The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1901-10-21
CONGRESS PASSED
FOOLISH STATUTES
A Marine Justice of the Peace
Wanted to Protect Shippers
From Lying Seamen.

orders of Sir Joseph Porter, X c. 3.
For I hold that on the seas.
The expression if you please
A particularly gentlemanly tone i'm
plants"
The words of the comic opera of Pima
fore were said to have been written by
Gilbert at the suggestion of the Prince
of Wales, to satirize the efforts of the
First Lord of the Admiralty-the great
passage of an act of parliament prohib
iting swearing at or infi!cting corporal
punishment upon British tars. The eff
feet of the proposed legislation was clev
erly satirlzed by the dramatist in his de-
scription of the idealized sailor:
His energetic fis:
Should be ready to resist
A dictatorial word
His eyes should fash and his breast pro-
trude,
And this should be his customary atti-
?tude"
London went wild with delight at Pin
afore. Its catchy music was played and
sung at all public gatherings, and
Smiths proposed act of parliament was
laughed out of existence.
1t is pity there was nobody to sing
Pinafore to congress when it enacted the
most recent amendments to the maritime
code. AS the law now stands, if a storm
arises and the sailors are ordered aloft
to perform the arduous and sometimes
dangerous duty OF reefing salts, and cow
ards and skulkers refuse TO obey, the
only legal remedy the captain has is to
place the disobedient seamen in irons,
while for lack of their services the tenn
pest may wreck his ship. II is not to be
marvelled at that the officers should, I'M
der the circumstances, use physical vio-
lence to drive the men to their duty,
even at the risk of being arrested and
punished when the ship reaches port
The drastics acts of congress for the
protection of the American sailor are ef-
fectual mainly to enable those who are
not American sailors to harass Amer
lean captains, for the American sailor
has-so far as our merchant marine is
concerned-become almost myth He
may be found on government ships and
he aboundS in the cod and mackerel fish
cries, but on board deep sea sailing yes
sells he Is seldom seen except as an Of
ticer. On three ships which recently
brought cargCes of coal TO Honolulu
from Sydney-the Sea King the ST
James and the Emily Reed-the foremas>t
hands were Swedes and Firms and Rus
! slams and Norwegians and Danes and
two or three Engl!shmen, but few if any
Americans. 1t is a regrettable fact thar
such sailors are almost without excep-
! ton, of very low grade. both mentally
! and morally. They have little under
/ standing and less regard for the sanctity
of an oath, and their main purpose in life
seems to be to get drunk and remain
drunk while in pert and between voy-
ages
/ If mate or captain, eXasperated at
| the idleness, drunkenness or neglect OF
duty of a sailor, knocks him down, the
! pummelled party discusses the assault
with his shipmates; repeats the story OF
his wrongs, eXaggerates them and dwells
upon them, so that when they reach port
all his comrades will accompany him be-
fore the United States Commissioner
and swear positively to a murderous as
sault. such as never happened and such
as they could not have seen if it had
happened, for Jack rule is a lial
by instinct, education and habit This
popularity of the noble tar finds ample
illustration in recent cases in the Fedora
Court in this city. In the case OF the
captain of the st. James accused of wit
Messing the beating of a sailor by the
first mate without Interfering a number
of sailors including the prosecuting wit
ness, swore positively that the captain
stood on deck in full view and within
six feet distance of the place where th'
PROSTATE sailor was kicked and beaten
into insensibility. and that the caQtair
never COMMUNICATIONS witness swear
ing that the captain smiled approvingl!
at the assault.
EnrtllnarpIN- fOr. he ma GfpT O the ship
he succeeded i'm inducing the Ass.stan
United States District Attorney to Yjsi
the vessel along with the prosecuting
witness, and the captain and the beateI
; sailor being placed in position, it wa!
demonstrated that it was a physical i'm
!, possibility for the captain to have seer
the alleged assault The prosecutin!
witness thereupen admitted that he wa
mistaken i'm his testimony, the United
States District Attorney dismissed the
> case the sailor Went a drunk. ant
; the captain went on his voyage with nj
greater loss than that of TWO month
, | wages paid to his lawyer.
In the case of the Sea King, Captain
, Wallace was not so fortunate. He wa
detained here for weeks dancing attend
lauce on the United States Court await
ing trial on similar charge preferret
against him by the foremost hands, untl
he lost his ship Being out on bail, n
waited until informed that he could no
be tried on the information filed agains
him. and that it would be dismissed. II
then shipped as third mate on board
vessel bound for San Francisco. hopin'
there to resume his berth as master O
the Sea King. but shortly after his ar
rival he. was Informed that he would b
REQUIRED here to answer to an indictmen
which it was expected would take III
place of the information. He returne
= to meet the charge, but when his cas-
g came up before the grand jury the
heard the evidence and evidently cam