bound.

mander thereof, if she be a ship or vessel of war, public or private, to the treasurer, or if she be a mercantile ship or vessel, to the naval officer of the port where she shall be entered inward, or cleared outward, who shall discover the number, wages, and time of service of all persons belonging to the ship or vessel, by examining the commander of her, upon oath or affirmation, and account for what he shall receive to the treasurer; and the money so to be collected, shall be applied towards reimbursing the annuities to disabled registered seamen, and to the widows of those who shall be slain or drowned in the public service. Boys, of the Apprentices age of ten years or upwards, who shall beg for alms, to the sea or who, or whose parents are, or shall be chargeable service, how to any county, may, by the court of the county wherein they inhabit, be bound apprentices by indentures, to owners or masters of ships or vessels used in sea voyages, and belonging to any ports within this commonwealth, until they shall attain to the ages of twenty-one years respectively; in every one of which indentures the age of the boy to be ascertained by the register of births, or, not being entered therein, by the adjudication of the court, shall be inserted, with a covenant on the part of the master, that he will provide sufficient food, and convenient raiment and lodging for his apprentice, and employ him in the sea service, and in such offices as appertain thereto, and moreover, deliver to him a suit of clothes suitable to the season, 'to wit, a coat, waistcoat, pair of breeches, two pair of stockings, a pair of shoes, and a hat, with a blanket. And every owner or master of a ship or vessel, used in sea voyages, and belonging to a port within this com- ter & appren monwealth, shall be obliged to take one of such ap- tice. prentices, not being under thirteen or above seventeen years of age, nor being deficient in health and strength of body, if the ship or vessel be of the burthen of thirty and not more than fifty tons; another for the next fifty tons of her burthen, and one more for every bundred her burthen shall exceed one hundred tons; and refusing so to do, if he shall be required, unless he shall have an equal number of other apprentices, shall forfeit ten pounds, to be recovered with costs, in an action of debt, by him who will sue, one half to his own use, and the other half to the use of the county wherein the boy shall inhabit. The apprentice so bound shall be clothed,

Reciprocal duties of mas

tered.

if it be necessary, and conveyed to the port his master shall belong to, at the expence of the county from which Apprentices he shall be sent. The clerks of the courts shall transto be regis- mit the names of the masters and apprentices, with the ages of the latter, and the times when they shall be bound, to the executive, to be entered by them in their register; and the apprentices, after they shall have been eighteen years old, shall be deemed registered seamen, entitled to the benefit of this act, in like manner as if Complaints of they had voluntarily given in tickets. The county apprentices, court nearest to a port in which an apprentice bound how redress by virtue of this act, or otherwise, shall serve, or ought

ed.

to serve on board of a ship or vessel, shall, at any time when they shall be sitting, receive and hear a complaint made to them by him of hard or ill usage, or breach of covenant, and redress the complaint, if he shall appear to have justly complained, prescribing milder or better treatment for the future, ordering an action to be commenced against the master, or removing the apprentice and binding him to another master, as it may Vagrant sea. seem right and expedient. Any justice may, by warinen, may be rant under his hand and seal, cause any able-bodied apprehended man, who not having wherewithall to maintain himself, shall be found loitering, and shall leave a wife or children, without means for their subsistence, whereby they may become burthensome to their county, or shall wander abroad, without betaking himself to some honest employment, or shall go about begging, to be apprehended and brought before him, and if he shall, upon examination of himself, or by the testimony of others, appear to be within this description, the justice, by his warrant, may cause such vagrant to be sent and delivered on board any ship of war or other vessel belonging to the commonwealth, there to

serve

as a seaman during the term of eighteen months. Written a An agreement in writing shall be made between the greementsbetween master master or commander and seamen, not being his apand seamen, prentices, of every ship or vessel, belonging to any

for every

voyage.

port of the commonwealth, and bound to parts beyond sea, and be signed by both parties, and by the seamen within three days after they shall have shipped and entered themselves respectively, declaring the voyage to be performed, and ascertaining the wages, either by the month or for the run, to be paid to every seaman; and any such master or commander proceeding on the

