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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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W i ^ y officer . It seemed ft pleasure te the * fc gt&tkpttaly dtaet * plinarianfe ^ when a man was wora out with constant labour in qwally weather during the first watch , to keep him mid-leg in water all the middle watch > vainly and uselessly sweeping at and swabbing the deck as whole seas were shipped over the gangways or through the ports , for some such terrible offence as hauling a
rope taut without being ordered to do so , —and that so hauling was to prevent a man from , probably , being knocked off the yard by the flapping sail . Now , if such a man had been knocked off the yard , the officer would certainly have had the other ftogged for neglect of duty , as the cause . It was charming , also , to feet a dozen of similarly wearied men to pull at a rope fixed to some immovable substance , such as a bit-head or belaying-cleat , for an
equally atrocious crime . Yes ; these and a thousand otller amiable devices were practised in the sheer love of annoyance and caprice of authority , and they will be practised again unless tve talk ofth&m , and pretty loudly too . Though well aware am I that the fault , the wrong , the discontentedness , the destructiveness , the crimitia * lity , IS IN THE TELLING THAT SUCH THINGS WERE DONB , NOT IN thb doing them , and though , perhaps , ( if I am so far noticed , ) I shall be censured and denounced as a libeller on an honourable
profession , will any officer or man who served three , four , five , or more years prior to 1816 , tell me or the world , t kin kingly and candidly , that he never knew , saw , or heard of such practices as the above mentioned ? or , indeed , that they were not of frequent occurrence , especially in ' well-regulated' ships ? Moreover , I sdy they will be practised over and over again unless the officers ajrfc more wisely educated . However , these evils were not of long
continuance in the A . A change of lieutenants , and better acquaintance with Captain M . ' s aim of justice , with all his dignified discipline , nearly obliterated them ; besides , blessed be fortune tot it , she was not one of the ' well regulated . ' Still , while th « y were , it was agony to me to witness them , —I think greater when I was removed from subjection to them myself ; and I beg to assure each reader of these memoirs , that there is not in me one atom of malevolence towards the authorized to
stimulate me . My prompter is compassion for , sympathy with , the galled and degraded animal man ; though , in truth , there is not so much humbug and hypocrisy in me as will make a profession of love , ' brotherly love , ' for the galler and degrader . So , reader * I do not remember my former officers with Dad feelings toward them ; and I still regard the four last years of my life at
sea as the happiest of my existence , —but to them was a painful pP 9 ttir $ or > and I have only commenced it . I shall travel more tapidly by and bye * Nor was it only in the instances to which I have referred that the vexatious principle of disciplining a ship ' s company vvba acted upon ; it was daily exercised at &ea in vvorkiogvor rather bothering the a bap , trimming ; sails and boxing th #
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40 t Autrtt « g *« t > hy af * Ptl > V # frdK .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), June 2, 1835, page 422, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2646/page/58/
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