in Force to oblige masters to the same tho' time and defect of duty in those who ought to see the same executed has almost worn out its remembrance This will also be one way to keep our Sea-men together and not giving them the opportunity of serving Forreign Princes or States which too often happens for Masters oft-times selling their Ships and Vessels in Forreign Places do thereby give a provocation to their men to serve in other Countries by being disappointed of a passage home which by this will be prevented And the more Sea-men are engaged to serve under their Natural and Lawful Prince the more will fall to the Merchants share and consequently their Wages will be lessened For 't is observed and agreed on at all hands that a scarcity and not a plenty of any Commodity raiseth the Price The bringing a Testimonial can't be hurtful to them because that will justifie for them that they have well and honestly complyed with what was required of them And that they have not incurred any Penalty or Forfeiture for any neglect thereof The Moyety proposed to be given to the Informers will make them look out sharp and the Masters themselves be Circumspect how they take any Unregistred Persons with them or any other but what may Lawfully be carried without prejudice to the King's service or themselves since they will have a great many eyes over them who for the reward sake will use their utmost endeavours for the discovery of any such Offender Further That every Sea-man whose turn it is to go on Board Men of War and shall be found personating another who according to those methods might stay on shoar or go into Merchant men upon his being convicted of the same shall forfeit to the Informer 40 s. to be paid to him by the Naval Officer immediately after such discovery and stopt out of the first wages which shall become payable to him for his service on Board any of the Kings Ships and likewise be obliged to serve therein during the War Prop. 13. That all Justices of the Peace Mayors Sheriffs Bayliffs Constables Headboroughs Tithingmen and the like be strictly required to apprehend all Seamen whom they shall find inhabiting in any Inland Counties where no Justices of the Peace to take up Sea-men Vagrant Persons Naval Officer is appointed and also all sturdy Beggars vagrant Persons Deer-stealers such as rob Fish-ponds Coney-Warrens Dove-houses or the like and that they do carefully send them to the next Naval Officer to be sent on Board Men of War or disposed of otherwise as shall be thought fit Ratio 13. The obliging Justices of the Peace Mayors Bayliffs c. to apprehend and send those Persons last mentioned unto the Naval Officer in order to their being sent on Board the Men of War will be of great Service to the Country For hereby Gentlemen will not only preserve their Game to themselves and the Common sort of People be rid of a great many dangerous Persons who only lurk about and watch Opportunities to break their Houses and rob them of what they have perhaps gotten with great Labour and Industry But the King will have their Service on Board which may be of use there though not on shore for many of those will make Cooks-mates Shifters and Swabbers c. which must be had on Board as well as other Men and doubtless many of them when they are broke from their loitering and idle Courses and see themselves confin'd on Board may take up and make good Sailers but if they are permitted to stay on shore and to follow the dictates of their own Inclinations nothing but Mischiefs and Inconveniencies of many kinds must be expected from them Lastly The Merchants Shipwrights Caulkers Sail-makers and Ropemakers in and about the City of London do not I presume need any other Motives to induce them to a Willingness to have the afore-mentioned Propositions put in Execution then this Consideration Why the Merchants of London and other Persons of several Callings are obliged to forward these Methods of their being more especially incommoded by the continual alarms of Pressing which lies much harder on them than on Places farther distant For 't is very rare for the City of London and Places adjacent to be free from the Press a Month together in a Years time for fear of which the Seamen and others of the aforemention'd Callings do in such Numbers so abscond and hide themselves that thereby the particular Wages of Seamen Shipwrights Caulkers and the like are so enhaunsed that their Wages are almost doubled Besides the loss which is sustain'd for want of having Men on all occasions for their Works and Services which Inconveniencies being by these Methods likely to be removed the Wages brought lower and Business carried on with freedom and without Interruption must needs meet with a kind Acceptance and with the Concurrence and joint Endeavours of the Merchants Masters of Ships and others concern'd herein to promote the carrying on the said Methods and Establishing the same But some Persons haply may take an occasion to reflect and say that if the whole matter had been contracted into fewer words it would have done much better To which I answer 't is true I have studied for no Rhetorick to garnish it or Flourishes of Oratory to set it out those being things to which I am altogether a Stranger being only a well wisher to a Sailer and not a Nice one neither In