History of merchant shipping and ancient commerce, Volume 3 (of 4)

by W. S. Lindsay

APPENDIX No. 2.

Boston, United States,
21st September, 1860.

My Lord,

Mr. Hammond was good enough to read to me a letter which Lord John Russell had addressed to your Lordship on the subject of my visit to the United States. As reports have been current since then that my visit to this country was one of a semi-official character, I may remark that I am here merely in search of a little recreation after the labours of the session. But as I am intimate with many of the leading Shipowners and merchants of this country, Lord John Russell was pleased to furnish me with copies of the correspondence which had passed between our own Government and that of the United States with regard to various maritime questions (to which, as your Lordship may be aware, my attention has for some years been directed), in the hope that I might be able to aid your Lordship in their settlement.

These papers I have studied on the passage to this place. I see they deal with questions of very considerable importance to both countries; but there are also others which equally impede our commercial intercourse, and all these various questions are well worthy of consideration, and should be adjusted as soon as possible. They are:—

1st. The rules of the road at sea and collisions.

2nd. Signal lights.

3rd. Limitation of Shipowners’ liability.

4th. The Foreign Deserter’s Act.

5th. The punishment of offences committed on the high seas.

6th. The settlement of disputes between the masters of ships and their crews in foreign ports; and the extension of the use of our shipping offices to the vessels of the United States.

There are, besides these questions, others of a much more difficult and delicate character, such as belligerent rights of sea, the coasting trade of the United States, and the registration in America of British-built ships, all of great political as well as commercial importance, and therefore I fear my services in their solution can be of little value. It is, however, my intention to enter into conversation bearing upon all these questions with the leading merchants and Shipowners to whom I am known; and with the Presidents of the Chambers of Commerce of this and other places, including New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Portland, and various seaports in the New England States to whom I have letters of introduction. I shall at least ascertain their views, and may thus be enabled to pave the way to the settlement of some of those questions. And if I find that their views can be brought into harmony with those entertained by our own Government, I shall endeavour to prevail upon the different bodies to memorialise their Government on the subject.

My first, and I fear imperfect, impressions in regard to the questions I have named may be briefly stated as follows:—

1st. The rules of the road at sea.—I think these rules should be the same for the vessels of all nations. Different opinions prevail in regard to our own rules; but, though they differ from the old maritime law (acted upon by almost every other nation and at times by ourselves), and are an improvement upon it, the decisions in our Admiralty Courts are too often conflicting. Our rules, as a whole, are perhaps, however, more satisfactory than those of any other. But be that as it may, it would be most desirable if all nations would agree to adopt one and the same rule of road at sea, and would tend greatly to the safety of life and property.

2nd. Signal lights.—Our recent regulations in regard to lights have answered very well, and have been adopted by the owners of steam-vessels belonging to the United States. The application of these rules to sailing vessels is all that is now necessary, and is very desirable.

3rd. The limitation of shipowners’ liability.—This is a question of great importance, and the laws in regard to it are in an unsatisfactory state. May I refer your Lordship to the evidence taken last session before the select committee on merchant shipping on this subject, and to their report? From the correspondence I have read I think the Government of the United States might be induced to adopt the principles laid down in that report. If so, it might then (as the laws of each country are similar) be mutually arranged by a convention, or otherwise, to place our ships and those of the United States respectively, on an equal footing with regard to claims raised in the courts of either country in respect of any loss of life or personal injury arising from collisions at sea, so as to limit such claims to the same extent in each case, and also that the mode of procedure shall be as provided by the laws of the country where the claim is made.

4th. The application of our Foreign Deserter’s Act to the ships of the United States.—As your Lordship is aware, the United States Government has positively declined to become a party to this Act, because it contains the words “not being slaves,” which were inserted, I believe, after the Bill was introduced. Now it appears to me that there is no necessity for these words. The Act is meant to deal solely with voluntary agents, who, having of their own free will entered into an agreement, break it at foreign ports. I think the case would be met if instead of the words “not being slaves” there were substituted the following words—“seamen who have voluntarily engaged themselves in, or apprentices duly indentured to, the sea service.” I question if there are any cases on record where slaves have been shipped as seamen to English ports.

