CHAPTER VII.

WHAT THE CONSERVATIVE AND UNIONIST PARTY HAVE DONE FOR SEAMEN AND FISHERMEN.

I. SEAMEN.

The Merchant Shipping Acts.-The older laws relating to our merchant navy and the sailors who man it were amended and consolidated in the Merchant Shipping Act of 1854. Twenty years later the circumstances of our seamen, and the loss of life that was traceable to the sending of ships to sea in an unseaworthy condition, required legislative interference. The leading part in directing attention to these evils was taken by Mr. Samuel Plimsoll, M.P., and in 1875 Lord Beaconsfield's Conservative Government introduced and carried through Parliament a temporary measure giving further powers to the Board of Trade for stopping unseaworthy ships leaving British ports. In the following year the temporary Act was repealed, and the Merchant Shipping Act, 1876, was passed.1

The sending of an unseaworthy ship to sea was made a misdemeanour. It was enacted that it should be an implied obligation in every contract of service between the owner of a ship and the master or any seaman, that all reasonable means should be used to ensure the seaworthiness of the ship. Large powers were given to the Board of Trade to detain unsafe ships, and provision was made for the appointment of detaining officers at ports, and for courts of survey for appeals. Provisions were also made for detaining foreign ships rendered unsafe by overloading or improper loading at a British port, and the existing regulations as to sea-going passenger ships and emigrant ships were amended, a proper supply of signals of distress, inextinguishable lights, and life-buoys being enforced. Precautions were provided against the shifting of grain cargoes, and important regulations were made directed to discourage deck cargoes, and prohibiting carrying deck-loads of timber in winter. The distinct marking of deck and load-lines was enforced, and the obliterating or submerging of these lines by overloading was prohibited under a substantial penalty. Wreck Commissioners 139 & 40 Vict. c. 80.

were appointed to investigate into shipping casualties, and registration of the name of the managing owner or ship's husband of every registered British ship was enjoined under a severe penalty upon each owner.

From 1876 to 1890, 701 ships were detained under the provisions of this Act as unsafe on account of defects in the hull or equipment, and 562 for faults in loading. Only 16 out of the whole 1263 were found on examination to be safe. We can thus form some idea of the lives that have been saved by this truly Conservative legislation.

Two unimportant Acts were passed under Mr. Gladstone's Government in 1880 and 1882, and another providing for the safe carriage of grain cargoes (1880).1

Under Lord Salisbury's Administration further measures have been passed directed to promote the safety of life at sea. In 1887 the Merchant Shipping Acts 2 were amended in some small particulars. In 1888 (by the Merchant Shipping Life Saving Appliances Act) it was enacted that "it shall be the duty of the owner and master of every British ship to see that it is provided with such boats, life-jackets, and other appliances for saving life at sea, as having regard to the nature of the service on which the ship is employed, and the avoidance of undue encumbrance of the ship's deck, are best adapted for securing the safety of her crew and passengers. Provision was made for appointing a consultative committee to frame rules under the Act, and penalties were imposed for failure to provide or maintain in good condition, or keep at all times fit and ready for use, the appliances required under these rules.

By the Lloyd's Signal Stations Act of the same year, large powers were given "for the purpose of assisting in the preservation of life, and in the interests of trade and navigation" to "the Society and Corporation incorporated under the name of Lloyd's," to acquire-compulsorily, if necessary—land for signal stations and signal houses, and to arrange for telegraphic communication with them, round the British coasts. By the Customs Law Amendment Act of 1887,5 seamen were protected against arbitrary imprisonment for contraventions of the Custom laws for which they were not personally responsible.

In 1889 the law as to the measurement of tonnage of merchant ships was amended, the proper colours to be shown by British merchant vessels were prescribed, an important measure was placed on the statute-book dealing with pilotage, and imposing a penalty on the employment of unqualified pilots, and an Act was passed providing for the recovery of

disbursements properly made by the master of a ship, and imposing restrictions on advance-notes by providing that a month's wages should be the limit of advance conditionally on going to sea, and that any agreement for payment conditionally on going to sea beyond that limit should be void, that no money so paid should be set off or deducted from the seamen's wages, and that no action should lie against the seaman or his assignee in respect of any money so paid or purporting to have been so paid.

In 18901 the provisions of the Act of 1876 as to load-line were amended, by substituting the words "shall indicate the maximum load-line in salt water to which it shall be lawful to load the ship," for the words "shall indicate the maximum loadline in salt water to which the owner intends to load the ship for that voyage." The position of the mark was also ordered to be fixed in accordance with the tables framed by the Load-line Committee, and provisions were made for supervision by a committee, and regulations by the Board of Trade. Steps were taken without delay by the Government to carry out this Act, and a consultative committee was appointed representing the different interests to frame rules for compelling the adoption of improved appliances for saving life at sea.

In 1892 an Act 2 further amending the Merchant Shipping Act was passed. It enacted that ships with submerged loadlines should be deemed "unsafe," and such submersion reasonable and probable cause for the detention of the ship; imposed a penalty up to £100 on persons not complying with the Board of Trade Regulations as to certificates of the draught of water, &c., of a ship; and provided for the inspection of the provisions and water of the crews of ships going through the Suez Canal, or round the Cape of Good Hope or Cape Horn.

