Authority, to some minds, means oppression and injustice; people so constituted should stay ashore; a ship has no use for them—they simply cannot get along. The orderly man lives his life aboard ship with the greatest freedom. Discipline at sea is largely a matter of common sense. Officers who know their business have very little trouble in achieving perfect discipline. The laws governing lack of ability bear hard on the man who has shipped to do work he is not qualified for. The disturber has a hard time when handled by a Master who knows the law and his authority. The laws relating to offenses on board ship are appended, not as guide to crime, but to inform the seaman of the fact that the flag and the laws of the land follow the ship out beyond the three-mile limit. Some officers have a way with them that carries along the work of the vessel without friction and with the utmost amount of dispatch. These officers know their business thoroughly. They are absolutely just, which means that the slacker and malingerer are given the full brunt of disapproval. The "coming down" on a loafer, good and hard, helps more to bring forth respect for an officer than anything else. When this is coupled by even-handed justice, and a human way of doing things, such as looking out for the comfort of their men, a happy vessel is bound to be the result. Seamen like nothing better than to know that they are under officers who will run things on the level. It is like being under a decent government that helps the weak and curbs the strong—there is a fascination to running things right that merchant officers should cultivate. Below are the punishments meted out to those that believe in individual license, and who think that the individual can do as he pleases without consulting the rest of us. They are wrong, of course, but most of all, +they are most often, simply ignorant+. Offenses and punishments. Whenever any seaman who has been lawfully engaged or any apprentice to the sea service commits any of the following offenses, he shall be punished as follows: _First._ For desertion, by forfeiture of all or any part of the clothes or effects he leaves on board and of all or any part of the wages or emoluments which he has then earned. _Second._ For neglecting or refusing without reasonable cause to join his vessel or to proceed to sea in his vessel, or for absence without leave at any time within twenty-four hours of the vessel's sailing from any port, either at the commencement or during the progress of the voyage, or for absence at any time without leave and without sufficient reason from his vessel and from his duty, not amounting to desertion, by forfeiture from his wages of not more than two days' pay or sufficient to defray any expenses which shall have been properly incurred in hiring a substitute.