BANCROFT 
 LIBRARY 
 
 -0- 
 
 THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 

 
Commemorating i\\t passage of ii\e 
 
 of t 
 
 "4Wrcb, 4, 1915" 
 On the scroll at the top of the picture appear these words: 
 
 "Anb it came to pries. 3Ibe soil of ib,c 33itcb plates becomes Jifolg Oirounb. ^Iresibeut 
 ;Q?oobroto i@tlson signing the J^eamen's Act, passcb bg tb.e especial efforts of ^enators anb 
 Jflctnbcra of (Congress, frtljosc names me mtsb to transmit to tb,e JS&eameit of tb,e future. (Ebi* 
 Art liberates ttje seamen, tb,e last bonbmcn iuithiu tb,e jurisbictton of tb,e 33niteb ^tates." 
 
 The following appear in the picture from left to right: 
 
 Top, President Woodrow Wilson. First row, top. Senator Fletcher, Senator Vardaman. Speaker Champ Clark, Repre- 
 sentative Alexander, Representative Hardy. Second row. Senator Kern, Senator Williams, Senator Sutherland. Third row. 
 Representative Livernash, Representative Spigot. Representative Wilson. Senator LaFollette. Fourth row on left. Senator 
 White: on right. Representative MacGuire; io center. J. H. Bradley. Robert Robertson. P H. Olsen, Morris Hansen of the 
 "Arago' case. Fifth row, lower part of picture on left, George Bolton, Nicholas Jortall, Walter MacAnhur, Committee of 
 Seamen who made first draft of bill in 1892; Center, Samuel (Jumpers, President of the American Federation of Labor; on 
 right. Andrew Furuseth, Victor A. Olander, Patrick Flynn. Legislative Committee. International Seamens Union of Americs. 
 
Men of the Sea 
 
 The nation that proclaimed your 
 freedom now needs your services. 
 America is at war. Our troops 
 are being transported over the 
 seas. Munitions and supplies are 
 being shipped in ever increasing 
 quantities to our armies in Europe. 
 The bases are the ports of 
 America. The battle fields are 
 in Europe. The sea intervenes. 
 Over it the men of the sea must 
 sail the supply ships. A great 
 emergency fleet is now being 
 built. Thousands of skilled sea- 
 men, seafaring men of all capaci- 
 ties who left the sea in years gone 
 by as a protest against serfdom 
 from which no flag then offered 
 relief, have now an opportunity 
 to return to their former calling, 
 sail as free men and serve our 
 country. 
 
"Under the American Flag seamen are free men. 
 
 A MESSAGE 
 
 TO 
 
 SEAMEN 
 
 A Call to the Sea and to Seamanship 
 
 INTERNATIONAL SEAMEN'S UNION 
 OF AMERICA 
 
 '429 
 
HD 
 
 SEAMEN: 
 
 Know your duties. 
 
 Know your responsibilities. 
 Know your rights. 
 
 A Call to the Sea 
 
 To all Seafaring Men Ashore or Afloat 
 
 The International Seamen's Union of America, in annual 
 convention assembled, representing the organized Seamen of 
 America, submits the following to all men of seafaring experi- 
 ence, ashore or afloat. 
 
 The nation that proclaimed your freedom now 
 needs your services. America is at war. Our troops 
 are being transported over the seas. Munitions and 
 supplies are being shipped in ever increasing quanti- 
 ties to our armies in Europe. The bases are the 
 ports of America. The battle fields are in Europe. 
 The sea intervenes. Over it the men of the sea must 
 sail the supply ships. A great emergency fleet is now 
 being built. Thousands of skilled seamen , seafaring 
 men of all capacities who left the sea in years gone 
 by as a protest against the serfdom from which no 
 flag then offered relief, have now an opportunity to 
 return to their former calling, sail as free men and 
 serve our country. 
 
 Your old shipmates men who remained with the ship 
 to win the new status for our craft now call upon you to 
 again stand by for duty. Your help is needed to prove that no 
 enemy on the seas can stop the ships of the nation whose sea- 
 men bear the responsibility of liberty. 
 
 America has the right, a far greater right than 
 any other nation, to call upon the seamen of all the 
 world for service. By responding to this call now 
 you can demonstrate your practical appreciation of 
 freedom won. 
 
 All men of seafaring experience can get further information 
 on this subject by applying to any representative of the United 
 States Shipping Board or to any officer or representative of the 
 International Seamen's Union of America, or any of its district 
 organizations. It should be understood that this statement is 
 not issued because of any real shortage of men at this time. 
 We must be prepared, however, to man the great new merchant 
 fleet now building. Men must be ready and in training. It is 
 in recognition of this need that we, as a duty to the nation, 
 submit this call to all seamen. 
 
 INTERNATIONAL SEAMEN'S UNION 
 OF AMERICA. 
 
SEAMEN 
 
 Know Thyself and Thine True Place Among Men. 
 
 No calling demands a higher mental and physical stand- 
 ard in the men employed. No calling has given any better 
 service to civilization and to humanity. No calling has any 
 right to higher consideration or greater honor, none has 
 given or is giving more important service in peace or war. 
 In the days of chivalry the men of the sea had a right to 
 and did participate in its highest honors. 
 
 THROUGH THE AGES. 
 
 Sea power has at all times meant World power. Control over 
 the sea has at all times brought independence and wealth. Sea power 
 was always in the seamen. The vessels (the tools used) have been 
 altered and improved upon as experience and knowledge increased. 
 But the sea has remained unchanged through all the ages. So also the 
 seamen. The qualities of mind and body that were needed in the 
 seamen of the earliest times are yet needed and there can be no real 
 seamen where those qualities are not. The sea has been a prison 
 wall to the weak and timid, a highway to the strong and a field of 
 honor to the daring and venturesome among men. The sea has no 
 affinity with bondage and whether it was in trade, in discovery, or 
 in battle the victory was to the free. 
 
 The sea power of the Nordic Race was developed in freedom. 
 The seamen of this race knew nothing of bondage as applied to 
 themselves. The common hazzard made them loyal to each other 
 and ready to obey orders from their leaders. They were patient of 
 discipline, impatient of bondage. The sea power of the North de- 
 veloped in and by this spirit grew strong enough to meet and over- 
 come the sea power of Rome, which had destroyed the sea power 
 of Carthage, whose seamen were and felt themselves to be less free. 
 The South of Europe never knew the kind of freedom that was the 
 very breath of life with the people of the North. The seamen of the 
 South always shared in that misfortune with other people of the 
 South. ^ - < > , i i 
 
The social reconstruction which resulted from Christian teachings 
 gave to the seaman of the South greater freedom than they had en- 
 joyed, but when it was carried overland to the North by the mis- 
 sionaries it resulted in depriving the seaman of the North of much 
 of the freedom to which he had been accustomed and which had been 
 the real source of his strength. 
 
 In the blending of the two systems the slaves of the house be- 
 came the children of the house; the free men of the vessel became 
 the children of the vessel. Generally speaking, the status of master 
 and servant was then adopted. On shore this degenerated into serf- 
 dom the tying of the men to the soil ; at sea the tying of the seaman 
 to the vessel. For a long period of time the tie was purely legal. 
 To desert was a crime the punishment for which ranged from brand- 
 ing on the forehead with red hot iron to the imprisonment of more 
 modern days. The new status was bitterly resented and resisted by 
 the seamen and they deserted in great numbers, notwithstanding the 
 law and its savage penalties. In accordance with custom, an out- 
 growth of the seamen's freedom, the seamen were paid their wages 
 or share of the earnings, whenever the vessel's freight money was 
 paid. The seaman, having the money with which to find food and 
 shelter, deserted from his vessel from one reason or another until the 
 shipowners of France bethought themselves of the fact that a desti- 
 tute man is very helpless in a strange country or port and they pe- 
 titioned the King (Louis the Fourteenth) to forbid the payment of 
 any of the seaman's wages except at the home port, when his con- 
 tract of service was at an end. The King complied and other Nations 
 promptly followed. Thus was economic power added to the legal 
 power to keep the seaman bound to his vessel. 
 
 But the seaman, during the so-called dark ages, did never fall 
 into the complete servitude that became the lot of the toiler on land. 
 When he came to the home port he was free. No man was then his 
 master. This freedom together with the employer's need for highly 
 trained men with the spirit needed to defend the vessel from pirates 
 as well as from the dangers of the sea made the economic and social 
 position of the seaman superior to that of his fellow toiler on shore. 
 The social standing of seaman was such that women would marry 
 him ; his economic condition was such that he could give decent sup- 
 port to a family. During this period no boy or young man lost caste 
 by going to sea. Let it be distinctly understood that it was the 
 special skill and the qualities of body and mind needed in the sea- 
 man that protected him from the rapacity of his employer. Where 
 this was not understood and the seaman thereby protected, or the 
 statesmen of the time did not realize the National importance of a 
 body of national seamen, the condition became such that men re- 
 fused to seek or to continue in the calling and then sea power passed 
 from that Nation. Thus sea power was lost to the Hanseatic League, 
 to Spain and to Holland. Wiser statesmen fostered seamanship by 
 giving at least by comparison a better chance to the seaman and 
 were thereby able to gain and to keep control of the sea. 
 
 In substance the law governing the British seamen in the middle 
 of the eighteenth century was the scroll of Oleron. This was the 
 freest of all the statutes of that time except the one upon which it 
 
was largely modeled, the old law of Norway and of the Norsemen 
 generally. In their southward travel the Norse seamen carried with 
 them their own laws and customs. In the law of Oleron the seamen 
 are called the Companions of the vessel not the children of the ves- 
 sel. It was under the freedom of this law that the British seamen 
 destroyed the Armada and made their country the Mistress of the 
 Sea and of the world. About the middle of the eighteenth century 
 the British seamen lost the right to freedom in the home ports under 
 certain conditions and the law for the impressment of seamen was 
 enacted. 
 
 The law was brought in by the Government and was opposed by 
 Lord Chatham, who in opposition in part spoke as follows: 
 
 "Sir, the two honorable and learned gentlemen who spoke in 
 favor of the clause were pleased to show that our seamen are half 
 slaves already, and now they modestly desire that you shall make 
 them wholly so. Will this increase your number of seamen, or will 
 it make those you have more willing to serve you? Can you expect 
 that any man will make himself a slave if he can avoid it? Can 
 you expect that any man will breed his child to foe a slave? Can 
 you expect that seamen will venture their lives or their limbs for a 
 country that has made them slaves? Or can you expect that any 
 seaman will stay in the country if he can by any means make his 
 escape? Sir, if you pass this law you must, in my opinion, do with 
 your seamen as they do with their galley slaves in France you 
 must chain them to their ships or chain them in couples when they 
 go on shore." 
 
