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the character of the offence itself. It is not, however, intended to recommend that punishment should be disproportionate to the offence; but, even a great offence should be visited with moderate punishment, unless the circumstances of probable danger to the ship or crew render severity indispensable. It should be distinctly understood, that a hasty or intemperate blow given by the master cannot be justified. There are doubtless many provoking acts and many causes of excitement which, in the heat of the moment, sometimes throw masters off their guard, and all such circumstances of provocation or extenuation are taken into due consideration by the proper tribunals of this country in the administration of the law and distribution of punishment; but the law itself is too watchful over the safety of all to allow the slightest violence to be done to the person of any, except in self-defence, or for the safety of the ship and the lives of the persons on board. And, if the master be not allowed to inflict a hasty or intemperate blow, still less can a mate or other person on board be excused for such violence. The mate or officer in charge of the ship, in the absence of the master, may exercise the power of restraining any person on board, if necessary to the safety of the ship and the lives of the persons on board, but he should reserve the question of punishment for the judgment of the master, who is to act in concert with his officers.*

any

It was observed by a great Admiralty Judge, Lord Stowell, that in all acts of discipline and authority, passion is a bad counsellor, and that care is to be taken to suppress even natural and honest feelings of resentment, which may have the effect of transferring a share of the blame belonging to the transaction to the other side of the question.†

Well has it been said of a master-He has a power

* Symon's Merchant Seamen's Law, 83.

The Frederick, 1 Haggard's Admiralty Reports, 216.

and influence, both direct and indirect, which may be the means of much good or much evil. If he is profane, passionate, tyrannical, indecent, or intemperate, more or less of the same qualities will break out or spread themselves among officers and men, which perhaps would have been checked, if not in some degree removed, had the head of the ship been a man of high personal character. He may make his ship almost anything he chooses, and may render the lives and duties of his officers and men pleasant and profitable to them, or may introduce disagreements, discontent, tyranny, resistance, and, in fact, make the situation of all on board as uncomfortable as that in which any human beings can well be placed. Every master of a vessel who will lay this to heart, and consider his great responsibility, may not only be a benefactor to the numbers, whom the course of many years will bring under his command, but may render a service to the whole class and do much to raise the character of the calling.'

*

Power over the liberty and person of a fellow man is entrusted to the master in reference to sailors, only from public policy, which regarding the necessities of the service is to be sparingly used, and a strict account will be required of its exercise.

The master is responsible for any punishment inflicted on board the vessel, unless done in his absence or when he is prevented by force from interfering. But absence will not always be an excuse. If he had reason to suppose that such a thing might be done, and did not take pains to be present and interfere, he will be liable. Neither, as is often supposed, will the advice, or even the personal superintendence or orders of a Consul or any foreign authority relieve the master of his personal responsibility. He may ask advice, but he must act upon his own account, and he is equally answerable for what he does himself and what he permits to be done on board his vessel by others. The seaman is entitled to be

Dana's Seamen's Friend, 137.

dealt with by his own captain, under whom he shipped, and whom he may hold responsible at the end of the voyage, and the responsibility is not to be shaken off by calling in the aid of others.*

A master who, by wilful breach of duty, or by neglect of duty or by reason of drunkenness, does any act tending to the immediate loss, destruction, or serious damage of his ship, or tending immediately to endanger the life or limb of any person belonging to, or on board of the ship, or who, by wilful breach of duty, or by neglect of duty, or by reason of drunkenness, refuses or omits to do any lawful act, proper and requisite to be done by him, for preserving such ship from immediate loss, destruction, or serious damage, or for preserving any person belonging to, or on board of such ship, from immediate danger to life or limb, will, for every offence, be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor.†

6. DUNNAGE.

As a master and owner will be liable for damage to goods arising from improper stowage, it will be well for the former, the master, to attend to the dunnaging of cargo. It is usually the duty of the first mate to attend to the dunnaging, chocking, and securing of it; but he is so frequently called off on other duties, that it is almost impossible for him to give it the attention which its importance requires. The master must also remember that it is no excuse for him that he trusted the stowage to a stevedore or to a subordinate officer.

