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Liberty on the Waterfront. Paul A. Gilje
Читать онлайн.Название Liberty on the Waterfront
Год выпуска 0
isbn 9780812202021
Автор произведения Paul A. Gilje
Серия Early American Studies
Издательство Ingram
As on the Thomas Russell, the captain sometimes found himself at odds with his officers. On a voyage from the Far East, Sargent S. Day thought that his first and second mates were inept and made “a damn'd humbug of everything” and could not wait to get rid of them. Day pleaded with the wind, “Blow my sweet breeze Blow & Deliver me from Two pieces of Trash not fit to take care of Hogs much more to have charge of a Ship Deck.”81 Whaling captain Charles G. Arthur apparently had continual problems with his officers aboard the Zenas Coffin on a voyage in the late 1840s. He reported to the owners that he had to discharge the third mate “for the benefit of all concerned.” Arthur wrote a year and half later that he had discharged the first and second mate as well, declaring that he had done so “for the sake of having any kind of regularity and order on ship board.” He explained further, “I have struggled all the voyage to make things as they should be but as I find out even before we left home there was as to say a combination entered into for them always to be right and I right if I agreed with them.”82 Another whaling captain confronted open disobedience by officers and crew, when, contrary to everybody's interest, they refused to lower the boats in pursuit of whales. In this situation the captain had to give ground.83 Even John Paul Jones had tactical disagreements with his first lieutenant, Thomas Simpson, and repeated problems with Pierre Landais who, as a subordinate in command of the Alliance during the battle between the Bon Homme Richard and the Serapis, failed to come to Jones's assistance.84
Officers, too, sometimes wrangled with one another. As a mate, Sargent S. Day also found his subalterns incompetent. While the crew refitted the rigging at sea, Day remained on the deck and sent the second mate aloft to direct the men. From Day's point of view the whole job was bungled. He confided to his log that the mast was finally painted, although the second mate allowed the men to make “a long lumber job of it.”There were other problems. Eventually everything got straightened out, “but a worse time I never see in getting up spars[.] No head aloft & nothing done right—for my part I am sick of such second mates & damn'd foolish work.”85 Samuel Chase complained that he had some “secret enemies” aboard the whaleship Arab and declared that there was “a traitorous wretch trying to black my character with the master of the ship.”86 Common seamen often paid for this type of backbiting. A mean-spirited first mate could easily take advantage of his authority by keeping the second mate and his watch on deck for longer than the usual four hours.87
The most crucial conflicts at sea, however, were between the forecastle and the quarterdeck. To prevent the captain from pushing the crew too hard, seamen ran away, organized work slow downs, and grumbled and showed disrespect. Occasionally, work stopped and blows exchanged. In extreme cases, the crew resorted to mutiny and piracy. The mere idea of these rare extreme violent acts affected shipboard behavior.88
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