Not all of our history is good. As a matter of fact, our historical missteps, demons, and wrong thinking moments prove we are as normal as the next person. It was only after fighting years for Marriage Equality and getting it that it was truly put to the test when, in order to end a relationship which in the past was accomplished with the rental of a U-Haul, now the parties had to got through a legal divorce process. And just as in the greater society, the majority of whale ship crews seem to have kept their sexual relations healthy and appear to be just as bothered with inappropriate behavior as we are now.

     A person became a Captain or master on a whaling ship by moving up from Greenhand to the higher position. The education for a captain was practical not applied theory. He knew of the conditions on board a whaling ship and by the time he became captain, knew how to prepare for a voyage and the possible conditions to be faced on it.

     Each knew there would be huge stretches of time with no contact with anyone unless they were on the ship or one they passed and the rare times they would enter a port for supplies.

     Clearly, sexual desires and how to deal with them were common knowledge and, although not an option for others on a ship, captains would occasionally bring their wives to deal with their needs while the rest of the crew had to find ways to deal with theirs. 

     Whaling was an entry level form of employment from which most left after a voyage or two during which they learned the ways of the sea, most crew members first signed up in the middle or late teens or early twenties, saw and learned about sex on the sea while the land employed peers learned the ways of sex in society on land.

     This had to create a dichotomy of things being acceptable at sea while not so on land, while some of the young crew  learned about non binary opinions and some may have found themselves in the process.

     Captains chose their crews and knew their own desires and the strength of their needs and also hired the Cabin Bo, generally a young teen and in some cases a boy was hired when reaching a foreign port and there were more flavors to choose from than Vanilla.

     It  might not have been a universal practice, but a seasoned captain would know his limits and would prepare for all contingencies of a voyage, and picking the most visually pleasing and nubile cabin box for possible use if it arises seems to have been an existing practice.

     In these cases, while in others there was a form of mutual consent, it became a person in power using that authority improperly to attain their own ends. As in any profession there are those who use their authority as a weapon to get what they want and should not be used to judge others.

     In 1860 there were two cases, Manuel Enos vs. N. W. Sowle and Manuel Viera vs. N. W. Sowle when it was still the Kingdom of Hawaii., so it was a complicated case starting with deciding whether the Hawaii Supreme Court had any jurisdiction in the case as it involved ships and citizens of the United States, business contracts, and sovereignty as the defendant in the case was a citizen of the United States and the plaintiffs Portugal.

     Manuel Enos, described in court papers as “a youth of tender years and fragile frame,” claimed that he was hired as cabin boy on the Montreal and that that, soon after sailing, Sowle attempted to commit sodomy upon him, and not only did manuelm resist the attempts, but,upon reaching California, ran away from the ship. Sowle had him brought back on board the ship, and as they sailed north, by using threats and his own physical abilities ,Sowle committed the crime of sodomy.This had Mr. Enos desert from the “Montreal” and escape to the “Dromo,” on which he sailed to Nangasaki, in Japan. Sowle caught up with him and had him forcibly carried back on board the “Montreal,” where he was again abused by Sowle. 

     Sowle’s justification for his constantly pursuing Manuel was that  Manuel Enos was under contract and his desertions went against it.

     The court took the case as the only alternative would be for Manuel to endure the remainder of his voyage unable to redress the wrong until returning to the country with jurisdiction which could take months to years and would subject the cabin boy to continued abuse. The voyage was scheduled to last from 1857 through 1862.

     Being from St. George, one of the Western Islands or Azores, Manuel was under the dominion of the Kingdom of Portugal with Portuguese parents residing on that island, was  not a citizen of the United States, the court saw the likelihood that even after the voyage returned to New Bedford, he still would be unable to redress the wrong as he had no standing in a U.S. court. At this time, it was practice that, regardless where you signed onto a ship, upon doing so you were granted citizenship, and this could have kept the case out of the Hawaiian court  if it had bought into that. This could be simply a ploy to delay any trial as a Hawaiian boarding an American ship became an American citizen, the same with a French ship, but when an American signed onto a foreign ship, they remained American.

     Enos was awarded $2,500 and court costs. The case was decided on December 11, 1860.

     In 1859, after the Enos case and needing a cabin boy, Nathaniel W. Sowle’s hired Manuel Vieira, also of the Western Islands when in Honolulu after which, “by force and threats” he abused him by repeatedly committing upon him the act of sodomy, and compelling him to submit to other unnatural indulgences, which caused him much pain and suffering” as found by the court.

     Jurisdiction was the excuse proffered for delaying any trial. However the court, judging Manuel Viera to be somewhat more mature age and of stronger frame than Manuel Enos which would have resulted in far less actual pain and suffering, and as he did not have to endure the treatment for the years Mr. Enos had, Mr. Vieira received only $1,500 and the costs of the suit.

     At the time, Sowle, born in 1815, was forty-five years old with a wife, Mary Ann, who was 10 years older than he, and a daughter Marianna. He spent some time in San Francisco, returned East dying in Rhode Island at the age of sixty. 

    The mettle of the man, Nathaniel W Sowles, as captain on a whaling vessel can be measured by what is included in the log related to his time with the cabin boys.

     The keeper of the log, Sowle himself, writes of the insubordinate and mutinous crew who injured the second mate with a knife and were thrown in irons as a result of January 11, 1861,  an attempted plot by some crew to steal a whaleboat and desert on February 14, 1861, with the mastermind thrown in irons as a result, the captain being injured by a man attempting to desert on February 25, 1861, the arrest of deserters brought back to the vessel,  deaths at sea, accidents, illnesses, mutinous behavior, fights, injuries, shipboard medicine, punishments, desertions, and the list of men discharged during the voyage. He also included mentions of crew members being drunk and one falling from the mast and breaking many bones.

     From this description alone we get an idea that the culture on that ship was not healthy in many ways beyond the treatment of the cabin boys by the captain.    

     The log book itself also defined the man as he writes many entries out of order and on occasion went back and rewrote an entry for clarity.

     Interestingly when reading the court case, the major concern was not about the acceptability or lack thereof concerning the captain's behavior as it related to the wrongful exercise of authority and power and the strength of the contract between the cabin boy and the captain.

    Another sign that attitudes toward sexuality were not the same then as now as, if only aboard ship as looking at the dates,once again. the Gay/Straight binary seems to be of little consequence to anyone. There may be some cosmic response to Nathaniel W. Sowles's actions as his time spent in San Francisco was as a carpenter leaving one to wonder if this was a totaly voluntary decision or one forced on him by a whaling company that was spending money on covering his lawsuits.   

     An account of the trial can be found here: https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn82015418/1860-12-20/ed-1/seq-5/

The Court summed up the Manuel Enos case this way