The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1901-09-13
:" THE SAILOR Of THE SAIL >
DENIES DETERIORATION OF THE
MODERN SEAMAN.
Pictures Him as Breed of the Oaken
Heart, Who Gave the Main to Com
merCe."

EDITOR STAR: AS one of the sail
ors whom you have in your article of
the 2Sth grossly misrepresented, / feel
justified i'm writing this letter to you
for to try and let the citizens of Homo
lulu know the true state of affairs in
regard to American deep water hips
and sailors; your article stated that
sailors have deteriorated, nothing could
be further from the truth, the fact of
the matter is sailors of the present day
are more enlightened than ever they
were before sailors of the present day
will not be kicked or beaten around
ships deck with a Delaying pin, they
are human beings and men just the
same as yourself, Mr.. Editor; excuse
the comparison, L am sure you will as
you are good American cttizen). AS
for the days gone by when sailors were
men, as you say, those were the days
when men who had never been to sea
before were shanghied on board of
American ships; because they could not
get sailors to go in them; it is useless
for me to fill up my letter by giving
an account of not ships where men
have been shot and strung up by the
/ thumbs as they were coming right in
! to foreign ports. l dare say the people
| of Honolulu have heard about them
as they are notorious the world over.
Your article says sailors are like sheep,
| that is a nice mOuthful for a landsman
| to swallow, surely. Now instead of
sailors being like sheep allow me to
| state that there is not a Drawer or
harder class of people in the world, as
! you would know if you were up on
topsail yard some night blowing a hur-
ricane of sleet and rain with a BIZ sail
crashing one minute above their heads
and the next try to knock them off the
footropes, or out on a jibbOon when
she is diving into d head sea, burying
| a man underpeath tons of ice cold wa
ter one minute for to try and throw
him up in the air as she rises again
! the next. To say that the fO'castle of
| ships of the present day are filled with
loafers is far from correct, if some
! landspeople were to sit in the same
focastle sometimes and listen to the
conversation of sailors it would be
worth years of learning to them in that
hard school of experience. They could
listen to men there whose minds are
broadened by travel men who have
learned what this world is by sailing
around it and mixing with it's people.
And then you say that it only wants
a sailors union dele"ate to make up
the mess. Now not one of the sailors
who are off the ships whose officers
have been arrested are union men. nor
have they had any communication
with the agents of the sailors union.
The sailors off these ships are men of
both intelligence and determination
and need no delegate to tell them their
duty to humanity. By bringing these
brutes of officers to justice we have
done nothing but our duty but to read
the newspapers of this city. one would
think that the officers We're victims of
some awful conspiracy; but the very
fact of them pleading guilty them
selves as the mates of Sea tling and St.
James have done ought 10 change the
tone of the press and yet it does not.
Some people might say why does a
crowd of sailors let two or three Off
GERS knock them about. well l will tell
them, if two mates set to and give a
man licking or to speak correctly
kicking and the sailors so to law over
it, it is nothing just two or three lines
to say that the mate of the Sea King
got thirty days. But say things were
reversed and the other sailors took
that mans mart, how would it be then
i'm the paper, there would be big flaring
headlines, mutiny on the high seas Off
GERS shoot two men, the rest get five
years in the penitentiary, we all know
this and there is one thing we want
other people to know and that is there
is more number eight heads going to
sea now than forty-four chests, and
with that l conclude hoping you will
be honest ENOUGH to publish this.
w. CARROLL,
Late Seaman of the bark Sea King.