It was not an infrequent
occurrence for grown men to be handcuffed for some minor
offence that should never have been noticed. The sight of
human suffering and degradation was an agreeable excitement
to this class of officer or captain. If some of the villainy
committed in the name of the law at sea were to be written,
it would be a revolting revelation of wickedness, of
unheard-of cruelty. Small cabin-boys who had not seen more
than twelve summers were good sport for frosty-blooded
scoundrels to rope's-end or otherwise brutally use, because
they failed to do their part in stowing a royal or in some
other way showed indications of limited strength or lack of
knowledge. The barbarous creed of the whole class was to
lash their subjects to their duties. A little fellow, well
known to myself, who had not reached his thirteenth year,
had his eyes blacked and his little body scandalously
maltreated because he had been made nervous by continuous
bullying, and did not steer so well as he might have done
had he been left alone. It is almost incredible, but it is
true, some of these rascals would at times have men hung up
by their thumbs in the mizen rigging for having committed
what would be considered nowadays a most trivial offence.
Pages:
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131
132
133
134
135
136