The Treatment of Sailors in Hawaii 1778-1874

Abstract

In the days of sailing ships life was hard and precarious for the common sailor. After months at sea on merchant vessels whaling ships or men-of-war, the crewmen were most eager for the pleasures of the port, which included drunkenness and consorting with women. On a different level, these sailors shared traditional occupational needs with mariners of all ages: maintenance and cure (room, board and medical care on shore when injured or sick); repatriation (passage home when stranded in a foreign port): fair wages (the proper amount paid in a timely fashion, according to contract); and legal remedy (judicial or administrative enforcement of a claim for any of the above). The answer to these needs have evolved continuously since ancient times within the Admiralty courts of maritime nations in Europe and the Mediterranean Sea. The body of law so developed formed an international maritime common law, and the constitutions of the United States and Hawaii both granted to their courts the power to apply this common law in maritime cases.