In vain,at such a season as this,would the vows of a pious heathen have prevailed over Neptune,Aeolus,or any other marine deity.In vain would the prayers of a Christian captain be attended with the like success.The wind may change how it pleases while all hands are on shore;the anchor would remain firm in the ground,and the ship would continue in durance,unless,like other forcible prison-breakers,it forcibly got loose for no good purpose.Now,as the favor of winds and courts,and such like,is always to be laid hold on at the very first motion,for within twenty-four hours all may be changed again;so,in the former case,the loss of a day may be the loss of a voyage:for,though it may appear to persons not well skilled in navigation,who see ships meet and sail by each other,that the wind blows sometimes east and west,north and south,backwards and forwards,at the same instant;yet,certain it is that the land is so contrived,that even the same wind will not,like the same horse,always bring a man to the end of his journey;but,that the gale which the mariner prayed heartily for yesterday,he may as heartily deprecate to-morrow;while all use and benefit which would have arisen to him from the westerly wind of to-morrow may be totally lost and thrown away by neglecting the offer of the easterly blast which blows to-day.
Hence ensues grief and disreputation to the innocent captain,loss and disappointment to the worthy merchant,and not seldom great prejudice to the trade of a nation whose manufactures are thus liable to lie unsold in a foreign warehouse the market being forestalled by some rival whose sailors are under a better discipline.To guard against these inconveniences the prudent captain takes every precaution in his power;he makes the strongest contracts with his crew,and thereby binds them so firmly,that none but the greatest or least of men can break through them with impunity;but for one of these two reasons,which I will not determine,the sailor,like his brother fish the eel,is too slippery to be held,and plunges into his element with perfect impunity.To speak a plain truth,there is no trusting to any contract with one whom the wise citizens of London call a bad man;for,with such a one,though your bond be ever so strong,it will prove in the end good for nothing.
What then is to be done in this case?What,indeed,but to call in the assistance of that tremendous magistrate,the justice of peace,who can,and often doth,lay good and bad men in equal durance;and,though he seldom cares to stretch his bonds to what is great,never finds anything too minute for their detention,but will hold the smallest reptile alive so fast in his noose,that he can never get out till he is let drop through it.Why,therefore,upon the breach of those contracts,should not an immediate application be made to the nearest magistrate of this order,who should be empowered to convey the delinquent either to ship or to prison,at the election of the captain,to be fettered by the leg in either place?But,as the case now stands,the condition of this poor captain without any commission,and of this absolute commander without any power,is much worse than we have hitherto shown it to be;for,notwithstanding all the aforesaid contracts to sail in the good ship the Elizabeth,if the sailor should,for better wages,find it more his interest to go on board the better ship the Mary,either before their setting out or on their speedy meeting in some port,he may prefer the latter without any other danger than that of "doing what he ought not to have done,"contrary to a rule which he is seldom Christian enough to have much at heart,while the captain is generally too good a Christian to punish a man out of revenge only,when he is to be at a considerable expense for so doing.
There are many other deficiencies in our laws relating to maritime affairs,and which would probably have been long since corrected,had we any seamen in the House of Commons.Not that I would insinuate that the legislature wants a supply of many gentlemen in the sea-service;but,as these gentlemen are by their attendance in the house unfortunately prevented from ever going to sea,and there learning what they might communicate to their landed brethren,these latter remain as ignorant in that branch of knowledge as they would be if none but courtiers and fox-hunters had been elected into parliament,without a single fish among them.The following seems to me to be an effect of this kind,and it strikes me the stronger as I remember the case to have happened,and remember it to have been dispunishable.Acaptain of a trading vessel,of which he was part owner,took in a large freight of oats at Liverpool,consigned to the market at Bearkey:this he carried to a port in Hampshire,and there sold it as his own,and,freighting his vessel with wheat for the port of Cadiz,in Spain,dropped it at Oporto in his way;and there,selling it for his own use,took in a lading of wine,with which he sailed again,and,having converted it in the same manner,together with a large sum of money with which he was intrusted,for the benefit of certain merchants,sold the ship and cargo in another port,and then wisely sat down contented with the fortune he had made,and returned to London to enjoy the remainder of his days,with the fruits of his former labors and a good conscience.
The sum he brought home with him consisted of near six thousand pounds,all in specie,and most of it in that coin which Portugal distributes so liberally over Europe.