Page:The Blight of Insubordination.djvu/51

43 hesitate to state that this deplorable condition of things is due entirely to the baneful influence of those to whom _ these cases have to be submitted, more particularly magistrates in the United Kingdom and the British consuls abroad. To make the punishment fit the crime is not their practice, for the ridiculous and contemptuous sentences invariably inflicted only accentuate the cases, and make the offenders more hardened and difficult to deal with than ever.

The cause being as we have stated, the consequence is clearly reflected in the enormous invasion of Lascars which predominate on the Eastern fleets; who, contented with their lot, are amendable to ordinary discipline, such as may be left to the shipmaster to keep the upper hand and proper control of his crew and do the business for which he is paid like every other member of the ship's company. These men are not by any means angels, or even all that is desirable, as they, too, have their faults; but on the whole they do not exhibit any tendency to want to do as they please, but just do their work as they should, and attend to their duty decently and in accordance with the terms of their agreement. The times have changed the conditions and requirements of those who follow the sea, and where the screw propeller drives the ocean plough the sailor-man—as we of the sea understand the term—is not the necessary, can't-be-done-without individual as in days gone by. Iron, steel and steam have changed the order of things, and the crew's chief business of the day, in doing what is required whether in port or at sea, can be done more efficiently by Lascar crews than by others, owing to the increase in numbers. Chipping or scraping iron or steel, painting, scrubbing or cleaning, holystoning decks, but cleaning, always cleaning, does not require a very high standard of intelligence to perform it. The painting is not of the order that would delight the heart of a professional coach painter, but of the kind that is performed in the shipyards by the red-lion gangs. A wad or a brush, it is all the same, paint and clean, clean and paint, is the order of the day from daylight till dark, from the first to the last of the voyage, the cleaning, like the work of Sisyphus, goes on forever! There is very little sailorising, as seamen call it, to do nowadays; occasionally a few ropes or a bit of wire to be spliced, a few slings for cargo to be made, guys for derricks to be fitted, is about the full extent of this sort of work. There is never now any of the old watch and watch rivalry and excitement of making or shortening sail; tacking or wearing ship is, for the modern Indian traders, as dead as pork or