# Did have a Master or were you a Master like this one? I hope not.



## lagerstedt (Oct 16, 2005)

Cruelty On Board Ship

(From the Shipping and Mercantile Gazette.)

Central Criminal Court, July 8, (1846)

Mr William Graham, master of the ship Grange, from Sydney, was charges with assaulting T.Singleton, a man of colour, and J. Bain, cook and seaman, on board the above named vessel. As the case has been so laterly before the public, under the head of the Thames Police reports, the following brief will suffice:

Shortly after the vessels leaving Sydney, the prisoners's tyrannical conduct raised an ill-felling amoung the men against him, When off the Cape of Good Hope, he without provocation knocked Bain down, and then ordered him to go below, to be placed in iron. 
Bain refused to do so , was fastened by the leg with a rope and dragged to the companion ladder and thrown down into the cabin, where he was placed in irons and kept so during three days and two nights, receiving only two bisuits for his substence during that time.
While in his confinement the master brutally assaulted him, jumping on him. Upon going on desk after being released from his confirnment, the master assaulted him, and sent him back into his confinement, where he was kept in iron for thirthy days, fourteen of wich he was only allowed half a pound of broad a day, being equal to one bisuit and a half. The master came to him several times while he was confined, and told him he might go an ddo his duty if he wished, and made him, when he was able, take exercise for a short time on deck. Complainant refused to work again, as he was not strong enough; some days he was in such a weak state as not able to leave the cabin. Singleton was cruelly used the whole time the voyaged lasted, the prisoner at times beating him with a riding whip, which lacerated his back. He show the marks of the stripes he received,which although having been inflicted a month back, stilled showed to what extent he had been beaten. The jury acquitted the prisoner of the first count of the indictments, but found him guilty on the second.

The Common Serjeant said the Court always lent its aid the protect the merchant master, but at the same time it was a paramount duty to protect poor seaman from brutal conduct. In this case the prisoner had behaved so burtally that the court would not pass a lenient sentence upon him. The prisoner was then sentenced to six month's imprisonment in the Millbank Penitentiary.

_This was taken from the Shipping Gazette and the Sydney General Trade List. The spelling and Grammer are as printed in the Gazette. 

_RegardsBlair Lagerstedt 
NZ


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## Varley (Oct 1, 2006)

Does the electric telegraph reach him? I may have just the ship.


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## John Dryden (Sep 26, 2009)

Captain Graham was a bad one but the guy in this report I recently came across makes him look like a saint:

http://www.robresearch.com/osmond-otto-brand.html


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## Klaatu83 (Jan 22, 2009)

One of the people who helped put an end to this sort of abuse was Richard Henry Dana Jr., who took a sabbatical from his studies at Harvard in 1834 to sail on a trading ship from Boston to California and back. Afterwards he completed his studies, passed the bar exam and became an advocate for the rights of seamen, as well as those of fugitive slaves. The book he wrote about his experiences at sea, "Two Years Before the Mast", is considered a literary classic. The old term "before the mast", as used in the title, has become somewhat obscure nowadays and may require some explanation to those not familiar with 19th century nautical language. On the old sailing ships the officers lived in the stern of the ship, in the "cabin", while the crew lived in the bow, forward of the mast, in the forecastle or "foc'sle". Thus Dana was indicating that he had shipped out "before the mast" as a common sailor rather than as an officer. Incidentally, I have frequently heard modern-day merchant seamen refer to their stateroom as their 'foc'sle", so I cannot actually say that particular term has become entirely obsolete.


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## endure (Apr 16, 2007)

I sailed with an ex BI OM in P&O. He spoke to the Mate to give orders, the Chief because they both had 4 stripes and me because he had to. He refused to speak to anybody else.


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## Varley (Oct 1, 2006)

#4. I have never heard that expression the forecastle is the forecastle and a 'stateroom', is on a passenger vessel. In the middle days the crew were accommodated in the forecastle.

Your cabin was your 'house' certainly and if your house had a refrigerator you would probably attract guests at your 'house' too!

However that, I am sure, is the origin of 'before the mast' as in the Master being 'before God'.


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## Biggles Wader (Jul 18, 2013)

Klaatu83 said:


> One of the people who helped put an end to this sort of abuse was Richard Henry Dana Jr., who took a sabbatical from his studies at Harvard in 1834 to sail on a trading ship from Boston to California and back. Afterwards he completed his studies, passed the bar exam and became an advocate for the rights of seamen, as well as those of fugitive slaves. The book he wrote about his experiences at sea, "Two Years Before the Mast", is considered a literary classic. The old term "before the mast", as used in the title, has become somewhat obscure nowadays and may require some explanation to those not familiar with 19th century nautical language. On the old sailing ships the officers lived in the stern of the ship, in the "cabin", while the crew lived in the bow, forward of the mast, in the forecastle or "foc'sle". Thus Dana was indicating that he had shipped out "before the mast" as a common sailor rather than as an officer. Incidentally, I have frequently heard modern-day merchant seamen refer to their stateroom as their 'foc'sle", so I cannot actually say that particular term has become entirely obsolete.


I read Two Years Before The Mast many years ago and I agree with your version of what it means.The crew lived up forrard,before the mast.


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## holland25 (Nov 21, 2007)

When I was about 10, the film," Two years before the mast"was showing at our local cinema. The group of friends I belonged to, struggled with the meaning of the phrase, before the mast. The senior boy, who was about 12 and went to the local grammar school, decreed that it meant two years before ships had masts. After we saw the film,we were all keen fans of Alan Ladd, and indeed William Bendix, we learned the truth,and our leader lost much credibility.


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