The copper country evening news. [volume] (Calumet, Mich.) 18??-1907, 1898-03-16

He Tells OF the Mariners Woes ana Mskel
Suggestions Based ON His Experience OF
Forty Years' Sec Service Says Merchant
Marine Nee Are Overworked.
Captain Aielbert Hooper Of Sedg.
wick. Me-, is in Washington. the guest
Of his daug liter. Mrs. Edward j. Bar
rett. Captain Hooper comes Of Revolu-
tionary stock, one of his illustrious an
cestors having been William Hooper, a
signer of the Declaration of Independ-
ence.
The object of Captain Hooper's visit
is to lay before Senator Frye the logged
results of his experience and observation
during an adventuresome career on the
ocean as sailor, mate and captain aboard
warship and merchantmen for the past
40 years. Although we'll up in the six
ties Captain Hooper's frame is as sturdy
as the pine knots of the forests of his
native heath.
Talking about the American seaman,
his needs, condition and necessities of
today, Captain Hooper said to a reporter:
Il am aware that at nearly every SEES
sion of congress there is a good deal of
talk and legislation for the betterment
of American sailors. They say he is
abused and half starved, but tain t so,
except in rare cases. am an old mari
ner in both deep sea and coast sailing,
and it's all moonshine about this abuse
and starving, except in rare cases. Now
about the grub, want to say there is
no class of sailors on earth that live as
well as those aboard American vessels,
who are now, however, nearly all for
eign born, the few native Americans
hailing almost entirely from down east
and the east shores of Jersey and Vir-
ginia and Maryland. The great trouble
with us is that our vessels are not prop
erly manned, except ships and barks,
which carry full complement of men.
The men ON schooners-and really this
class of vessels is all that is left of the
American merchant marine-are the
sufferers, and as they are worked to
death you can see why these seamen
who are foreigners used to working on
vessels with full crews growl and abuse
us because they are overworked night
and day, get only S15 or SIS month,
hardly enough to keep them in clothes,
as one week is averaged ashore, and so
hard are they worked at sea that they
don't get time TO smoke. A schooner
of 500 or 900 tons burden will carry
at best only a mate, second mate, cook
and engineer, as if she has steam, and
four seamen. 'Tain't huff, as neither
cook nor engineer stands watch, and
with one man at the wheel this leaves
mate, second mate and three seamen to
reef and set all heavy sails Many a
night have spent all the weary hours
doing 1T, and when the watch is below
1t leaves the officers and one man to do
it all, as there must be some fellow al |
ways at the wheel. Tain t much, no. !
how, two men can do with big sails and |
very often stiff, frozen ropes, with which |
they can do little or nothing. This re-
quires the whole crew on deck in bad |
weather and practically two-thirds the !
time in fair weather. Then there is the |
vessel to keep clean and thousand 9TH |
er things to do which keep Jack on the |
jump all the time. When in northern |
POANSi SHNAO 40 Ahg OlA VI lLlCb VI lOuE
weeks, and when this is over Jack mon
ey is gone, and he has to go on another
man killer to repeat the dose.
The way to better Jacks condition, !
which l shall recommend to Senator |
Frye" concluded Captain Hooper,
would be TO pass law compelling |
every vessel to carry full complement |
Of officers and an ablebodied seaman for
every hundred tons register, with an
seaman or an apprentice for |
the fraction thereof, and pay them de-
cent wages. This done, and we will |
hear very few complaints from Jack"
At the recent funeral Of Admiral |
Meade Captain Hooper was present as
the sole survivor of the two boat crews
that stormed Stony Point, when the
dead admiral was lieutenant. Captain
Hooper was coxswain of Meade's boat.
They crept in under the incessant and
deadly fire from the fort, put the enemy
to rout and spiked their guns. For this
gallant conduct in this storming party
he was favorably mentioned in the re-
port and rewarded by Gideon Welles
the then secretary of the navy, with
commission as masters mate. Captain
Hooper served during the war on the
as gunner and is one of
the few noble men who refused to profit
by his country's distress and refused to
accept bounty, still in the hands Of
The county treasurer of Sedgwick, Me.
Master and man he has followed the sea
over 40 years and is we'll qualified to
speak on the needs of the American
merchant service and to point out the
steps necessary to the unfolding of an
American merchant marine. Washing.
ION Post.
An Ossified Neck.
In pOrfnr - |