"I have always had the respect and confidence of my sailors," said the
Captain, "not because I tried to lift them up to the same plane that I
occupied, but because I provided them with good food, good quarters,
never overtaxed their strength, and gave them ample time for rest
and such amusements as they could appreciate. I have always had the
good-will and cheerful obedience of the common sailors, because I
looked out for their physical needs and treated them kindly."
"I have no doubt of that," I said. "But your voyages in the past have
been between civilized ports and all your sailors wanted was their
pay, and in addition to this, you gave them better treatment than they
could get elsewhere. Hence, their selfish impulses held them to you.
The relation between you and them was purely physical, and all that was
needed to make them loyal to you, was to look out for their physical
wants and treat them kindly. From their standpoint, this was an
addition to their wages that they could not secure under more heartless
employers. But you are now differently situated. You are not expected
to come into a civilized port where sailors can spend their wages as
sailors usually do. They have nothing to look forward to, and as mere
workers they have no interests in common with you. But with the broader
views of life to which association with the best intellects and the
noblest characters gives access, they would take a more exalted view of
the work in which they are engaged, and be true to you from a higher
motive than their wages, which they cannot use in the supply of their
physical wants. This is why I suggested the school."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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