel as the cat, it is nevertheless a harsh, degrading
punishment. Our men used to say that “they would as lief be cut up on
the bare back with the cat, as have back and shirt cut up together,”
as was poor Daily’s. In truth, that flogging was both unjust and
illegal. The articles of war provide, that not more than _twelve_
lashes shall be given for a crime; but here _one hundred_ were
inflicted for _no crime_--for an accident, which might have happened
to the best pilot who ever ascended the Mississippi. But though the
captain was thus rendered amenable to the law, who would believe a
poor sailor? Had he complained, it would doubtless have been to his
own injury; for law, and especially naval law, is always on the side
of the strong. This was not the only case of illegal flogging; but
the justification of these excessive whippings, was found in the
pretended existence of _several_ crimes in the helpless offenders.
On one occasion we were at our quarters, exercising in the various
evolutions of war; now at our guns, and then going through the forms
of boarding an enemy; now running aloft, as if in the act of cutting
down our enemy’s rigging, and then rushing below, as if to board her,
firing our pistols, stabbing with our boarding-pikes, and cutting
on all sides with our cutlasses. In the midst of this excitement,
the movements of one of the men not happening to please the captain,
he seized a cutlass and struck him a tremendous blow with its flat
side; heated with passion, he let it glance as he struck, and the
edge, entering the man’s back, made a deep flesh wound, which was
very sore a long time. Some of our men swore that if they had been
the sufferer, they would have shot the captain dead on the spot! Are
men of such brutal tempers fit to command a man of war? Is it not
wonderful that mutiny is so rare under such a discipline? Such an
officer might do to command a crew of pirates, but not of freemen,
such as Americans feel proud to entrust with the keeping of their
national honor on the deep.
On reaching New Orleans, our ship was overhauled and repaired. We
were sent on board the _Louisiana_, an old guard-ship, but had to
cross the river every morning to assist in working on the brig.
Several of our men, and myself among them, were quite sick here,
owing to the free use of river water. The _Louisiana_ had a number
of men confined on board, for some crime; they wore chains round
their legs, which were fastened to a large ball: the nature of their
offence I did not ascertain.
The effects of Captain Porter’s severity were seen here in the loss
of two of the crew. They belonged to the gig, and ran away while he
was on shore. He made a strict, but unsuccessful, search after them.
To deter others from a like attempt, or because he wanted an object
on which to wreak his vengeance, he gave one poor fellow a cruel
flogging for what, in sober fact, was no offence at all. The man was
on shore, with some others, fixing the rigging, and, for some purpose
or other, had walked a short distance from the rest, without the
slightest intention to run away. But the captain wanted a victim, and
this served for an excuse.
Our brig being finished, we returned on board, and were soon back at
our old station off Ship Island, where we found several other small
naval craft. While here I saw a man flogged through the fleet, or, as
this might more properly be called, the squadron. His was the only
instance of the kind I saw while in the American navy, and, although
his back was most brutally mangled, yet I do not think he suffered
equal to those who are flogged through an English fleet. Still, the
indignity and brutality are the same in _kind_, though differing in
degree: a MAN should never be made to endure it.
Not far from our station, at a place called St. Lewis’ Bay, our
captain purchased some land, and actually sent some of our men to
make a clearing upon it, and to erect a log house. Whether this was
a legal employment of the strength and skill of his men or not, I
cannot decide; but it struck me as being a perversion of the national
resources to his own private benefit. Why should a captain of a ship
of war be permitted to employ the time and energies of his men for
private uses, while an officer of the government, who should employ
its funds for his own advantage, would be charged with embezzlement
and fraud? The cases are precisely alike, except that one uses the
public money, the other what costs that money. It is a fraud on the
country, and an imposition on the men.
A tragic event occurred at Lewis’ Bay on the 4th of July, which
occasioned a fearful sensation throughout the ship. I was sent
thither that day in the launch. Feeling fatigued, I remained with
another in the boat, which was anchored near the shore. After some
time one of the crew, named Thomas Hill, came back for a pistol,
for there were several in the boat, and deliberately charged it.
