Maritime crew

“ Throughout the whole of these trying moments, indeed, the discipline of the ship appears to have been maintained, not only without the smallest trace of insubordination, but with a degree of cheerfulness which is described as truly wonderful. Even when the masts fell, the sound of the crashing spars was drowned in the animating huzzas of the undaunted crew, though they were then clinging to the weather gunwale, with the sea, from time to time, making a clean breach over them, and when they were expecting every instant to be carried to the bottom! ”

“ The men of a better sort who occasionally found themselves unluckily shipped with such a crew, have left on record many curious stories of the way in which sailors, utterly unable to walk on shore or on deck for intoxication, would, at the word of command, spring into the rigging, clamber up the shrouds, shake out reefs, and perform the most difficult duties aloft. ”

“ A light wind and sea accompany us for the present, but the filmy glare of the sun, now low, and a backward movement of the glass foretells a break ere long. We are steaming at high speed to make the most of the smooth sea. Ahead, on each bow, our two escorting destroyers conform to the angles of our zigzag—spurring out and swerving with the peculiar 'thrown-around' movement of their class. Look-out is alert and in numbers. Added to the watch of the ship's crew, military signallers are posted; the boats swung outboard have each a party of troops on guard. ”

“ Each boy remains aboard a year, only half of the crew being changed at a time. Practice aloft and the life in general aboard a sailing vessel give him a broad general foundation of knowledge of the sea and ships, upon which he can build the special training and instruction he afterward gets upon a regular man-of-war. When he is transferred, upon the expiration of his year on the training-ship, he begins the task of mastering the intricacies of a modern ship-of-war. ”

“ Actual experiment shows that a French crew will weigh anchor, spread and furl sail, replace spars or running-ringing, lower or raise topmasts, or perform any other duty pertaining to a ship, with as much celerity as the crew of any other nation. And no confusion, no babbling of many voices, such as the British writers of the last generations delighted to describe, mars the beauty of the evolutions. ”

“ The crew of the boat is a skilled one, trained for its tests in every way likely to be requested by the Naval Board. It should be noted that, with one exception, no seamen are used, this exception being the man who steers and handles the boat. The crew is as follows: One navigator, who is also a diver; one chief engineer, one assistant engineer, one electrician, one machinist, one deck hand, and one cook. ”

“ The greater the number of vessels, the greater the number of captains accustomed to responsibility, a matter of no small importance in its effect upon the formation of the sea habit among a people. Then the short passage naturally led [37] the crew into taking chances; they would risk a growing gale in a short run. Once out of port in "dirty weather," the manifest dangers set all hands thinking of improved ways of shortening sail in an emergency, and of improved shapes of hull and cut of canvas to help a vessel to "claw off" a lee shore. ”

“ He said that our force was ample, every gun shotted, and the ports open: that we had the windward gauge of her, and that the proper course was to send a boat in to cut her cable, and, when she drifted down with the current, we would ware ship, lay up alongside, grapple, pass lashings aboard, and send the whole crew on to her deck with a rush. ”

“ No one was to board the enemy's ship without orders; special men were told off to each sail; while the carpenter and his crew were to attend with plugs and sheets of lead, some in the hold, others on the lower deck, in readiness to plug up shot holes between wind and water. ”

“ While the masts are bending to the wind and the ship careening in the water, you see the yards covered with hundreds of the crew with no guard from destruction in the giddy height, but the habit of keeping their feet firmly on the foot-ropes, while their hands and arms are occupied in overcoming the fearful thrashings of the sails, and in gathering in the canvas and binding it down with the reef-points. ”

“ Everything about the ship was strong, kept beautifully clean, and in the most admirable order. The crew consists of the captain and mate, with twelve or fourteen men, a portion of whom are on shore off duty. The life is very monotonous; and the only amusement they have is fishing, with reading and a few games, such as draughts and chess. ”

