The Film: Interview Transcripts: Walter Rybka

Captain Walter Rybka, Senior Captain, U.S. Brig Niagara, Program Director, Erie Maritime Museum, Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, on
common bonds
Something that white sailors had in common with black sailors was that they were outside the mainstream of the society.  Seamen were often recruited from the poor.  They’re traveling all over the world, but they are away from home for longs period of time. 

They might lack ties in a community; they might lack family; and so the landspeople look at them as this threatening “other”.  It’s the type of adventurous situation where maybe every boy thinks about running away to be one, but no father wants his daughter to marry one. 

And, so, seamen themselves were subject to frequent exploitation.   They’d sign contracts for the duration of the voyage, receive no wages until the end of a voyage, and if they violated their agreement in any way, they could forfeit their wages entirely.  So, they’re largely at the whim of their employer, their captain.  They are subject to much harsher discipline than anybody ashore was.  They had much less freedom to change position or change jobs.  So, on the one hand, they are very proud of their abilities to their skills, their ability to face hardship and danger, but at the same time, they are also recognized that they have limited freedoms, they are subject to various privations and hardships.  They are subject to discrimination, and I think that might make the white seamen somewhat more sympathetic to the position of a black man coming into their midst, especially if he came in with skills and could work as their equal. 

work for equal pay