the preceeding Methods I have not observed quaintness of Expressions which probably might have better pleased the Ingenious and Sharp-witted But have with as much perspicuity and plainness as possible I could run through every particular and have the more enlarged thereon for the facilitating the same and suiting it to the Capacity of the meanest Sailer who may be concerned herein I have likewise endeavoured to leave nothing doubtful and ambiguous to the end that all Seamen and others might plainly perceive the drift and scope thereof And that it is not a meer Project or a fallacious Invention as many may suppose it to be before they have well weighed and rightly consider'd the same But that it is a real Substance and that which if practised must necessarily tend to the Honour and Welfare of the Nation in general and in particular to the Ease Benefit and Satisfaction both of Merchants and Seamen which latter if encouraged as they ought together with our Ships of War may not unfitly be called the Impregnable Fortress and Safety of Their Majesties and Their Dominions But that I may likewise indulge those Palates who savor not Prolixity in matters of Discourse I shall be as succinct and brief as I can in enumerating the Heads of the several Advantages which the preceeding Methods treats of and also the Grievances and Disadvantages which thereby will be removed First It would be needless to recount the number of Men of War lost these five Years past it
Nation in general and in particular the Ease and Encouragement of Sailers who through the whole Series of this War have constantly been fatigu'd therein being the only aim and design in this Undertaking A Method for the Chusing such Persons as are fitly Qualified to be made Officers for the Registring Seamen c. Prop. 1. 'T Is humbly proposed that a competent Number of Registers or Naval Officers for so they may be called be appointed one for each of those Counties bordering on the Sea which are large and for those Counties that are small to the Seaward and lie together one Officer may serve for two Each Officer to keep his Office in the chief Port or most convenient Place in his respective County for the due Registring Seamen Shipwrights Caulkers Sailmakers Rope-makers and performing such Offices as hereafter are proposed Ratio 1. These Officers being establish'd one in each County that is large and one for any two Counties which are small to the Seaward and lie together will be able to give an account what Seamen are belonging to each particular Place in their several Counties from whom the Lords of the Admiralty as occasion shall offer may require a List of their Numbers and accordingly issue out Orders for the going on Board such Ship or Ships as by them shall be thought meet and convenient lying near those Places or any other Prop. 2. That those Naval Officers shall be such Persons How Persons ought to be qualified to be Naval Officers as have been Captains of Men of War Four Years at least without intermission in the King's Service And 't will not only be most proper but also less chargeable to their Majesties That they be Half-Pay Captains or Superannuated ones if a sufficient Number of those may be had Likewise that they be Commissionated to be Justices of the Peace for those Counties in which they shall be Established And that they be allowed by the King such an addition of Pay or Wages to their former Sallaries as may amount the whole to 400 l. per Annum which may be thought a competent Maintenance for them Whereby they will not be exposed to the breach of Trust as otherwise they might if straitned in their yearly Allowance of Sallary Rat. 2. Why such Officers should be Half-Pay Captains or Superannuated ones is because in all probability they are most likely to understand Sea Affairs and rightly to put in Execution such Orders as from time to time shall be directed to them from the Lords of the Admiralty These Officers upon Examination into the Qualities and Abilities of Seamen are also most likely to be competent Judges thereof Further such Captains have now each of them a Sallary from the King as some 136 l. others 273 l. per Annum according to the Rates of those Ships they served in last So that what has been given to Deputy-Vice-Admirals c. as afore is mentioned for sending in those which for the most part have been raw and unfit for the Sea and many of them never at Sea together with the Impress-Mony given to Captains will over and above compleat their Sallaries of 400 l. per Annum and their Instruments Sallaries likewise So that hereby the Charge of those Offices will be defrayed out of extraordinary Charges which may be saved Prop. 3. That each Officer be allowed two Clerks One at 50 l. per Annum and another at 30 l. a Year Sallary to be Clerks and their Sallaries paid by the Navy according to the Vse and Custom thereof These two Clerks shall be resident where the said Naval Officer keeps his head Office But if the County be large and has several Seaports in it then to be allowed as many more Clerks at 30 l. a Year as shall be thought necessary for that Service and the ease of the Subject Rat. 3. These Clerks will be useful in keeping the Registers and in making and Copying all the Lists of Seamen c. and in making out the Warrants which Masters of Ships must