The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1873-01-14
Mr. Lynch's Amendment to the Shipping


The amendment to the twelfth section Of
the shipping act, offered by Mr.. Lynch on
Thursday, being under consideration by the
House of Representatives, its mover gave the
following explanation:
I think ifgentlemen will listen to me for a
moment l can explain the practical operation
OF the law as it now stands, so that there will
be DO objection to making The proposed
amendment. The amendment will make the
bill what the Committee on Commerce in
tended it should be when first enacted. The
proviso of section twelve of the present law
reads:
"Provided further, That this section shall
not apply to masters of vessels where the sea-
men are by custom agreement entitled to
Pr" = ate in the profits result of a ruise or
voyage
that applies to whaling and fishing voyages
"nor to masters of coastwise nor to masters of
la le-going vessels that touch at foreign ports
1t will be observed that there are three
classes OF vessels exempted from the provis-
ions OF this section; vessels engaged in whale
and other fisheries, those in the coastwise
trade, and lake vessels which touch at foreign
ports. 1t is also provided:
"But seamen may, by agreement, serve on
board such vessels definite time, or on the re-
turn OF any vessel to port in the United States
may reshp aud sail in the same vessel on an
other voyage without the payment of addition
al fees to the shipping commissioner by either
the seamen or the MASTER
To Illustrate the operation Of the law as it
now stands let me instance one of the cases
which have been presented to the committee.
and which has influenced them in proposing
this amendment. A vessel engaged in the
trade between Boston, st. John and Halifax
touches at the ports of Portland and Eastport,
United States ports. On leaving Eastport
for st. John md Halifax the vessel is obliged
to surrender the license it has taken out for
the coastwise trade and to take out foreign
register, although the distance frou that
point to ST. John is but sixty miles. She
goes to st. John, and in twenty-four hours is
again back at Eastport, having completed
the foreign voyage and resumes a coastwise
license. Under the provisions of the law as it
now stands she must discharge all her crew,
which in steamers is some forty in number,
more or less, reship them again, then take out
coast wise license again and proceed to Port
land, from Portland to Boston, from Boston
to Portland again, from Portland to Eastnort
and then go through the same operation
again, so that every voyage made back and
forth, say three times each week, the crew
must be di ,charged ard reshipped, OBTAINING
the vessel three or four hours, when per ,ans.
but fifteen minutes or half an hour at most
would be al the time she would otherwise re
quife W remain III port. Such certainly was
not the intention OF Congress in passing the
law. Theirs was no intention of inteIulntino
commerce while protecting the seamen. I
think that with this explanation there can be
no objection to the passage otthis amendatory
bill.
After some further discussion the amend
ment, which is of great value to our Halifax
and st. John steamboat lines, was adopted
and sent to the Senate for concurrence. We
append the text of the amendment Of which
we gave the substance on Saturday:
And provided further, That the provision
of this section applicable to the masters of
coastwise vessels shall also apply to masters of
the same class of vessels when such vessels are
engaged in the coastwise trade of the United
States and in the trade between the ports of
the British North American provinces, the
West India Islands, and the republic of Mex
leo.