It must not be supposed that I have any intention of
defending the faults of our seamen. I merely desire that
some of the responsibility for their faults and training
should be laid on the shoulders of those critics who shriek
unreasonably of their weaknesses, while they do nothing to
improve matters. Many of these gentlemen complain of Jack's
drunken, insubordinate habits, while they do not disapprove
of putting temptation in his way. They complain of him not
being proficient, and at the same time they refuse to
undertake the task of efficient training. They cherish the
memory of the good old times. They speak reverently of the
period of flogging, of rotten and scanty food allowance, of
perfidious press-gangs, and of corrupt bureaucratic tyranny
that inflicted unspeakable torture on the seamen who manned
our line of battleships at the beginning of the
century--seamen who were, for the most part, pressed away
from the merchant service.
In my boyhood days I often used to hear the old sailors who
were fast closing their day of active service say that there
were no sailors nowadays. They had all either been "drowned,
killed, or had died at home and been decently buried.
Pages:
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25