 Great Britain found to its sorrow, if not to the improvement of 
 its understanding, that Lord Chatham was right. The seamen of 
 England so deeply resented the loss of their accustomed freedom that 
 they deserted the country in very large numbers and fought under 
 the American flag against England, they sailed in American vessels 
 in such large numbers that England found it necessary to search 
 American vessels on the high seas and to forcibly take the men 
 back in order to compel them to serve again in the vessels of their 
 country. This resulted in a war with the United States and again 
 British seamen were found fighting under the American flag against 
 their native land. It had not yet sunk into their consciousness that 
 the United States in 1791 had adopted laws fully as drastic and op- 
 pressive as the laws of England. Later it was found necessary, as 
 Lord Chatham had predicted, to enter into treaties between the dif- 
 ferent nations to arrest, detain and surrender the deserters back to 
 their vessels. Not much difference between this and to "chain them 
 to their ships, or chain them in couples when they go on shore." 
 The ship owner and the trader were writing the laws. Small was 
 the attention given to the warning voices of statesmen or even to 
 the voices of the most distinguished of the admirals in the service of 
 the different nations. The French Revolution did not stop it, the 
 abolition of slavery and of serfdom did not end it. The sane view of 
 the tentative draft of the report of the British Manning Commission 
 of 1896 was obliterated by it It remained strong up to the present 
 war. 
 
Modern Times. 
 
 The French Revolution abolished the serfdom of men on shore 
 in all the countries that were overrun by the armies of France. The 
 spirit of the Revolution seized upon other countries with the same 
 result until slavery, serfdom and involuntary servitude was abolished 
 in all so-called Christian Nations; but this emancipation did not in- 
 clude the seamen. The status of seamen remained unchanged with 
 terrible results to the seamen and serious consequences to the white 
 race. 
 
 The seamen held in the shackles of their status were unable to 
 follow the upward trend of society. Their real earning capacity 
 diminished so that they were no longer able to support a family. 
 Their former social standing was destroyed so completely that a 
 humanitarian organization made up of good men and women, in an 
 official yearly report, stated that "they had, during that year, accom- 
 plished much good among criminals, prostitutes and seamen." 
 
 Legal and economic provisions of law having been adopted by 
 Governments to keep the seaman tied to the vessel, the seaman 
 nevertheless deserted. He found men on shore, who for their gain 
 were willing to hide him from the peace officers who were instructed 
 to find him to detain and return him to his vessel or to send him to 
 prison for months. The seaman was willing to give part of the 
 wages to be earned in the next vessel in order that he might be free 
 from the vessel on which he was working. The owners of vessels 
 were willing to pay such advance and to add thereto a premium, later 
 called "blood money," in order to escape delay. Thus was "crimp- 
 ing" established. It grew out of the seaman's status and the sea- 
 man's desire for freedom. Later it was reversed. A combination 
 of the crimp and the ship-owner was perfected through which the 
 seaman lost nearly all his wages, which were then divided between 
 the crimp, the master and at times the owner. When, as was often 
 the case, the seaman's wages were not sufficient to pay what was con- 
 sidered a fair profit, "blood money" was added and this was again 
 divided with the master and at times with the managing owner. 
 
 The Union of Seamen. 
 
 Notwithstanding the apparently insurmountable obstacles, an 
 organization was formed by the seamen. The purpose was to im- 
 prove the condition of the seamen, to halt the decay of seamanship 
 and to reconquer for the seaman his true position in human society. 
 Individually they knew themselves to be powerless; but they had 
 faith that collectively they could accomplish the purposes for which 
 they were organizing. Collectively seamen had in the past been the 
 main factors in destroying or in building and maintaining Empires, 
 why might they not then by collective effort be able to redeem their 
 own calling? The work of a seaman had always been important, 
 and until in the comparatively recent past it had been honorable. 
 That it had not remained so had its origin in actions of men on 
 shore, action in which the teamen: had no ihare except that they had 
 
not come together for the purpose of collectively resisting and over- 
 coming the evil. The declaration of rights, duties and purposes 
 adopted by the union reads partly as follows: 
 
 "First of these rights is the right of each member to receive 
 a fair and just remuneration for his labor, and to gain sufficient 
 leisure for mental cultivation and physical recreation." 
 
 "Further, we consider it our right to demand healthy and suffi- 
 cient food and proper forecastles in which to rest." 
 
 "Next is the right to be treated in a decent and respectful 
 manner by those in command." 
 
 "Next is the right of engagement without the interference of 
 crimps or other parties not directly interested." 
 
 "Recognizing the above as our inalienable rights, we are con- 
 scious of corresponding duties to those in command, our employers, 
 our craft and our Country." 
 
 "We will therefore try by all just means to promote har- 
 monious relations with those in command by exercising due dili- 
 gence in the performance of the duties of our profession, and by 
 giving all possible assistance to our employers in caring for their 
 gear and property." 
 
 "To regulate our conduct as a Union and as individuals so as 
 to make seamanship what it has a right to be one of the most 
 honored of professions." 
 
 "Based upon these principles, it is among our objects to use 
 pur influence individually and collectively for the purpose of effect- 
 ing a change in the Maritime law of the United States, so as to 
 render it more equitable and to make it an aid instead of a hin- 
 drance to the development of a Merchant Marine and a body of 
 American seamen." 
 
 These were some of the promises which we made to ourselves 
 when organizing. These were among the ideals which we made our 
 own to which we consecrated our movement and it is by our faith- 
 fulness to these ideals that we are to be judged. To desecrate these 
 ideals, to fail in faithfully struggling to live according to them is a 
 sin the penalty for which is death. Being and remaining true to pur 
 fundamental purposes we shall find that we are just beginning to live. 
 
 It is for the purpose of bringing these ideals and purposes more 
 clearly home to the minds of seamen and those who would be seamen 
 that this booklet is printed and distributed among the seamen for 
 careful reading and serious thought. 
 
 We have tried to be true. We have endeavored to keep the faith. 
 In the darkest hours we learned at least partially? how "to labor and 
 to wait." We have defended the non-union man in the Courts and 
 elsewhere, we have tried to get all the seamen together, we have 
 fought with the ship owner and the crimp, we have appealed to the 
 public and to the law-making powers for justice and equal rights 
 with other toilers; but we never begged bread from friend or mercy 
 from foe. 
 
 Progress of Legislation. 
 
 On February 18, 1895, we obtained some improvement in the 
 coastwise trade through the enactment of the "Maguire Act." We 
 believed that we had become free in ports of the United States; but 
 when our members sought to exercise that freedom they were ar- 
 
 7 
 
rested, detained in prison and returned to the vessel the "Arago." 
 They refused to work and were delivered to the Court for punish- 
 ment. We appealed to the Supreme Court of the United States and 
 we were told that the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution of 
 the United States had no application to seamen. We appealed to 
 Congress again and through the passage of the "White Act," De- 
 cember 21, 1898, our right to the ownership of our own bodies while 
 in ports of the United States was granted by law. Several other im- 
 portant improvements were granted. Crimping was abolished in the 
 coastwise trade and to nearby foreign countries. It was minimized in 
 the foreign trade. Corporal punishment was forbidden and the food 
 materially improved in all trades; but the status of serfdom was 
 continued in the foreign trade and while this system remained prac- 
 tically all laws for the protection of seamen were null and void. The 
 seaman must be free, legally and economically free, or his status will 
 so taint his testimony that any law the enforcement of which depends 
 upon evidence taken from the seaman, will remain practically in- 
 operative. For these reasons several of the beneficient clauses of the 
 "White Act" failed to give the relief expected in the oversea trade. 
 We continued our struggle for legislative relief. But the law now 
 governing the seaman is the product of the active self interest of the 
 ship owner and merchant working through the centuries restrained 
 only by the interest of the State as seen by the statesmen. It is 
 practically the same in all so-called civilized Nations. The emanci- 
 pation must come to all seamen, hence the following appeal, which 
 was adopted by us in 1909, and by the Transport Workers' Congress 
 at Copenhagen, in 1910: 
 
 Appeal to the World. 
 
 "To those who govern nations, to those who make the laws, 
 to humanitarians, democrats, Christians, and friends of human free- 
 dom everywhere, do we, the seamen, the yet remaining bondmen, 
 humbly yet earnestly submit this our petition, that we be made free 
 men, and that the blighting disgrace of bondage be removed from 
 our labor, which once was considered honorable, which is yet 
 needed in the world of commerce, and which has been held to be of 
 great importance to nations with seacoasts to defend. 
 
 "Existing maritime law makes of seamen, excepting in the 
 domestic trade of the United States, the property of the vessel on 
 which we sail We cannot work as seamen without signing a con- 
 tract which brings us under the law. This contract is fixed by law 
 or authorized by governments. We have nothing to do with its 
 terms. We either sign it and sail, or we sign it not and remain 
 landsmen. 
 
 "When signing this contract, we surrender our working power 
 to the will of another man at all times while the contract runs. We 
 may not, on pain of penal punishment, fail to join the vessel. We 
 may not leave the vessel, though she is in perfect safety. We may 
 not, without our master's permission, go to a mother's sick bed or 
 funeral, or attend to any other duties of a son, a brother, a Chris- 
 tian, or a citizen, excepting in the domestic trade of the United! 
 States. 
 
 "If the owner thinks he has reason to fear that we desire to 
 escape, he may, without judicial investigation, cause us to be impris- 
 oned for safe-keeping until he shall think proper to take us out. If 
 we have escaped, he may publish our personal appearance along with 
 a reward for our apprehension and return. He may, through con- 
 tracts between nations, cause the peace officers and police to aid 
 
him in recovering his property. The Captain may change, the 
 owner may change we are sold with the vessel but so long as 
 the flag does not change, there is nothing except serious illness 
 or our master's pleasure that will release us from the vessel. 
 
 "The master, acting for the vessel, may release himself and the 
 vessel by paying a few dollars, with no alternative. 
 
 "He that owns another man's labor power owns his body, since 
 the two cannot be separated. 
 
 "We stand hi the same relation to the vessel as the serf did to 
 the estate, as the slave to his master. When serfdom was abolished 
 in Western Europe we were forgotten by the liberators and our 
 status remained. When the slaves of the United States and Brazil 
 were emancipated our status continued. When serfdom was abol- 
 ished in Russia no change came to us. 
 
 "We now raise our manacled hands in humble supplication and 
 pray that the nations issue a decree of emancipation and restore to 
 us our right as brother men; to our labor that honor which 
 belonged to it until your power, expressing itself through your law, 
 set upon it the brand of bondage in the interest of cheap transpor- 
 tation by water. 
 
 "We respectfully submit that the serfdom of the men in our 
 calling is of comparatively modern origin. Earlier maritime law 
 bound, while in strange countries and climes, the seaman to his 
 shipmates and the ship, and the ship to him, on the principle of 
 common hazard. In his own country he was free- the freest of 
 men. We further humbly submit that, as the consciousness of the 
 seaman's status penetrates through the population, it will be impos- 
 sible to get freemen to send their sons into bondage or to induce 
 freemen's sons to accept it, and we, in all candor, remind you that 
 you, when you travel by water, expect us the serfs to exhibit in 
 (danger the highest qualities of freemen by giving our lives for your 
 safety. 
 
 At sea the law of common hazard remains. There must be 
 discipline and self-sacrifice, but in any harbor the vessel and you 
 are safe, and we beseech you give to us that freedom which you 
 claim for yourself and which you have bestowed on others, to the 
 end that we may be relieved of that bitterness of soul that is the 
 heavy burden of him who knows and feels that his body is not his 
 own. 
 
 After the International Transport Workers' Congress had adopted 
 the above appeal, the Managing Committee of that Congress was 
 instructed to see that it was sent to the several Governments and 
 law-making assemblies of the world. 
 
