Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1882-03-15

ted by his officers; and he never made any
attempt to protect the victims. The chief
mate, whose name is Watts, is said to have
served term in penitentiary for brutal
ity to seamen, and to have been several
times tried for similar conduct. When the
Gatherer reached San Pedro the crew were
prevented from going on shore for several
days, and meanwhile all the mates were
allowed to take their discharge. This was
done to give the mates time to escape, and
to prevent the crew from having them ar.
rested. The chief mate has got away by
shipping on vessel which left San Fran
cisco fer Australia before the crew of the
Gatherer reached that city. 1t is in
tended to arrest the Captain, Sparks,
as soon as the ship comes up from
San Pedro, but the present iudica.
tons are that the attempt to punish
these infamous wretches will break down.
Here is case in which a ship was made a
| floating Hell for several months by three
men. These three men, always armed with
revolvers among defenseless crew, killed
two men, drove third mad, blinded a
fourth, and disabled fifth for life, not to
mention the brutal beatings short Of mutt
lation which they inflicted upon others of
the crew. And what makes the scandal of
this kind of case the graver is that it is
by no means unprecedented. 1t has been
common for merchant marine masters and
mates for several years past to complain Of
the deterioration in the quality of the fore
mast hands. The truth is that because of
| the ruffianly conduct of such masters and
mates the best kind of sailormen have been
| driven from the sea. No man with any
sense, spirit, or energy will continue in a
service where he is at the mercy of every
BLACKBOARD and brute, and where he may
at any time find himself doomed to as
| dreadful fate as if he were shut up for
six months with number of armed mad
men, or with as many wild beasts. 1t is
| brutality at sea which has degraded the
merchant service, and it is notorious that
| of late years this brutality has been in.
creasing. Nor is it likely to diminish
while owners and consignees are SO greedy,
selfish and inhumare as to wink at
any outrages committed by their officers,
provided ship and cargo are safe,
and good time between ports has
been made. But the seaman seldom OBJ.
| tairs protection either ashore or ahoat.
On land he is the prey Of the boarding
house keeper and the thieves that swarm
on the city front of every seaport. At sea
he is the helpless victim of every bullying
coward who chooses to put on brass
knuckles to beat unarmed men with. Not
until some of these sea-bullies have been
well and duly hanged can it be expected
that there will be any reform unless, in.
deed, some shrewd lawmaker should find a
way of holding owners and consignees re-
| sponsible for the treatment of the crew
in which case the selfish interests of these
persons would move them to purge their
vessels of murderers and escaped convicts,
and to employ gentlemen and hoEest men
in these positions. Bot no matter how
complete the immunity of the owners of
such ship as the Gatherer may be in the
present state of the law, it is impossible to
doubt that they are morally accountable
for the outrages perpetrated by their en-
ployes, and that, since it is equally GER
tain that they were not ignorant of tbs
character of these scoundrels, they them
selves have earned the execration and
loathing of all upright and reputable men.