246 THE SPREAD EAGLE PUNISHMENT. 



ening men, might have been lashed into a mutiny, 

 that in the eyes of justice they would have been held 

 responsible for : because it was certainly due to every 

 man aboard, that the captain should have stated his 

 intention of furnishing another ship with water, and 

 his reasons for so doing — appealing at the same 

 time to what would be the sense of our own neces- 

 sities, if placed in such a situation ; and then not a 

 man aboard would have raised a dissenting voice, or 

 spoken of remuneration. It is, however, a mistake 

 too often committed by shipowners, shipmasters, 

 and ship's officers, to think that the sailor has 

 neither part nor parcel in the concerns of the ship or 

 voyage, and that the disposal of his time is altogether 

 at the pleasure of his superiors ; and thus they con- 

 duct themselves toward him, treating him with no 

 more deference than they would accord to a dog 

 aboard the ship ; and in this way are sown the first 

 seeds of mutiny, which spring up, bear fruit that 

 come to maturity, and destroy the original causes of 

 their production. 



On the 19th we gammoned with a barque belong- 

 ing to Fairhaven. This circumstance is only worthy 

 of notice from its being the first opportunity we had, 

 since leaving home, of seeing that peculiar creature 

 known amongst seafaring men as the spread eagle; 

 which consists in a human being lashed to the 

 rigging by his wrists, when, as the case may be, he 

 is punished with the lash, made to stand for au 

 immoderate length of time on one leg, or his arms 

 seized at such a height that he can but just rest on 

 the tips of his toes. In the present case the culprit 

 was forced to stand on one leg, shifting at periodical 