 We, in the United States went on with our struggle in the usual 
 way, having re-introduced our bill at each succeeding Congress. We 
 sought and obtained hearings before the Committees of the U. S. 
 Senate and House of Representatives to which the bill was referred. 
 We sent in petitions from such organizations and individuals as were 
 sufficiently interested to act, and we submitted memorials of which 
 the following, presented by Hon. William B. Wilson, of Pennsyl- 
 vania (now the Secretary of Labor), who was the introducer of the 
 bill in the House of Representatives, is without doubt the most 
 specific and urgent: 
 
 Memorial to Congress. 
 
 To the Honorable the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
 
 United States: 
 
 On behalf of the seamen your petitioners respectfully represent 
 that 
 
While the existing discrimination against the seamen is per- 
 mitted to continue the United States can not become a sea power; 
 that native Americans will not become seamen; and that the differ- 
 ential in wage cost of operation will prevent American vessels from 
 competing on the ocean. 
 
 First "No person held to service or labor hi one State, under 
 the laws thereof, escaping into any other, shall, in consequence of 
 any law or regulation therein, be discharged from such service or 
 labor, but shall be delivered up on claim of the party to whom such 
 service or labor may be due." (Art. IV, Sec. 2, subsec. 3, Consti- 
 tution.) 
 
 Under authority of this section Congress in 1791 passed the 
 law giving to the ship power to enforce contracts made with seamen 
 upon the seamen's body. This law the fugitive-sailor law in 1793 
 served as a model for the fugitive-slave law. 
 
 Under authority, presumably, of this section the United States 
 entered into treaties with foreign nations for mutual arrest, deten- 
 tion, and delivery of deserted seamen to their vessels. 
 
 In 1865 the following amendment to the Constitution was 
 adopted: 
 
 "Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punish- 
 ment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, 
 shall exist within the United States or any place subject to their 
 jurisdiction." (Thirteenth amendment, Constitution.) 
 
 In 1867 the statutes were revised, and all compulsory labor, 
 except as applicable to seamen, was stricken out, and in 1872 the 
 laws compelling seamen to labor for a private person were made 
 more drastic. 
 
 Under the treaties with foreign nations and these laws seamen, 
 having signed contracts to labor hi countries having a lower stand- 
 ard of life and a lower wage, were forcibly compelled to continue 
 to labor within the jurisdiction of the United States. 
 
 This produced a difference in the wage cost of operating ves- 
 sels taking cargoes from ports of the United States, the difference 
 being all in favor of the foreign vessel and sufficient in amount to 
 
 S-adually drive domestic vessels from the ocean. (Testimony, 
 erchant Marine Commission.) 
 
 In 1896 the seamen, believing that they came within the pro- 
 tection of the thirteenth amendment, took this question to the 
 Supreme Court, but in Robertson vs. Baldwin (165 U. S., p. 275), 
 the court held that the thirteenth amendment had no application to 
 seamen, Justice Harlan filing an elaborate dissenting opinion, which 
 resulted in abolishing the involuntary servitude of seamen in the 
 domestic trade. (Act Dec. 21, 1898.) 
 
 In 1911 the Supreme Court again had occasion to construe the 
 thirteenth amendment. In the case of Baily vs. State of Alabama 
 (219 U. S., p. 219), the court decided (we quote from the syllabus) : 
 
 "While its immediate concern was African slavery, the thir- 
 teenth amendment was a charter of universal freedom for all per- 
 sons of whatever race, color, or estate under the flag"; and 
 
 "The words 'involuntary servitude* have a larger meaning than 
 slavery, and the thirteenth amendment prohibited all control by 
 coercion of the personal service of one man for the benefit of 
 another." 
 
 We respectfully submit that we are persons and that we are 
 within and subject to the jurisdiction of the United States; and 
 
 That Congress should now repeal all laws and abrogate all 
 treaties under which we are subject to arrest, detention, and 
 delivery to any man in order that he may compel us to labor for 
 his benefit" 
 
 As a sufficient answer to our pleadings the ship owners sub- 
 mitted the fact that the American merchant marine could not com- 
 pete in the highly competitive oversea commerce because of the 
 higher wage cost in operating vessels, which obtained their crews 
 
 10 
 
in American ports. They further insisted that any serious improve- 
 ment in the condition of seamen or any raise in his wages by any 
 one Nation would make such Nation unable to compete with the 
 others. They maintained that to pass the Seamen's Bill was to 
 legislate the remainder of the American vessels from the ocean. 
 They could see no relief in the competition except a reduction in 
 the seamen's wages to the lowest point reached by their competitors. 
 We insisted that to free the seaman was to equalize the wage cost, 
 and that unless such action be taken the vessels of Occidental Na- 
 tions as well as their men, will be driven from the sea. Oriental 
 races have men from whom seamen can be made. Seamanship, as 
 we understand it, is now being developed in the Orient. Orientals 
 sail the vessels as well as sailing in them. This was fully under- 
 stood by Senator Robert M. La Follette, who introduced the bill in 
 the Senate and who was tireless in his struggle to have it adopted. 
 It was very well understood by Senator Sutherland, who submitted 
 the following for the Record and caused it to be printed as a Senate 
 Document. The general interest had been greatly stimulated by the 
 loss of the Titanic with a loss of some sixteen hundred lives, many 
 of the lost passengers being distinguished men from Europe and 
 from this country: 
 
 The Decay of Seamanship in Europe and America. 
 
 Senate Document No. 216. 63d Congress. October 23, 1913. 
 
 "The Caucasian is leaving the sea; the Oriental is filling the 
 vacancy. Sea power is in the seamen ; vessels are the seamen's work- 
 ing tools; tools become the property of those who handle them. 
 
 "This is not prophecy ; it is a fact. If the reader needs proofs let 
 him visit the docks where the ocean cargo carrier the tramp is 
 taking in or delivering cargo. He will find that while the officers are 
 white, the sailors and firemen are very largely from the races which 
 inhabit Africa, Asia, and the Malay islands. If he be fond of statistics 
 and knows the way they are made up as to hide from John Bull the 
 loss of his sea legs the decay of his sea power let him examine the 
 reports issued from year to year by the Board of Trade. If he be 
 told that the tendency is sporadic let him ask the boys along the sea- 
 coasts of Europe and America north of the Mexican line, what they 
 are going to be when they grow up, and the answers will be truly 
 illuminating. Let him ask the seamen if they will accept a job on 
 shore and he will find that they are willing to accept anything to get 
 away from the sea. The men are leaving the sea ; the boys are shun- 
 ning it. 
 
 "The compelling cause of this drift from the sea is a great wrong, 
 which can only be cured by legislation. National commissions and 
 international conferences have sat and inquired into losses of life at 
 sea. They have reported vessels to be undermanned, both in in- 
 dividual skill and in numbers of seamen employed. Recommenda- 
 tions have been made and forgotten. The "General Slocum" was 
 lost with about 1,000 lives; the coroner's jury said, 'Inefficient crew'; 
 the commission appointed added, 'Not enough life preservers, ineffi- 
 cient inspection.' The net result was more life preservers, better in- 
 
 11 
 
spcction, but no improvement in the crews. The 'Titanic' was lost. 
 The senatorial commission said, 'Not enough life-boats, the crew in- 
 efficient in skill and number/ There are some more life-boats, but 
 no more or better men. The drift from the sea is growing and safety 
 diminishing, while vessels are steadily growing larger. Seamen have 
 sought proper legislation in vain for more than 20 years. Congress 
 after Congress has been appealed to, but without substantial results. 
 The seamen are poor; they are lowly; few of them are voters; fewer 
 still can vote, being at sea ; they have nothing with which to quicken 
 sympathy and induce action except their plainly told tale. And yet 
 the questions arising from the drift from the sea are of great racial 
 importance, they are of great national importance, they are of great 
 economic importance, and of serious personal importance to those 
 who travel the sea for business or pleasure. The cause of the drift 
 from the sea is simple, the remedy easy if honestly applied. 
 
 "(1) When a citizen becomes a seaman he surrenders all rights 
 of citizenship, he voluntarily places himself outside of the protection 
 of the thirteenth amendment to the Constitution. 
 
 "(2) He accepts and surrenders to the plenary power of Con- 
 gress and the President his personal freedom, the wages he has earned, 
 the work he is to do and with whom he is to do it, and thereby un- 
 reasonably increases the burden of his toil and the risks, naturally 
 and unavoidably great, to his life. 
 
 "One century since, the status of the worker was either that of 
 a slave, a serf, or one who labored under term contracts enforcible by 
 imprisonment. The seaman belonged to the last-named class. Be- 
 ing among the freest of the workers his social and industrial condition 
 was, in comparison with the others, favorable. Other causes con- 
 tribute to this result. 
 
 "(1) The ship-owner might lose his all through local riots or 
 other social disturbances in port, through piracy or other dangers of 
 the sea. 
 
 "(2) He was liable to the traveler and the shipper for the amount 
 of damages caused if traceable to him not being 'acts of God* or 'the 
 public enemy.' 
 
 "The self-interest of the ship-owner was sufficient to cause him 
 to carry men skilled in their calling, acquainted with the use of arms, 
 physically able to use them, and with sufficient courage to defend and 
 protect their employer's property, whether the attack came from men 
 or from natural elements. The ship-owner appreciated this to the 
 extent of obtaining legislation which gave him the power to punish 
 the laggard or to reduce the incompetent in rating and wages, ac- 
 cording to his demerit. The shipowner still has this power. He 
 was bound by law to carry a national crew either in whole or in 
 part. These conditions compelled him to look for his workmen 
 among his own people, amongst the strong, the healthy, and the 
 skilled. If he employed his slaves or serfs they became free. 
 
 "These several causes worked automatically toward a wage rate 
 under which the seaman could and did keep a family in as much 
 well-being as the average skilled mechanic. 
 
 "During the last century a great change came over society. 
 Slavery and serfdom were abolished; term contracts to labor, en- 
 
 12 
 
forcible by imprisonment either by law or in equity, were abolished 
 here in the United States and in some countries in Europe, while in 
 others they were reduced in number and remained applicable only on 
 servants in houses or in husbandry. As freedom came to men it 
 carried better treatment and better wages. Wages rose gradually 
 until they doubled, trebled, and quadrupled; the legal testimony of 
 the worker became creditable, being untainted by his status. The 
 seaman was not permitted to share in any of these changes; his 
 status remained. His wages stood still or were actually lowered. 
 The cost of living rose with the advancement of the wages ; the pur- 
 chasing power of the seaman's wages went down and he became 
 unable to care for a family. 
 
 "Other causes contributed to this result: 
 
 "(1) A system of marine insurance was perfected through 
 which the ship-owner guarded himself from the dangers of the sea 
 and distributed the losses upon the general community. 
 
 "(2) Limited liability laws were enacted through which the 
 main risk of travel fell on the passenger, the risk of merchandise in 
 transit upon the shipper, who through the insurance shifted it to the 
 general public. 
 
 "(3) Piracy ceased and losses through revolts or revolutions 
 became collectible from the nations or communities held responsible. 
 
 "(4) Lighthouses were built, channels marked, deepened, and 
 widened, storms were studied, warnings were given, and navigation 
 became more safe. 
 
 "(5) Laws compelling national crews were repealed, modified, 
 or disregarded. 
 