My companion, an old _Macedonian_, named Cox, asked him what he
wanted with a pistol. Hill, who was a very desperate fellow, told
him to mind his own business, or he would shoot him. Cox, knowing
his character, thought it best to let this insult pass, supposing he
was only going off to shoot a dog or snake, as the latter creature
abounded there. Having loaded his pistol, Hill went off, and we
thought no more of the matter. Presently a man came running down to
the boat to inform us that two of our men were quarrelling. Just
at that moment, we heard the report of a pistol: hurrying to the
spot, described by our informant, we found a shipmate, by the name
of Smith, bleeding on the ground, with a pistol-shot lodged in his
breast by Hill. We gathered round him; in his agony he begged us to
shoot him dead, for his suffering was not to be endured. Supposing he
was dying, our testimony to his statement that Hill was his murderer,
was taken on the spot. The victim was then removed to a suitable
place to be taken care of; the next day he was carried on board the
brig, and from thence to a sort of hospital on shore, where, after
lingering a few days, he died. The murderer was seized and placed in
irons on board the brig. He was afterwards removed to another ship,
but what was done with him I never heard with certainty; it was
reported that he was pardoned.
The cause of this fatal affray was that great instigator of crimes,
RUM. The men were both under its influence; fired with its fumes,
they lost all discretion, and commenced a quarrel: from words they
proceeded to blows. In this struggle Smith had the advantage. Finding
himself worsted, the other ran down to the boat for a pistol. With
this, he returned and threatened to shoot his adversary. Smith
demanded a pistol for himself, that, as he said, he might have fair
play. At that instant his cowardly opponent shot him! Had they both
been sober, this tragedy would never have been enacted. Who can
reveal the effects of alcohol?
From this station we sailed to Tampico, where we lay but a short
time, meeting with nothing worthy of remark, except that we found
abundance of turtle in the river; during the day we could see their
heads peeping up from the river in all directions. At night we used
to send our men ashore to take them. This was done by tracking them
on the sand, whither they went to deposit their eggs. We used to turn
them over on to their backs, and drag them down to the boat. When
alongside they were hoisted on board with a tackle; some of them
weighing four or five hundred weight. They were then killed, and
converted into a soup for the whole ship’s company.
The day after we left Tampico on our passage to Vera Cruz, I was
looking out on the cat-head or starboard bow; seeing a sail, I
shouted, “Sail ho!” when three other vessels hove in sight. These
were all patriot privateers, so we were ordered to our quarters; but
the vessels, discovering our character, kept clear of our guns, and
we pursued our own course.
About ten o’clock, A. M., we saw two more of these privateers,
crowded with men, but mounting only one long gun. Mistaking us for
a Spanish brig, with money on board, they fired most lustily for us
to heave to. We mounted short carronades, excepting two long nines
at the bows, so we bore down, all hands being at their quarters, to
bring our short guns to bear upon them. Meanwhile we kept one of the
long nines in full blast. I was stationed at this gun; and it being
my duty to sponge and load, I had to exert every muscle and strain
every nerve, as, firing only one gun, it was necessary to discharge
it as often as possible. Before, however, we came near enough to
injure them, they discovered what we were, fired a leeward gun in
token of friendship, and hauled off. If they had not, our men very
_elegantly_ observed, they would have found they had taken the wrong
pig by the ear.
We soon came in sight of the beautiful revolving light, which throws
its friendly beams on the port of Vera Cruz, where, as in the former
places, we lay a short time, and then, after visiting some other
ports, we returned to our former station at Ship Island. Here,
however, we remained for only a brief period, before we were under
weigh for New Orleans, from which place we sailed to Havana. Such is
the constant change kept up by men of war on a cruise.
On this passage, I was placed in a position which exposed me to the
punishment of the lash, though by a mere accident I escaped. There
was a habit indulged in among us, which is common among all sailors
at sea; I mean that of stealing a nap during our watch at night.
Seated on the carriage of a gun, or on a shot-locker, with folded
arms, we indulged in many a minute of sweet sleep, notwithstanding
it was contrary to the rules of the ship. To prevent this as much
as possible, the officer of the watch used to give the first man he
caught napping, a handspike, with which he was compelled to walk
the deck until he found another sleeper, to whom he was allowed
to transfer his burden. One night I was caught dozing, and had to
perform the consequent march with the handspike. After walking about,
without success, in search of a sleeper, for some time, I thought it
might be well to try my fortune in the tops. Scarcely had I set foot
on the top, before the officer below cried, “Fore-top, there!”
“Sir?”
“Aloft, and take in the fore-top-gallant sail!”
This order caused every man to spring to his station. Supposing no
one would pass before the mast, I stood my handspike upright against
it. But there happened to be a man, by the name of Knight, dozing
there; and when he was aroused by the command of the officer, he
passed before the mast to get on to the starboard side. As sailors
usually grasp something when aloft, he missed his hold of what he
intended to catch, and seized my handspike, which of course fell.
