It would weary my readers were I to give further details of the different modes established in other nations for securing the due qualifications of masters and seamen, or for providing institutions for their benefit in sickness and old age. With the exception of Greenwich Hospital, created for the benefit of seamen serving in the Royal Navy, England possesses no State institution appropriated exclusively for the education of our merchant seamen, or for their benefit in sickness or old age. The Merchant Seaman’s Fund was abolished[17] in 1851; and I know of no institution in this country where the aged seaman can find refuge, except one which was recently established, and is maintained by voluntary subscriptions.[18] There are, of course, numerous charitable institutions—far more than in any other country—where seamen, as well as all other classes of the community, are to some extent provided for. But it is to be regretted that, when the Merchant Seaman’s Fund was abolished, some great institution, under the authority of the State, to be supported mainly by the seamen, as well as by voluntary contributions and otherwise, was not then attempted for their special use, so as to afford them some certainty that they would receive either outdoor or indoor relief (the former is preferable) when no longer able to provide for themselves.[19]
Institution in Norway.
One of the best of these institutions was formed in Norway, in conformity with the royal rescript of the 23rd December, 1834. It is maintained, by voluntary contributions from seamen and others, by penalties arising from offences of seamen, and, in some measure, by Government aid. The claimants on this society are those seamen who, while employed, contribute regularly to its funds. Its affairs are managed by directors consisting chiefly of shipmasters. Seamen who, on foreign voyages, leave their vessels without permission of the master, lose any rights they may have acquired; while such of them as are entitled to claim, or their relicts, must prove to the satisfaction of the directors that they stand in need of aid. Shipwrecked seamen also receive aid from this society.
Institutions like these, combined with the course of examination required from all men holding responsible positions on board ship, tend materially to improve the condition of foreign seamen, and to give them advantages too long withheld from the British. These advantages, combined with the unwise protection afforded by the Navigation Laws to the shipowners and seamen of Great Britain, gave foreign nations, for a time, a decided superiority over them. Indeed, it was found that during the first half of the present century neither the ships nor their crews kept pace with those of other maritime nations, till at length it became necessary to adopt measures, not merely for the improvement of the condition of our ships, but likewise for raising our seafaring population, by means of a sound education, to such a position as would enable them to compete successfully under all circumstances with the ships and seamen of other states.
Foreign Office circular of July 1, 1843.
Its value, though unfair and one-sided.
With that important object in view, the English Foreign Office issued a circular on the 1st July, 1843, to all our consuls abroad, requesting information respecting the conduct and character of British shipmasters and seamen frequenting foreign ports; the replies to which produced a large mass of valuable information, presented to Parliament in 1848.[20] But this information would have been still more valuable had it been obtained in a less one-sided and invidious manner. “I am particularly desirous,” remarks the writer of the circular, Mr. James Murray, “of gaining information in regard to instances which have come under your observation of the incompetency of British shipmasters to manage their vessels and their crews, whether arising from deficiency of knowledge of practical navigation and seamanship, or of moral character, particularly want of sobriety.... My object is to show the necessity for more authoritative steps on the part of Her Majesty’s Government to remedy what appears to be an evil, detrimental to, and seriously affecting the character of, our commercial marine, and therefore advantageous to foreign rivals, whose merchant vessels are said to be exceedingly well manned and navigated.”
Replies to circular.
Mr. Consul Booker.
With this assumption, that British ships and seamen did exhibit the inferiority suggested by the writer of the circular, it was but natural that the answers to it should, as a rule, be in conformity with the prejudged and premature opinions expressed in it. Voluminous documents poured in from the different consulates, and, certainly, some of them contained charges of the gravest character against the owners and crews of our merchant fleet. The first is a letter (11th July, 1843) from Vice-Consul Booker, at Cronstadt, who seems to have ransacked his archives, containing, as these did, the results of an experience of fifty-nine years—to discover materials whereon he could ground a charge against the British sailors; but, while admitting that drunkenness was their principal failing, and that it was “a rare circumstance that a master is unfit to clear his ship either inwards or outwards,” he added: “It does not happen above two or three times in the year, in which case I get hold of the mate, and no stoppage ensues; and, in the intermediate time, when the ship is loading, the master, if the worse for liquor, avoids the office.” Of the seamen he remarked: “The crews behave like too many common Englishmen; take their glass freely when they can get it, and sell or pawn their clothes when they have no money; get into scrapes on a Sunday night, and are brought before me on a Monday, lectured, and discharged.”