News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1882-09-07
RICHARD Fl. DANA.
BY CLARK RUSSELL,

BY CLARK RUSSELL.
There is no English-speaking sailor
whether he sails or has sailed under the
red ensign or the stripes and stars, who
will not feel as il he had said good-by fol
the last time to an old and honored
friend when he hears of the death oi
Richard 81. D ana, the author of Two
Years Before the Mast" Jack cannot
think of him but as an old sailor; and
it would be like deranging one of the
most genial of our latter-day maritime
traditions to praise Dana to him as q
brilliant lawyer, distinguished jurist,
an eloquent and far-sighted politician.
ALI this he was, and how much more the
friends who are mourning him know.
But to Jack he must always be the
sailors friend, the plain forecastle hand,
who drank Of the seaman's cup and ate
of his bread, toiled with him, suffered
with him, and when the time came
championed him as he had never been
championed before. 81 vowed" he
wrote in his famous book, "that if God
should ever give me the means would
do something to redress the grievances
and relieve the sufferings Of that poor
class of beings of whom was then one. !"
The result of his resolution was con-
tribution of the greatest sea-book that
was ever written in any language to
English and American literature. Since
that volume was printed many notable
changes have taken place in the marine.
Steam is doing the work that was then
an extent that can only be realized by
people who crossed the Atlantic forty
years ago, and hear how long it takes
now to perform the same journey. But
how far have our mechanical improve
ments and progress affected Jacks life
as a sailor? Is he better off than he
was? To certain degree he is. Peo-
pie ashore are interesting themselves
about him; sailors homes have been
built: Acts of Parliament have jeopar-
died, if they have not wholly extln-
guished, the existence of the
crimp and of the overloaded ship.
But this view is from the shore
standpoint. The question is, how is he
off at sea? How does he fare, what is
his work, what is his treatment aboard
not, indeed, the great ocean steam
ship that whirls you from port to port,
and scarcely yields him time to discover
the flavor of his beef and his duff and
his timed meats, but those vessels of
the Pilgrim pattern, the brig, the bark,
the ship, of which there are still SO
many afoat that the crews who man
them make large population QfhumaD
souls No man who knows the sea can
answer the question in such way as to
satisfy Jacks well-wishers. We may
write and talk much of what has been
done on behalf of the sailor but, when
all is said, we have only to take up
"Two Years Before the Mast" and en-
ter forecastle with it in our hands, to
perceive that the merchant seaman
is very little better off than he
was forty years ago. In Dana's
tune a captain had power to tie
man up to grating and fog him.
He may not do that now but if it is
not sometimes done it is rather because
sailors nowadays would not stand by
and witness such an act of brutality,
than because it is rendered illegal by
statutes.
But if Jack is no longer fogged he is
very often knocked down, shot at,
clapped in irons, and put to work that
might break the heart of a dray- horse.
Certainly he often needs taut hand
sometimes he is skulker, sometimes a
ruffian, sometimes little better than q
pirate. But while day after day. we are
reading in the newspapers of such
cases, for instance, as that of the mas
ter of the James Bolt, who was fined
thirty shillings and one pound costs
by the Newry magistrates for having
knocked down and kicked a colored
seaman, ironed him, and fastened him
up to the side of the cabin with hands
above his head for twenty-four hours
without food, do not let US oVer-estimate
the value of such an illustration of the
progress of nautical humanitarianism
as the extinction of the old custom OF
fogging and picking our merchant sea-
men. It is not too much to say that
the forecastle of the little Pilgrim in
which Dana performed his voyage to
California is still the forecastle of hun
dreds of sailing-ships yet ahoat, and OF
many slow, numbering cargo steamer,
too, no doubt. The sailors he has drawn
with incompatible skill may still be
found at work in every dock, sleeping
at sea in the dark and resonant fore.
castle, or giving battle to the roaring
canvas aloft. The quarrels in the Pill
grim, the "hazing," the murmurs over
bad provisions, the harsh privatious,
the esprit de corps that gives rough
poetry to the inner and hidden life
of the rudest crew, are the same
now as they were in Dana's time
There is no honest ship-master but viii
acknowledge the accuracy of the por