apprehended

voyage before that agreement shall be made and signed, shall forfeit the sum of five pounds for every seaman who shall not have signed it, carried out in the vessel, to be recovered with costs, by information, and to be paid to the treasurer for the same purpose as the sixpence per month out of the wages of seamen. Any Seamen ab seaman who shall have signed such agreement, absent-senting them. selves, how ing himself from the ship or vessel, without leave of the master or other officer having charge of her, shall forfeit for every day's absence the pay of two days, and refusing to proceed on the voyage, or deserting from the ship or vessel, shall forfeit the wages then due.--But seamen shall not be deprived by the agreement of any remedy for their wages, which they might have lawfully pursued before this act; and in any suit between them and the master, it shall be incumbent upon him to exhibit the agreement, if it shall be requisite, and they shall not lose or suffer any thing by his suppression of it, or failure to produce it. The master or Wages, when commander of any such ship or vessel, arriving from to be paid. beyond the sea into a port of the commonwealth, shall, within thirty days after she shall be entered at the naval office, unless there shall have been a covenant to the contrary, or at the time of discharging the seamen, which ever shall first happen, pay the wages due to every seaman, if he shall demand them, after deducting what may, by virtue of this act, be withheld, or re fusing so to do, shall pay to him, over and above the wages detained, the further sum of twenty shillings, to be recovered with the other demand. A seaman who shall belong to a ship or vessel, travelling by land or Seaman with water, and having no certificate of his discharge, sign- out a dised by the master or commander, or a pass or order charge, dewith the like signature, or that of some other officer of the ship or vessel, unless he shall be going to a proper place to seek redress of any grievance, shall be deemed a deserter, and may be apprehended by any person, and brought before a justice of the peace, and shall be by How appre. his warrant returned, through the hands of consta- hended. stables, one taking him from another, and conveying him to the next; and for this service the master or commander, if the seamen shall not have been discharged, shall pay to the person who shall apprehend him, ten shillings, and to the constables, one shilling for every mile they shall conduct him, and to be proportioned

clared a de.

serter.

Penalty for concealing deserted sea.

men.

Mutinous and refractory conduct in seamen.

amongst them by the number of miles they shall respectively go, in the most direct way, to ascertain which, a certificate of the whole distance from the place where he was apprehended to the port the ship or vessel shall be at, shall be endorsed by the justice of the peace on his warrant; and if the master or commander shall refuse to pay the money to the persons entitled to it, or to others authorized by their orders to receive it, the naval officer of the port with whom the warrant and orders shall be left, shall not clear the ship or vessel out before it shall be paid to him for their use, unless the master or commander shall make it appear, by the oath of himself, or of some other on board, that the seaman had not been returned, or had been discharged before he was apprehended; and the master or commander paying the money may deduct it out of the wages becoming due to the seaman. A constable wilfully or negligently suffering a seamen, not being discharged from his ship or vessel, who shall have been committed by warrant of a justice of the peace to his custody, to escape, unless he shall recover him, and proceed to deliver him as the warrant required, shall, upon complaint made to a justice of the peace, which he shall be summoned to answer, pay the reward due to the person who apprehended the seaman, and to the constables by whom he had before been conducted, and shall moreover pay the sum of five pounds to the master or commander of the ship or vessel, to be recovered with costs, by petition to the county, city, or borough court. A person concealing a deserted seaman, shall pay the sum of three pounds to the master or commander of the ship or vessel to which he shall belong, to be recovered with costs. The master or commander of a ship or vessel, who shall entertain, employ, or hire a seaman, belonging to a ship or vessel owned by a citizen of the commonwealth, before he shall have been discharged, shall pay to the owner the sum of twenty pounds, to be recovered with costs, by action of debt. Two justices of the peace may hear a complaint made to them of any mutinous or refractory behaviour in a seaman or waterman, and causing the parties to appear before them at a convenient time, in some place near the ship or vessel they shall belong to, with their witnesses, may adjudge the accused, if he shall be proved to have stricken, or to have offered to

Immoderate correction.

strike the master or other superior officer, or to have threatened to do any bodily hurt to him, or to have peremptorily refused, without just cause, to obey his commands, to forfeit to the owner such part of the wages due to the seaman or waterman as will make reasonable amends for the injury and damage, not exceeding the sum of five pounds, and if satisfaction cannot be obtained by other means, may award execution for the amount of the forfeiture, or so much thereof as shall exceed the wages due, against his goods and chattels. But seamen or watermen shall not be obliged Accommodato serve on board any ship or vessel if such sufficient tions. wholesome victuals and drink, and convenient accommodations, as are customary in the merchant service, shall not be provided for and allowed to them. A master who shall correct immoderately, or maim a seaman under his command, may be brought before any justice of the peace by his warrant, and be compelled to give security for his good behaviour, and shall moreover be liable to the action of the party injured for damages. The master or commander of a ship or vessick or disasel, who shall put and leave on shore any bled seaman, not entitled to his discharge by their seamen on contract, without providing for his cure and mainte- shore, without providing nance, shall forfeit twenty pounds, to be recovered for them. with costs, by action of debt, one half to him who will sue, to his own use, and the other half to the use of the county in which the seaman shall be left, and applied towards his cure and maintenance. The master or commander of a ship or vessel, discharging a seaman discharge. from his service, shall sign and deliver to him a certificate thereof, and refusing so to do, when it shall be required, shall pay the sum of five pounds to the seaman, to be recovered with costs, by action of debt.— This act shall commence and be in force from and after the first day of January, one thousand seven hundred and eighty-seven.

Penalty for putting sick or disabled

Certificate of