The Mutinous Voyage of the Bark McNear
A crew alleges their captain was perpetually intoxicated, abusive, and endangered the ship while failing to provide decent food.
The crew of the bark McNear spent a good portion of the day attempting to procure satisfaction after suffering under their captain, C. F. Swan. The crew alleged that the captain was drunk during much of the voyage and prone to abuse. They claimed he once slept through a gale while the ship drifted within a cable's length of the rocks at Salinas Cruz. Further, they alleged the captain served rotted, worm-eaten flour and flourished a revolver and a butcher knife at sailors in the rigging. Capt. Swan entered a general denial, characterizing the crew as 'sea lawyers' who simply wanted to be paid off early and had concocted a story to force the issue.
“They all think it is dangerous to go to sea again with Capt. Swan.”
This dispute highlights the dangerous, unregulated power dynamic aboard merchant vessels in the late 19th century. Today's labor laws and international maritime conventions regarding crew safety exist largely as a response to exactly these types of abuses.
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