The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1841-09-17 00:00:00

whatever information they may have collected on their
voyages. If they should have met with any curiosities that
may happen to be of but little value to them, the institution
will gladly accept them, as one of its objects is the formation
of a Museum.

what use will be a museum to us? The reading-
room will be useful, and the dining-room will be very con-
venient, but a museum cannot be necssary.
R.—l cannot agree with you on that point. We have
already a pretty good collection of foreign curiosities, which
have been contributed in the way I have stated, and we
hope, by the same means to form a handsome museum
in the course of a few years. I grant that the museum
cannot, from circumstances, be of direct use to you, but
you must recollect that all, or if not all a very large
proportion, of the resident subscribers take great interest in
any extraordinar, production of nature or art from other
countries. indeed, for the sake of the Museum alone, many
would be induced to subscribe ; and as the annual subscrip-
tion of a resident is 255. whilst that of a shipmaster is only
10s. considerable means arc afforded, through their agency
alone, of furthering the general objects of the association.
It is not unlikely that in the course of years a surplus fund
may he accumulated; and I ought to tell you that any surplus
fund belongs, by the rules, to the shipmasters, members of
the Association, for their benefit, and is also applicable for
the relief of the widows and orphans of members. There
is at this moment the Alpaca, a most extraordinary animal
from South America, which has been proved to be of im-
mense value in the improvement of the wool of this country.
Don't you think that when the attention of the public has
been sufficiently directed to the merits of that animal through
the medium of this and other institutions, its great utility
will not be felt? Will hot its introduction into our agricul-
tural and manufacturing districts be hastened through the

instrumentality of our merchants and manufacturers: yea,
and of our shipmasters also ? Besides the Alpaca there are
many other specimens of natural history in the rooms, al-
though the Association is quite in its infancy.
S.—Captain, you have convinced me of the necessity for a
Museum, and also of its utility ; and what you have said
ought to be an encouragement to us to pav more attention
than we have hitherto to the bringing home of curious foreign
productions. I, for one, might often have brought over a
great variety of articles, but I used to consider them of no
value, or to make a few shillings by them. I never thought
of the lasting value which they might have to the public. I
shall now, however, take care not to come home without ad-
ding something to your collection, and I hope that others
will form a similar intention. By the way, there is a Sailor's
Home to be established in Liverpool : what do you think of
that ?

It.—l will give you my opinion in a very few words. The
Sailors' Home, acting iu conjunction with the Shipmasters'
Association, cannot fail in being of infinite service to the
shipowner, the shipmaster, and especially to the sailor him-
self. These institutions united, may direct a heavy blow
against the practises of those unprincipled parties who are
now continually oppressing the sailor. Nevertheless, all those
who are earning a livelihood by a just and honest calling,
whether as shippers of men, lodging house keepers, or as
" crimps," will not be in the slightest degree injured, though
the objects of the two institutions should he carried out to
their fullest extent. This effect will unquestionably result—
all the vicious parts of those trades will be eradicated, because
these two institutions will consider it their duty rigidly to
superintend the entire working of each of those establish-
ments, to see that no " crimp" be employed to put men on
board a ship, unless his character has been a subject of ex-
amination before being admitted to such an office. This, I
conceive ought to be the workingof the two institutions when
brought to bear upon this subject.
S.—Are not the two inititutions now united for this pur-

pose ?
IL—The Sailor's Home is scarcely sufficiently formed yet

to say they are united ; but it is contemplated, I believe,
to unite them so far as their objects are consistent. The

objects of the Sailor's Home, as far as they relate to
provision for the sailor, will be mnch more efficiently carried
out by connection with the Shipmaster's Association than

