This reliable George was, in short, a nautical training-school of the best kind and any young seaman with the right stuff in him was sure of advancement.
Seven thousand sailors signed articles in the counting-room of Joseph Peabody and went to sea in his eighty ships which flew the house-flag in Calcutta, Canton, Sumatra, and the ports of Europe until 1844.

These were mostly New England boys who followed in the footsteps of their fathers because deep-water voyages were still "adventures" and a career was possible under a system which was both congenial and paternal.
Brutal treatment was the rare exception.

Flogging still survived in the merchant service and was defended by captains otherwise humane, but a skipper, no matter how short-tempered, would be unlikely to abuse a youth whose parents might live on the same street with him and attend the same church.
The Atlantic packets brought a different order of things, which was to be continued through the clipper era.

Yankee sailors showed no love for the cold and storms of the Western Ocean in these foaming packets which were remorselessly driven for speed.

The masters therefore took what they could get.