“ The alarm being instantly given, the cry of “Man overboard,” resounded throughout the ship; and, without waiting to dress, the whole crew, fore and aft, made their appearance on deck. In a moment the wheel was put hard down, and the mainyard hauled aback. The first officer sprang into the larboard boat, in his nightdress, and cut the gripes; the tackles were let go by the run, and the moment she touched the water she was manned by a crew, who, with strong arms and brave hearts, lustily pulled for their hapless companion. ”

“ She called for so many skilled craftsmen, and provided so much special employment out of the way of seamanship, that the big crew was never big enough. The special employments took away now one man, now another, till there were few left to work the ship. The soldiers and marines acted as a military guard for the prevention of mutiny. They worked about the ship, hauling ropes, etc., when not engaged in military duty.
The hundreds of men in the ship's crew lived below decks. Most of them lived on the lower gun deck in the narrow spaces (known as berths) between the guns. ”

“ She is all ready for action; boarding nettings triced up, field-pieces and howitzers prepared against night boarding, and the whole of her bows padded internally, with dead wood and sails, so as to prevent her main deck being raked as she stands stern on toward the forts. Her crew are as fine a set of men as I have seen of late days on board a man-of-war. They are healthy, well fed, regularly paid, and can be relied on to do their duty to a man. ”

“ Instantly the long roll is beaten, the boatswain's whistle sounds, and from the bowels of the ship the members of the crew come tumbling out, swarming over the deck in what seems the wildest confusion, but is in reality perfect order. Every man has certain duties and much drilling has taught him how to perform them in the simplest, readiest and easiest manner. The whole deck crew is organized into divisions and each division has its separate and particular work. One division lashes fast the big anchors and makes them as secure as possible. ”

“ We were sailing with the easterly wind on our beam, and making maybe six knots on it, with the two reefs down. The full crew of such a ship as this for such a cruise without any warlike ending to it would be about twenty, or perhaps a few less. She pulled sixteen oars a side, and with a war crew on board would muster ninety-six men--three to an oar--with a few extra hands, as the helmsman and the chiefs, to make a total of a hundred. ”

“ Along the bulwarks of the ship, fore and aft, hung rows of large painted wooden shields, which gave an Argus-eyed aspect to the craft. Between them was a double row of thole-pins for the great oars, which now lay at rest in the bottom of the boat, but by which, in calm weather, this "walker of the seas" could be forced swiftly through the yielding element.
VIKING SHIPS AT SEA.
Near the stern, on an elevated platform, stood the commander, a man of large and powerful frame and imposing aspect, one whose commands not the fiercest of his crew would lightly venture to disobey. ”

“ The crew of the American were all this time quietly leaning on their guns, and watching the evolutions of their antagonist; and commenting upon every movement with as much composure as though their own ship was lying at anchor in a friendly port, and they were only looking at some ship beating into harbor. ”

“ The sea glittering in the rays of the sun, the sky bright, the captain and officers walking the deck or reading in their cabins. The crew lolling about with folded arms, smoking their pipes or spinning yarns. I forgot that some of them would be employed in spinning very different sorts of yarns to what I fancied, and that chief mates are not apt to allow man to spend their time with their arms folded, doing nothing. On and on sailed the ship. The atmosphere was becoming sensibly warmer. ”

“ These persons, selected for their activity, strength, and coolness, should belong to the after-guard, main and mizen-top, and gunner's crew, men whose duties lie chiefly abaft or about the mainmast. Midshipmen in each watch should also be named to the different boats; and their orders ought to be positive never to allow more than the proper crew to enter, nor on any account to permit the boat to be lowered till fully and properly manned. ”

“ In ordinary times it takes one hundred skilled men a full week to stow away provisions, supplies, ammunition, coal, and the thousand and one minor articles that are needed on board one of the larger war-ships. The ship's crew lend a hand, but they operate only under the direction of the staff of trained stevedores which is kept on duty at the Navy Yard. ”

