The Sun. — 1859-06-02 (London, England)

RUELTY TO SAILORS IN AME.RICAN  SHIPS.  The commanders and mates of our merchant ships are gaining, or we may with greater justice say have gained, a most damaging reputation for cruelty to the seamen under their charge, and if this reputation should be confirmed, as we have too much reason to fear it will be, from the frequent reports that are made of the maltreatment of the crews on board our ships, the difficulty of manning our merchant navy, which must be the consequence, will seriously affect our commercial prosperity. The records of our Marine Court exhibit a fearful history of cruelty and savage persecution on the part of our shipmasters and their mates towards their crews ; and these cases of cruelty and barbarous treatment are the rule, and not the exception, on board our ships. Last year, when the captain of an English ship was hung in Liverpool for the inhuman murder of one of the sailors under his charge, the masters of the American ships in that port displayed their colours at half-mast on the day of the execution, in token of their disapproval of the punishment of the murderer and their sympathy with him. Within a few days reports have been received here of shocking outrages committed on board of our ships in various parts of the world. The commander of one of the ships of the Paraguay squadron has been court-martialed for having by his cruelty driven one of his sailors to jump overboard to escape the wanton persecutions by which the poor wretch was harassed. In Liverpool the captain of an American ship was arrested for causing the death of a sailor; and in San Francisco last month the captain of the American bark Sarah Park was arrested for having treated his crew in a manner that transcends belief. One of the wretched 'creatures under the charge of this modern Blackbeard had been made a lunatic by the cruelties inflicted upon him ; and two of his sailors had been brought to the office of the United States' Marshal in the last stages of starvation, their bodies horribly lacerated, and their whole condition pitiable in the extreme. The alleged cause for the horrible barbarities practised upon these poor wretches was the crime of pilfering a piece of biscuit from the ships' stores when they were placed upon short allowance. Besides the cruelties practised upon these miserable creatures, the master of the barque was accused of the murder of one of his crew, who was thrown overboard. This last was an extreme case, no doubt, but there have been too many which bore a resemblance to it, and it stands the great mass of our shipmasters in hand to do something to free themselves from the reproach which their repeated acts of barbarity bring upon them as a class. Our countrymen are not naturally of a cruel and vindictive nature, and, if they were, their proverbial shrewdness ought to be sufficient to preserve them from the unprofitable blunder of maltreating the very men upon whose lives their own safety and welfare depend. Our shipmasters are renowned for their generosity, frankness, and hearty good nature on shore; and we are continually receiving reports of their gallantry and noble conduct at sea ; passengers delight in making them presents of silver trumpets in testimony of their gratitude for courtesies received, and every now and then her Britannic Majesty sends a gold chronometer to one of our shipmasters as a reward for his humanity in rescuing some of her subjects from the perils of shipwreck on the ocean. As a class, we believe that our shipmasters are a very worthy, humane, and gallant set of men, and it is puzzling to know that there can be any such inhuman monsters, whose cruel natures and savage dispositions are only developed when they, get off soundings, and who are so utterly wanting in common prudence as to starve, beat, maim, and wantonly persecute the men without whose assistance they could not navigate their ships.—.2Vew York Times.