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2014 26: 587International Journal of Maritime HistoryRodrigo de Oliveira Torres

of ships in nineteenth-century merchant marineHandling the ship: rights and duties of masters, mates, seamen and owners

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The International Journal of Maritime History

2014, Vol. 26(3) 587 –599© The Author(s) 2014

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DOI: 10.1177/0843871414543626ijh.sagepub.com

Research note IJMH

1. The full citation is: Joseph Blunt, The Shipmaster’s Assistant, and Commercial Digest: Containing information necessary for Merchants, Owners, and Masters of Ships (New York, 1848).

2. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, ed. James G. Wilson and John Fiske (6 vols., New York, 1887-8), I, p.297.

Handling the ship: rights and duties of masters, mates, seamen and owners of ships in nineteenth-century merchant marine

Rodrigo de Oliveira Torres

Introduction

Changes in the economic and technological realms of commerce and production during the nineteenth century increased the demands on ships and professional seafarers. The aim of this research note is to study some characteristics of this period and how they affected the relations between men, and between men and their ships. The analysis is based on the chapters on rights and duties of seafarers in The Shipmaster’s Assistant and Commercial Digest, published in 1848 by Joseph Blunt.1

Blunt (1792–1860) was a New York lawyer, author, editor and politician. He was an ardent Whig and protectionist, later one of the first members of the Republican Party.2 His knowledge of law and his relationship with the famous hydrographers Edmund and George W. Blunt, his brothers, qualified Joseph to compile this Shipmaster’s Assistant, which, as its title implies, was designed as a guide for merchants, owners and masters of ships (see Figure 1).

The language of the Shipmaster’s Assistant is generally plain and direct, denoting the author’s concern to produce a handy companion to maritime laws and business practices that could be resorted to in practical situations. Such was the verdict of a review of the second edition in the North American Review journal for 1837:

Corresponding author:Rodrigo de Oliveira Torres, Nautical Archaeology Program, Texas A&M University, Texas, USA. Email: [email protected]

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588 The International Journal of Maritime History 26(3)

3. North American Review, 45, No. 2 (1837), p.502.

In design and execution, it is well calculated for a companion to the man of business. There is no merchant or shipmaster, who would not find advantage in owing it […]. To the clerk or young merchant, however, we particularly commend the present work. Let him make it a manual, or hand-book, and he will acquire knowledge, which will be of daily practical use in his business […].’3

Figure 1. The inner cover from the 1848 edition.



de Oliveira Torres 589

4. Blunt, Shipmaster’s Assistant, p.2.

The Shipmaster’s Assistant was fairly comprehensive and had new material added to it, being updated since its first edition in 1822. It covered subjects relating to the laws and regulations concerning the duties and rights of masters, mates, seamen, owners and con-suls; ships and their titles and registry; navigation laws; fisheries; revenue ships; custom-house laws; importations; clearing and entering vessels; drawbacks; freight; insurance; average; salvage; bottomry and respondentia; factors; bills of exchange; currencies; weights and measures; wreck laws; quarantine laws; passenger laws; pilot laws; harbor regulations; marine offenses; the slave trade; the navy; pensions; and the commercial regulations of foreign nations. Beginning with the fifth edition (1848), there were also appendices on the tariffs of the United States, rigging, a dictionary of sea terms, ware-housing and rules in case of collisions.

Nine editions have thus far been identified, starting in 1822 with the first and ending in 1857 with the ninth edition. Seven editions have been consulted: 1822 (first ed.), 1832 (first ed. reprint), 1837 (second ed.), 1846 (third ed.), 1848 (fourth ed.), 1851 (fifth ed.), 1857 (ninth ed.), which was probably the last issue since Blunt would die three years later. This note is largely based on the fifth edition (1851). From the second edition (1837) onwards, every preface from the consulted editions began by claiming it to be ‘almost altogether new’, since changes in the American commercial laws ‘have been such as to effect a revolution in its mercantile system’. Nevertheless, as noted above, the work was basically enlarged from one edition to the next, and improved in some topics and in the arrangement of its chapters.