take with them before they Sail And the Bonds which they must give to observe the Articles hereafter mentioned For it can't be expected to be done by the Naval Officer himself who will have business enough to decide Controversies and to see to the well Management of his Office in every respect And for a further Illustration of the Disposing the Naval Officers and their Clerks take the following Example of Dorset-shire The Naval Officer with his two Clerks shall have their place of Residence at Weymouth another Clerk at Lime and another at Pool which two latter shall likewise Register those Seamen Shipwrights Caulkers c. which shall live nearest and most convenient to come thither In these Methods respect being to be had to that which shall least offend the Subject or be burdensome to them These two latter Clerks from time to time shall give An Example of disposing the Naval Officers an exact Acount to the Naval Officer at Weymouth of all their Proceedings who himself as often as need requires shall visit those particular Ports to hear all Complaints and to rectifie the same which will be a great ease to those Inhabitants who live remote from Weymouth And before his going thither shall give timely Notice to the Clerks there resident that they may cause the same to be published on a preceding Market-Day or a Sunday that the Inhabitants may know the same The chief Clerk to the Naval Officer shall likewise be imployed as oft as occasion shall require to ride from place to place as a Supervisor over those two Clerks at the Out-Ports And also to go on Board all such Ships as are at any Ports in his Precincts at their going thence or return Home from any Voyage To see if their Warrants do agree with the Original kept in the respective Office in every particular Every Master of a Merchant-Man being to be obliged to take a Warrant with the Names of his Men c. therein inserted from that Port whence he fits out for which he shall pay half a Crown to the chief Clerk and the same price for the Bond he shall give for bringing back his Men or giving a satisfactory account what is become of them as hereafter shall be explained A Copy of the Warrant may be this underwritten JOhn Jenkins Master of the William and Mary Pink Copy of a Warrant to be taken by Masters of Merchant-Men Inhabiting in the Highstreet in Pool being about an Hundred Tuns and bound for the West-Indies aged Twenty Seven Years having used the Sea Twelve Years One whereof he has spent in the King's Service this War in 1692. Has hereby a Permit to carry the Eight Persons under-mentioned with him to the West-Indies without being Imprest from him or otherwise molested to the hindrance of his Voyage Given under my Hand and Seal at Weymouth this 27th Day of August 1694. Names Time of being Listed Place of
yards for him There are several other Advantages that will attend this Method if practiced which since Time and Practice may discover I shall forbear to enumerate at this time The Registring Sea-men Water-men c. will be the ready way of knowing what Number of Sea-men there are in England and how many may be had from each individual place on all occasions to serve in Their Majesties Fleet Which being put in Execution by Vertue of an Act of Parliament can't in all probability miss of its desired Effects Namely Of procuring a competent Number of Saylors to Man Their Majesties Fleet on all occasions without impressing any at Sea whereby the greatest part of the afore-mentioned Charges to Their Majesties will be saved which is worth while to be considered of and practised For 't is evident That one Third Part of the best Sea-men in England have by one means or other avoided being in the King's Service this War And 't is not that Sea-men are wanting in England that the King's Ships are so ill Mann'd as generally they are and that so much unnecessary Expence dayly attends the Manning the King's Ships but only for want of a due Method for the same and a Penalty to be inflicted on the hinderers of its due Execution For 't is observ'd That both Justices of the Peace Mayors Bayliffs Constables c. for the most part have been too remiss in their Duties in not assisting those Officers sent to press as they ought for instead of routing Sea-men out of their Coves and hiding Places many of them 't is to be feared have rather concealed or countenanced many Persons who ought and were fit to be in the Service Prop. 2. They shall bring all the Persons so listed except Listed Seamen to Appear before the Naval Officer what are at Sea unto the Naval Officer on some prefixt days that he may see them and also search into the Truth of what the Magistrates shall have certifyed concerning them on the Lists Which said Naval Officer together with an other Justice of Peace and a Surgeon shall examine into the Abilities and Conditions of each Person returned on the Lists who shall pretend unfitness for the Sea by reason of Hurts Wounds Bruises or any other Accidents of that nature and according as they shall find the matter shall either acquit or continue them on the Lists as Persons qualified for the King's Service Ratio 2. The appearing of the said persons themselves will oblige the Magistrates and other Officers to be as exact as possible they can in giving in perfect Lists as is required for fear of being