there might be no mistake as to how the discipline of the vessel was to be administered, the officers, who were generally Yankees, or aped the habits and manners of the Yankee, were stationed at the gangways for the purpose of suitably receiving the wretched, drink-sodden, semi-delirious creatures who were to constitute part of the crew.  They were carted to the vessel, accompanied by animals opprobriously called “crimps,” whose unrestrained appetite for plunder was a scandal to the public authority who permitted their existence.  After these noxious gentry had sucked the blood of their victims, the latter were handed over to the officers who awaited their arrival at the gangway.  Having arrived late, and in a condition contrary to the orthodox opinions of their officer, they were asked in strong nasal language why they did not turn up at 6 a.m.

“Do you know,” the slap-dashing mate would say, “that you have committed a breach of discipline that cannot be overlooked on this craft?”

The half-drunken, whiskey-soaked creature would reply in an incoherent, semi-insolent way, whereupon the mate would haul out a belaying pin and belabour him with it.  Many a criminal act of this kind was committed, and if the men as a body retaliated, they were shot at, or knuckle-dustered, until their faces and bodies were beaten into a pulp.  This was called mutiny; so in addition to being brutally maltreated, there could be found, both at home and abroad, gentlemen in authority who had them sent to prison, and who confiscated their pay.  Many of them were punished until they agreed to sign the entry in the official log against themselves.

It may be thought that these officers were justified in the initial stages of the voyage in striking terror into the minds of these men, so that their criminal instincts might be kept in check.  I am well aware of the risks and responsibilities attending the control of a terrible class of persons such as the American “packet rat,” and it is difficult to write of them with calmness of judgment.  They were undoubtedly collections of incorrigible ruffians such as could not have been easily employed in any other class of British or American vessel.  At the same time, it must be remembered that the officers of these crafts were not selected because of their pre-disposition to piety.  It was because of their predilection for living in a chronic atmosphere of “Almighty Hell.”  They were trained to it, and were apt pupils.  They saw a glory in the continuity of combat that raged from the beginning until the end of a voyage.  It is worthy of note that, with few exceptions, they never allowed themselves to be overcome, though many a futile attempt was made.  Poor devils of sailors!  Many a voyage they made without receiving a penny for it, every cent of their wages being confiscated in fines and forfeitures.  How many may have lost their lives during the progress of such passages, ostensibly by accidentally falling overboard, will never be known.  I have heard old salts talk of these vessels never being hove to to pick up any of the unfortunate riff-raff who may have made a false step into the ocean.  This may or may not be true; but from what I know of the desperate character of those commanders and officers, I am inclined to give credence to a good deal of what is said to have occurred.