‘Material concerns’: rights and duties of masters

According to Joseph Blunt, the master of a merchant vessel was appointed by the owners of the ship, therefore being their legal agent aboard and throughout the voyage, and responsible for all contracts involving the ship.4 In relation to those for whom he carried the goods, however, the master was regarded as a common carrier, thus liable for dam-ages to the cargo whether caused by the insufficiency of the vessel, her tackle, negligence or other fault of the officers and crew under his command.

The responsibilities of the owner and the master with the freight commenced at the moment when the charge of goods was sent to the vessel and the master obtained a receipt or bill of lading. Before sailing, the master’s duties were mainly to prepare his vessel for the voyage, looking after her outfit, supplying and manning the ship, and tak-ing in and stowing the cargo.

Loading the cargo

The master, in accordance with merchant marine practice, was bound to provide ropes, tackle and labor for receiving the goods into the vessel. The author of the Assistant notes there were no rules for the placement of the dunnage on the ship’s bottom, although the practice was to provide six inches of coverage on the bottom and nine inches on the




5. Blunt, Shipmaster’s Assistant, p.11.6. Blunt, Shipmaster’s Assistant, p.11.7. Blunt, Shipmaster’s Assistant, p.10.8. Blunt, Shipmaster’s Assistant, p.10.9. Blunt, Shipmaster’s Assistant, p.25.

bilges. Hogsheads should have three beds under each, and so did casks of liquids, such as molasses and rum.5 They should be well bedded and wedged off, stowed on their bilges with bungs up to avoid leakages and stacked in tiers no more than four high.

If part of the cargo was carried in bags, such as coffee or pimento, it is noted that special care had to be taken to avoid chafing of the bags through contact with casks at sea, so the bags should be separated by bulkheads or placed in another hold. The same care had to be exercised for crates, which should not be placed in contact with others. If the whole cargo was placed in bags, staves or matting should be provided all the way up to the sides to pro-tect them. In case the entire cargo was of raw material, such as cotton, the author mentions that it was not necessary to have the inner sides so carefully protected, although the dunnage in the bottom should be the same. Salt, for its tendency to absorb moisture, should be sepa-rated from the rest of the cargo by bulkheads, as well as other dry goods. For cargoes of grains stowed in bulk, planks should be placed to prevent its shifting when the ship laid over.

Blunt stresses the importance of proper maintenance of the bilge pumps as ‘the most careful dunnage is rendered unavailing by neglecting the pumps’.6 In order to prevent the pumps from becoming choked, the dutiful master should frequently sound them, at sea as well as when taking in the cargo, clean and protect the interior timbers with mats and calking. Poor caulking of the ship’s topside and bottom is also mentioned as a common cause of damage to the merchandise, thus requiring constant attention.

The author points out that particular attention should be paid to the supplies required for the voyage and the character and ability of the crew and the officers enlisted, so ‘the voyage commenced at least under good auspices’.7 In this regard, Blunt advises the mas-ter to ensure that the forecastle was cleaned out, painted or whitewashed, and that every-thing was provided to promote the comfort, health and efficiency of the crew. He adds:

This is true economy: as the sailors become attached to a considerate captain who looks after their true interests, and will not only work with more zeal and effect, but will avoid many of the wrangling and difficulties, which so often bring unpleasant consequences upon masters of different character.8

On the voyage

When the vessel was in readiness, and all was in accordance with the customs and port regulations, a pilot was to be put in charge of the ship until she was clear of land, when the assigned master resumed responsibility and control of the vessel. The whole crew should then be divided as equally as possible in regard to their qualities as seamen and strength among two watches. The larboard watch was commanded by the chief mate, and the starboard watch was under the command of the captain or the second mate in the larger vessels that carried them. The cook should muster with the larboard and the stew-ard with the starboard watch.9




10. Blunt, Shipmasters’ Assistant, p.13.11. Blunt, Shipmasters’ Assistant, p.13.12. Blunt, Shipmasters’ Assistant, p.14.13. Blunt, Shipmaster’s Assistant, p.14.

Upon commencing the voyage, the master was in charge of setting the watch, and taking the bearing and the distance of the last point of departure, so the ship’s reckon-ing could be regularly noted in the log book. Keeping the log was a special duty of the chief mate, performed under the daily superintendence of the master, who corrected the records of the ship’s course by means of lunar and solar observations and chronom-eter readings.