found out if they do otherwise For Seamen in every individual place being for the most part acquainted one with another and missing any one they know who ought to appear before the Naval Officer as well as themselves will be apt to discover the same As for the examination by the Naval Officers Justices of the Peace and Surgeons into the Qualities and Condition of any pretending unfitness for the Sea it is very reasonable that those who are really unfit for the Sea-service in Men of War be not charged on the Lists for if so the Lists would not only be filled with many unquallified persons but Their Majesties disappointed by depending on so many able men from such and such places on any occasion When perhaps a great part of them were wholly unfit for that service Prop. 3. That all those Masters of Ships who shall be thought Masters of Merchant Men who shall be Exempted from going to Sea to find an able Man or Pay 5 l. fit to be exempted from going into the King's Service shall nevertheless each of them send an able Sea-man in his room who shall be approved of by the said Naval Officer and whose turn it is not to go into the Kings Service that Year or otherwise to pay Five Pounds into the Naval Officers hands so oft as 't is his turn to go on Board the King's Ships But in case of failure of Payment within the Six Weeks wherein it ought to be Paid then to forfeit Twenty Pounds to be levied by Distress and Sale of the Offenders Goods or as the Parliament shall think meet to Order Farther that every person going out of his turn shall be entred in the Registers Books upon whose Account and in whose room he goes and to be liable to such punishment for any fault by him committed as any other person who goes for himself Lastly That the Naval officer shall enter into his Book of Accounts all such Sums of Money as he shall receive for any forfeitures from any person and the same shall transmit Monthly or as oft as shall be required to the General Officer in London upon Pain of Losing his Imploy or to be Fined as the Parliament shall direct for his offending therein Ratio 3. This can't be thought hard by Masters of Merchant Men for in France tho' Gentlemen are exempted from paying Taxes yet they are obliged to serve the King in their own persons And the payment of Five Pounds or sending an able Man fit for the Sea can't be thought much charge to them since it will not come to a mans turn above once in Three Years One 3d. part of the Seamen which have not been in the Service this War together with those who are willing to continue on Board and what will go Voluntarily being thought sufficient to Man the King's Ships but if all Masters of Ships and Vessels and pretenders to it should be exempted from sending a Man or paying Five Pounds as afore it must Why Masters of Merchant-Men should find an able Man or pay Five Pounds fall much the harder on the Hawl-bowlings and under this pretext we should have the best part of Fourty Thousand Men Protected It being evident that most Ships Vessels has protected Three Masters For one being known to be a Master is not questioned and another getting a Protection for the same Ship or Vessel as Master of her is by that means exempted from being prest into the King's Service a Third by carrying a Charter party in his Pocket keeps himself clear Nay the very Oyster-Cocks and other small Craft as well as Ships and other great Vessels have found out a way to Free themselves from the King's Service as hath not long since been discovered by a Captain of a Man of War For 't is usual as by some of their own company has been ingenuously acknowledged for them to carry Bills of Sale in their Pockets formally made for such and such Ships as if their own and were really Masters when indeed they were not and only contrived for to cheat the Press-Masters and to keep themselves out of the Service But this Method of obliging Masters to send an able Sea-man or to pay Five Pounds as afore will be the ready way to prevent this or other like Cheats for the future Prop. 4. Every Officer or
the whole War without benefit of being relieved by taking turns with those who shall duly observe Orders And whosoever shall discover any Sea-man so Offending shall Receive 40 s. Reward from the Naval Officer immediately after the apprehending and bringing the said Offender before the Naval Officer or some Justice of the Peace so as that he may be secured Which 40 s. shall be stopt out of the first Pay that shall grow due to the said Sea-man after his being sent on Board the like Reward to be given to any Person who shall cause any Deserter from his Ship to be apprehended Ratio 7. It is very necessary That the Naval Officers do observe and duly put in Execution all such Orders as they shall from time to time receive from the LORDS of the ADMIRALTY and that Lists of all Mens Names Ordered for the Sea with the time when and on Board what Ship each Sea-man is to go be timely published that the Sea-men may have no pretence of Excuse by saying they did not know it to be their Turns and having sufficient Notice they may timely provide themselves with necessaries Further it being known in publick who are to go there will be no hopes of shelter for them to stay on shoar Neither can they go into Merchants Service a Penalty being to be inflicted