 "Having rid himself of the risk by insurance, of the liability by 
 legislation, and of limitation as to the nationality of the men employed 
 through the repeal of laws, the ship-owner cared no longer for skill, 
 ability, nationality, or race. The wages to be paid became his main 
 consideration. He might send his vessel to sea with men none of 
 whom were trained in the work or who understood without an in- 
 terpreter the orders given. The seaman was compelled to compete 
 with the unskilled from all strata in society, from all nations and all 
 races, and when at sea he was compelled to do the work which these 
 men could not do. This is the condition today. Hence, the increasing 
 shipwrecks, the great losses of life, such as the 'General Slocum,' the 
 'Elbe/ the 'La Bourgoyne/ the 'City of Rio de Janeiro/ the 'Norge/ 
 the 'Valencia/ the 'Oceana/ the 'Titanic/ and almost innumerable 
 others; hence, also, the constant increase in insurance rates. White 
 men are leaving the sea. Modern education and the worn out, an- 
 cient status can not continue together. Men refuse to go into or re- 
 main in any calling, which will not furnish sufficient upon which a 
 family may be kept. More and more men come to sea as does the 
 sewage. Last Congress passed a law providing for more reasonable 
 hours of labor for officers of vessels, and it is largely disobeyed, either 
 secretly or openly, with the excuse that the ship-owners can not 
 find men from whom officers can be made. Let this thing continue a 
 few more years and the Asiatic will have to be accepted on the bridge 
 in command, because none others will be available. Men from the 
 Mediterranean, from Arabia, India, and South Africa sail the vessels 
 
 13 
 
on the Atlantic; men from China and Japan sail the vessels in the 
 trade between our Pacific ports and Asia. The number of Asiatics 
 and Africans from the south of Africa in the merchant marine of 
 Great Britain is about 100,000. Norway, with her former surplus of 
 seamen, has not enough for her own vessels, and the number is 
 steadily decreasing. Germany's seamen come from the interior and 
 are diminishing. The drift from the sea on the part of the Caucasian 
 is general and growing. There must be a change; it must be funda- 
 mental, and it must be soon, or the sea must become the domain of 
 the Oriental. His status and standard of living corresponds to the 
 status and earning capacity of seamen of today. 
 
 "These facts have been presented to Congress after Congress. 
 The seamen have been met with the answer that to change the con- 
 dition as urged would be to still more widen the difference in the 
 wage cost of operation now existing between foreign and domestic 
 vessels taking cargoes or passengers from American ports and thus 
 drive the few remaining American vessels from the ocean. The sea- 
 men then went into the study of the real causes of the differences and 
 found : 
 
 "(1) That wages are determined by supply and demand. That 
 it is the same to all nations' vessels in the same port if the vessels are 
 going in the same or a similar trade. 
 
 "(2) That wages are dependent upon the standard of wages and 
 of living in the port and in the territory adjacent thereto and upon 
 the port to which the vessels are going. 
 
 "(3) Upon the standard of skill demanded and the chances of 
 getting away from deserting from the vessel at her port of destina- 
 tion if such be a high-wage port. 
 
 "Thus, it was found that when a Norwegian ship-owner wants 
 men to join a vessel sailing between ports of the United States and 
 the West Indies or Central America (the fruit steamers), he pays 
 50 per cent more wages than if the vessel was going to the Black 
 Sea. He does this to keep the men now, when by treaty he can have 
 them arrested, detained, and delivered back to him. The fugitive- 
 slave law is in full force and operation between nations through 
 treaties entered into. If the men coming to the United States from 
 other countries could quit their vessels in ports of the United States 
 and reship in some other vessel the wages would become equalized. 
 It is not suggested that seamen should be paid off. It is suggested 
 that they should be able to obtain one-half of their earned wages, and 
 that they should not be arrested and delivered back to their masters 
 (owners?) against their will. The only difference in the cost of 
 operation of vessels that does not arise out of the cost of building is 
 in the wage. All other supplies are obtained upon the same terms 
 by vessels in the same trade. The price of the port controls. The 
 wages of the port would control if the law of supply and demand was 
 permitted to act, but this law is set at naught by laws made by the 
 several nations and given vitality in foreign countries through 
 treaties. Such arrangements are solely in the interest of low-wage 
 countries. Abolish the fugitive-slave law now operating upon the sea- 
 men; cease being the slave catcher for foreign nations and the eco- 
 nomic value to purely American-owned vessels would be equal to 
 
 14 
 
a greater sum than was ever asked for as a subsidy, and all talk of 
 subsidy or necessity for discriminating duties would at once be at 
 an end. 
 
 "Give to the seamen while the vessel is in port and in safety, 
 the freedom that has been given to other workers ; give them half of 
 the money due to them (others get all) in such ports, in order that 
 they may have the means to exercise and to protect their freedom ; pro- 
 vide a standard of skill in the men employed (and thus make it pos- 
 sible for them to save life at sea, their own included), provide such 
 regulations as to working hours as shall keep the skill available (they 
 work 7 days a week and 12 hours per day at present), make the free- 
 dom, the standard of efficiency, and the right to one-half of the money 
 due, applicable to foreign vessels coming within the jurisdiction of 
 our laws, and there will be a reasonable assurance of safety at sea, 
 the American vessel will be on equality with foreign vessels in 
 American ports, as they already are, through law enacted in 1884, in 
 foreign ports and the 'drift from the sea 1 will cease. There will be a 
 better class of men available for the merchant marine and the Navy, 
 there will be more safety at sea, lower insurance rates and no neces- 
 sity for either a subsidy or for any discriminating duty. England 
 regulates all the matters dealing with safety, including the number 
 of men on vessels coming within the jurisdiction of her laws and we 
 will be doing nothing except what is truly American by doing the 
 same. 
 
 "Compulsory labor in private employment has few friends today, 
 and the hope of the thinking seamen has been that freedom will come 
 to them also. In this hope, they have waited and worked. They be- 
 lieved that the nations would come to realize their need of seamen 
 for national purposes and that disasters, which were sure to multiply 
 as skill decreased, would cause the people to demand such changes 
 in the law as should be found needed in the interest of safety of life 
 at sea. Vessels that can not burn and will not sink are not built. The 
 best vessel ever built is unseaworthy unless manned by skilled officers 
 and men who can understand the orders and who know how to obey 
 them. Real seamen know that in any serious struggle with the forces 
 of nature the human element is the determining factor. They have 
 been waiting, watching and praying for relief. Senate bill 4 is the 
 remedy and will give the relief needed. 
 
 "An international conference of safety of life at sea is coming; 
 but we fear that little of real value will come from that unless it is 
 preceded by proper legislation here setting a minimum. We fear 
 that the forces which have been, and now are, engaged in destroying 
 the customs upon which skill and safety rested, and which have suc- 
 ceeded in preventing legislation so long needed, will in some way 
 dominate the conference. 
 
 "With the proper legislation enacted here and thus a minimum 
 set, that conference would be valuable. Other nations would have 
 to follow our lead owing to pressure of economic conditions; they 
 would, therefore, make a virtue of necessity and the conference would 
 very likely recommend similar legislation to other countries. 
 
 "Sea power is in the seaman. Shipsi are but the seaman's work- 
 ing tools. If there be a desire in the white race to retain its sea 
 
 IB 
 
power, the Caucasian must be brought to sea again. Nations which 
 desire to share in that sea power must depend upon their own citizens 
 or subjects. If a reasonable safety at sea be desired, men of strength, 
 courage and skill must be induced to again seek the sea and they will 
 not come to accept existing status nor tolerate other existing con- 
 ditions." 
 
 Freedom Under American Flag. 
 
 On March 4, 1915, a day to be remembered and celebrated among 
 seamen, the Seamen's Act was passed by receiving the signature of 
 President Woodrow Wilson. Officially it is known as The Sea- 
 men's Act." Popularly it is called "The La Follette Seamen's Act." 
 We have at times called it "The Wilson-La Follette Act," from Wil- 
 liam B. Wilson, who introduced it and fought for it in the House of 
 Representatives and Senator Robert M. La Follette, who introduced 
 it and fought for it in the Senate. There were other Senators and 
 members of Congress whose names should never be forgotten by 
 us or by seamen anywhere. Their pictures and names are in this 
 little book. The law does not restore to the seaman his true place 
 among men. This no law can do. It gives to us freedom and the 
 opportunity to reconquer our true place among men. The struggle 
 for full and recognized equality with all other men now enters the 
 industrial, the social and international field. If we be true to our 
 ideals, if we can keep the faith, if we can learn to labor and to wait, 
 we shall draw strength from the struggle and we and all seamen 
 shall win. 
 
 REMEMBER! 
 
 Remember that under the American flag you are a free man. Re- 
 member that with freedom comes responsibility. Remember always, 
 that at sea you are an individual part of the crew of the vessel. Re- 
 member, that at sea, you are under the law arising from the common 
 danger "the common hazard." This commands self-sacrifice and the 
 duty to obey all lawful orders, to do it promptly and efficiently. 
 Upon this depends the safety of the vessel, the safety of the pas- 
 sengers, the cargo and the crew your shipmates and your own. 
 
 In a safe harbor you are under the law of freedom. Your body 
 belongs to yourself. The estimate in which we are held by our 
 fellow men depends mostly upon the use we make of that, which is 
 admittedly our own. 
 
 When we shall have learned to do our duty at sea, and to nobly 
 use our freedom in port, we shall have earned and shall receive the 
 respect of our fellow men. We shall be earning wages sufficient to 
 take care of a mother, a sister, a younger brother, or a wife and chil- 
 dren. We shall, in fact, be enjoying some of those things before we 
 have reached a standard of skill and conduct such as is here con- 
 templated. An earnest struggle to obtain the proper skill and to 
 nobly use it to make a proper use of our freedom in harbor will 
 bring an earnest of what we will get, when we have restored sea- 
 manship to the skill and respect which once was its recognized due. 
 
The Tradition of the Sea. 
 
 Know your duty and be ready at all times to perform it. 
 Improve the standard of skill. 
 
 Remember always that the control over the sea is in you as 
 seamen; remember that the vessel is the tool with which you work. 
 A skilled workman can do better work with a poor tool than a bad 
 one with the best. As a good workman loves, protects and improves 
 his tools, so will a good seaman love, protect and improve his vessel. 
 He will keep her neat and clean and in a fit condition. The vessel is 
 to the real seaman, what the horse is to the rider, the gun to the 
 hunter, the instrument to the musician; but she is not the message 
 that is in the rider ; she is not the quarry to be brought home ; she 
 is not the music that is in the man. 
 
 You use the vessel to carry passengers and freight or you use 
 her to carry your guns to the right position for use. The passengers, 
 the freight and the guns are intrusted to you. Your duty is to the 
 passengers, the freight, the guns. To bring the persons or things to 
 their destination you must take the best possible care of the vessel 
 and keep her safe and in good condition. But when the vessel must 
 be abandoned, your first duty is to the passengers, and first among 
 them, to those who are most helpless the women and children. Re- 
 member always, that your first duty is to save life the life of your 
 country, the life of the passengers and of your shipmates. Such was, 
 such is your duty, your privilege under the law of "the common haz- 
 ard" and for this you will give your own life. Such is the true tradi- 
 tion and spirit of the sea. 
 
 To be able to do this at sea you must have a period of training. 
 You cannot learn your work as a seaman except at sea. The skill 
 needed comes only from experience. The best way to gain this is 
 to move from one vessel to another, from one trade into another, 
 from one climate into another. Go by preference in sailing ships, 
 next in vessels having sail and mechanical motive power, next in 
 tramp steamers. Keep away from passenger vessels until you know 
 your work. On passenger vessels there is nothing to learn that can- 
 not be learned quicker and better on any other vessel. 
 