“ You see sailors on shore, and they seem often harum-scarum, idle fellows, but at sea everything is done with the greatest order, and every man and boy has his proper duty, just as the servants in a large country-house. The crew are divided into watches, called the starboard and larboard, or port, watches; the chief mate commands one, the second mate the other. While one watch is on duty the other goes below to sleep, or take their meals, except when all hands are wanted on deck. Every hour a bell is struck to show how time goes. ”

“ At last the captain gave the order I awaited.
"All hands reef topsails."
In a few minutes the boatswain's pipe sounded, and the watch below came tumbling out of the forecastle. Now came a scene familiar to every man who has been to sea, whether as a sailor or a passenger. In a ship of war the crew go to work to the sound of fiddles or silver whistles; every man knows his station; everything is done quickly, quietly, and completely. But in a merchantman the men go to work to the sound of their own voices: these voices are, as a rule, uncommonly harsh and hoarse ”

“ They are as follow, viz. by fire-vessels, of which I would employ a certain number, not less than twenty, about 250 tons burthen each, to swim as light as possible, and as taunt and square rigged as the hulls will admit, grappling-irons, &c. with two fast rowing boats, towed one on each side, so that, in case of any accident happening to one, the crew may find resource in the other; one commissioned officer, one petty officer, and seven seamen in each; the whole to be under the command of a captain, either in a line-of-battle ship or a frigate ”

“ Then you have to sail on the course announced, and the helmsman and quartermaster have to be continually moving the rudder back and forth to correct the yaws from the seas and other influences that throw you off that exact line.
Then there is the routine bridge work, giving orders, receiving reports, making decisions, tasting the food of the crew that is brought always to the officer on watch, sighting ships and other things and always notifying the Captain day or night of all important things going on. ”

“ With the dropping of the pilot, sea routine is promptly taken up, and thereafter on the shoulders of the commander rests the [Pg 39] preservation of the ship and the safety of the passengers and crew. Every captain of an Atlantic liner embodies in his person a shining example of the law of the survival of the fittest, for there is no short cut to the bridge, and none but a master seaman ever reaches it. ”

“ It is strongly and earnestly recommended that on all vessels entering the War Zone, or the dangerous areas, the passengers and crew be kept fully prepared (so far as may be possible or the navigation of the vessel permits) , for speedy and immediate disembarking, or abandoning ship in case of emergency, and that the crew be furnished with life preservers of such character as to allow the free use of the arms in rowing and boat launching. All should be warmly clad without unnecessary or hindering incumbrance. ”

“ He should be adept at handling his ship around a dock, and must be equally adept at making her fast alongside pier or quay. He must know what to do in case of collision, in case of fire, in case any of a score of contingencies arise. He must be familiar with first aid and the use of medicines, for few ships carry doctors. He must be seaman enough for all his crew, for on him rests a great responsibility—the responsibility for a great and costly machine, for valuable cargoes, for the health, and even for the lives, of many men. ”

“ The Navy also sees and welcomes the untold advantage given by the Nucleus Crew system of instant war readiness, as exemplified when last July all our vessels, large and small, in reserve went to sea unnoticed by the Press and engaged in fighting Manœuvres in the Channel with 200 pendants under the chief command of the Admiral of the Channel Fleet. ”

“ Hark to the boatswain's call, the cheering cry, While through the seaman's hand the tackle glides Or schoolboy midshipman that, standing by, Strains his shrill pipe, as good or ill betides, And well the docile crew that skilful urchin guides. ”

“ Amongst our sailors was a Frenchman, and he, being one of our boat's crew, had made the acquaintance of his countrymen on board the other ship in his various trips, it being the custom of the captains then in port to call upon each other and all to go ashore in the one boat. Thus they benefited by having the full complement of their crew on board to work cargo—which they had to do in those days, except on the occasion when their particular boat had to act as ferry. ”