The ship’s day started at noon. Thus, a short time before that, whenever there was a prospect of obtaining a solar observation, the captain and the mate should be at station to try to determine their latitude and, as soon as the sun crossed the ship’s meridian, ‘eight bells were struck and a new day begun, according to sea reckoning’.10

When under sail, the master would give the course and general directions. The officer of the watch, though, was at liberty to trim the sails and yards, yet no important altera-tions could be made without the superintendence of the captain. In this case, Blunt observes that all hands were mustered and the captain would take the command in per-son, stationed on the weather side at the quarter deck, while the mate stood at the forward part of the ship and the second mate in the waist. In reefing the topsails, though, the second mate ought to go aloft with the crew.11

Discipline

Routine and working discipline were integral to life aboard nineteenth-century mer-chant ships. The master regulated entirely the crew’s hours of sleep and meals. In fact, at sea, his authority was summary, and often absolute, mentions the author, so an offender could be punished either by personal chastisement, confinement on board or by being put in irons:

The master has the power of appointing his officers and crew, and has the entire command over them during the voyage for which they are shipped. He may, and it is his duty, when necessary for the preservation of peace and order on board his vessel, to administer moderate chastisement: but this chastisement must not be a blow with a fist or stick. The seaman ought to be flogged with a rope, before the crew, who at the same time should be apprised of the offence. In case of mutinous behavior, or such gross mal-conduct of any seaman as to endanger the safety of vessel and cargo, the master is justifiable in putting him in irons.12

Blunt goes on to point out an important distinction in the nature of the master’s authority aboard ship. He states that these punishments were not judicial, as if they were ‘to vindi-cate the claims of justice’, but parental in their character, so as ‘to produce reformation of the offender and to maintain discipline in the ship’.13

Moreover, Blunt observes that the merchant seaman’s contract was somewhat mili-tary in character, and therefore the master was entitled to prompt obedience of all his commands relating to the ship’s navigation as well as to the preservation of good order:




14. Blunt, Shipmaster’s Assistant, p.45.15. Blunt, Shipmaster’s Assistant, p.15.16. Blunt, Shipmaster’s Assistant, p.15.17. Blunt, Shipmaster’s Assistant, pp.16-17.

To ensure this, strict discipline must be observed, and if his crew fails in their duty, he may resort to force. Any resistance to him except for the preservation of limb or life, may expose the sailor to the charge of revolt and mutiny. These offences are punished by a fine not exceeding $2000, and imprisonment, with hard labour, not exceeding ten years.14

The seamen, in the other hand, were entitled at the end of the voyage to call the master to account for their treatment while on board. Referring to the Act of Congress of 3 March 1835, Blunt affirms that masters were liable for civil damages for abuse of author-ity as well as for prosecution in criminal courts:

[…] if any master or officer of the vessel shall, from malice or revenge, and without justifiable cause, beat, wound or imprison one of the crew [including the mates], or withhold suitable food or nourishment, or inflict upon him any cruel or unusual punishment, he is liable to be fined not exceeding $1,000, or imprisoned not exceeding five years, or both.15

A shipmaster had the right to remove his officers whenever appropriate, as in cases of gross negligence, lack of fidelity, disobedience, fraud or obvious incapacity, although the reasons had to be strong and evident, said Blunt.16 Able seamen, when shipped in a par-ticular capacity, such as a carpenter, a steward or a cook, had a distinct value within the ship’s company and could not be degraded, unless in cases of manifest unfitness when an AB could be compelled to perform as an ordinary hand.

Collision and distress

The owner and the master were both answerable for accidents if their ship ran foul of another vessel. Blunt refers to the most general sailing rules applicable when maneuver-ing the ship, while entering a roadstead or harbor. A vessel beating to windward upon the larboard tack must give way if she is set to collide with another vessel upon the starboard tack, by putting the helm to port thus passing each other by the larboard hand. However, if the vessel on the larboard tack is far to windward, so that the other would strike her on the lee side abaft the beam, the one on the starboard must give way. Generally, the vessel which has the wind free must give way to the other which is close hauled, although, in case a vessel is sailing free on the starboard tack and the other dead before the wind, the former must luff and go under the stern of the latter.17

If a steam and a sailing vessel were on a collision course, the steamer had to maneuver and give way, as it is more under command. When two steamers might collide, both were to put their helms to port and clear away on the larboard of each other. Steamers sharing a narrow channel must pass each other on the larboard hand.

