But there was mutiny in the air on the Golden Bough from that very first day or the voyage.  I was soon to learn that there was plenty of rebellious spirit forward, and shrewd, daring fellows eager to lead, because of piratical greed.  Also, she was a hell-ship.  It was part of a hell-ship’s routine to thump the crew to the raw edge of mutiny, and keep them there.

You must understand the Golden Bough, and to understand her you must understand the knock-down-and-drag-out system in vogue on board a good many American ships of that day, and later.  A hell-ship was not just the result of senseless brutality on the part of the officers.  She was the product of a system.  The captain rode high in his owner’s esteem when he could point to the golden results of his stern rule at sea; the bucko mates were specifically hired to haze the crew, and drew extra large pay for the job.

It was, of course, a matter of dollars.  If the owners did not have to pay wages to the crew, they would save money, wouldn’t they?  I suppose some sleek-jowled, comfortable pillar of church and society first thought of it, and whispered it into his skipper’s ear.  And the skipper whispered it to his mates, and they made that ship so hot the crew cleared out at the first port or call, leaving their wages behind.  So was the hell-ship born.

For instance:  We were thirty men before the mast in the Golden Bough, signed on for the voyage at $25 a month.  Of course, we didn’t get any of this wage until the voyage was completed, until the vessel returned to an American port.  Think of the saving to the owners if we deserted in Hong Kong.  They would have no labor bill, practically, for working the ship from America to China, no labor bill during the months ere she was ready for sea again.  Then when ready to leave Hong Kong, Swope would ship a new crew, haze them as we were being hazed, and they would clear out at the next port.

That system worked.  It was a money saver, and lasted till the ascendency of steam, and the passage of tardy laws, ended it.  Why, some skippers—­like Yankee Swope—–­boasted they never paid off a crew.  Talk about efficiency, and reducing overhead costs!  Some of those old windjammer skippers could swap yarns with these factory experts of to-day, I tell you!

Of course, not all American ships, or even a majority of them, adopted this system.  But enough did to give American ships an evil name among sailors that has endured to the present day.

And this evil name helped sustain the system.  It completed a kind of vicious circle.  The crew ran away from the hell-ship, and spread the evil fame of the vessel over the five oceans.  Sailors then would not willing ship in her—­save, of course, a few adventuresome young fools, like myself, who sought glory—­and the skipper found himself putting to sea with a mob of stiffs in his foc’sle.