Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

The American merchant vessels are generally sailed with fewer men than the British. We calculate five men to one hundred tons, which I believe to be about the just proportion. Mr. Carey, in his work, estimates the proportion of seamen in American vessels to be 4 to every one hundred tons, and I shall assume his calculation as correct. The number of men employed in the American mercantile navy will be as follows:

[ocr errors]
[blocks in formation]

And now I will submit, from the examina

tions I have made, the proportions of American and British seamen which are contained in this

aggregate of 85,799 men.

[blocks in formation]

In the foreign trade we have to deduct the masters of the ships, the mates, and the boys who are apprenticed to learn their duty, and rise to mates and masters (not to serve before the mast). These I estimate at

[merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small]

which, deducted from 30,333, will leave 22,333 seamen in the foreign trade, who, with a slight intermixture of Swedes, Danes, and, more rarely, Americans, may be asserted to be all British seamen.

The next item is that of the men employed in the whale fishery; and, as near as I can ascertain the fact, the proportions are two-thirds Americans to one-third British. The total is

5,633; out of which 3,756 are Americans, and 1,877 British seamen.

The coasting trade employs 39,000 men ; but only a small proportion of them can be considered as seamen, as it embraces all the internal river navigation.

The steam navigation employs 6,500 men, of whom of course not one in ten is a seaman.

The fisheries for cod and herring employ about 4,333 men; they are a mixture of Americans, Nova Scotians, and British, but the proportions cannot be ascertained; it is supposed that about one-half are British subjects, i. e. 2,166.

When, therefore, I estimate that the Americans employ at least thirty thousand of our seamen in their service, I do not think, as my subsequent remarks will prove, that I am at all overrating the case.

The questions which are now to be considered are, the nature of the various branches in which the seamen employed in the American marine

are engaged, and how far they will be available to America in case of a war.

The coasting trade is chiefly composed of sloops, manned by two or three men and boys. The captain is invariably part, if not whole, owner of the vessel, and those employed are generally his sons, who work for their father, or some emigrant Irishmen, who, after a few months' practice, are fully equal to this sort of fresh-water sailing. From the coasting trade, therefore, America would gain no assistance. Indeed, the majority of the coasting trade is so confined to the interior, that it would not receive much check from a war with a foreign country.

The coast fisheries might afford a few seamen, but very few; certainly not the number of men required to man her ships of war. As in the coasting trade, they are mostly owners or partners. In the whale fishery much the same system prevails; it is a common speculation; and the men embarking stipulate for such a proportion of the fish caught as their share of the profits.

They are generally well to do, are connected together, and are the least likely of all men to volunteer on board of the American navy. They would speculate in privateers, if they did anything.

From steam navigation, of course, no seamen could be obtained.

When

Now, as all service is voluntary, it is evident that the only chance America has of manning her navy is from the thirty thousand British seamen in her employ, the other branches of navigation either not producing seamen, or those employed in them being too independent in situation to serve as fore-mast men. I was at the different sea-ports, I made repeated enquiries as to the fact, if ever a lad was sent to sea as a fore-mast man, and I never could ascertain that it ever was the case. Those who are sent as apprentices, are learning their duty to receive the rating of mates, and ultimately fulfil the office of captains; and it may here be remarked, that many Americans, after serving as captains for a few years, return on shore and

« AnteriorContinuar »