In case of accidental collision, both parties involved should bear their own losses. However, where the neglect was imputable to both, the overall loss was to be apportioned between the vessels. In case of shipwreck, the master had to consider himself as the agent




18. Blunt, Shipmaster’s Assistant, pp.18-22.19. Blunt, Shipmaster’s Assistant, p.26.20. Blunt, Shipmaster’s Assistant, p.31.

of the ship and her cargo, hence acting for the benefit of all concerned. The crew should be employed to save the ship and her cargo, but if not enough, affirms the author, the master in charge should employ any persons within his reach and his first duty was to exert himself to save the lives and property entrusted to him. The salvaged cargo should then be forwarded to its destination, returned to the place of shipment or sold on the spot at the discretion of the master.

If, in distress due to bad weather, the ship was driven to call at an unintended port and the cargo was damaged, the master should undertake all the necessary procedures to continue on his voyage at the next opportunity. That being the case, the master was allowed to sell the cargo which otherwise was likely to perish or part of the shipped goods in order to defray the expenses of necessary repairs. According to Blunt, the mas-ter even had the authority to sell the ship, but only in situations of absolute necessity, all proofs provided, and for the benefit of her owner.18

Unloading

Upon arrival, the consignee should be promptly informed. Port laws and regulations had to be strictly observed, as did quarantine and health regulations. Port dues and charges were payable by the master and his vessel, cables, anchors and other ship’s equipment could be distrained for them.19 Whenever repairs and refitting were necessary and the vessel was abroad, the master could borrow money on the credit of the ship’s owners for the necessary expenses.

Unloading technically commenced after the ship entered the port custom house and the necessary permits were obtained. Then, in discharging the cargo, the master should take a receipt under the bill of lading for the goods delivered. As stated by the author, the freight was due upon delivery at the port of destination and the master was entitled to retain possession of the cargo until all charges were paid.

‘An independent journalist’: rights and duties of mates

The first mate, commonly called the mate, was the active superintending officer aboard the ship and stood in a different relationship to the master than the other offic-ers. He was appointed by the owners and the master could not remove him except under peculiar circumstances, such as incompetency, repeated neglect or violation of his duties.

In Blunt’s view the mate was considered by owners, shippers and insurers as possess-ing the qualifications to replace the master in case of sickness, injury or death. Thus the mate should be a good practical seaman and possess a sufficient knowledge of navigation to complete the voyage ‘and it may well be doubted whether a vessel be sea-worthy, where the master alone is competent to navigate the vessel’.20




21. Blunt, Shipmasters’ Assistant, p.31.22. Blunt, Shipmasters’ Assistant, p.33.

One of his special duties was to keep the log book. The log was the legally recognized history of the voyage, showing everything that occurred, such as the ship’s course, wind direction and the sail carried, as well as any accidents or events during the voyage. In keeping the log, the officer of the watch would enter everything noteworthy in a log slate, and every twenty-four hours the mate had to copy it into the log book after it had been examined and corrected by the master. The nature and importance of the mate’s duty in keeping the log-book is well stated by the author when he mentions that:

The mate should, in performing this duty, take care to enter all the essential occurrences of the voyages, subject, of course, to the correction of the master; but so as to preserve his character as an independent journalist.21

When at sea, the mate was in charge of the larboard watch and, in working the ship. In port, the mate would not take the night watch since his main duties were to care for the ship and to keep an account of the cargo as it was received and delivered, superintending its stowage and breaking out.

The second mate, when the ship was sailing, was stationed at the waist, joining the crew for ordinary work with sails and tackle whenever necessary. In port, he was expected to perform duty similar to that of seamen. The second mate had the particular charge of supervising the spare rigging, working tools and stores, hence performing as the ship’s husband. In loading and unloading the ship, the second mate supervised the hold while the mate would do so on deck. In lightering cargoes on small boats, the second mate would go in the boats.