To my consternation, he fell with it. Tumbling out of the fore-top,
he fortunately struck the foot-rope of the fore-yard, which broke
the force of his fall. When he reached the deck, he came bouncing
on a tall, stout Irishman, named Tom Smith, who, not imagining the
cause of so rough and sudden an assault, roared out, as they both
fell together on the deck, “Och! indeed you have killed me!” Here,
however, he was mistaken; he was more frightened than hurt; and
the innocent cause of his fright was able to resume his duties,
after two or three days’ respite. Very fortunately for my back, the
unlucky handspike was not suspected; and my share in this serio-comic
accident remained a secret within my own breast.
It has often been a subject of surprise to my mind, that men so
seldom fall from the tops, in the long night-watches they keep there.
Often have I stood two hours, and, sometimes, when my shipmates have
forgotten to relieve me, four long, tedious hours, on the royal
yard, or the top-gallant yard, without a man to converse with. Here,
overcome with fatigue and want of sleep, I have fallen into a dreamy,
dozy state, from which I was roused by a lee lurch of the ship.
Starting up, my hair has stood on end with amazement at the danger I
had so narrowly escaped. But, notwithstanding this sudden fright, a
few minutes had scarcely elapsed before I would be nodding again. How
wonderful that more are not swallowed in the hungry deep!
When the weather was rough, we were indulged with permission to stand
on the fore-top-sail yard, or on the top-gallant cross-trees; and, if
the ship rolled heavily, we lashed ourselves to the mast, for greater
safety. I can assure my readers, there is nothing desirable in this
part of a sailor’s duty. In whatever the pleasure of a life at sea
consists, it is not in keeping a look-out from the mast-head at night.
But the most disagreeable of all is, to be compelled to stand on
these crazy elevations, when half dead with sea-sickness. Some
suppose that sailors are never sea-sick after the first time they
go to sea. This is a mistake; it is very much with them as it is
with landsmen, in respect to being sick in a coach. Those who are
of bilious temperaments, are always affected, more or less, when
they ride in a stage or sleigh; while others are never sick on these
occasions. So with seamen; some are never sea-sick, others are sick
only when going out of port, while some are so in every gale of wind.
Mr. Dana mentions some of the crew in his ship, who were sick, after
being at sea two years, as they came to Boston. I was usually sick
after laying some time in port, and have often stood at the mast-head
when so sick that any landsman on shore, in a similar state, would
think it hard if he could not lie abed. For a sailor, there is no
allowance made for sea-sickness; he must remain at his post until it
is time to be relieved.
When we entered Havana, we came to anchor near the Spanish fort, and
fired a salute, which was courteously returned by the Spaniards. We
had been here but a short time, before an Irishman, named Dougherty,
who had formerly deserted from the Spanish garrison, took it into
his head to run away from our brig. This he accomplished by the
assistance of some Spaniards, to whom he made himself known. Several
others also left us, in this port, among whom was our swearing
sailing-master; and a great deal was said about running away
throughout the ship. The man who was flogged on suspicion at New
Orleans, now endeavored to get off in reality. He strayed from the
boat, but the officer, meeting him, endeavored to force him back. He
resisted; a struggle ensued; the officer fell to the ground, and the
man called to the Spaniards to assist him. They left him, however, to
fight his own battles; and the officer, having succeeded in getting
the advantage, presented a pistol to his breast, and he surrendered.
For this offence, he was flogged most fearfully. In the British
service, he would have been hung! It is certain death with them, to
strike an officer.
Hearing so much said about running away, and feeling almost as
unhappy as when in the _Macedonian_, I began to think of it myself.
Sometimes I thought of trying to get into the Spanish garrison as
a soldier; at others, of joining some of the numerous slavers that
lay there, and in which our men said a good chance could be had. Sad
chances, as they now appear, especially the latter; but I was young
and ignorant. My feelings and the advice and opinion of my shipmates
influenced me more than the dictates of an enlightened understanding.
Resolving to make a trial, if opportunity offered, I one day put
on an extra shirt and drew on a second pair of pantaloons. When
thus prepared, the officer of the deck happened to discover the
two waistbands of my trousers; he questioned me with a suspicious
curiosity. I told him as specious a tale as I could invent on the
spot; which was, that I had been mending my trousers, and, before
they were finished, was called to go ashore in the boat, and not
having time to put them away, had slipped them on. Fortunately, a
needle and some thread which I had about me, confirmed my story and
saved me from difficulty. It was pretty obvious, however, that the
officer, though silenced, was not _satisfied_; for I was so closely
watched, after that day, I gave up the idea of escape as utterly
futile and hopeless.