 If you have an A. B. certificate and are sailing as able seaman, 
 but do not know your work as you ought to know it, look to your 
 shipmates for information learn, practice, gather the knowledge nec- 
 essary to the proper standard of skill. And don't be backward about 
 it or ashamed to learn. Ignorance is a misfortune, but it is dishonor- 
 able only when persisted in when there is opportunity to learn 
 therefor learn. It is best for you for all seamen for the ship 
 for the entire calling that you and every man who gets the A. B. 
 certificate reaches a high standard of seamanship as quickly as pos- 
 sible. Seamanshipskill the ability to meet the emergencies with 
 which our calling is crowded must be improved. The law has set 
 a minimum standard for the rating of able seaman. When a man 
 qualifies as an Able Seaman under the law, see that he is a real sailor. 
 Make the A. B. certificate stand for something more than it does now. 
 Raise the standard of skill. You have now the power to do it. 
 
 17 
 
When we organized, we promised to ourselves, among other 
 things, that we would do our best to so amend the maritime law of 
 the United States that we might be free to assist in developing a 
 body of real American seamen. The declaration adopted is as follows : 
 
 "Based upon these principles, it is among our objects to use 
 pur influence individually and collectively for the purpose of effect- 
 ing a change in the Maritime Law of the United States, so as to 
 render it more equitable and to make it an aid instead of a hin- 
 drance to the development of a Merchant Marine and a body of 
 American seamen." 
 
 We tried to be true to this declaration. While we struggled for 
 other improvements our main object was to change the law. When 
 it seemed as if we would fail we adopted as a motto: "Tomorrow 
 is also a day/' and kept at work. We succeeded ; the law is amended ; 
 we have the freedom and the opportunity, therefore the power. If 
 we fail now it will be our fault and our disgrace. 
 
 What we cannot do alone we can do combined together. To- 
 gether we can learn from each other not only the skill needed; but 
 we can learn to help each other; we can learn to bear each other's 
 burdens; we can learn the traditions of the sea. If needed and de- 
 sired, we can form classes and furnish teachers to study systematic- 
 ally not only the practical work but the principles underlying the 
 reasons why it is so and not otherwise. 
 
 THE SHIP AND CREW. 
 Seamanship. 
 
 The ratings of sailors, men in the deck department, are : Boy, Ordi- 
 nary Seaman, Able Seaman (Quartermaster or Boatswain, etc., are able 
 seamen assigned to special work). The able seaman is the unit of 
 skill and efficiency in the deck department. The boy and ordinary sea- 
 man is learning to be an able seaman and from among the able seamen, 
 who have studied navigation, comes the officers and future masters of 
 vessels. 
 
 The skill and experience in the engine department is of a different 
 kind. There, as in any other capacity, the men must be innured to the 
 sea. While it does not take the same length of time to make a marine 
 fireman as it does an able seaman the experience of all seamen has 
 taught them that the difference between the skilled and the unskilled 
 fireman is very great and that while it always determines the speed it 
 sometimes is the main^ factor in safety. Official reports of the British 
 Admiralty verifies this fact. The landsman becomes first a coal passer 
 or wiper. Here the fireman is the unit. Oilers, Watertenders, etc., 
 are firemen detailed to special work. 
 
 The young man, but more especially the boy who has just entered 
 sea life or who is thinking seriously of beginning sea life, should read 
 carefully the following description of life on vessels and what the able 
 seaman is expected to know. And please keep well in mind that if you 
 do not know the able seaman's work, the master may under the law and 
 under ancient usage reduce you to a rating and pay according to your 
 demerit ! 
 
Departments of the Ship. 
 
 Every steamer's crew is divided into three separate sections, known 
 as the deck department, the engine department, and the steward's depart- 
 ment. 
 
 To obtain any conception of the character of the work performed 
 by able seamen on steamships and the skill required of them on such 
 vessels it is necessary to know in a general way the work of the men 
 in each department and to understand the relationship between the 
 different departments and between each of the departments and the ship 
 itself. 
 
 The deck department (sometimes called the captain's department) 
 has to do with the general navigation of the ship. Its officers are in 
 general command, the highest deck officer, i. e., the master, being in 
 supreme command of the entire ship, every department being subject 
 to his orders; the first mate taking command in the absence of the 
 master and the second mate in the absence of his two superiors. The 
 crew of the deck department, in which the able seaman is the unit, 
 consists of the officers, quartermasters where special men for steering 
 are designated boatswains, carpenters, a varying number of sailors, 
 officially designated either as "able seamen" or "sailors," and boys or men 
 who are or who are supposed to be learning seamanship. A deck crew 
 inefficient in skill or insufficient in number endangers the vessel, her 
 passengers, and cargo. 
 
 The engine department (usually called the engineer's department) 
 operates the boilers and engines, keeps them clean and in working order, 
 making such repairs as can be done on the vessel. A chief engineer 
 is in charge, with assistant engineers and a crew of oilers, water tenders, 
 wipers, electricians, firemen, and coal passers. Inefficiency means large 
 bills for shopwork, waste of fuel and decrease in speed. 
 
 The steward's department has to do with the preparing and serving 
 of food, care of staterooms and interior of cabins, and general personal 
 service to passengers. It is in charge of a purser and chief steward, 
 with a crew of cooks, waiters, pantry and linen men, bell boys, stew- 
 ardesses, and chambermaids. Inefficiency in this department means 
 loss of passengers, arising from bad reputation. 
 
 The Ocean Trade. 
 
 The world's ocean carrying trade is done (a) in sailing vessels 
 from 100 to 5,000 tons, but the general type of sailing vessel is from 
 500 to 3,000 tons. The rig of these vessels range from the fore and 
 aft schooner without topmasts to the four and five masted full-rigged 
 ship with or without studding sails; the number of sailors on these ves- 
 sels is approximately 125,000. (b) In steamers ranging in tonnage 
 from 100 to 40,000 tons, but the general type varies from 700 to 7,000 
 tons, with a rigging consisting of two pole masts with two or more booms, 
 on each to four or five masts with up to eight cargo booms on each 
 mast, besides some sail with or without gaffs, with or without wireless 
 equipment; they employ about 90,000 sailors. Some of these vessels, 
 steam and sail, trade to ports where there are towboats, wharfs, and 
 freight handlers, but the greater number go to ports where none or few of 
 
 19 
 
these facilities exist, and there the sailors, led by the deck officers, and 
 the firemen, led by the engineers, do the repairing in their several depart- 
 ments, and where the sailors do all the discharging and loading of cargo, 
 using lighters, ordinary boats, or surf boats. 
 
 The deck crew of a steamer may be from 9 to 72 or even more, 
 both inclusive of officers, while the whole crew runs from 18 or less in 
 the small freighter trading to shallow harbors to 972 in the "Olympic," 
 and still more in the "Imperator." 
 
 Able Seaman. 
 
 The term "able seaman," as used on board any ship, steam as well 
 as sail, means a man who has had sufficient experience in deck service 
 to acquire the skill in seamanship needed to perform the duties, routine 
 and emergency, required in that service. Boatswains, quartermasters, 
 etc., are simply able seamen assigned to certain positions. 
 
 The amount of gear and equipment used in the deck department 
 on different classes of steamships varies greatly of course, but it is a 
 difference in degree, not in kind. The less gear and equipment the vessel 
 may have, whatever her trade, the greater the skill needed in emer- 
 gencies which no vessel can avoid. The deck crew of a steamer well 
 supplied with rope and wire, lines and cables, booms, blocks and tackles, 
 canvas, lumber, tools, and boats does not find it nearly so difficult to suc- 
 cessfully meet emergencies as is the case on board a poorly equipped 
 vessel. At the same time men can not learn a seaman's duties as quickly 
 on a poorly equipped vessel as he can on one that is well supplied with 
 gear of various kinds. 
 
 In reading the following partial description of a seaman's work 
 it should be borne in mind that a sailor works on all kinds of ships and 
 does not confine himself, can not confine himself, to one kind of vessel 
 in any one given trade. When out of employment he can not remain 
 idle, waiting until he can ship on a particular kind of a steamer, rigged 
 and equipped in a certain way; but he ships hires out on any kind 
 of vessel he can get, and so, of necessity becomes familiar with all 
 classes of vessels, and must know his work in any or all of them. 
 
 The General Routine Duties of Able Seamen. 
 
 The routine duties of the deck crew are so varied and the skill and 
 knowledge required of able seamen is of such a character as to be 
 exceedingly difficult to describe. The following, however, will give 
 some idea of the routine work on steamships, what the seaman (sailor) 
 learns while engaged in it, and how it therefore fits him for the numer- 
 ous emergencies he must meet. 
 
 While on board ship in port the sailors are occupied mainly with 
 preparing the vessel for sea. Much of the general work described herein 
 is partially done while in port if there is sufficient time. The steering 
 gear must be carefully overhauled, the wheel chains below decks taken 
 down and, together with the wire rope, examined for needed repairs 
 or substitution and set up again. 
 
 If they do not take part in the handling of cargo they must, at 
 least, take care of the gear used in that work, in moving the steamer 
 
 20 
 
from one part of the dock to another, running lines, changing berths 
 at the same pier, breasting her into a dock or springing her out, using 
 heavy mooring hawsers and cables, holding on or surging with turns 
 of the hawser around timber heads or bitts, or by compressor on a 
 deck winch, putting the heaviest possible strain on the line without losing 
 control by parting it. 
 
 A good deal of the painting of hulls is done in port. This is done 
 from light staging a narrow plank with or without crosspieces con- 
 structed by the sailors and slung over the side by means of light but 
 strong ropes, with use of hitches which will not jam but which are safe. 
 Sliding down the rope to the narrow plank, which may be swinging 
 more or less, especially when working over the bow or under the over- 
 hang of the stern, they work anywhere from close to the water to 50 
 or 60 feet above it, climbing back on the deck, shifting the stage after 
 every fleet, making fast to the rail here, a cleat there, a stanchion or 
 any other safe and convenient holding place. An imperfect hitch or 
 knot here means man overboard. 
 
 While some of the crew is doing this, others are preparing gear 
 and equipment, looking after the mooring lines, slacking off when too 
 tight, or heaving in when too slack, or if deck crew be small one job is 
 interrupted while more urgent ones are done. 
 
 The cargo out, loading is begun. Gear may have to be shifted, the 
 hold cleaned out, or the vessel may proceed to sea light or in ballast, 
 taken on board by longshoremen or sailors, hoisted or otherwise, unless 
 water ballast is used. 
 
 In many trades and ports, coastwise as well as foreign, the deck 
 crews load and discharge cargoes. This consists in slinging it on the 
 dock, hoisting it from the dock, and lowering it into the hold, or in 
 trucking it over a gangplank through a side port into the hold, where 
 it is stowed away so that it will not be damaged and the vessel will 
 be in proper trim ; even where stevedores are employed the mate is 
 responsible for the proper stowing of the cargo, and he usually details 
 some able seaman to assist him in seeing that the work is properly done. 
 Or the vessel may be in open ports, of which there are many, and 
 passengers and cargo may be landed in lighters, boats, or by use of 
 special boats called surfboats, carried especially for that purpose. The 
 cargo may be anything from small package stuff, handled in net slings, 
 to a piano or an automobile, costly glass or china ware. In weight it 
 may be from a few pounds to 50 or more tons. It may be lumber to 
 be hoisted on board in sling loads or shoved in by hand and stowed in 
 the hold, or it may be bales of wool or cotton to .be stowed, or grain, 
 coal, or ore to be trimmed. In any case, the stowing must be properly 
 done, or cargo will be damaged and vessels are likely to be lost. 
 
