Seamen in the Royal Navy.— It is still lawful to impress men for the naval service, subject to certain exemptions (13 Geo. II. c. 17). Among the persons exempt are seamen in the merchant service. In cases of emergency officers and men of the coastguard and revenue cruisers, seamen riggers, and pensioners may be required to serve in the navy (16 and 17 Vict. c. 73). There appears to be no other instance (now that balloting for the militia is suspended) where a subject may be forced into the service of the crown against his will. The navy is, however, at the present day wholly recruited by voluntary enlistment. The navy estimates of 1885 provided for 59,000 men (see Navy). Special advantages are afforded by the Merchant Shipping Act, 1854, to merchant seamen enlisting in the navy. They are enabled to leave their ship without punishment or forfeiture in order to join the naval service. The discipline of the navy is, unlike that of the army, for which an annual Army Act is necessary, regulated by a permanent Act of Parliament, that now in force being the Naval Discipline Act, 1866. In addition to numerous hospitals and infirmaries in the United Kingdom and abroad, the great charity of Greenwich Hospital is a mode of provision for old and disabled seamen in the navy (see Greenwich). At present such seamen are out-pensioners only; the hospital has been for some years used as the Royal Naval College for officer students. The enactments of the Merchant Shipping Act, 1854, as to savings banks were extended to seamen in the navy by 18 and 19 Vict. c. 91, s. 17. Enlistment without the licence of the crown in the naval service of a foreign state at war with another foreign state that is at peace with the United Kingdom is an offence punishable under the Foreign Enlistment Act, 1870. Any person buying from a seaman or enticing a seaman to sell Government property is liable to penalties under the Seamen’s Clothing Act, 1869.

Merchant Seamen.— Most of the Acts dealing with this subject, commencing with 8 Eliz. c. 13, were repealed by 17 and 18 Vict. c. 120, after having been consolidated and extended by the Merchant Shipping Act, 1854 (17 and 18 Vict. c. 104). The main part of the legislation affecting seamen in the merchant service occurs in the third part of this Act. Since 1854 numerous amending

Acts have been passed, amounting to no less than eleven in number. They are cited collectively as “The Merchant Shipping Acts, 1854 to 1883.” The enactment of a new consolidation Act is urgently required, and can be only a question of time. The Merchant Shipping Act, 1854, defines a seaman to be “every person (except masters, pilots, and apprentices duly indentured and registered) employed or engaged in any capacity on board any ship” (s. 2). It should be noticed that most of the enactments relating to merchant seamen do not affect seamen employed on foreign vessels, on fishing boats on the coasts of the United Kingdom, on vessels belonging to the Trinity House, the Commissioners of Northern Lighthouses, and the port of Dublin corporation, and on pleasure yachts. The principal provisions of the Merchant Shipping Acts dealing with seamen are as follows. Where no other reference is given, the Act of 1854 is intended. An elective local marine board under the general supervision of the Board of Trade is appointed in the principal ports of the United Kingdom. One of the duties of the board is the establishment of mercantile marine offices under superintendents or deputy superintendents. It is the general business of such officers to afford facilities for engaging seamen by keeping registries of their names and characters, to superintend and facilitate their engagement and discharge, to provide means for securing the presence on board at the proper times of men who are so engaged, and to facilitate the making of apprenticeships to the sea service (s. 124). A seaman must be hired before a superintendent or deputy superintendent, an officer of customs, or a consular officer on a form sanctioned by the Board of Trade (usually called the shipping articles) containing the following particulars :—(1) the nature and, as far as practicable, the duration of the intended voyage or engagement, or the maximum period of the voyage or engagement, and the places or parts of the world (if any) to which the voyage or engagement is not to extend; (2) the number and description of the crew, specifying how many are employed as sailors; (3) the time at which each seaman is to be on board or to begin work; (4) the capacity in which each seaman is to serve; (5) the amount of wages which each seaman is to receive; (6) a scale of the provisions which are to be furnished to each seaman; (7) any regulations as to conduct on board and as to fines, short allowance of provisions, or other lawful punishments for misconduct, which have been sanctioned by the Board of Trade as regulations proper to be adopted, and which the parties agree to adopt. Every agreement is to be framed so as to admit of stipulations as to allotment of wages, and may contain any other stipulations not contrary to law (s. 149, as amended by the Act of 1873 and the Merchant Seamen Act, 1880). Among illegal stipulations would fall any agreement by a seaman to give up his right to salvage, to forfeit his lien on the ship, or to be deprived of any remedy for the recovery of wages to which he would otherwise have been entitled (s. 182). In the case of foreign-going ships the following rules in addition must be observed :—(1) every agreement made in the United Kingdom (except agreements with substitutes) is to be signed by each seaman in the presence of the superintendent of a mercantile marine office; (2) the superintendent is to cause the agreement to be read over and explained to 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 substitutes, they are where possible to be engaged before a superintendent, in other cases the agreement is to be read over and explained to the seaman by the master and signed by the seaman in the presence of a witness (s. 150). The only cases where no agreement 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 presence of and attested by two justices. No stamp duty is chargeable 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 discharge. 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 pursuant 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 provisions; 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 wages 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 Vict 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 Vict, 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 forfeit 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 Vict. 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 Vict. c. 124, ss. 9, 10).

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 lodginghouses, 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 Vict. c. 41, s. 48). Provision is made tor the protection of seamen from imposition 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 Vict. 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 superintendent of a mercantile marine office containing, inter alia, the following 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 Vict. 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 punishment 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 reasonable 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 misdemeanour. 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 Vict. 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 Vict. c. 100, s. 40. There are special enactments in favour of Lascars and foreign seamen on British ships (see 4 Geo. IV. c. 80; 17 and 18 Vict. c. 104, s. 544; 17 and 18 Vict. c. 120, s. 16; 18 and 19 Vict. 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’ officere, the periodical survey of ships by the Board of Trade, and the enactments against deck cargoes and overloading, as well as by other Acts, such as the Chain Cables and Anchors Acts, enforcing a minimum strength of cables and anchors, and the Passenger Acts, under which a proper supply of life-boats and life-buoys must be provided. The duties of the seamen appear to be to obey the master in all lawful matters relating to the navigation of the ship and to resist enemies, to encourage him in which he may become entitled to prize money under 22 and 23 Car. II. c. 11 (see Prize). Any services beyond these would fall under the head of salvage service and be recompensed accordingly. There are certain offences for which the seaman is liable to be summarily punished under the Act of 1854. They comprise desertion, neglect or refusal to join his ship or absence without leave, quitting the ship without leave before she is placed in security, wilful disobedience to a lawful command, either on one occasion or continued, assault upon a master or mate, combining to disobey lawful commands or to neglect duty or to impede the navigation of the ship or the progress of the voyage, wilful damage to the ship, or embezzlement of or wilful damage to her stores or cargo, and smuggling. The punishment varies from forfeiture of all or part of his wages to twelve weeks’ imprisonment (s. 243, as amended by the Merchant Seamen Act, 1880). A master, seaman, or apprentice who by wilful breach of duty, or by neglect of duty, or by reason of drunkenness, does any act tending to the immediate loss, destruction, or serious damage of the ship or to immediately endanger the life or limb of any person belonging to or on board of the ship, or who by wilful breach of duty, or by neglect of duty, or by reason of drunkenness refuses or omits to do any...