The wageworker. (Lincoln, Neb.) 1904-????, 1910-10-14
Gar OF HIS SHIP
The Captain of an Ocean Liner
Is a Real Autocrat.
HIS WORD is ABSOLUTE LAW.

Him In Coll, and In Cases Of Emer.
seney Is Empowered to Take Life.
Imagine a mayor or a judge of a
circuit court or a county sheriff or a
town marshal of village Of $500 pop
ulation stepping out into the street
and on general and self imposed au-
thority picking up a citizen, ordering
him to a cell and clapping irons on
him for safe keeping!
Wouldn't the bird Of American lib
erty set up a scream? Wouldn't the
old and badly cracked Liberty bell
resonate in discord?
After one of the great transatlantic
passenger steamships leaves the three
mile limit Of New York the passenger
is in foreign territory on the high seas.
English, French, German-whatever
the flag at the masthead-the ship is a
section of its fatherland, floating in the
high seas. where only maritime laws
regarding its transit in times of peace
may hold check upon the czardom of
the ships commander, on or off the
bridge.
No car has more power within his
territory than has the captain of the
great Atlantic liner on the high seas
He is on an island of his country's
ownership-a floating island. having
population Of 800 employees and look
ing after the welfare and safety Of per-
haps 5000 passengers. He is prac
tically the administrative, executive
and judicial single individual. such us
exists rarely on the map of present
az ArsI ~
thority over mankind he may have
100000 of vessel under him. to say
nothing of the international mails and
millions in gold in transshipment
"There's the captain" Is whispered
bit of comment made q million times
year in the beginning of the pas
sages Of great ocean stea mships. And
generally the captain looks the part.
1t is not so much his uniform either
Ordinarily the captain is not young
There Is gray in his hair. mustache
or beard. That young man in his
twenties. no matter what his school
ing for beginning the work. isn't called
at a moments notice to the captains
bridge. He must have his maximum
of training for six or seven numbers
below before he is called to the foot
of the ladder.
On the British passenger vessels
most of the beginners at navigating
an ocean vessel of the first class will
have had a lieutenant's commission
from the navy. 1t is from the royal
navy reserves that the lowest officers
vacancy is filed. Filling it, he has his
chance to rise to the position of cap
tain.
AS to the captains authority: One
midnight, when In a fog the White
Star Baltic struck the German oil
steamship Standard. the Baltic needed
it's captain. and he was there. His
ship carpenters were rushed to the
bow Of the vessel and began the work
of patching up the hole in the Battles
steel sheathing.
Suppose that in a stampede of the
Baltic's crew its employees had rushed
up to fill its boats? 1t was within thu
captains power to have shot down tn,
leader-to have brought about war t,
the knife, revolver and rife in the in
terests Of his vessel and it's passen
gers. Or had some passenger or pas
sengers become panic stricken an,
against orders menaced the welfare o
the majority on the ship death woul'
have been dealt with the same rigi4