going out of, any port situate upon waters forming the boundaries of any two States to employ any duly licensed or authorised pilot of either State.[1]
Character of American seamen, especially, of the New Englanders. The native-born American seamen are bold, adventurous, and brave. In their merchant vessels the proportion of native seamen is estimated at about one-third, while it was a common remark that "the rest are rascally Spaniards, surly John Bulls, Zealanders, Malays, anything of any country." The American native-born seaman is frequently promoted to be an officer, and, sometimes, to the command of large ships, but there are perpetual complaints that the people of the United States do not "take to the sea" with alacrity. Indeed, it is only in the New England States that the sailor's life may be said to belong to the soil itself, and even the natives of that comparatively barren soil and rigorous climate become sailors, perhaps less from love of adventure and from their natural hardiness, than from necessity. When boys they had, perhaps, widowed mothers to support, younger brothers and sisters to care for, and, there being no other congenial occupation, they "go to sea." When complaining of his "dog's life," the American sailor sits by the hour whittling a stick, and building little boats for his child, recounting at the same time the perils and hardships of the sea. Like British seamen, he has always his pet ship, in which most of his experience has been acquired, and the name of that ship is oftenest on his lips. It
- ↑ In a note to this Act (Statutes at Large U.S., Boston, 1850) will be found an admirable exposition of some decisions of the American Courts respecting the scope of a pilot's duties. They are excellent, but too long to insert here.
