The Portland daily press., 1882-03-29
The Burdens Upon Our Shipping.
Why Americans Cannot Sail American
Built Ships.

| for eight years consul at Bordeaux, France,
shows the injurious working of the present
laws regarding the shipment and discharge of
| seamen:
WASHINGTON, March IA, 1882.
The Hon. John W. Candler, Washington:
Sir:-I have read with much interest and
carefully compared with the Revised Statutes
house bill No. 712, entitled bill ito repeal
and amend certain acts pertaining to the ship
ment and discharge Of seamen." With one
exception, which L will refer to hereafter, it
seems to me bill calculated to be not only OF
benefit to ship-owners and captains but to the
seamen also. The law concerning the collec-
tion of three months extra wages on all seamen
dlschargedin foreign port was enacted in 1903
The object of the law was good-viz to discour-
| age the discharge of seamen in foreign ports by
| which they were liable to become acharge upon
the consulate. At that time there were neither
steamboats, nor railroads nor telegraphs, and
| the opportunities of reshipping seamen at
majority of the ports of the world were very
slight indeed. To-day all is changed, and II
employment is not readily found at the port of
| discharge, with the exception Of few island
ports, the seaman can be sent at small expense
to some larger and neighboring port where a
| shipment can be readily secured In 1908 the
men who manned cur ships were United
| States citizens, desirous in NEST cases OF re-
manning by TIE ship and returning to their
| homes with it. AT present nine-renths OF all
the crews sailing under the American flag are
foreigners, entirely indifferent concerning tho
| place OF their discharge. The burden placed
| upon ship-owners by this now useless law can
| be seen in the case like the following, and
| similar cases are occurring over the world
every MONTH A crew is shipped at Ralti-
| more, say of ten men, for Bordeaux at $50 per
month-the average wages paid to seamen
| shipped in America. A months wages is paid
| in advance, the,vessel arrives in Bordeaux in
| twenty-six days, is then rechartered for an
| other port, and, with the discharging of cargo
and re-loading, is likely to remain in port
| forty-tive days. The captain, in the mean
| time, has no use for the crew, but in order to
| discharge them he is npelled to pay for each
man three months extra wages, making in the
| aggregate 5000, and this beyond the amount
| he has already paid them for the time en-
| ployed as agreed at shipment. To be sure, this
| sum can be reduced two-thirds provided the
| seaman will waive the am cunt he can right
| fully claim but if he knows the law he can
| hardly consent 10 avoid the payment of ex-
| ira wages, many captains, frequently in in
| telligence not above the average seamen whom
they command, from the very start commence
a series of petty annoyances on the seamen,
harder by far to bear than kicks and blows,
for the purpose of forcing them to desert on ar
rival at port. The poor seaman is only too
glad to make his escape at the first opportunity,
often leaving wages due him behind. In all
the reports OF desertions made to me in twelve
years as consul, have never yet known even
one captain to acknowledge that he owed the
seaman anything, although the seaman may
have been on board for months. On the other
hand, however well disposed the captain may
be, it often happens that he has among his
wi IL n lay VVbO
having a hope of securing a discharge and two
months extra wages, will incite ipsubordina-
tion in the whole crow and bring upon him
self and his associates punishment from the
officers, which he at once reports to the consul
and demands a discharge. How inefficient
such a crew must be, tempted by this hope for
extra wages which they do not earn, can readi-
ly be imagined. Although the captain may
save the wages of his crew while his vessel isin
port by reporting to the consul their deserti0n,
it does not follow, by any means, that
owners have gained that amount. As the Ger
tifcates by the consul OF desertions, discharges
and shipments are delivered to the collector at
the first port of arrival in America the owners
of the vessel are dependent entirely upon the
captains accounts for a statement OF profits
or losses of the voyage. II crew deserted on
arrival, the captain could easily claim, with
but little chance Of being contradicted, that
his crew remained on board and were paid the
greater part of their wages, until the day be-
fore he shipped new crew, thus increasing
port. This law also deprives American sea-
men in a foreign port Of equal facilities with
searnan of other Lst!onalities in obtaining en-
ployment on board an American vessel unless
captain bound from one foreign port to anoth-
or, if obliged to ship a new crew, is careful TO
ship crew which he can diser arge without
payment of extra wages. And thus in such
cases discrimination is made against our own
seamen. Looked at in any way possible this
law providing for the payment of extra wages
,a ival " nj nnhar-
RAISING to our merchant marine, and ought to
be repealed. 1t often makes brutes of the cap
tains, demoralizes the seamen to degree
scarcely to be realized by one not having to do
with them, and lis a source OF neVer-ending
conflict and discussion and bad temper be-
tween consuls and captains.
THE SUBSTITUTE PROPOSED,
As a substitute for this law providing for the
payment of three months extra wages to sea-
men when discharged in foreign port. this
bill provides in substance, in paragraph com
mencing with line A and ending with limo 6S,
that the captain, when discharging seaman,
shall "either provide him with adequate en-
ployment on board some other ship" furnish
him the means of sending (him) back to such
port'-the port of shipment-"or deposit with
the consular officer such sum of money as is by
such officer deemed sufficient to defray the ex-
penses of his subsistence and passage home"
This provision of the bill seems to me to he
impracticable in every particular. 1t would be
language spoken was not his own, even if he
could spare the time from other and important
duties, to hunt up vessels on which TO ship
such of his seamen as he wished to discharge.
To furnish the seaman and himself means TO
take him back to the port OF shipment would
but provide him for the funds for frolic and
debauch, and land him on the consulate at
last.
Finally, to deposit with the consular officer
sum sufficient to defray the expenses of his
subsistence and passage home, would cause
more discussions between consuls and captains
than the collection of extra wages even. IL
would be impossible, when the captain desired
to make the deposit, for the consul 10 know
whether he would have to provide subsistence
for one day or thirty days, and, II obliged to
send him home on foreign vessel, the consul
could never know in advance what terms he
could make for the passage.
This section Of the bull also fails to provide
for the disposition of the money remaining in
the hands of the consul in case the expenses OF
subsistence and passage do not amount 10 the
sum deposited. For instance, the captain
might leave pay for subsistence for month,
and the consul be enabled to ship the man the
very day after the deposit was made. OF course
the consul would return the balance to the
Treasury, but wouldn't this new method cause
more friction and be more disagreeable to the
captain and all concerned than TO pay the ex-
ira wages-a known sum, concerning the
amount Of which there could be no dispute?
ADDITIONAL TONNAGE TAX.
1t has been we'll SAID Lil0t no one SnOuld con,
denim a law unless he can suggest a substituted
For this law providing for the collection o.
extra wages 1 would propose an additional ton.
mage tax of one-half per cent. on all vessels
sailing for foreign ports, this fee to be called
''tonnage tax for the relief of seamen," TO be
collected and held by the consul for the relief
of such seamen as may require II, as extra
wages are now held, until directed to turn the
same into the Treasury.
With this, authority should be given the cap
tain to discharge the seaman at any port he
NAV desire, provided it is the port for which
the seaman shipped. The amount thus col
lected would not bear heavily on our vessels,
and it would be ample, believe, to relieve all
necessitous cases. The burden for this relief
would be equally shared by all, and not forced
upon few ships so unfortunate as to be
obliged TO discharge their crews. II would re-
suit in more humane treatment of seamen on
board ship, and in better discipline. 1t would
also result in captains looking upon a
consul, not as his mortal enemy to be avoided,
but as one who can and ought to cooperate
with him in all that may be for the interest OF
the vessel and its owners. have proposed TO
many captains whom have met this substi-
i