AT SEA: ON PASSAGE 121 



gether with the prevalent belief (sometimes justified) that 

 discipline could be maintained only by cowing and terrorizing 

 the foremast hands, led to an attitude which even in the better 

 officers was harsh and condescending, and in the coarser ones 

 was vindictive and brutal. Men who were respectable citizens 

 ashore not infrequently became niggardly and cruel tyrants at 

 sea. Except in extreme cases of undoubted criminality, the 

 sailor had no adequate means of redress for any form of mis- 

 treatment, and could protect himself only at the risk of in- 

 curring a charge of insubordination or even mutiny. The 

 knowledge of this fact by both parties paved the way for nu- 

 merous flagrant abuses of authority. 



One of the commonest and least defensible of these abuses 

 was that of "hazing" or "working up" certain individuals to 

 whom one of the mates had taken an especial dislike. This 

 consisted of assigning such men to all the dirty, disagreeable, 

 and dangerous tasks, keeping them at work for inordinately 

 long hours, and annoying and harassing them in every con- 

 ceivable manner. Sometimes there were deliberate attempts 

 to provoke a man who was being "hazed" to break through the 

 bounds of discipline and attack the officer responsible for his 

 plight. When this occurred the usual result was a severe 

 beating or flogging for the attacker. "Hazing" was also em- 

 ployed more impersonally for the purpose of disciplining a 

 particularly refractory or criminal handj but for the most 

 part it was used by the mates as a means of settling their per- 

 sonal grudges. 



Physical brutality in some form or other was well-nigh uni- 

 versal in the handling of a crew. It was a rare whaler indeed 

 which was entirely free from itj and on many vessels it was a 

 daily occurrence. The three standard forms of punishment 

 were beating, flogging, and confinement in the "run." Beat- 

 ings were usually administered on the spur of the moment, 

 when one of the officers was in a fit of anger or impatience. 

 The hapless hand who had incurred displeasure, justifiably or 

 not, would be struck with whatever first came to hand. 

 Sometimes it was a belaying-pinj sometimes a piece of rope, 

 long or short, heavy or light j sometimes a heavy fist or a 

 heavier sea-boot. Some of the men escaped with only a sting- 