alone.
S.—May I ask you to inform me what are the specific ob-
jects of the Sailor's Home?
It.—l am not so much acquainted with its objects as to be
enabled to speak of them with certainty. It is contemplated
to have a home for sailors, where those who are strangers to
the port, or those who may be disposed to lodge there, may
be provided with every convenience, and be protected from
the many evils to which they are now exposed. There will
there be found an easy means of being appointed to a ship ;
their notes will there be cashed without fraud or imposition,
and there they will be effectually protected from the danger
of ruin, to which they are frequently brought in some of the
present boarding-houses, which are professed to be esta-
blished for their "convenience." But, above all, means of
worship and devotion will be provided for them, and a
library will be at their service. It is considered, and not
without good reason, that when these instrumentalities are
furnished to him, the well-disposed sailor will at once meet
with advantages which cannot fail to be greatly profitable to
him. The chief difficulty, I apprehend, will be to persuade
the ill-disposed, those who are in the habit of running riot
as soon as they come on shore after a voyage, to conform to
the requisite discipline, although it is manifest that they are
almost the only parties to be benefitted by such an institu-
tion. Nevertheless, I hope that even these will, in the course
of a little time, have their eyes opened to:its advantages, and
be willing to enjoy them. The impositions to which they
have been subjected by the crimp, the boarding-house
keeper, and the slop dealer will there be extinguished. You
know yourself, as well as I can tell you, or better, that the
"crimp" will bring you down to the ship five or six sailors
just when you are on the point of sailing ; that he will get
them put upon your articles; au advance note is given them,
and a promise is made that they will be at the ship at the
time appointed in order to proceed upon the voyage. They
come, or are brought to be sure, but in what state ? V` by
frequently in a state of drunkenness, or suffering from the
effects of drunkenness, and how has the money raised
by means of the note been disposed of? In this way. As
soon as the sailor has received his note, he takes a glass of
" grog," perhaps two, with the crimp ; the sailor's object is
to get his note cashed ' • and the crimp, who now pays for a
glass or two more, tells him to go to Mr. —, who will cash
it directly. This Mr. sells slops. Half of the note is
'expended on one or two articles, which are chnrc,-ed an exor-
bitlnt price, five shillings are deducted for ca-long a note for
£2, and out of this, and out of the overchar4e for the slops,
the slop seller is enabled to nay the crimp half-a-crown for
his trouble. Of course, Jaek knows nothing of the under-
standing which exists between the two; he tbini:s the bar-
gain is what it seems to be, a fair one, and he goes and spends
the rest of his money, promising the crimp he will be on
board ship the next day when she sails. In very many in-
stances these crimps do nothing more than use the name of
their masters to get men on board, and they live altogether
by what they so shamefully plunder in this manner from poor
Jack. But it is a waste of time for me to tell you all this,
for you know it from experience. The " Sailor's Home,"
in conjunction with the Shipmasters' Association, is intended
to cure this evil. Don't you think it a very laudable under-
taking ?
S.—l have wondered many a time how it was that our
merchants—who have so much time, so many opportunities,
and withal so much money, and who as a body manifest a
great desire to serve the interests of the sailor—have never
bestirred themselves to destroy the abominable practices of
those vagabonds who crowd about the docks to destroy the
poor sailor. Every master they meet in the port, if his
, eyes are open, cannot fail of seeing it every day • but after
all, our merchants, who come down to their offices late in the
morning, and who are busy with their own affairs all the
day, and return home early in the evening, little think what
is going on about the docks through the night. I see that
you are pretty well acquainted with the matter. Don't you
think it would be very well if some of our merchants would
only step down a few nights in the beginning of April just to
witness the practices of some of these gentry among the
sailors ? _

R.—lt might do good, and could do no harm.
S.—Don't you think it would be worth their while to watch
some of these gentry rigging out a poor Irish boy for a
sailor, whose only experience at sea has been just one voyage
across the channel ? Just imagine a captain anxious to get
his crew so deceived by his appearance as to take him on
board, believing him to be an able-bodied seaman ! Imagine
him proceeding to sea, and, when an emergency arises, pic-
ture his dismay at discovering that " the bran new sailor
from the sod" never was at sea before ! I had once two of
these land-lubbers on board my vessel, and the only work
they could do was that of scraping and scouring the ship. I
was obliged to feed them, and at the end of the voyage to
pay them the same wages as a real sailor. Of course the
rest of the crew had to do their work ; and the ship was short-
handed into the bargain.
R.—That is just the evil we are endeavouring to remedy—
yet, strange to say, we have the utmost reluctance on the
part of your captains to give us a helping hand. Let me
ask them, through you, to be philanthropic for once, and not
only give us their assistance, but induce others to render us
theirs. By this means, adding link to link, a chain will be
formed which eventually will bind every shipmaster who has
one spark of regard for his species to join in the bond with
us, and a large, influential, and I need not say respectable,
association will he the issue.
S.—The larger the body, the better will it be calculated to
carry out out any object of importance. You have so con-
vinced me, in this short conversation, of the advantages of
the Shipmasters Association, that I will:immediately go up
to the zoom, enrol myself a member, and get one of your
flags for my ship.
• R.—The flag is a very small matter, but you will find it of
considerable importance. It will show that you are on board
the ship, whatever may he the name of the vessel, and your
number being reported, will he sufficient to cause the ship to
be reported, in any position, without hoisting a multiplicity
of flags.
S.—l perfectly understand that. It is very clear to my
mind that the existence and the principles upon which this
institution is founded, ought become generally known
amongst shipmasters. There are some men about the
docks, who, I should have thought would have had an inte-
rest in spreading correct information concerning it, seeing
that it will work a general good, but I find they have, from
some unworthy motive I fear, entirely misled me. I will
however, do all in my power to disabuse the minds of my
fellow-masters, whom I know to have imbibed the same pre-
judices as I had, and induce them to become members. I
wish you good morning, but I will see you again on this sub-
ject on my return into port.
R.—Thank you. I hope to meet you often at the rooms.
I have no interest in the association, except so far as it is
calculated to do good, and if I have convinced one prejudiced
' mind of that, I conceive myself amply rewarded.