OFFICEES OF VESSELS; DISCIPLINE OF THE CREW; NAVIGATIOJS. 101 



every man under his charge, without being dogged or incapable, is still of so leaden a mold as to 

 remain immovable under promises of bounty or promotion, these difficulties .must be but new 

 inducements to use extraordinary personal exertions and to preserve his reputation at the expense 

 of his health and strengthi Even if there are none of these embarrassments to contend with, his 

 ordinary employments require an iron frame and an unconquerable resolution. 



"A friend who has seldom failed to accomplish what he has undertaken, and whose life has been 

 full of daring enterprises, has often assured me that while on the Labrador shore his duty and the 

 fear of making a 'broken' voyage kept him awake and at bis post full twenty hours every daj^ 

 throughout the time employed in taking fish. ' Once,' said he, ' I was deceived by every man that 

 I had on board my vessel, my mate alone excepted. Each shipped, as is usual, to perform a par- 

 ticular service, and each boasted of his accomplishments in catching, dressing down, or salting 

 away; but there was neither a good boatman, an adroit splitter, nor a safe Salter among them all. My 

 situation was painful enough. I was interested in the loss or gains of the voyage, and was too poor 

 and too young in command to bear the consequences of returning without a full fare; and, besides, I 

 was never good at accounting for bad luck, and felt that it was far easier for me, even under these 

 untoward circumstances, to fill my vessel than to explain to every one who would question me at 

 home as to the causes of my failure, and the result of the matter was that I got as many fish per 

 ton and per man as any vessel that I met on the coast.' 'Another season,' says the same friend, 

 ' while in the West India trade, I was disappointed in obtaining a cargo, and was compelled to go 

 to Labrador or haul my schooner up. I was too restless to be idle and resolved upon fishing. It 

 was three weeks too late, and, on attempting to ship a crew, I found that no good men were to be 

 had, and that I must take raw Irishmen, and a drunkard for a mate. 



'"The chances, as you may well suppose, were all against me, but I made the voyage and 

 obtained as many fish as my vessel could carry. But I always had pistols in my pockets, and 

 enforced most of my orders with a threat or a handspike. I slept full dressed, and with arms in 

 my berth. A battle with one or more was almost of daily occurrence, and I was in constant fear 

 either of losing my own life or of being compelled to take that of some one of my crew to overawe 

 the rest.' These incidents occurred on voyages made from a port on the frontiers of Maine, and 

 before the commencement of the temperance reform, and are, of course, to be regarded not only 

 as having been rare in former times but as never happening now. But the master's duty, if he be 

 an efficient man, is never an easy one. If he would provide for every contingency and make sure 

 of a cargo despite of every adverse event, he must not even allow the full repose which nature 

 craves. It is upon his regularity and perseverance in procuring fresh bait, a service which must 

 sometimes be performed at the hazard of his life; upon the frequency of his visits to his boats, 

 which are often miles asunder; upon his readiness to use his own hands to make up the laggard's 

 deficiency; upon his economy and system in the use of time and outfits; upon the degree of energy 

 and regularity which he infuses; and, finally, upon the care which he exercises in dressing and 

 salting the objfect of his search that the success or failure of the voyage mainly depends. Masters 

 who are able and willing to sustain these varied and incessant calls upon their bodily vigor and 

 mental activity are to be found, probably, in every fishing port. But it is very certain that the 

 number has sensibly diminished during the last twenty years, and that the transfer to other and 

 more profitable and ambitious commands is still going on. The mercantile men of the commercial 

 emporium of the North, and the packet-ships of the commercial emporium of the Union, rank 

 deservedly high ; but were their counting-rooms and quarter-decks to yield up all, or even half, of 

 those whose birth-places, were on the two capes of Massachusetts, and whose earliest adventures 

 were made in fishing-craft, they would lose many high and honored names. So, too, were either 



