Meeting of Naval Sailors - Terrible Onslaught of Secretary Welles - Why Seamen Will Not Enlist in the Navy - No Grog, No Prize Money, No Sailors.
Yesterday a meeting of naval sailors took place at the Blue Anchor, in Cherry-street. There were over seventy-five sailors present and a goodly sprinkling of landsmen. The objects of the meeting, as stated in a printed circular sent to our reporter was "to unite the opinion of American naval sailors on prize money, stopping the grog, & c.; and to pass resolutions for the guidance of seamen generally." Notwithstanding the fact, that the meeting received only the publicity to be derived from a few dozen posters, pasted around the walls of Cherry, Water and Front streets, the larger room of the Blue Anchor was well filled before one o'clock…..
Illustration of sailors on New York's waterfront, from Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper. This image did not appear in the Times article.
About 1 ½ o'clock the meeting was called to order, when the Chairman introduced Mr. RICHARD WELSH, who spoke as follows:
FELLOW SAILORS: I am delighted to see so many of you here to-day, which shows that you can understand the motives that actuated us in calling this meeting. We want to show the public what the newspapers won't tell them, that seamen have been compelled to stay out of the navy by the arbitrary course of the present Secretary. No nation in the world has ever dreamed of abolishing the small ration of grog which was given to United States seamen, as it is given to seamen of all other countries to warm them after chilly work in wet and stormy weather at sea, and to stimulate them during the dull sameness of harbor life. One of our chief objects also is to proclaim to the world that the prize money, which we are reported to have received, never reaches us at all, if it does not reach us 25 per cent less than what we ought to get. My friends, I was in the Bienville and Mercedita many months, I might say years. We captured, in both vessels, many prizes. I have never got a cent of money yet, although the newspapers have reported from time to time that the cash was ready to be handed down; and the papers lately had a considerable article, "How Jack Tar Makes Money," where the prize-money which we never got was put in big figures. I wrote to the Navy Department three or four times, and to the Prize Department, but I never got any satisfaction. I was told that when the list would be all right I would get the money. On coming from Washington, however, I met a shipmate, who was a sharer in a large prize captured many months since I was at sea. He got his money. I asked him how? He said he was told to go to the prize bankers and give them 25 per cent and they would hand the cash down, which they did. He also told me that the Navy Department winked at this practice and did not take any exertions to make the money to be handed out at once to the proper claimants. Now, we have the Secretary of the Navy in our hands. There are nearly a hundred vessels nearly ready for sea which cannot go, because no hands can be got for them. Admiral FARRAGUT is obliged to stay in town because he cannot get a full crew for his vessel. The Brooklyn also is short-handed, and five full propellers are ready to go out of the yard if they had the men. But, let us not enlist. Let us take a short run to Liverpool, or Havre, or Bremen, or London, or elsewhere, even to Shanghai, if we cannot better ourselves. But do not enter the navy until we get our grog and our prize-money."
The speaker sat down amid considerable
applause. Mr. Thomas FLETCHER, a time-worn looking salt, with white hair streaming
down on his shoulders, next came forward. He said:
FELLOW SEAMEN: I am number two
to my shipmate's remarks. I am no speaker, but I go in for making some stand
against the strong laws of the navy. What right have they to tell us that
we must give up our glass of grog - that we must go to sea and get prizes
and give twenty-five per cent to the bankers? We won't do it. Let us all stand
out and then they will have to come to. I know hundreds of men now in the
navy, whose times will soon be out, and they will never enlist until these
matters are settled.
Another burst of applause followed
the conclusion of Mr. FLETCHER'S remarks. Several other speakers addressed
the meeting, but the substance of their speeches is given in the above. The
following resolutions were adopted:
Resolved, That all American seamen
are invited to keep out of the navy until some rule is adopted which will
enable a man to get his own prize money when the list is ready, and when he
applies for it.
Resolved,
That the abolition of grog in the navy was uncalled for, and is very bad;
that it was never attempted in any other navy in the world; that the two gills
of whisky in the day which we got was not enough to intoxicate anybody, and
that those who could do without grog -- landsmen, marines and boys -- never
drank it at all.
Resolved, That we make short or
long trips in merchant vessels, as the case may answer us, until the navy
is governed in a way that will meet our views, and that we speak to every
sailor we know, and request him to abide by the decisions arrived at by us,
and that the record of this meeting be published in the leading newspapers.
Resolved, That a Committee be appointed
to effect some organization of the naval sailors now sojourning in New-York,
and that each man who is earning money devote a small part of his income to
forward the said organization.
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