‘Freight is the mother of wages’: rights and duties of seamen

Shipping articles

A seaman was officially employed on board by signing the shipping articles, which con-stituted a written contract between the master and each mariner aboard, except appren-tices or servants. It contained the signed list of all crew and officers employed, declaring the day and hour when they had to report on board, the voyage or period for which they were being shipped, in addition to declaring explicitly the ports at which the voyage was to commence and end, duties to be performed and wages due.22

By the act of shipping, each seaman enlisted himself as an able seaman, ordinary sea-man or boy. It was the duty of a sailor to hand, reef and steer as well as to perform any-thing required of him in relation to the ship and voyage. It included repairing the rigging and tackle, protecting it from chafing, and making foxes, sennit and spun yarn from old rigging, all which required constant attention in fair weather.

In working the vessel, the able seamen were stationed generally on the forecastle, at the main tack or fore and main lower and topsail braces, the light hands being at the cross




23. Blunt, Shipmasters’ Assistant, pp.37-8.24. Blunt, Shipmaster’s Assistant, p.40.

jack and fore and main topgallant and royal braces. In making or furling sail, the light hands would take charge of the light sails; these men seldom went above the cross trees, except to send down a mast or yard or to repair rigging. The larger sails required more strength to furl them, but they too were generally loosened by the light hands.

Desertion

Desertion was a paramount concern in the maritime service. Consequently, if a seaman who signed the articles did not come on board at the time agreed or if he wholly neglected to report or deserted, so the vessel proceeded without him, his wages were deducted or forfeited accordingly. If the absence was for more than 48 hours at one time, however, he forfeited all his wages and all his personal belongings on board as a liability for the damages sustained by his desertion. Blunt observes that it was not considered desertion to leave the vessel to pro-cure necessary food, when it had been refused on board, nor to avoid cruel and violent con-duct on the part of the master, nor if the shipping articles were fraudulently altered.23

Concerns about desertion also extended to the sailor’s sojourns in ports of call during the voyage. The penalty for a boarding house keeper caught harboring a deserter from a merchant vessel was fine and imprisonment. Tavern keepers caught selling spirituous liquors to seamen in an amount more than one shilling and six pence per day or having a sailor drinking in his house after nine in the evening would forfeit $5. If they sold drink on credit to a sailor currently employed on a vessel, they might lose the debt and forfeit $2 to the master of the vessel.

Discharge

A seaman could be discharged in cases of gross misconduct or the display of behavior likely to endanger the ship, although, according to Blunt, slight offences did not justify a discharge. However, if the discharged sailor repented his misconduct and offered to return to duty, the master could not refuse him unless there was a good cause to be attested in court.

Sailors’ welfare

Seamen were legally entitled to comfortable quarters for sleeping, generally in the fore-castle, good and wholesome food and water, medicines and careful treatment when sick. As summarized by the author:

Every American vessel, bound on a voyage across the Atlantic, when she sails, must have on board, well secured under deck, at least sixty gallons of water, one hundred pounds of salted flesh meat, and one hundred pounds of wholesome ship bread, for every person on board; besides such other provisions, stores and live-stock, as may, by the master or passengers, be put on board; and in like proportion for shorter or longer voyages.24




25. Blunt, Shipmaster’s Assistant, p.40.

By mentioning the Act of Congress of 1835, Blunt points out that a master convicted of intentionally putting his crew on short allowance was punishable by fine, not exceeding $1,000 and imprisonment not exceeding five years.25 In addition, the master or the owner was liable to pay each of the crew one day’s wage beyond the sum agreed for every day of short allowance.

Every US vessel upwards of 150 tons burden, navigated by ten or more persons, and bound on a foreign voyage, had to be provided with a medicine chest, put up and regu-larly inspected once a year by an apothecary of known reputation and accompanied by directions for administering them.

The expense of treating a seaman taken sick during the voyage, unless the illness was contracted by his own fault, was a charge upon the ship. In default of having a medicine chest, the master had to provide and pay for all medicines or doctors’ visits without any deduction from the mariner’s wages.

