C.-OFFICERS OF VESSELS; DISCIPLINE OF THE CREW; NAVIGATION. 



47. OFFICERS AND DISCIPLINE ON FISHING AND WHALING VESSELS. 



The skipper and his duties. — The fishing vessels of New England have practically only 

 a single officer, the "master" or "skipper," familiarly known to the crew as the "old man." On 

 some Cape Cod vessels, and also on some from the coast of Maine, one of the crew is known as the 

 "first hand," and is recognized as the person left in charge during the captain's absence, though 

 he otherwise has no authority. The skipper has the entire responsibility of the management of 

 the vessel, and has absolute control of her movements. In the Gloucester fleet, and, with the 

 exception already mentioned, all along the coast, the crew are on a footing of absolute equality, 

 and, in case of accident to the skipper, some one is selected by common consent to take command 

 during the remainder of the voyage. The skipper has no authority except that which his personal 

 influence gives him and the deference which men accustomed to control instinctively command. 

 He must be a natural leader, and generally gifted with superior intellect and tact, in order to get 

 along with the crew, there being no special laws like those in the marine service, which give him 

 authority over his men. In cases of insubordination he must have recourse to his physical 

 strength. If he cannot sustain himself in this manner, his influence over the crew is gone. There 

 have been many instances of vessels, commanded by the most skillful skippers of Gloucester, 

 having been compelled to return home without completing their trip on account of insubordination, 

 which the skipper could not overcome. Skippers naturally hesitate to come into personal conflict 

 with their men, because by so doing they render themselves liable to arrest for assault and 

 battery. The skipper is in every respect on an equality with the members of his crew, except 

 when he is directing them in some kind of work, and the commands are usually given more in the 

 form of a request than of an order. The cabin in which the captain sleeps and lives is shared by 

 the crew, a part of whom sleep there, while all of them are at liberty to use it as a sitting room 

 when they choose; the skipper and the entire crew eat together in the forecastle. 



Discipline. — An excellent idea of the discipline on the Grand Bank cod vessels is given by 

 the observations made by Mr. Osborne, in another part of this report. 



On the whaling ships a strict system of organization is maintained similar to that in the mer- 

 chant marine, except that it is even more formal and severe. The captain and his officers are 

 secluded from the rest of the crew, occupying another part of the ship and eating by themselves. 

 The captain has absolute control over his men, and is assisted in maintaining this control by his 

 officers, of whom there are always from five to seven. The manner in which the whale ships are 

 officered will be described elsewhere. On the sealers a similar system of discipline is kept up, 

 though it is less formal, the vessels being smaller and the crew, since they are picked men and 

 usually of American birth, are naturally more upon terms of equality. 



It is easy to understand how the present system of officering the fishing vessels has grown up. 

 The fisheries have grown in importance and the vessels have increased in size, while the customs 

 of previous centuries have remained unchanged. Men who were neighbors on laud and were en- 

 gaged in the shore fisheries together would have no need of special officers or of special systems of 

 sec iv 7 97 