 Ready for sea, an able seaman goes to the wheel. Lines are cast 
 off or anchor weighed, cargo ports, if any, closed either partially, as on 
 a short trip in good weather, or made secure and water-tight for a 
 longer voyage or in bad weather. On passenger vessels the "emergency 
 boats" are cleared away and swung out ready for instant use. Some 
 passenger vessels send one man to the lookout in the bow, or the "crow's 
 nest" on the foremast, immediately upon leaving port; others not 
 until sundown or foggy. Freight steamers never, unless foggy or 
 during night. On passenger ships the officer of the watch (one of 
 the mates) goes to the bridge and takes charge as soon as the 
 
 21 
 
master is ready to be relieved, which is usually as soon as the 
 vessel is out of port. Another mate or, if none, then some able sea- 
 man, selected for the purpose, supervises and assists in the work of 
 clearing up the ship, lowering or topping and securing cargo booms, 
 etc. Any stays or other rigging needing to be set up are attended to, 
 hatches are battened down, i. e., made water-tight, or put in condition 
 to be made water-tight quickly; heavy "strong backs" (handled by hand 
 or purchase) have been placed under the hatch covers, wood or steel 
 covers put on, and the tarpaulins (heavy canvas, soaked with tar) 
 fastened on. There may be anywhere from 3 to 36 hatches to be battened 
 down. 
 
 On passenger vessels lower deck hatches may also be battened down, 
 if there be men enough on board to attend to it. Usually there are not; 
 it always ought to be done because of possible collision. 
 
 Lines are coiled away, blocks, tackles, and guys used in connection 
 with the cargo booms are taken down, coiled up, and stored away; 
 everything put into such 'shape as to permit all rope gear to dry thor- 
 oughly in preparations for overhauling and repair. Anchors are secured, 
 fish tackle, if used, is unshipped and stored away, or canvas cover laced 
 on to protect it from the weather. All hawse pipes, chocks, or other 
 openings, leading into inclosed parts of the vessel are plugged or covered 
 to keep seas from washing in. 
 
 Watches are then set if the crew is divided into equal watches; 
 few passenger vessels in the coastwise or lake trade do this, but it is 
 generally done in the over-sea trade. 
 
 In the general ocean trade, exclusive of large passenger vessels, 
 each member of the deck crew, officers excepted, take a two-hour "trick" 
 at the wheel and lookout, working around deck during the rest of their 
 watch. 
 
 Clean ship. Wash decks, the outside of all deck houses, etc., using 
 hose and brooms, afterwards seeing that all gear is in order and espe- 
 cially that rope gear is hung up; awnings and canvas weather cloths, 
 when necessary, put up or taken down; fastenings and lacings are rope 
 exclusively; care of these ropes, awnings, and weather cloths and their 
 repair involves the same kind of work as is done on sails. 
 
 One sailor sounds the pumps hourly or every watch, watching for 
 leaks, sounds all ballast tanks to note the amount of water ship is making, 
 so that she may be pumped out when necessary (there is no such thing as 
 a perfectly water-tight ship). The steering engine must be examined 
 and oiled each watch, and when not actually in the engine room this is 
 done by one of the deck crew; in fog or rain all exposed gear, signal 
 halyards, tackles, etc., must be slacked off when shrinking too tight and 
 likely to be damaged under the strain, and as they slack up when air 
 becomes dry must be tightened again. Other work being done, the 
 deck crew begins the overhauling of all cargo gear, working lines, 
 cables, and hawsers for repairs. Stranded, chafed, or badly weakened 
 parts are repaired by putting in a new strand, or the weakened part cut 
 out entirely and the end put together again by a splice suitable for the 
 line according to its use. New rope is uncoiled (a seemingly unim- 
 portant proceeding, but if improperly done the rope will be damaged 
 and some parts of it rendered nearly useless), measured off in lengths 
 needed, new tackles rove off, new lines prepared, spliced into blocks, 
 new pennants, whips, and slings made. Awnings, tarpaulins, boat covers, 
 
 22 
 
weather cloths, canvas caps and covers for ventilators repaired or new 
 ones made. On longer voyages and in properly manned vessels all these 
 things are done on board by the deck crew. Extra lashings are pre- 
 pared for various uses, rope swabs made, standing rigging oiled or tarred 
 from time to time, and numerous things of the same nature attended to. 
 In a greater or less degree this work goes on in all classes of ships. 
 
 The man who expects to be known as an able seaman on a steam- 
 ship must know the use of rigging screws, fids, marlin spikes, serving 
 mallets, the palm and needle, calking tools, and most of the carpenter 
 tools, the mixing of paints and colors, how to obtain strong leverages 
 with bars, ropes, tackles, how to brace with wedges and shores, besides 
 knowing the various knots and splices, and to worm, parcel, serve, and 
 seize, with rope and wire, and must be able to hold up his end of a job 
 when it comes to climbing and working in places where both arm hold 
 and foothold is difficult. He must know the lead line, not only its marks, 
 but how to use it, to get correct sounding when the ship is in close quar- 
 ters, the night dark, and the sea heavy, whether he stands in a smother 
 of sea on a low freighter or far up the side of an immense liner. The 
 compass, of course, is a familiar object to him, but he must know how to 
 use it, how to steer the ship under all conditions, what to expect and how 
 to meet it when he is steering across a current as well as with it or 
 against it, through the swift rush of a narrows, passing at close quarters 
 in and out of the suction of another heavy ship under speed, with the 
 wind light or strong from any direction, heading into a heavy sea, taking 
 it on either bow or quarter or abeam, under check or full speed, rolling 
 and pitching heavily, or running before it, when a blunder may mean 
 total loss of ship with lives and cargo. The man at the wheel must know 
 his work, what to expect and how to meet it instantly, in calm or storm, 
 daylight or dark, in clear weather or in fog. The man who learns to be 
 a reasonably good helmsman in even three years is an exception, because, 
 regardless of the aptitude of the individual, the personal knowledge of 
 varying conditions, different ships, how they act under differing cir- 
 cumstances and familiarity with the various steering gears, can only 
 be gained through experience necessarily covering a good deal of time. 
 The steam steering gear, rendering less physical strength necessary and 
 making possible the handling of larger ships, requires greater skill than 
 the old hand method which permitted the man at the wheel to feel the 
 increasing or decreasing rudder pressure and thus warned him of just 
 how the ship was acting. 
 
 If you would be recognized as an able seaman on a sailing vessel 
 you must know and be able to perform the work above indicated and 
 in addition you must know and know the use of every part of the stand- 
 ing and running rigging of such vessel. You must know how to repair 
 it, how to make new parts of the standing rigging and how to place it 
 on the masthead; you must know the running rigging well enough to 
 find any rope in the darkest night and how to use it ; you must know 
 how to send down and send up spars, how to rig jurymasts, jury- 
 rigging and jury rudder in case of necessity. You must know how to 
 handle sail in all kinds of weather how to take them in, how to reef 
 them, how to furl them, how to cast them loose, how to stick out reefs 
 and how to set them. To know this is not enough ; you must be able to 
 do it in all kinds of weather, when it can be done, in the darkest night 
 as well as in the light of day. You must be well enough inured to the 
 
 23 
 
sea to have your body at all times accommodate itself to the movements 
 of the vessel and to do so unconsciously. Your mind and body must 
 have been so developed by experience and contact with the sea that you 
 have the coolness and resourcefulness needed to meet and overcome 
 difficulties and emergencies. But these last are the necessary qualities of 
 all seamen. They are needed on a steamer as well as on a sailing vessel. 
 To quote from Bullen's Men of the Merchant Service, page 256 : 
 
 "An able seaman, properly so called, is a skilled mechanic with 
 great ability. On sailing vessels his place in calm or storm never 
 can be adequately filled by the unskilled, however numerous, nor 
 in steamships in emergencies." 
 
 However, even that which is considered the merest routine work 
 requires considerable training and presupposes physical ability not 
 common. 
 
 Painting, scrubbing, etc. Prepared paint is seldom brought on board 
 ship. The raw material is put on board and is mixed according to needs 
 by the able seaman. Graining, filling, varnishing, and lettering is done 
 as well as ordinary flat painting. Sailors become sufficiently skilled at 
 this work to qualify as journeymen painters on shore. The deck crew 
 cleans all outside parts of the ship, except the funnel, from the mast 
 and booms to the deck houses, decks, and sides of the ship. Some of 
 this work must be described to show that there is more practice in it 
 than simply scrubbing and painting. 
 
 Scrubbing and painting lifeboats. (Usually painted white.) Covers 
 removed and all gear taken from the boats inside cleaned boat lashings 
 let go, boats hoisted clear of the chocks outside cleaned 'boats lowered 
 in place, gear the lashings replaced. When painting, the same process is 
 repeated. 
 
 Scrubbing and painting of masts. Gantlines must be rove either 
 through sheaves just below the eyes of the backstays (near extreme top) 
 or through block carried aloft for that purpose. The sailor goes up 
 the ratlines to the eyes of the lower rigging, from there he "shins" up 
 the topmast to the eyes of the upper rigging, where he hangs on as best 
 he can while some one on deck bends the gantline onto the signal halyards 
 and hoists it to the man aloft, who reeves the gantline through the 
 sheave, unbends the halyards, slides down the mast to the eyes of the 
 lower rigging, bringing the ends of the gantline and the signal halyards 
 with him, thence to the deck. If no signal halyards, such halyards are 
 usually rove off first to be used in hoisting up the gantline. If no 
 ratlines on the lower rigging, he must "shin" all the way up the shrouds 
 of the lower mast and then up the topmast. When the gantline is rove, 
 it is bent onto a "boatswain's chair" (a short piece of board slung in 
 a rope strap) and the sailor is hoisted back aloft. Reaching the highest 
 point to which the "chair" can carry him, he is anywhere from 10 to 
 15 feet below the truck or extreme top of the mast. He gets out of the 
 "boatswain's chair" and "shins" the bare pole to the very top, sometimes 
 using a rope strap. Scrubbing materials are sent up to him on the signal 
 halyards, and hanging onto the bare pole he works down in that manner 
 until he gets low enough to swing himself into the "chair" again ; after 
 which he works down, lowering himself as needed by slacking away on 
 the gantline, which he makes fast to the "boatswain's chair." Reaching 
 the deck, he is hoisted aloft again and then goes through the same 
 
 24 
 
performance in painting, which may include gilding or painting the 
 ball on top of the mast. Anywhere from one to three men work each 
 mast. Where three men work, one takes the topmast, the other two 
 the lower mast. 
 
