Bismarck daily tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1881-1916, 1910-10-15
Gar OF HIS SHIP
The Captain of an Ocean Liner
Is a Real Autocrat.
HIS WORD IS ABSOLUTE LAW.
He May, II He Deems It Necessary.
Put Passenger In Irons or Clap
gency Is Empowered to Take Life,

f sency Is Empowered to Take Life.
Imagine Il mayor or judge of {
circuit court or Il county sheriff or
, town marshal Of village of $500 DoD
ulation stepping out into the street
f and on general and self imposed au
thority picking up citizen, ordering
him to cell and clappng irons or
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 maSthcad-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 500 employees and look
! ing after the welfare and safety Of per-
haps 5000 passengers. He is prsc-
! tically the administrative, executive
and judicial single individual, such as
! exists rarely on the map Of present
day civilization. Aside from his au-
thority over mankind. be 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 4 million times
a year in the beginning Of the pas
saccs Of great ocean steamships And
generally the captain looks the part.
I: 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 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 fog the White
Star Baltic struck the German oil
steamship Standard, the Baltic needed
its captain. and be was there. His
ship carpenters were rushed to the
bow Of the vessel and began the work
Of patching up the hole in the Baltic's
steel sheathing.
Suppose that in a stampede of the
Baltic's crew its employees had rushed
up to fill its boats? 1t was within the
captains power to have shot down the
leader-to have brought about war to
the knife, revolver and rife in the in.
terests of his vessel and its passen
gers. Or had some passenger or pas
sengers become panic stricken and
against orders menaced the welfare Of
the majority on the ship death would
have been dealt with the same rigid
discipline which requires of the cap
tain that be be the autocrat at his
post,
There are no forms of writs or war.
rants necessary. There is no court at
which the passenger or the seaman
may give bond. In that instant of
sudden great emergency which arises
the captains word is more than writ
ten law; it is the unwritten common
law of the high seas, in the spirit OF
which the vigilance committee Of the |
wild west of the United States rose.
lawlessly lawful.
Today the captain Of the great liner
may step into the palatial cabin and
command order He may go into the
smoking cabin and stop the game of
cards at which the sharper Is playing |
for his stakes In case Of refusal that
ancient land right Of no deprivation
Of liberty without due process of law"
becomes a farce. The cell room or !
even the iron manacles of the cap |
tain's authority may be used upon the |!
individual who has paid $500 or $1,000
for his suit of rooms and his passage. !
On the high seas the captains ship
becomes an autocratic democracy. The
individual in the first cabin and at the |
captains table must share with the |
immigrant far below those equities
that are granted to each in his place.
Don't buck the captain" said an
official in the Offices Of great steam
ship line. HE is all there is Of author
ity He Is the supreme entity Of his
ship. He is dressed for it.; but, more |
than that, be is trained to it. He is
empowered to take life if he must. and |
on land this is the most serious Of ali
things in the statute books.
Commodore OF the feet" is one of
The Offices toward which the old sea-