Blunt mentions the existence of the hospital fund, applied for the temporary relief of sick and disabled American seamen when in port. Twenty cents were deducted from each seaman’s wages to go into the fund. Any surplus was to be invested in the construction of marine hospitals.

Wages

By maritime law, wages were proportional to the freight rate and due pro rata at each delivering port, paid upon arrival. Nevertheless, a mariner could forfeit his wages in the event of being convicted of embezzlement, gross and aggravated habitual drunkenness, insolent language, mutinous acts or for leaving the vessel in case of distress. Blunt observes that ‘freight is the mother of the wages’, and so no wages were due unless freight was earned: thus, if the ship was lost before arriving in port, the wages were also lost. If otherwise lost after coming to a port of delivery, the crew only lost wages earned from that point on.

Maritime law and labor relations in the nineteenth-century Atlantic

In the preface of his book, Joseph Blunt observes that the elementary principles of nineteenth-century international maritime law all derived from much older sea-codes, such as the Rhodian Law and the late medieval port regulations of the Consolato del Mare, in the Mediterranean; the Hanseatic Maritime Laws of Wisby, in the Baltic Sea; and the Rolls of Oleron, which emerged in Northwest Europe as a third major body of maritime law, combining Mediterranean and Baltic traditions. These principles were incorporated into the jurisprudence of most maritime powers.

However, the characteristics of seaborne trade changed dramatically during the mod-ern era, and so did labor relations and seafaring life in the merchant marine. The rise of commercial capitalism in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries came to depend heavily




26. For one of the classic statements of rising Atlantic-facing European hegemony, see Immanuel M. Wallerstein, The Modern World-System I: Capitalist Agriculture and the Origins of the European World-Economy in the Sixteenth Century (New York, 1974).

27. E.P. Hohman, History of American Merchant Seamen (The Shoe String Press, Connecticut, 1956), p.6.

28. Immanuel M. Wallerstein, The Modern World-System III: The Second Era of Great Expansion of the Capitalist World-Economy, 1730-1840 (San Diego, 1989).

29. Basil Greenhill, Life and Death of the Merchant Sailing Ship 1815-1965 (London, 1980); Eric W. Sager, Seafaring Labour: The Merchant Marine of Atlantic Canada 1820-1914 (Montreal, 1989), p.13.

30. See particularly: Vilhelm Albert and Oddvar Arner, ‘On the Social Structure of the Ship’, Acta Sociologica, 3 (1958); M. Rediker, Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea (Cambridge, 2007).

on shipping to open the way to new worlds and markets.26 The commercial and military enterprise of the west hence led to the need for far longer and more regular voyages, as well as larger and more seaworthy vessels, therefore improving the technology of ship-building and the logistics of maritime transportation. In consequence, along with the increasing demand for bigger and better hulls, masts, spars, rigging and sails, seaman-ship became more technical and specialized. Elmo Paul Hohman, a professor of econom-ics who studied the history of American merchant seamen, observed that during this period seamen gradually emerged as a recognizable group of workers, with characteris-tics and problems which differentiated them sharply from landsmen.27

Furthermore, in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, the Industrial Revolution deepened the changes in the world economy, organizing a system of geographical spe-cialization that has expanded and consolidated the nature of global capitalism. Mass pro-duction, global circulation of goods and increasing demand for raw materials and new markets redefined the meaning of economics, engaging central and peripheral countries in networks of production and consumption mediated by commercial maritime activity.28

During this period, industrial and technological factors would set in motion another revolution in the art of navigation. The introduction of steam powered vessels, the use of iron and later steel in the construction of the hulls, the application of propellers and the use of electricity on board ships, among other improvements, drove the world’s shipping to greater efficiency and productivity. In spite of that, wooden sailing vessels persisted throughout the nineteenth century, and, therefore, the introduction of steamships was not simply a linear process of technological succession, but rather a process with its own logic, rooted in the coexistence of old and new practices at sea. It led maritime historians to con-clude that the survival of pre-industrial wooden sailing vessels through the industrial revo-lution was one of the greatest paradoxes in the history of global industrialization.29

These developments, clearly enough, provide the context for fully appreciating the contents of Blunt’s Shipmaster’s Assistant. Originally published in 1822, it is largely oriented to the reality aboard wooden sailing vessels and reflects, to a certain extent, the persistence of old seafaring practices at the moment when industrialization was trans-forming both work relations and production on land and at sea.