 Ship's work of the nature described above continues unceasingly 
 until bad weather sets in and heavy sea rises. Everything movable on 
 deck must then be securely lashed, extra lashings are put on the more 
 exposed lifeboats, some of the ventilator tops exposed to the wash of 
 the sea are unshipped, canvas coverings lashed over openings, parts of 
 hatchings left open for ventilation are closed and battened down, and as 
 needed life lines are stretched along exposed sections of the deck. Dur- 
 ing the gale the watch on deck and sometimes the whole deck crew is 
 constantly at work. Anything may break adrift, from a piano in the 
 cabin in a passenger ship to a heavy cargo boom on deck, from paint 
 pots in the forepeak to a spare anchor on the forecastle, from some cargo 
 below decks or on deck to a lifeboat on the gallows ; the deck crew must 
 secure it whatever it is and put on the necessary lashings. A dead- 
 light is smashed in, a hatch cover loosened, part of a rail broken, a 
 ventilator cap torn off, a companion ladder getting shaky, a cargo port 
 weakened and leaky; the able seamen must do whatever necessary to 
 remedy the damage. No matter what kind of ship, no matter the trade, 
 when the gale is on the deck crew finds no time for anything except to 
 perform work immediately necessary for the safety of the ship and its 
 equipment, aside from being prepared to meet the many grave emer- 
 gencies that may arise. On such occasions they work often without any 
 rest until so exhausted that they are absolutely unable to do any more. 
 
 The weather moderating, unusual lashings put on boats are removed, 
 life lines taken down, parts of hatches reopened, ventilators reshipped, 
 and in event any damage done it is repaired as far as is possible at sea. 
 In all this, excepting only in connection with the engine and boiler rooms, 
 and sometimes even there, the deck crews, working under supervision 
 of the deck officers, are called upon. 
 
 Routine work is resumed and continued. When no other work is 
 immediately necessary some interior chipping of rust, scraping, and 
 painting may be done inside or outside the hull, the towing hawser or 
 anchor chains are overhauled and restowed. Damaged rigging or dam- 
 aged service on shrouds may have to be repaired, ratlines may have to 
 be replaced, if of rope seized with marlin; if iron rods, with wire 
 seizing; canvas covering used on some parts of the deck and on top 
 of the deck houses may be ripped off and new stuff laid; life preservers 
 overhauled and repaired ; the 'ship's colors, signal flags, etc., kept in 
 good condition. The work is never completed, because there are not 
 men enough in the deck crew, and some of it is done in sail lofts and 
 by "harbor seamen" when the vessel is in port. 
 
 Nearing port, preparations are made for landing of passengers and 
 discharging of cargo. Necessary gear is made ready, anchors ready, 
 hatches unbattened, etc. The vessel may go to a dock in convoy of tugs, 
 as in the case of a big liner, or may work her way in alone close enough 
 for one of the sailors to slide down a rope and swing himself onto the 
 dock to take a line; or she may come to anchor in some harbor, a road- 
 stead, or off the open beach, as the case may be. Passengers may be 
 landed over gangplanks, cargo discharged by longshore gangs, or, if in 
 bulk, scooped out by powerful machinery in ports where traffic is regular 
 
 25 
 
and heavy and the docks arranged for the purpose; or the cargo may be 
 handled by the deck crew, as in some trades like that of the Pacific, 
 some of the bay and sound steamers of the Atlantic, or the combination 
 passenger and merchandise steamers of the Great Lakes; or, as in 
 many parts of the world, passengers and cargo may have to be landed 
 in boats manned by the deck crew, sometimes through heavy surf. 
 
 All vessels, steam or sail, carry lifeboats. One on a small sailing 
 hooker, 2 to 4 on freight steamers, up to 30 or more on large passenger 
 ships. The handling of boats in all cases, except at drills and when all 
 boats must be used at the same time, is done almost exclusively by the 
 deck crew. 
 
 The smaller class of vessels of all kinds lower a boat for general 
 working purposes at every anchorage or port to communicate with shore, 
 to run lines, etc., and man it by members of the deck crew. In all trades 
 passenger steamers carry a working boat, handled by the deck crew, for 
 general service in connection with ship's work. 
 
 The emergency boats, which are kept ready for instant lowering 
 on passenger ships, are manned exclusively by members of the deck 
 crew. 
 
 In rescue work at sea boats are manned entirely by able seamen if a 
 sufficient number of such are on board. If able seamen are insuffi- 
 cient in number, the less experienced men in the deck crew fill out the 
 boat crews, and when that is insufficient men from the other depart- 
 ments are necessarily used. The difference between the exhibition known 
 as boat drill and actual service conditions and practice will be described 
 later. 
 
 Some Emergencies. 
 
 Fire: In event of actual fire the official fire alarm used on pas- 
 senger steamers in fire drill is promptly dispensed with. The bridge or 
 pilot house and engine room is notified. Fire on deck or in the cargo 
 is handled by the deck crew, getting help when needed from the engine 
 department. When the fire is in the passenger quarters (the steward's 
 department) the deck officer who responds with his crew of sailors takes 
 immediate charge, his crew being assisted by the steward's men if neces- 
 sary; when the fire is in the engine or boiler room or coal bunkers the 
 deck officer with his crew promptly gets to the spot, but here the deck 
 officer does not take charge as quickly, the engineer's staff usually being 
 the best fire fighters for that part of the ship. 
 
 Stranding: When vessel runs ashore and the immediate assistance 
 of tugs or other vessels is not to be obtained, the ship must be lightened 
 and worked off in some manner. For this purpose cargo and other 
 heavy material may be transferred from one part of the ship to another or 
 may be thrown overboard. Among other things to be done may be 
 the carrying out of an anchor to help pull the ship off. If the kedge 
 anchor will not hold, one of the large anchors, regardless of size or 
 weight, must be taken out and dropped some distance from the vessel 
 with a heavy hawser attached. This is done by the deck crew; two or 
 four lifeboats may be lashed together, a heavy boom or spar lashed 
 across, the anchor suspended from the spar under the boats, the hawser 
 lightered by other boats if necessary. The anchor is taken to the desired 
 distance, the hawser thrown off the boats sustaining it and the anchor 
 
 26 
 
dropped by cutting the lashings holding it to the spar, whereupon the 
 winches, capstans, or windlass may be used, putting the greatest possible 
 strain upon the cable while the engines are backing or going ahead full 
 speed. If another vessel appears to offer help, lines must be run between 
 the vessels, and again the deck crew does the work, using the boats. 
 
 Wheel chains parting, or tiller quadrant breaking; relieving tackle 
 are hooked on, the steering is done "pulley haul" while repairs are made ; 
 in bad weather (the only time it happens at sea) this is always a diffi- 
 cult and dangerous job, requiring skill in every man assisting. 
 
 Collisions: The damage must be ascertained, leaks stopped, and 
 sinking prevented, or at least delayed, if possible. In this many things 
 may be done, from dragging a sail or tarpaulin over outside of the 
 injured spot to shoring down a lower deck opening over the damaged 
 compartment to hold the pressure, shoring and bracing strained bulk- 
 heads, and of course clearing away boats ready to receive passengers, etc. 
 
 Loss of rudder: Sails to be set for the purpose of steadying the 
 vessel (most steamers carry sails on board ready to be bent on), a sea 
 anchor sometimes made in a hurry, used if necessary, while a jury rudder 
 or some other contrivance for steering the vessel is rigged up. 
 
 Engines disabled: The deck crew with sail and sea anchor must 
 find some way to steady the ship and keep her out of the trough of the 
 sea while repairs are being made. 
 
 Wireless gear aloft carried away: It is the able seaman who goes 
 aloft to repair the damage and the deck officer who directs the work. 
 
 Boat Drill Versus Actual Service. 
 
 Held weekly; first the signal for "fire drill" is given, calling the 
 various members of the crew to their stations, lines of fire hose are 
 pulled down, and perhaps some of the valves are opened. Imme- 
 diately after this comes the signal for "boat drill," for which the 
 crew is now waiting. They go to the boats to which they are as- 
 signed. In the assignment to boat stations the deck crew is divided 
 between the various crews in such a way that one man from that 
 part of the ship's crew will be in each boat, as far as their number 
 will permit. In many instances, especially in steamers in the coast- 
 ing, Great Lakes, and bay and sound steamers, the deck crew goes 
 to the boats in advance and prepares them for the drill by letting 
 go lashings, clearing away tackles, etc. The entire crew then pro- 
 ceeds to "drill," covers are pulled off (not always), boats hoisted 
 from the chocks and swung out ready for lowering. In some cases 
 the boat's painter is passed out, and plugs put in place. The boats 
 may or may not be lowered into the water. In event any of the boats 
 are lowered the job consists of simply lowering the lifeboat into the 
 smooth water of the harbor. Oars are gotten out and some pulling 
 is done. Boats are then hoisted up and placed in the chocks, after 
 which the deck crew completes the job of straightening out the gear, 
 relashing the boats, etc. 
 
 A ship in distress is sighted, passengers and crew need to be 
 transferred. Five or six of the lifeboats are ordered away for this 
 work. Be the weather good or bad all boat-drill arrangement is dis- 
 pensed with. The boats are cleared away and manned, not by their 
 
 27 
 
boat-drill crew but by members of the deck crews as far as the deck 
 crew is sufficient in number to man such boats. In any event every 
 important position in such boats is filled by able seamen or men of 
 higher rating from the deck department, at the steering oar, the stroke 
 oar, and the bow oar, are able seamen, and if the weather be very bad 
 no more boats are lowered than can be manned with a majority of 
 able seamen in each boat and especially in all important positions. In 
 a seaway with the ship rolling, a boat must be lowered so as to avoid 
 too great a swing and gotten away from the ship's side as soon as it 
 is water borne, otherwise it will be stove in by smashing against the 
 ship's side, swamped, or capsized. The boats are lowered one at a 
 time, bumpers or cushions of sails or mattresses may be hung over 
 the side, a bridle passed around the falls to check the outward swing, 
 a line made fast to the lowest point that can be reached on the ship's 
 side is passed into the boat where it is used to check the outward 
 swing, while others of the crew guard against the heavy inward 
 swing with their oars laid so as to catch the force of the blow with- 
 out breaking the oars. A sea painter is used, leading from well for- 
 ward on the ship and into the boat, where, unlike the ordinary painter, 
 it is not made fast, but is held by one man with one or more turns 
 around the thwarth to help keep her parallel with the vessel until it 
 is time to let go, when it is used to shear the boat off from the ves- 
 sel's side sufficiently to make possible the use of the oars. Perhaps 
 the safety of the boat depends more upon this one man than upon any 
 other that is in the boat until she is perfectly clear. The lowering 
 of the boat must be done so as to keep her on even keel, and the two 
 men lowering away at the tackles must work well together and un- 
 derstand their job, to which a knowledge of the sea is essential, or 
 the boat may come down end on and spill the occupants out, or may 
 be swamped even before the tackles are unhooked. One at a time 
 the boats are thus sent away. As they return with their loads the 
 people must be hauled on board, boats hoisted, and in this nothing 
 is done as in boat drill. 
 
 A technical description might be attempted but would not be 
 generally true, because things to be done, and sometimes even more 
 important, left undone, are as changeable as the ever-changing sea; 
 nothing but the experience and skill coupled with the mental attitude 
 acquired as the result of a seaman's daily work at sea can give to 
 any person the qualities that go toward making rescue work at sea 
 effective. On a steamer this can only be obtained in the deck de- 
 partment. The other departments require a high degree of skill, 
 but it is of a different kind, acquired under different conditions and 
 for different purposes. 
 
 Perhaps the best description of the able seaman was by the master 
 who said: 
 
 Joe has been with me for two years. I have never seen him 
 appear to be wet or cold nor to be stumped by any work that 
 came his way on board the vessel. 
 