on all those Masters of Merchant-men who shall carry any of those Ordered for Men of War and either those whose Turns it is not to go into the Service that year will discover them for fear of being sent themselves if those men should be wanted or else others for the Reward sake will impeach them so that being unsafe and uneasie every way 't is presumed that there will not be many but what will comply with the Orders respecting them Prop. 8. That a due Care be taken to relieve all those Seamen who shall comply with such Orders as are sent for their going on Board yearly or as near to that Time as possibly it may be done where 't is desired and that at the time of their Discharge they be payd off But as for those Encouragement for Seamen who by reason of a Forreign Voyage shall serve longer than one year successively to be allowed 2 s. 6 d. per Month for the Second Year as an Addition to their former Wages and for the Third Year 5 s. per Month for every Month they shall serve more than they are required by this Method or what more the Parliament shall think fit Ratio 8. The keeping Touch with the Seamen by a due relieving them as is proposed and likewise of paying them off at their Discharge will be a great Obligation to them to go on Board as they shall be directed without Trouble or Charge to the forwarding whereof 't is not to be doubted but that their Wives will contribute their Assistance when they are at some certainty of having their Husbands a shore at such and such times or thereabouts with their Money in their Pockets As for those who shall serve above their Year and could not be relieved by reason of their Ships being in Forreign Parts 't is but reasonable that they be allowed the said additional Wages as an Encouragement to and Reward for their continuance in the Service more than the time they ought according to this Method Prop. 9. That every Seaman within six weeks after his Arrival from any Voyage and being out of the Kingdom at the time appointed for the first Listing of Seamen shall Seamen to List themselves at their Return from Sea being not Registred before List himself in the respective place where he intends to inhabit or otherwise to be lyable to the same Penalty as is to be inflicted on those Seamen who shall refuse or neglect to go in their Turns after a due Summons thereunto And for the more effectual performance of this Proposition the Naval Officer or his Clerk shall go on Board every Ship and Vessel arriving at any Port within their Precincts and there shall take an impartial Account of the Masters and Ships Companies Names as also of their Respective Ages c. as is directed in the Listing Seamen aforementioned the which shall be transmitted to the General Office at London That accordingly from thence the said General Office may send a Copy thereof to the Naval Officers at the respective Ports whereto they belong But if any Seaman has a Desire after his being Registred to alter his Place of Abode and to go into another County upon his application to the Naval Officer of that Place by whom he is first Registred he shall have a time allowed him proportionable to the distance of the Place where he designs to inhabit not exceeding a Month And upon his bringing a Certificate from the Naval Officer of that Place whereto he intends to remove of his being Registred there he shall be discharged out of the Books where he was last Registred before that Ratio 9. This Method will be of use by degrees to get all our Seamen Listed whereby a more regular Care may be taken for relieving and exchanging the Seamen in due Order according to the Methods proposed And the Penalty to be inflicted on Seamen for their Neglect will be a Spur both to oblige and hasten them to a complyance with such Orders as they shall find themselves tyed to observe The Naval Officer or his Clerk going on Board as aforesaid will much forward this Work and likewise they will hereby be able to give an Account thereof to the General Office at London which may transmit Copies to the particular Places whereunto these Seamen say they do belong that Care may be taken for Registring them in their proper Counties the giving Liberty to Seamen after their being Registred to remove into another Place upon their acquainting the Naval Officer therewith by whom they were first Registered is but reasonable because otherwise it would be an Imposition and hindrance to them not to be permitted to Live where they do apprehend it to be most for their Advantage Prop. 10. That every Sea-man who shall be absent without leave at the time of his respective Ships being preparing for a Careen or to go into a Dock or to come out of a Dock Seamen to attend at the Fitting out their Ships or at the time of her taking in or putting out her stores or at the time of any other service for which Labourers are fain to be hired to do the same for want of the attendance of the Sea-men belonging to the said Ship every such Seaman to forfeit Forty Shillings for such his neglect to be stopt out of his Wages the next pay that shall become due to him Further that every Victualler who shall Entertain any Seamen in his house between Sun Sun at such time or times as a necessity of business requires his attendance and Labour on Board and not having Leave given him by his Commanders or