The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1873-01-21
Mr. Lynch's Amendment.

As some uncertainty seems to exist respect
ing the effect and purport of Mr.. Lynch's
amendment to section II of the Shipping
with the amendment. 1t will be seen that
nearly all Maine vessels are taken from the
operation of the act and that the duties of
the Shipping Commissioner, under the act
are very essentially lessened:
SEC. ~. That the master of every ship bound
from port in the United States to any foreign
port, or of any ship of the burden of seyenty-iVe
tons or upwards, bound for port on the At
lantic to a port on the Pacific. or vice versa
shall before he proceeds on such voyage, make
an agreement, in writing or in print, with every
seaman whom he carries to sea as one of the
crew, in the manner hereinafter mentioned ;
and every such agreement shall be in the furm,
as near as may be, as hereunuo in table SD - in
the schedule annexed, and shall be dated at the
time of the first signature thereof, and shall be
signed by the master before any seaman signs
the same, and snail contain the following par
ticulars that is to say: First, the nature and,
as far as practicable, the duration of the intend
ed voyage or engagement and the port or colin-
try at which the voyage is to terminate; sec
ondly, the number and description of the crew.
specifying their respective employments; third
ly, the time at which each seaman is to be on
board to begin work; fOurthly, the capacity in
which each seaman is to serve; filthy, the
amount of wages each seaman is to receive;
sixthly, a scale of the provisions which are to
be furnished to each seaman; seyenthly any
regulations as to conduct on board, and as to
fines, short allowance of provisions or other
lawful punishments for misconduct as may be
sanctioned by Congress as regulations proper
to be adopted, and which the parties agree to
adopt; eigthly, any stipulations in reference to
advance and allotment of wages or other mat
tiers not contrary to law: ProUided, That when
ever the master of any vessel shall engage his
crew, or any part of the same, in any customs
district where no shipping commissioner shall
have been appointed under section one of this
act, he may perform for himself the duties of
such commissioner, in like manner as is pro-
vided by the proyiso of section eight of this
act: Provided further, That this section shall
not apply to masters of vessels where the sea-
men are by custom or agreement entitled to
participate in the profits or result of cruise or
voyage, nor to masters of coastwise nor to mas
tiers OF lake going vessels that touch at foreign
ports; 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 reship and sail in the same vessel on anoth-
er voyage without the payment of additional
fees to the shipping commissioner by either the
Seamen or the master.
This section is amended by adding thereto
the following proviso. 1t will be observed
that the amendment has been modified since
its introduction so that no ambiguity remains
concerning the construction of the term
''coasting vessels:
Provided further That this section shall not
apply to masters of vessels when engaged in
trade between the United States and the Brit
ish North American possessions, or the West
India Islands, or the Republic of Mexico