Length 258 ft. 229 ft. Beam 44 ft. 41.5 ft. Draft 23.5 ft. 18 ft. Register Tonnage 2,421 tons 1,848 tons Crew-- Master 1 Master 1 Mates 4 Mates 2 Boatswains 2 Carpenters 1 Carpenters 2 Able Seamen 16 Sailmakers 2 Boys 1 Able Seamen 80 ---- Boys 10 21 ---- 101 [2] G. P. Putnam and Sons. This condition, of small crews and large ships, brought to the seven seas a reputation for relentless driving and manhandling that has clung to the minds of men as nothing else. The huge American ships were the hardest afloat, and that remarkable booklet, "The Red Record," compiled by the National Seamen's Union of America, in the middle nineties, carries a tale of cruelty and abuse on the high seas that must forever remain a blot upon the white escutcheon of sail. These ships bred a sea officer peculiar to the time--the bucko mate of fact as well as fiction. These were hard fisted men, good sailors and excellent disciplinarians, though they lacked the polish acquired by sea officers of an earlier day when the sailer was often a passenger carrier, and intercourse with people of culture had its effect upon the men of the after guard. Also, the sea had become less attractive as a career. The boasted "high pay" of the American Merchant Marine, was $60 per month for the Chief Mate; $30 per month for the Second Mate, and $18 per month for an A.B.--at least such were the magnificent wages paid on the _A. J. Fuller_ of New York in the year 1897. The mate, to earn his two dollars a day, and keep, had to be a seaman of the highest attainments. His was a knowledge won only after a long hard apprenticeship at sea. He had to have the force of character of a top-notch executive, combined with ability and initiative. Then too, he was supposed to be a navigator, a man having at least a speaking acquaintance with nautical astronomy. In addition to this he might be as rough and as foul mouthed as he saw fit, and some of them were very liberal in this respect.