The importance of this shipping legislation, even regarded from the point of view of those who man our ships alone, and without reference to the enormous influence our shipping interest has on the general trade and prosperity of the country, may be estimated from the fact that the tonnage of British and foreign vessels entered and cleared with cargoes and in ballast in 1892 was 75,867,000 tons, of which 54,373,000 were British. It is also interesting to note that the increase was 13,026.000 tons in the period from 1886 to 1892, and that the British vessels registered under the Merchant Shipping Acts increased during the same period by 1,282,000 tons, and the number of persons employed thereon by 34,000 (between 1886 and 1890).

At the Annual Conference of the Amalgamated Sailors and Firemen's Union, opened in London on October 5, 1891, the opening address was delivered by Mr. Samuel Plimsoll (Gladstonian), formerly M.P. for Derby, whose self-sacrificing efforts 53 Vict. c. 8. 55 & 56 Vict. c. 37.

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during many years in the cause of our seafaring population are universally acknowledged.

He concluded his address with the following remarkable words :

"I cannot conclude this address without again expressing my thanks to Her Majesty's Ministers for the sympathy and aid which they have given to me and to seamen at all times. I think that if Her Majesty's present Ministers retain power, we are on the high road to a state of things which should remove from us the deep national reproach which at present attaches to us from our neglect of our fellow-subjects at sea. For my own part, therefore, although I am a Radical, and although I recognise with gratitude all the good which the Liberal party has done for the nation, I dread more than I can say any change in the position of political parties, as I feel sure that the fair hopes which we now indulge in on behalf of the seamen will have to be abandoned if we lose the present Government; and I earnestly recommend seamen, and all other working men who care for sailors' wives and sailors' children, to do their very best at the next general election to keep the Conservatives in power."

Mr. Plimsoll had already in the House of Commons, on 14th May 1873, used these words, which subsequent experience has amply verified :—

"I am a Liberal of the Liberals. I have supported Liberal measures ever since I came into this House, but it has been borne into my mind that the interests of the working classes, when at issue between themselves and capitalists, are safer with the Conservatives than the Liberals. I suppose the working classes of the country will not be slow in arriving at that conclusion, which has been forced upon my mind.”

II.-FISHERMEN.

The claims and condition of the industrious portion of the population engaged in the fishing industry have not been forgotten by Conservative statesmen. Several measures of value to them have been placed upon the statute-book under Lord Salisbury's Administration. Of these, perhaps the most interesting to fishermen is the Herring Fishery Scotland Act, 1889,1 which was introduced by Colonel Malcolm, Conservative member for Argyleshire. It prescribes a legal measure for use in the Scottish fresh herring trade. It provides a close time during daylight from 1st June to 1st October, and on Sundays, on the west coast of Scotland; absolutely prohibits beam or otter trawling within three miles of low water mark of any

152 & 53 Vict. c. 23.

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part of the coast of Scotland and other scheduled waters, and gives power to the Fishery Board further to prohibit it in any area within a line from Duncansby Head in Caithness to Rattray Point in Aberdeenshire. The sale in Scotland of fish illegally caught was also prohibited. This measure simply carried further the policy already adopted in the Scottish Sea Fisheries Act of 1885, passed under the short-lived Conservative Government of that year, which gave power to the Fishery Board to prohibit or regulate within defined areas any mode of fishing injurious, or believed to be injurious. It is also noteworthy that of the three previous leading statutes regulating the Scottish sea fisheries-the Acts of 1868, 1875, and 18832-two were passed under Conservative Governments.

In 1887 the Fishing Boat Act 3 was passed amending the provisions of the Merchant Shipping Fishing Boat Act of 1883.4 This Act improves the position of skippers, and secures the employment of adequate crews. The general provisions of these Acts do not apply to Scotland, with the exception of a special enactment in the Act of 1887, providing for an inquiry or formal investigation being held by the Board of Trade, whenever loss of life arises by reason of any casualty happening to or on board any boat belonging to a fishing vessel.

In 1888 an important measure-the North Seas Fishery Act, 18885 was passed, confirming a convention with foreign powers for prohibiting the supply of spirituous liquors to the fishermen on boats engaged in the North Sea fisheries, regulating the supply of provisions and other articles for their use, and putting down the system of giving these in exchange for articles such as fishing implements, boat equipment, or products of the fisheries. By the Sea Fisheries Act of 1888,6 which applies to England and Wales, local tribunals were appointed with power to settle disputes, fix close times, and, under confirmation by the Board of Trade, to generally regulate the fishing industry. In the same year, the Irish Fishery Acts were also amended,' and in 1889 the Inspectors of Irish Fisheries were empowered to prohibit steam trawling within a certain distance of the coast of Ireland. In 18929 an Act was passed amending the Salmon and Fresh-water Fisheries Acts applicable to England.

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In 1890,10 the Scottish Act was amended by a short statute, which raised the penalty for illegal trawling from a fine not exceeding £5 for the first and £20 for a subsequent offence, with forfeiture of the net, to a fine not exceeding £100, and failing immediate payment, to imprisonment for a period not 1 48 & 49 Vict. c. 70.

2 31 & 32 Vict. c. 45; 38 Vict. c. 15; 46 & 47 Vict. c. 22.

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50

Vict. c. 4.

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46 & 47 Vict. c. 41.

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51 & 52 Vict. c. 18.

Vict. c. 54. 55 & 56 Vict. c. 50.