This extract comes from Two Years Before the Mast (1840), a famous non-fiction travel narrative written by Richard Henry Dana Jr. Dana was a young American sailor and writer who documented his two-year voyage aboard a merchant ship, which began in 1834. His book provides detailed descriptions of daily life at sea, the strict hierarchy among crew members and the difficult conditions sailors often faced.
The passage below describes the duties and social roles of different members of an American merchant ship—including the captain, mates, steward and cook—giving readers a realistic insight into shipboard life during the 19th century.
CHAPTER III
SHIP’S DUTIES—TROPICS
As we now had a long “spell” of fine weather, without any incident to break the monotony of our lives, there can be no better place to describe the duties, regulations and customs of an American merchantman, of which ours was a fair specimen.
The captain, in the first place, is lord paramount. He stands no watch, comes and goes when he pleases and is accountable to no one and must be obeyed in everything, without question, even from his chief officer. He has the power to turn his officers off duty and even to break them and make them do duty as sailors in the forecastle. When there are no passengers and no supercargo, as in our vessel, he has no companion but his own dignity and no pleasures, unless he differs from most of his kind, but the consciousness of possessing supreme power and, occasionally, the exercise of it.
The prime minister, the official organ and the active and superintending officer is the chief mate. He is a first lieutenant, boatswain, sailing-master and quarter-master. The captain tells him what he wishes to have done and leaves to him the care of overseeing, of allotting the work and also the responsibility of its being well done. The mate (as he is always called, par excellence) also keeps the log-book, for which he is responsible to the owners and insurers, and has the charge of the stowage, safekeeping and delivery of the cargo. He is also, ex-officio, the wit of the crew; for the captain does not condescend to joke with the men and the second mate no one cares for; so that when “the mate” thinks fit to entertain “the people” with a coarse joke or a little practical wit, everyone feels bound to laugh.
The second mate’s is proverbially a dog’s berth. He is neither an officer nor a man. The men do not respect him as an officer and he is obliged to go aloft to reef and furl the topsails, and to put his hands into the tar and slush, with the rest. The crew call him the “sailor’s waiter,” as he has to furnish them with spun-yarn, marline, and all other stuff that they need in their work, and has charge of the boatswain’s locker, which includes serving-boards, marline-spikes, etc. He is expected by the captain to maintain his dignity and to enforce obedience, and still is kept at a great distance from the mate, and obliged to work with the crew. He is one to whom little is given and of whom much is required. His wages are usually double those of a common sailor and he eats and sleeps in the cabin; but he is obliged to be on deck nearly all the time and eats at the second table—that is, makes a meal out of what the captain and chief mate leave.
The steward is the captain’s servant and has charge of the pantry, from which everyone, even the mate himself, is excluded. These distinctions usually find him an enemy in the mate, who does not like to have anyone on board who is not entirely under his control; the crew do not consider him as one of their number, so he is left to the mercy of the captain.
The cook is the patron of the crew, and those who are in his favour can get their wet mittens and stockings dried, or light their pipes at the galley on the night watches. These two worthies, together with the carpenter and sailmaker, if there be one, stand no watch, but, being employed all day, are allowed to “sleep in” at night, unless all hands are called.
