Encyclopaedia Britannica > Volume 21, ROT-Siam

606 SEA
each seaman, or otherwise to ascertain that each seaman understands
the same before he signs it, and is to attest each signature; (3)
the agreement is to be in duplicate, one part to be retained by the
superintendent, the other by the master; (4) in the case of sub¬
stitutes, they are where possible to be. engaged before a superin¬
tendent, in other cases the agreement is to be read over and ex¬
plained to the seaman by the master and signed by the seaman in
the presence of a witness (s. 150). The only cases where no agree¬
ment in writing is necessary is where the hiring is for a coaster of
less than eighty tons register or for a foreign vessel. In the case
of union apprentices the indentures must be executed in the pre¬
sence of and attested by two justices. No stamp duty is charge¬
able on indentures for the sea service. In the case of foreign-
going ships making voyages averaging less than six months in
duration, running agreements with the crew may be made (s. 151).
No person unlicensed by the Board of Trade, other than a master
or mate or agent of the owner, may engage or supply seamen.
The discharge of a seaman, like his engagement, must take place
before a superintendent or an officer of equivalent authority.
The seaman is entitled to receive a certificate of service and dis¬
charge. His wages must be paid within a limited time from his
discharge, varying according to circumstances, and are not now
dependent, as they were at common law, upon the earning of
freight. If he is discharged before a month’s wages are earned,
he is entitled to a month’s wages. As far as possible, payment
is to be made in money and not by bill. In the absence of special
stipulations, wages are not generally due until the contract of
service is complete. By 8 Geo. I. c. 24, s. 7, a master may not
advance a seaman more than half his wages while abroad. Sums
recoverable as wages are, in addition to wages properly so called,
the expenses of subsistence and of the voyage home when a ship is
sold or transferred abroad, and the master does not deposit with a
consular officer a sufficient sum for the seaman’s expenses pursu¬
ant to s. 205 ; the expenses of a seaman left behind or discharged
from a British ship, or a British subject from a foreign ship,
out of the United Kingdom ; allowance for short or bad pro¬
visions ; the moneys and effects of a deceased seaman who has been
employed on a British ship ; expenses caused by illness from want
of proper food and accommodation and medicines ; and double pay
for every day, not exceeding ten, during which payment of wages
is delayed without proper cause. Wages cannot be attached. They
may be forfeited or reduced by desertion, wilful disobedience,
smuggling, want of exertion in case of wreck, illness caused by
neglect or default of the seaman, and misconduct of other kinds.
Advance notes—that is, documents promising the future payment
of money on account of a seaman’s wTages conditionally on his going
to sea and made before the wages have been earned—are void, and
no money paid in respect of an advance note can be deducted from
the wages earned, Merchant Seamen (Payment of Wages and Rating)
Act, 1880 (43 and 44 Yict. c. 16, s. 2). Allotment notes may be
made in the form sanctioned by the Board of Trade, and may
stipulate for the allotment of not more than half the seaman’s
wages in favour of a wife, parent, grandparent, child, grandchild,
brother or sister (s. 169), or of a savings bank (43 and 44 Yict.
c. 16, s. 3). Seamen’s savings banks have been established and are
administered by the Board of Trade, chiefly under the powers given
by the Seamen’s Savings Banks Act, 1856. If during the absence
of a seaman on a voyage his wife and family become chargeable to
the parish, two-thirds of his wages at the most are all that can be
recovered by the parish. Careful provision is made for the custody
of a deceased seaman’s effects and wages, and their delivery to his
representatives. The possibility of a seaman’s being left destitute
abroad is provided against by ss. 206, 207. Consular officers abroad
are bound to send home any distressed or shipwrecked seaman,
the expenses being chargeable upon the mercantile marine fund.
Compensation is to be made for insufficiency or bad quality of
provisions or water on board. If a complaint of the quality or
sufficiency be frivolous, the persons complaining are liable to for¬
feit a week’s wages. All foreign-going ships are to carry proper
medicines and medical stores. Lime and lemon juice and other
antiscorbutics are to be provided on ships bound to foreign ports
other than ports in Europe and the north of North America. An
ounce a day of lime or lemon juice is to be served to each member
of the crew after the ship has been at sea for ten days (Act of 1867,
30 and 31 Yict. c. 124, s. 4). A foreign-going ship having one
hundred persons or upwards on board must carry a qualified medical
man (s. 130). Each seaman or apprentice is entitled to a space of
not less than 72 cubic feet, the place to be securely constructed,
properly lighted and ventilated, and properly protected from
weather and sea, and as far as possible from effluvium caused by
cargo or bilge-water. The place is to be inspected and certified by
a surveyor of the Board of Trade, and to be kept free from goods
and stores. The local marine board (or the Board of Trade where
there is no local marine board) may appoint a medical inspector
of seamen, who may on application by the master or owner report
to the superintendent of the mercantile marine office as to whether
any seaman is fit for duty (30 and 31 Yict. c. 124, ss. 9, 10).