Various authors have emphasized that conditions aboard merchant ships were, by and large, similar to the working environment of factories, although performed within their own distinctive internal organization and division of labor.30 Unlike the factory, the labor




31. Sager, Seafaring Labour, p.9.32. The expression is derived from the work of F. W. Wallace, Wooden Ships and Iron Men: The

Story of the Square-Rigged Merchant Marine of British North America, The Ships, Their Builders and Owners, and the Men who Sailed Them (Charles E. Lauriat Co., Boston, 1937).

33. Blunt, Shipmasters’ Assistant, p.2.34. Rediker, Between the Devil, p.5.35. Quotation from Blunt, Shipmaster’s Assistant, p.14.36. Hohman, American Merchant Seamen, pp.4, 8 and 20.

in shipping is applied to the transportation of merchandise through freight contracts, so the product of labor is not a material commodity but a service.31

At one end of the seaborne commercial chain stood the industrialist and the merchant, who chartered a vessel through a contract with a ship owner in exchange for the payment of freight. At the other end, possibly some hundreds or thousands of miles away, was the consignee. In between, stood an ancient technological solution made of ‘wooden ships and iron men’.32

Consequently, the relations therein established between masters, officers and crew were tied to the wider historical and material conditions of the society which they belonged to, as well as to the specific needs of handling the ship and enduring the hard-ships of sailing. The requirements of working the ship, loading and unloading the mer-chandise and the ceaseless maintenance of the sails, ropes and hull demanded a cooperative but hierarchical working routine, maintained by means of the absolute authority of the master and rooted in very old traditions of seafaring labor.

This crucial position of the master is clearly stated by Joseph Blunt in the very first sentence of his book:

Nothing more materially concerns the master of a ship than to know what degree of responsibility is attached to his situation, and what authority it invests him with.33

The master, being the owner’s legal agent and representing the merchant’s interests in the venture, carried an overarching responsibility. In this regard, Marcus Rediker, studying Atlantic shipping in the eighteenth century, emphasized the sailor’s dilemma and the emergence of a maritime culture forged in the encounter between ‘the devil and the deep blue sea’:

On one side stood his captain, supported by the merchant and royal official, and who held near-dictatorial powers that served a capitalist system rapidly covering the globe; on the other side stood the relentlessly dangerous natural word.34

However, in the nineteenth century, moderation of the ‘summary and often absolute’ power of the master in relation to his crew was being consolidated in maritime law.35 In fact, this is the period when the disciplinary attitude that had dominated maritime regula-tions in the late medieval and early modern periods was shifting towards a more pater-nalistic and, later, philanthropic approach.36 It may well be observed in Joseph Blunt’s discourse, which shifts between reinforcing the master’s authority and highlighting the rights of seamen.




Finally, the study of the Shipmaster’s Assistant has shown that working relations aboard these ships were forged in a very peculiar environment. The need to regulate and discipline the workforce was an important aspect of seafaring, often leading to a conflict of interests that put the lives on board at the core of the contradictions associated with the new social order emerging during the industrial era. Modern and old seafaring practices were in coexistence in the holds and decks of ships from the late period of the ‘age of sail’, making it a fruitful focus of research for maritime and labor historians.

Author biography

Rodrigo Torres is a Brazilian Oceanographer and Archaeologist. In the last 12 years he specialized in applied oceanography and nautical archaeology, with acquired skills in the fields of shipwreck archaeology, site formation processes, digital cartography (G.I.S.), museology and scientific div-ing. He is currently enrolled as a PhD student in the Nautical Archaeology Program at Texas A&M University, sponsored by the Brazilian Ministry of Education and the Fulbright Commission. His PhD research focuses on nineteenth-century Atlantic maritime culture and its influence on the modernization of Brazilian port cities after 1808.



handling the ship: rights and duties of masters, mates, seamen and owners of ships in...

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