 He must indeed be able to do any work that comes to him or 
 to which he is placed, or he will, at the discretion of the master, be 
 reduced in rating and wages as provided in Section 4612 of the Re- 
 
 28 
 
vised Statutes of the United States and by the maritime laws of all 
 nations. 
 
 Up to the time when insurance had been so developed as to re- 
 move risks from the owner of a ship, and the responsibility to the 
 traveler and shipper had been minimized and practically wiped away 
 by a limitation of shipowner's liability, the shipowner insisted that 
 four years of experience was little enough time to fit a man to take 
 care of his property at sea and so he insisted when appealing to 
 legislators or by attorneys pleading to a court he talks differently 
 now. 
 
 Expose Violations of Safety Laws. 
 
 We have been trying to indicate to you some of your duties as 
 an able seaman and the skill needed; but there are other duties 
 which we urge upon you. There can be no safety to either passengers 
 or seamen if the laws enacted to conserve and promote safety are 
 not obeyed. It is your duty to respectfully call the attention of the 
 officer of the watch whenever you find that the gear is not in a safe 
 condition, if the boats are not in order and ready for instant use, if 
 lookout is not kept properly, if lights are not kept in order and in 
 use at the proper time, if watch and watch is not observed, if the ves- 
 sel has not a crew as provided by law, etc. The vessel must be 
 fitted out and manned according to law and the laws of safety must 
 be properly obeyed or the vessel is not entitled to limitation of lia- 
 bility, and become liable to such damages to any passenger who is 
 injured or to the heirs of any passenger who looses his life because 
 of any disobedience to law or any negligence for which the owner 
 is accountable as a jury may decide. 
 
 It is your duty to give the true information to inspectors who 
 are inspecting the vessel, or investigating any accident, or to any 
 Court, which is trying to ascertain who was at fault or to determine 
 whether the vessel's owners are entitled to limitation of liability. 
 
 If you are injured because of any violation of law seek your 
 redress in the courts and furnish the true facts. Damages will be 
 assessed for your benefit; but that is not the most important. Ship- 
 owners will cease taking improper chances and will obey the law 
 when they find that the real facts are exposed in court. By doing 
 this you will promote the safety of the passengers and the seamen on 
 your own vessel and on the other vessels and you will do a great 
 service to decent shipowners, who suffer under the undue competi- 
 tion with ship-owners who are evading the law. Always remember 
 that where the law is not obeyed there the damages are without any 
 limit except such as the jury will assess and the Courts uphold. You 
 know whether or not the law was obeyed; it is your duty to the 
 passengers and the other seamen to come forward and give the 
 true information. Remember that this is as much your duty as to 
 keep proper lookout on your own vessel. Failing in either you are 
 failing in your supreme duty to promote safety and protect life at 
 all timci. 
 
 29 
 
Know Your Rights and Be Prepared to Insist Upon Them. 
 
 The preamble to the constitution of the Union has on this sub- 
 ject the following: 
 
 "First of these rights is the right of each member to receive 
 fair and just remuneration for his labor, and to gain sufficient 
 leisure for mental cultivation and physical recreation." 
 
 "Further,*we consider it our duty to demand healthy and suffi- 
 cient food, and proper forecastles in which to rest." 
 
 "Next is the right to be treated in a decent and respectful man- 
 ner by those in command." 
 
 "Next is the right of engagement without the interference of 
 crimps or other parties not directly interested." 
 
 As it took a long time to change the law and again make the sea- 
 man a free man and as it will take much work, expense and patience 
 to get the law enforced even here in the United States, not to speak 
 of getting it adopted by other Nations, so it will take much work, 
 expense and some suffering to restore seamanship to its proper place ; 
 so again we should remember our motto : "Tomorrow is also a day." 
 
 Fair remuneration for our labor means "a living wage," and this 
 has been defined by the His Holiness the Pope certainly a most re- 
 spectable authority as sufficient to live properly to maintain health 
 and strength, to rear a family and to lay something by for sickness 
 and old age. 
 
 It will be some time before we can reach this standard; but we 
 can and shall reach it by earnest and united effort. The "when" will 
 depend largely upon ourselves. 
 
 The hours of labor have been dealt with by the law. It is up to 
 us to see that the law is obeyed. The forecastles and the food has 
 also been dealt with by the law. Let us see that it is obeyed. Decent 
 treatment from those in command will come when we and they know 
 the seamen's duty and are willing to do it. This is a matter of edu- 
 cation and must therefor come slow. But it will come sooner or later 
 as we shall know our duty and be willing to do it. Let it be re- 
 membered that officers of vessels are able seamen before they are 
 officers. In educating ourselves we shall be educating the officers. 
 
 Much of the crimp's power is gone and what remains we can de- 
 stroy by our own strength acting collectively. The respect which 
 shall be accorded to us as seamen by men on shore will depend first 
 upon removing the accumulated prejudice, second, upon proving to 
 them that we are their equals in knowledge, third, upon the reputa- 
 tion which we shall acquire and upon the earning capacity, which we 
 shall show ourselves able to reach and maintain. 
 
 If we did not feel the prejudice when we came in contact with 
 men or women on shore it was because we had grown hardened and 
 joined with them in their contempt for the "common sailor". Who 
 is he that has not heard the expression : "Oh ! He is only a common 
 sailor." Who among us who has visited England is there, who in 
 his heart has not deeply resented the two entrances to the British 
 bar-room? In the opinion of men on shore, "anybody was good 
 enough and most were too good to go to ea." People, whose daily 
 
 30 
 
and national life depended upon the skill, courage and devotion of 
 the seamen, forgot in their peace and plenty what the seamen had 
 done in the past and gave no thought to what they were daily doing. 
 To see vessels come and go, to enjoy the products that the vessels 
 brought, to expend the money that the vessels earned and to read in 
 papers about shipwrecks, was an every-day occurrence and here as 
 elsewhere familiarity breeds contempt. The dangers and struggles 
 of the past were in the past, they were never to return and people 
 busy with their own lives easily forget the dead. Nature mercifully 
 obliterates the grave and restores vegetation on it and in the road 
 that leads to it. It is well indeed that this is so. Life would be 
 impossible without it. But when great dangers and the unusual 
 struggles return the people again think of the weapons and shields 
 of the past. In this war the seamen of Great Britain, ordered by their 
 government, are fighting to compel the surrender of Germany and 
 her Allies by stopping their commerce and thus starving them into 
 submission. The German seamen, using that new and terrible weapon 
 the submarine likewise ordered by their Government, are trying 
 to starve Great Britain and her Allies into submission. It is the 
 generally accepted opinion that vessels is the crux of the struggle. 
 Sea power world power trembles in the balance and the deter- 
 mination may be with the seamen. The prejudice is being blown 
 away by the danger. The two entrances to the bar-room are still 
 there; but the seaman can go through either. British publications 
 are now recording their own high appreciation of the seaman and his 
 work. The seamen of all countries have continued at their occupa- 
 tion. They are working, enduring and dying as in the past and the 
 people are again beginning to understand. 
 
 The division of the seamen into naval men and merchant men is 
 purely artificial division of labor. It is commercial and of yesterday. 
 There is in reality no such division. The division is between skilled 
 and unskilled seamen. The skilled merchant seaman needs compara- 
 tively little training to become an efficient man-of-war's man. 
 
 "Without our Mercantile Marine the Navy and indeed the Na- 
 tion could not exist. * * * Both are now one in spirit and never 
 have British seamen united in a more stern and mighty cause," says 
 Admiral Jellicoe. Professor W. MacNeile Dixon in his book, "The 
 Fleets Behind the Fleets," after enumerating the number of seamen 
 and fishermen has the following to say about them: "There you 
 have the absolute total of sea-farers, to whose numbers, owing to 
 their way of life and the peculiarity of their profession it is impos- 
 sible during war rapidly or greatly to add. No other reservoir of 
 such experience as theirs can anywhere be found. Perhaps the most 
 valuable community in the world today and certainly irreplaceable. 
 Means of replenishing it there is none." The prejudice is indeed pass- 
 ing away. The British Parliament, the Lords and the Commons, 
 have passed the following Resolutions: 
 
 HOUSE OF LORDS, 
 DIE LUNAE, 29 Octobris, 1917- 
 
 Resolved, nemine dissentiente, by the Lords Spiritual and Tem- 
 poral in Parliament assembled, That the thanks of this House be given 
 to the officers, petty officers, and men of the Navy for their faithful 
 watch upon the seas during more than three years of ceaseless danger 
 
 31 
 
and itress, while guarding our shores and protecting from the attacks 
 of a barbarous foe the commerce upon which the victory of the allied 
 cause depends. 
 
 Resolved, nemine dissentiente, That the thanks of this House be 
 accorded to the officers and men of the mercantile marine for the devo- 
 tion to duty with which they have continued to carry the vital supplies 
 to the allies through seas infested with deadly perils. 
 
 Resolved, nemine dissentiente, That this House doth acknowledge 
 with grateful admiration the valour and devotion of those who have 
 offered their lives in the service of their country, and tenders its sym- 
 pathy to their relatives and friends in the sorrows they have sustained. 
 
 Ordered, by the Lords Spiritual and Temporal in Parliament assem- 
 bled, That the Lord Chancellor do communicate the said resolutions to 
 the Admiralty, the Army Council, the Secretary of State for India, 
 the Secretary of State for the Colonies, and the Board of Trade, 
 with a request that they will communicate the same to the officers 
 and others referred to therein. 
 
 ARTHUR T. THRING, 
 Cler. Parliamentor. 
 
 HOUSE OF COMMONS, 
 Monday, 2Qth October, 1917. 
 
 Resolved, nemine contradicente, That the thanks of this House be 
 given to the officers, petty officers, and men of the Navy for their faith- 
 ful watch upon the seas during more than three years of ceaseless 
 danger and stress, while guarding our shores and protecting from the 
 attacks of a barbarous foe the commerce upon which the victory oi 
 the allied cause depends. 
 
 That the thanks of this House be accorded to the officers and men 
 of the mercantile marine for the devotion to duty with which they 
 have continued to carry the vital supplies to the allies through seas 
 infested with deadly perils. 
 
 That this House doth acknowledge with grateful admiration the 
 valour and devotion of those who have offered their lives in the service 
 of their country, and tenders its sympathy to their relatives and 
 friends in the sorrows they have sustained. 
 
 Ordered, That Mr. Speaker do signify the said resolution to the 
 Commissioners for executing the Office of Lord High Admiral and 
 to His Majesty's Secretaries of State for War, for the Colonies, and 
 for India, and to the Shipping Controller, and request them to com- 
 municate the same to the officers, men, and women referred to therein. 
 
 The wages of seamen in England and America in fact in all 
 nations are rising and are gradually approaching a level upon which 
 the seaman may again marry and live like other men. When our 
 earning power shall have reached that point we shall know how to 
 keep it. 
 
 It is true that the seamen of Great Britain, as well as of other 
 countries, are yet bondmen. It may also be true that when this world 
 war is over, the joy in its ending may again cause the people to for- 
 get; but we shall not permit the people to forget. We seamen shall 
 remind them again and again until the present expressions of ap- 
 preciation and resolutions of thanks shall be translated into statutes, 
 which will in all countries make the seamen free and shall give to us 
 seamen the opportunity to reconquer our true place among men. 
 
 "Tomorrow Is Also a Day." 
 
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