Vietnam or Thailand ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Updated: June 12, 2025
I am told to- day, which troubles me, that great complaint is made upon the 'Change, among our merchants, that the very Ostend little pickaroon men-of-war do offer violence to our merchant-men and search them, beat our masters, and plunder them, upon pretence of carrying Frenchmen's goods. 29th. At night comes Mrs. Turner to see us; and there, among other talk, she tells me that Mr.
We care not for those Martial-men that do our states disdain, But we care for those Merchant-men that do our states maintain. A third old sea-song gives voice to the universal complaint that landsmen cheat sailors who come home flush of gold. For Sailors they be honest men, And they do take great pains, But Land-men and ruffling lads Do rob them of their gains.
Nor would they be shy of the service; for it is not an aversion to the king's service, nor it is not that the duty is harder in the men-of- war than the merchant-men, nor it is not fear of danger which makes our seamen lurk and hide and hang back in a time of war, but it is wages is the matter: 24s. per month in the king's service, and 40s. to 50s. per month from the merchant, is the true cause; and the seaman is in the right of it, too; for who would serve his king and country, and fight, and be knocked on the head at 24s. per month that can have 50s. without that hazard?
And they turned and watched the course of the merchant-men, laden with silver and appeasing spice; year after year they cheered them into port and praised their goods and their familiar sails. And many years went by.
Yet it was strong in the nostrils; and even one of the pigs we had not eaten, but had brought back alive, squealed incessantly, as though instinctively feeling that the voyage was over. It was late in the afternoon, but the men were mustered aft, in the time-worn way of merchant-men, to sign off. Nearly all had bills on the slop-chest for tobacco or clothes.
Merchant-men are invariably manned with the least possible number, and often go to sea shorthanded, even according to the parsimonious calculations of their owners. The only way the heavier work can be done at all is by each man doing his utmost at the same moment. This is regulated by the song. And here is the true singing of the deep sea.
Word Of The Day
Others Looking