use of the rapid changes which have taken place
during the last fifty years by the introduction of steamers,
the seamen who man the steamers are inferior to those who, a
generation before, manned sailing vessels, or who man what
is left of sailing vessels now. The steamer seamen of to-day
are mentally, physically and mechanically as competent to do
the work they are engaged to do as were any previous race of
seamen, and, taking them in the aggregate, they are better
educated than their predecessors and quite as sober. Their
discipline may not be all that could be desired, but that is
not the fault of, nor need it even be considered a defect
in, the seaman himself. It is a defect of the system they
live under, the responsibility for which must rest with
those whose duty it is to train them. It often happens that
those who declaim so cynically against the shortcomings of
the present-day sailor are incompetent to make a suitable
selection of captains and officers who may be entrusted with
the task of establishing proper discipline and training
aboard their vessels. Very frequently the seamen are blamed
when the captain and officers ought to be held responsible.
If captains and officers are not trained properly in their
graduating process themselves, and have not the natural
ability to make up for that misfortune when given the
opportunity of control, it is inevitable that disorder must
follow. There are, however, exceptional cases where, for
example, an officer may have been reared in a bad,
disorderly school, and yet has become a capable
disciplinarian. An instance of this kind seldom occurs; but
the merchant service is all the richer for it when it does.
It must not be supposed that I have any intention of
defending the faults of our seamen. I merely desire that
some of the responsibility for their faults and training
should be laid on the shoulders of those critics who shriek
unreasonably of their weaknesses, while they do nothing to
improve matters. Many of these gentlemen complain of Jack's
drunken, insubordinate habits, while they do not disapprove
of putting temptation in his way. They complain of him not
being proficient, and at the same time they refuse to
undertake the task of efficient training. They cherish the
memory of the good old times. They speak reverently of the
period of flogging, of rotten and scanty food allowance, of
perfidious press-gangs, and of corrupt bureaucratic tyranny
that inflicted unsp