As the consequence of insufficient or improper dunnage, and damages therefrom may occur in the port of destination, it may be well here to refer to American rules for dunnage.

If the cargo consists of goods liable to be injured by moisture, the wood used for dunnage should be perfectly dry. It sometimes has this appearance, but after being

* Dana, 192.

Merchant Shipping Act, 1854, Section 239.

heated by close confinement in a ship's hold, moisture evaporates from it, and damages the goods. Such wood, therefore, ought never to be stowed among such goods.

A full built ship, having a cargo liable to be injured by water, should have at least six inches of dunnage on the flat of the floor; nine inches in the round of the bilge; on the sides in the lower hold, above the round of the bilge, three inches; on the sides between decks, two inches ; care being always taken that the dunnage be such as to keep the goods thus far from the sides.

On the lower deck the dunnage should be at least one inch thick, and so placed as to keep the goods that distance from the deck. Strips of board, small wood, and split bamboo are mostly used in dunnaging the lower decks; and it is advisable, where it can be done, to lay the dunnage athwartships, for if the water gets on the deck, it is not so likely to be pent up, and to damage the goods by the rolling of the vessel, but runs more readily to the water-ways and into the scuppers. Boxes of sugar and cases of goods require only two or more strips of dunnage, and dry barrels the same; but coffee, and grain in bags, or hemp, and many other articles, require a continuous floor of dunnage, not only on the deck, but up the sides.

Dunnage laid on the deck, should, if laid athwartships, be left from one to two inches from the water-ways.

Dunnage laid close together should be raised up from the deck on each side to give a free water course, otherwise damage may occur from water getting over the dunnage. Goods less flexible, such as bales of domestics, broadcloths, Manilla hemp, &c., do not require the dunnage to be laid so close, but that room for water courses may be left between the strips. In dunnaging, however, it is always best to be on the safe side, and have too much rather than too little. It not unfrequently happens that strips of board, sticks of wood and bamboo are put up and down the sides of the ship for dunnage, six, nine, and even twelve inches apart, and bags of coffee, corn, and other

flexible goods stowed against it; where this is the case, they are pressed in between the dunnage by the weight of the cargo above, rendering the dunnage comparatively useless. Mats are sometimes put up against such dunnage, but they afford little or no protection to the goods. Not only coffee and grain in bags are liable to be injured by this description of dunnage, but hides and many other less flexible goods.

Sharp ships, with fifteen, twenty, and thirty inches dead rise, do not require so much dunnage on the flat of the floor nor in the bilge. More goods are damaged in the bilges than on the floors; three-fifths of all the goods damaged in the bottoms of our modern-built ships being damaged in the bilges, for when the ship is sailing, or lying on her side, the water does not reach the pumps, unless she is provided with bilge-pumps.

Coffee, corn, sumach, and other articles in bags.-These articles require a continuous floor of dunnage, not only in the bottom but on the deck, and up the sides of the ship, otherwise the grain in the bags would press between the strips of dunnage against the sides of the ship, as before stated. Where merchandise in bags forms only a part of the cargo, the bags should be stowed on the other cargo, and the cantlines of the casks filled in with wood and covered with boards to prevent the chafing of the bags. Care should be taken to see that the bags are strong, and that there is no danger of their bursting. Serious disasters have occurred, and many lives and much property been lost in consequence of a want of attention to the quality and strength of the bags. Where the bags burst, the grain invariably finds its way to the pump-well, choking the pumps and rendering them useless.

Sugar in boxes or casks.-If in boxes it may be dunnaged by strips of board, sticks of wood and bamboo, two or more strips under or against each box being sufficient, provided they are of a proper thickness. Sugar in hogsheads requires bedding and quoining, and both hogsheads

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