L E T T E R S   T O   T H E   E D I T O R

 

Alcohol: A Deadly Hazard in
the Culture of the Sea

by Stephen N. Sanfilippo

I read with interest and concern Ann Backus’s article “Alcohol Impairment Jeopardizes All ” published in the March, 2011 edition of Fishermen’s Voice. The information presented by Ms. Backus, and the warning to be taken from that information, raises a long-standing issue; the misconception that alcohol consumption is essential to being on the water, a fact seen in the conspicuous display of beer and hard liquor in plain sight aboard much pleasure craft.

Unlike pleasure seekers, the men and women who work the water are, I believe, far more prone to sobriety, be they private commercial fishermen, merchant mariners, or U.S. Navy sailors or U.S. Coastguards- men, but still the idea that sailors drink at sea, or at least that they’re supposed to, is one that permeates American popular culture.

Historically, the American whalefishery faced a major problem with drink. As Ms. Backus so correctly states about fishing vessels being workplaces, not “cars,” the 19th century whale ship was not only the means of transport from northeastern ports to the distant whaling grounds, but also the arsenal for the hunt, a factory for processing a raw material into an industrial product, and an on-site domicile—in short, a total work station.

Whalemen, from captain to cabin boy, needed to be at full readiness in daylight, in low seas, for the cry of “Thar she blows,” but they also needed to be at full readiness at all times for squalls and other potentially deadly hazards. Shipboard drunkenness and hangovers, as stated in Ms. Backus’s article, greatly impaired the fitness of the officers and crew to perform with all necessary speed and skill, thereby endangering life, ship, and mission. Yet, the problem of alcohol was so great in the whalefishery that during the 1840s many American whaling companies and captains required that those shipping for a voyage sign a temperance pledge, the breaking of which would lead to discharge, with loss of all pay, at the next port of call.

The captains of 15 whaleships petitioned the government of Lahaina, on the island of Maui, then a major whaleship refitting station, to ban the sale of liquor to whalemen ashore on liberty, as such sale led to drunkenness, arrests, fines, delays in sailing, sailing short-handed, and sailing with men incapacitated. In fact, whaleships of the mid-19th century frequently left port with a sizable part of the crew present, but incapacitated from having been drinking before sailing.

Jack London, the great early 20th century American writer, wrote the most manly tales of struggles between men and the forces of nature, both at sea and on the frontier. London, who worked as an oyster pirate, a fish patrolman, a sealer, and a whaler, was also an extremely heavy drinker, as were most of his shipmates, though he claimed they only drank ashore, and labored at sea in total abstinent sobriety. London told of his youthful labors and bouts with alcohol in his remarkable autobiographical work John Barleycorn (1913), stating that although he didn’t even like liquor, much preferring soda and candy, he drank to drunkenness with fellow seafarers because that was what they believed men of the sea were supposed to do, in the presence of other seamen, each to prove to others and to himself that he was a man.

There are many traditional songs of maritime laborers that mix seafaring with alcohol, the most famous of which is no doubt “What Shall We Do With the Drunken Sailor?” This seems like a “fun” song to many, but when one looks at the song closely it is a testament by sober mariners against the drunken sailor who has imperiled the safety of his ship and shipmates, and who must stand a series of humiliating, tortuous, and emasculating punishments. Yes, many sailors’ songs and poetic recitations give praise to beer, ale, whiskey and rum, but there are also some that give the mariner warning against mixing alcohol with labor at sea. Perhaps the most poignant of these, “The Miseries of Alcohol,” an excerpt from which is given below, was penned by a whaling hand at Honolulu in the 1840s, describing the all-too-frequent consequence of men mixing seamanship with alcohol.

Behold yon trim and gallant ship,
How graceful she doth ride,
Mark well how neat her canvas fits,
How swift she stems the tide.
Behold her now, she’s clear from land,
Her crew are all called aft –
With his own hand the captain pours
For each the poisonous draught.

The alluring taste incites to more,
Forward each seaman goes,
With reveling songs and shouts they praise
The vilest of their foes.
Behold her now, amid yon storm;
How dire confusion reigns –
They’re drunk with rum, not even one
His senses now retains.
See! ‘neath her lee yon iron
shore –
The storm still gathering fast,
She nears it now—alas! I fear
This hour will be her last.
Ah! see, she strikes! her masts are gone—
Hark! ‘tis the signal gun;
To escape, in vain each seaman tries,
Their earthly race is run.

That maddening draught hath done its work,
Behold amid the gloom
Yon noble vessel, now a wreck –
‘Twas rum that sealed her doom....

Stephen Sanfilippo holds a Ph.D. in History from Stony Brook University. He says he doesn’t advocate total abstinence from alcohol. He worked as an unskilled laborer in a textile mill during his teens, and served as a seaman and petty officer in the United States Navy during the Vietnam conflict, receiving his Honorable Discharge in 1976.