- end_line
- 14475
- extracted_at
- 2026-01-30T20:48:36.278Z
- extracted_by
- structure-extraction-lambda
- start_line
- 14432
- text
- were picked up, half dead from exhaustion, and nearly throttled by a
bundle of their clothes tied fast to their shoulders. In this manner
they had attempted their escape from their vessel. When the French
officers came in pursuit, these sailors, rallying from their
exhaustion, fought like tigers to resist being captured. Though this
story concerns a French armed ship, it is not the less applicable, in
degree, to those of other nations.
Mix with the men in an American armed ship, mark how many foreigners
there are, though it is against the law to enlist them. Nearly one
third of the petty officers of the Neversink were born east of the
Atlantic. Why is this? Because the same principle that operates in
hindering Americans from hiring themselves out as menial domestics also
restrains them, in a great measure, from voluntarily assuming a far
worse servitude in the Navy. “_Sailors wanted for the Navy_” is a
common announcement along the wharves of our sea-ports. They are always
“_wanted_.” It may have been, in part, owing to this scarcity
man-of-war’s men, that not many years ago, black slaves were frequently
to be found regularly enlisted with the crew of an American frigate,
their masters receiving their pay. This was in the teeth of a law of
Congress expressly prohibiting slaves in the Navy. This law,
indirectly, means black slaves, nothing being said concerning white
ones. But in view of what John Randolph of Roanoke said about the
frigate that carried him to Russia, and in view of what most armed
vessels actually are at present, the American Navy is not altogether an
inappropriate place for hereditary bondmen. Still, the circumstance of
their being found in it is of such a nature, that to some it may hardly
appear credible. The incredulity of such persons, nevertheless, must
yield to the fact, that on board of the United States ship Neversink,
during the present cruise, there was a Virginian slave regularly
shipped as a seaman, his owner receiving his wages. Guinea—such was his
name among the crew—belonged to the Purser, who was a Southern
gentleman; he was employed as his body servant. Never did I feel my
condition as a man-of-war’s-man so keenly as when seeing this Guinea
freely circulating about the decks in citizen’s clothes, and through
the influence of his master, almost entirely exempted from the
disciplinary degradation of the Caucasian crew. Faring sumptuously in
the ward-room; sleek and round, his ebon face fairly polished with
content: ever gay and hilarious; ever ready to laugh and joke, that
African slave was actually envied by many of the seamen. There were
times when I almost envied him myself. Lemsford once envied him
outright, “Ah, Guinea!” he sighed, “you have peaceful times; you never
opened the book I read in.”
- title
- Chunk 2