From Havana we returned to the mouth of the Mississippi, where
we captured the _Comet_, a patriot schooner, on suspicion that
the patriotism of her crew had degenerated into something less
respectable. Harsh as it must have sounded in the ears of her
officers, we charged them with piracy; took possession of the
vessel, and brought her hands, as prisoners, on board our brig. Her
master’s name was Mitchell; his crew were all stout, fierce-looking
blacks, having all sorts of odd names, such as Monday, Friday, &c.
She had a rich cargo, and contained large sums of money. It was
reported that they had attacked an island somewhere in the Gulf
of Mexico, and murdered its governor. We put them in irons, with
sentries over them, who were charged to cut off their heads if they
dared to lift them above the hatchway. I performed this duty a part
of the time, parading round the hatch with a drawn cutlass; but they
showed no symptoms of resistance, and were sent in their vessel to
New Orleans. Their fate I never ascertained.
This adventure cost one of our own crew, an Irishman, by the name of
Tom Smith, a severe flogging. Smith was quite a moral philosopher
in his way; though it is to be regretted that his philosophy was
a little infected with lunacy. Its premises were certainly sound,
but, unfortunately, its conclusions bore but little relation to
the parent of whom they boasted. He taught that man was born to do
good; that his chief good was the promotion of his own interests;
and that, per consequence, he should help himself to whatever he
could lay his hands on, without regard to the rights of others. With
these views, Tom earnestly defended the rightfulness of piracy, and
could he have managed to get on board a pirate vessel, or even have
contrived to wrest our own ship from the hands of her officers, and
hoist the black flag, he would have cheerfully done so. But somehow,
although he had made a number of disciples among his shipmates, our
captain paid no manner of respect to his theories; for, when Tom, in
consistency with his often declared principles, deliberately carried
off a large sum of money from our capture, to his own quarters, the
captain, who perceived the theft himself, ordered him to the gangway,
and administered as many hard lashes, as if Tom had had no philosophy
at all.
But, although Tom Smith’s philosophy did not save its unlucky
advocate from the unphilosophic punishment of the whip, it
nevertheless exerted a baneful influence on the morals of our crew.
Many of them were doubtless bad enough when they came on board; but
a more complete school for the practise of iniquity never existed,
than that on board our brig. Profanity, blasphemy, lying, licentious
conversation, and even a system of petty stealing, were practised on
a large scale. Many of the men were ripe for any crime within the
power of depraved humanity to commit, and I have often thought that
even the decks of a privateer or a pirate, could not lead one faster
and deeper into the extremes of wickedness, than did the influence of
our main deck.
With what a voice do such pictures of sailor immorality, call for
exertion on the part of an enlightened Christian community, in behalf
of seamen? Where is the presence of the meek spirit of Christianity
more needed, than on the decks of our merchant and naval vessels?
Where would missionaries and Bibles accomplish more than here? There
is no sphere of Christian usefulness so important, so promising as
this. Every vessel in the navy should have its chaplain. Not one of
your proud, fun-loving, graceless wine-bibbers, but a humble, devoted
man, who would not think it beneath his dignity to mingle with the
common sailors, as a pastor among the flock of his affections,
moulding their rough, but susceptible natures into the image of
virtue, by the force of his pious example, and the influence of
his effectual prayers. Then, in the merchant service, a species of
itinerant missionary might be indefinitely useful. He might be sent
out by a society, pledged for his support; and, by permission of
the owners, sail in a ship on her outward passage. Arrived at her
port, he might sail to another place, in a different ship, and then
return home in a third. In this way, a score of devoted men of the
right stamp, could exert an unparalleled influence on the character
of sailors. Vice, irreligion, profanity, and insubordination, would
presently flee away before the beautiful purity of religion, and
our ships, instead of being designated as floating hells, would
become houses of God, arks of holiness, consecrated Bethels! Pray,
Christian, that this desirable consummation may be speedily attained;
and be not satisfied with merely praying; add _action_ to your
prayers. Stir up your church to the claims of seamen! Give your money
to assist in supporting sailors’ missionaries, Bethels, and the like.
Make it the settled purpose of your heart, not to rest until you
behold the sailor elevated to his proper position, which is that of a
CHRISTIAN MAN!
[Illustration: (Decorative Separator)]