Excellent schools and early training for them.
Nor were the interests of the common seamen overlooked.
Boys of all classes, when fit, had the privilege
of entering the higher free schools, in which
they could be educated for almost every profession.
An ignorant American native seaman was, therefore,
scarcely to be found; they all, with few exceptions,
knew how to read, write, and cypher. Although,
in all nations, a mariner is considered a citizen
of the world, whose home is on the sea, and, as
such, can enforce compensation for his labour in the
Courts of any country, his contract being recognised
by general jurisprudence, the cases of disputes
between native-born Americans and their captains
have ever been less frequent both in this country
and abroad than between British masters and seamen,
owing, in a great measure, to the superior
education and the more rigorous discipline on board
American vessels. In the United States, the master
of the ship was, and is still, usually employed to
hire the seamen; and although, in hiring, he is the
agent of the owners (and they have co-ordinate
power), still if they do not dissent, the engagement
entered into by the master with the seamen is binding
on the owners also. The contract is, however, not
made with the person of the master, but with the
shipowners; therefore, if there is no master, the seamen
contract to sail under any master who may be
appointed. Thus, on the one side of the contract is
the seaman, and, on the other, the master or owner—the
master acting as the owner's agent, under
ordinary circumstances, although the owner, from his
holding the property in the ship, is more directly
affected by the contract.