5th. Offences committed on the high seas.—Your Lordship cannot fail to be aware of the unsatisfactory state of the law in regard to these offences. Why, on the representation of the ministers or consuls, should the courts of England and of the United States not have jurisdiction over offences committed on board of vessels of the respective countries? I ask this question because I can at present see no objection to the principle I have ventured to lay down, though the mode of putting it into practice would require some consideration, and could best be dealt with by the legal authorities of the two countries. The same may be said with regard to the settlement of disputes between masters and crews in the ports of either country.

6th. The extension of our shipping offices to the vessels of the United States.—If the Government of the United States would not agree to establish similar offices and a machinery somewhat in accordance with our own (I see no reason why such offices which have answered so well in England should not be adopted), then we might stipulate that all British seamen entering the service of American Shipowners in the ports of Great Britain should be engaged before our shipping masters, and we might grant to American shipowners the privilege of engaging all the seamen their vessels required (when in any of the ports of Great Britain), through the medium of our offices, on the same conditions as our own shipowners now engage their seamen. This would pave the way to an international arrangement, and tend to abolish the system of crimpage which still prevails to a great extent in our ports, and is alike injurious to the interests of British and American shipowners.

Though belligerent rights, the coasting trade, and the admission of British-built ships to American registration are difficult questions for me to deal with, involving as they do the policy of the respective nations bearing upon other interests than those of commerce, I may remark that it is easy of proof in regard to the two latter that the policy of the United States, while it is unjust towards England, is injurious to the people of America, and contrary to the principles laid down by their own most eminent statesmen in their intercourse with other countries. Nevertheless, I fear the Government of the United States will not be disposed to make concessions unless we are prepared to make a bargain with them. With that object in view, I think if we agreed to relieve the shipowners of the United States from the charge of light dues on our coast (which have been the source of great complaint), and also from compulsory pilotage as recommended in the merchant shipping report; provided they opened to us the trade between their eastern and western ports, viâ Panama and round Cape Horn, if not prepared to throw open entirely their coasting trade, some progress might be made. The Government of the United States might also be induced to make some concession with regard to the registration of British-built ships, for through the want of iron screw vessels (which cannot be produced at as moderate a price in the States) they are fast losing the most valuable portion of the trade between England and this country. And their coasting trade (especially that on the inland lakes) is not developed to one-half the extent it would be if the Shipowners of America were allowed to own the description of vessels I have named. They are also losing the share they once had of the Newfoundland fisheries from the fact that we can produce in the colonies vessels adapted for that trade at 25 per cent. less cost than they can build and equip similar vessels.

I daresay your Lordship can form little idea of the hindrance to commerce and the constant irritation the questions I have named create on both sides of the Atlantic; and I hope by holding intercourse with the people of this country to pave the way, as I have said, for the settlement of at least some of them. With that object I shall take notes of the opinions entertained by the members of the different Chambers of Commerce and Boards of Trade throughout this country, and also the views of those members of the government whom I may meet, and which I shall forward to your Lordship, and if you think any satisfactory results are likely to follow, you may then deem it desirable to communicate with Lord John Russell, with a view of entering into formal negotiations with the Government of the United States. I have for many years anxiously desired to see settled these various questions, considering their settlement of great importance to both countries; and if I can, in the way I propose, aid your Lordship in this good work, my long promised visit to this country, though made with no such object, will not be made in vain.

I am, my Lord,
Your faithful and obedient servant,
(Signed) W. S. Lindsay.

To His Excellency Lord Lyons,
H. B. Majesty’s Minister,
&c. &c. &c.,
Washington.