FORECASTLE AND CABIN 75 



result of a cruise or voyage," its sixty-eight sections might 

 have rendered whaling life somewhat less intolerable. As it 

 was, the effect upon whaling was negligible. 



Throughout the years before 1872 the two original stat- 

 utes of April 30 and of July 20, 1790, remained the funda- 

 mental pronouncements on matters relating to American sea- 

 men. Although often enlarged and amended, they were not 

 superseded. The body of laws then laid down included the 

 definition and punishment of crimes at seaj the requirement 

 of a written agreement, known as the shipping articles, be- 

 tween a master and each member of his crewj provisions for 

 the apprehension and treatment of deserters j the protection 

 of wage payments j the conditions necessary for a survey of 

 seaworthiness J and the insistence upon the inclusion of mini- 

 mum amounts of fresh water and provisions in the cargoes 

 of all seagoing vessels. 



In 1825, and again in 1835, laws were passed which sought 

 to protect seamen from their own officers. Under certain cir- 

 cumstances fines and imprisonment were provided for assault, 

 beating, wounding, the infliction of "any cruel and unusual 

 punishment," and forcing ashore or leaving a seaman in a 

 foreign country. In 18 50 the culmination of a long period of 

 agitation was marked by writing into the statutes a single sen- 

 tence: "Flogging on board vessels of commerce is hereby 

 abolished." The prohibition of sheath-knives, sixteen years 

 later, protected officers as well as seamen j for the sheath- 

 knife, an ugly if romanticized instrument responsible for 

 countless crimes of violence, had become the traditional 

 weapon of the foremast hand. These provisions, together 

 with an extended series of regulations for the consular pro- 

 tection of sailors, constituted the most significant attempts to 

 safeguard the personal rights of seamen for three-quarters 

 of a century. 



But even the laws which were upon the statute books, in- 

 adequate at best, were commonly weakened by loose inter- 

 pretation and poor enforcement. Ambiguous phraseology, 

 ignorance of the law by those wronged, and the prejudices, 

 preconceptions, and indifference of judges, juries, and con- 

 suls, all combined to rob the protective legislation of its full 



