The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1890-04-24
A SYSTEM OF SAILORS lNTERNA-
TIONAL HOMES.

IlVNAL HUM Ed.
(From N. Y. Seaboard April 3D.
In order to provide better means
for the protection of life and prep
erty at sea, it seems to me emf
nently proper that due attention
should be given to the pitiable con-
dition of seamen in a social sense,
and the cruel and degrading infiu-
ences thrown around them while on
shore in all the large shipping
ports of the world. No sooner is
he freed from the contract that
bound him to a ship than the sailor
wrecker is at hand, in the gulse OF
Pilot, with offered service to
gride him into a home of rest, cem-
fort and safety, but instead strands
him on some low haunt of vice and
iniquity. where, surrounded by all
| that can degrade humanity, they
plumber him at their leisure, and
after having stripped him of all his
part and as much of his future
earnings as they can lay hold of,
bundle him (often beaten into sub
mission) on board some vessel,
brutifed in all his natural instincts,
hungry, often diseased, and posses
sing only the few rags necessary to
hide his nakedness. This is no
fancy picture; the writer has had
large experience with seamen, and
more than once has been obliged to
receive whole crews On board
whose entire possessions would not
bring $40, and consisted of a bed
made of burlap and stuffed with
straw, often shavings, an old pair
of boots and sheath knife, but
with no other clothing than what
they stood in, and this, perhaps,
for voyage around Cape Horn.
This is a general picture OF the
sailors condition, to which there
are notable exceptions, to be intro
duced further on. By natural IN
stinct the worlds sailors are not
the degraded men that evil asso-
citation has made of them. In nine
cases out Of ten, the boy who
leaves his home to seek his fortune
on the sea, belongs to that adven-
turous class, which under different
circumstances. have built up ma
tions. But when away from the
shelter of his paternal home, his
first association is with de-
graged men, and his first
lessons IN life, after he is freed
from restraint on shipboard, are
learned in the haunts of sin and
vice, from wretches who get their
living by pandering to his degrade
ton. Is it a wonder that his down.
ward course is swift and sure :?
From the same men who are bruti-
flying a naturally noble nature, he
learns that It's merit to success
fully shirk his duty, and the true
way to show his manhood is in the
manifestation of a mutinous con-
tempt for lawful authority, and dis
respect of lawful command.
But he is not always so. It is in
times of extreme peril that the
noble, brave instincts that are in
him will come to the front, and tits
then we discover that no amount of
degradation can utterly destroy his
true and God-given manhood. Such
has been my experience for nearly
half a century of the average
sailor, and for his own sake as we'll
as for the better manning of our
ships, is it not time that proper
steps should be taken to guard the
adventurous boy from becoming
brutalized, or, in other words, to
preserve his manhood as much for
the sake of utility as for his own !?
Philanthropy has for many years
been at work endeavoring to miti-
/! gate the condition and improve the
character of the sailor, but this
philanthropy has worked outside
and except by persuation has never
put the sailor inside the borders of
civilization. In short, in spite of
sailors Bethels in some filthy
neighborhood or on board some
rat-haunted old hulk, very little
has been done, and the improve
ment by such means is hardly per-
ceptible. Where Improvement has
taken place it is where the strong
paternal arm of the law has been
extended over him, as in Great
Britain, and tbs this example that /
desire to call to your attention,
that the same system may be
adopted by all maritime nations
and made at all times and under
all circumstances to equally extend
It's elevating influence and protect
ing arm over the worlds sailors, of
whatever nationality. What won
ders have been worked in the gen.
eral character of England's mer-
chant marine in the general charac-
ter of both officers and seamen!
seamen's homes and shipping
Offices. under direct Government
control the superintendent and
shipping master a naval comman-