MEN
Bye-laws and regulations relating to seamen’s lodging-houses may
be made by the sanitary authority of any seaport town with the
sanction of the president of the Board of Trade. Such bye-laws
and regulations are to provide for the licensing of seamen’s lodging-
houses, the inspection of the same, the sanitary conditions of the
same, the publication of the fact of a house being licensed, the due
execution of the bye-laws and regulations and the non-obstruction
of persons engaged in securing such execution, the preventing of
persons not duly licensed holding themselves out as keeping or
purporting to keep licensed houses, and the exclusion from licensed
houses of persons of improper character (46 and 47 Yict. c. 41,
s. 48). Provision is made for the protection of seamen from im¬
position by crimps and lodging-house keepers. This protection may
in certain cases be extended by order in council to foreign ships
(s. 237, and 43 and 44 Viet. c. 16, ss. 5, 6). At the time of discharge
of the crew in the United Kingdom a list in the form sanctioned by
the Board of Trade is to be made out and delivered to a superintend¬
ent of a mercantile marine office containing, inter alia, the follow¬
ing particulars :—(1) the number and date of the ship’s register and
her registered tonnage ; (2) the length and general nature of the
voyage or employment; (3) the Christian names, surnames, ages, and
places of birth of all the crew, including the master and apprentices,
their qualities on board, their last ships or other employments, and
the dates and places of their joining the ship ; (4) the names of any
members of the crew who have been maimed or hurt, with the times,
places, causes, and circumstances thereof; (5) the wages due at the
time of their respective deaths to any of the crew who have died;
(6) the clothes and other effects belonging to any of the crew who
have died, with a statement of the manner in which they have been
dealt with, and the money for which any of them have been sold
(s. 273). Every birth or death occurring at sea is to be recorded in
the log-book and reported on arrival at any port in the United
Kingdom to the registrar-general of shipping and seamen, who
forwards a certified copy to the registrar-general of births and
deaths (37 and 38 Viet. c. 88, s. 37). An official log-book in a form
sanctioned by the Board of Trade is to be kept by the master of
every ship except a coaster. It must contain, inter alia, (1)
every legal conviction of any member of his crew and the punish¬
ment inflicted ; (2) every offence committed by any member of his
crew for which it is intended to prosecute, or to enforce a forfeiture,
or to exact a fine, together with a statement concerning the reading
over of such entry and concerning the reply (if any) made to the
charge; (3) every offence for which punishment is inflicted on board,
and the punishment inflicted ; (4) a statement of the conduct,
character, and qualifications of each of his crew, or a statement that
he declines to give an opinion on such particulars; (5) every case
of illness or injury happening to any member of the crew, with the
nature thereof and the medical treatment adopted (if any); (6) the
name of every .seaman or apprentice who ceases to be a member of
the crew, otherwise than by death, with the time, place, manner,
and cause thereof; (7) the amount of wages due to any seaman who
enters Her Majesty’s service during the voyage ; (8) the wages due
to any seaman or apprentice who dies during the voyage, and the
gross amount of all deductions to be made therefrom ; (9) the sale
of the effects of any seaman or apprentice who dies during the
voyage, including a statement of each article sold and of the sum
received for it (s. 282). At common law there was no obligation
of the owner to provide a seaworthy ship, but by the Act of 1876
every person who sends or attempts to send, or is party to sending
or attempting to send, a British ship to sea in such unseaworthy
state that the life of any person is likely to be thereby endangered
is guilty of a misdemeanour, unless he proves that he used all reason¬
able means to insure her being sent to sea in a seaworthy state, or
that her going to sea in such unseaworthy state was under the
circumstances reasonable and justifiable. A master knowingly
taking a British ship to sea in such unseaworthy state that the life
of any person is likely to be thereby endangered is guilty of a mis¬
demeanour. In every contract of service between the owner and the
master or any seaman and in every indenture of sea apprenticeship,
an obligation is implied that the owner, master, and agent shall
use all reasonable means to insure the seaworthiness of the ship
(39 and 40 Yict. c. 80, ss. 4, 5). A return of certain particulars, such
as lists of crews and of distressed seamen sent home from abroad,
reports on discharge, births and deaths at sea, must be made to the
registrar-general of shipping and seamen, an officer of the Board of
Trade. The seaman is privileged in the matter of wills (see Will),
and is exempt from serving in the militia (42 Geo. III. c. 90, s. 43).
Assaults upon seamen with intent to prevent them working at their
occupation are punishable summarily by 24 and 25 Yict. c. 100; s.
40. There are special enactments in favour of Lascars and foreign
seamen on British ships (see 4 Geo. IY. c. 80 ; 17 and 18 Yict. c. 104,
s. 544; 17 and 18 Viet. c. 120, s. 16; 18 and 19 Yict. c. 91, s. 16).
In addition to this legislation directly in his interest, the seaman
is indirectly protected by the provisions of the Merchant Shipping
Acts requiring the possession of certificates of competence by ships’
officers, the periodical survey of ships by the Board of Trade, and
the enactments against deck cargoes and overloading, as well as by