Our Legal Heritage Part 119

The life of a sailor was a hard one, requiring much strength. Sailors did not know how to swim, so falling overboard usually meant death.

Flogging was the usual punishment in the Navy, even for small offenses.

The amount of flogging due for each offense rose over time. If flogging were fatal, there would be an inquiry and occasionally punishment. A sailor's meals were usually hard bread invested with weevils and maggots, dried or salted meat or fish, and small quant.i.ties of oatmeal, b.u.t.ter, and cheese. Many sailors had scurvy or other deficiency diseases. Experiments with lime and lemon juice as remedies for scurvy were made around 1764, but were not used in the Navy until about 1800.

Many more sailors died from these diseases than from battle. Rum and water was a daily ration introduced in 1745. The ordinary sailor was paid about one pound a month, a rate established in 1650s which became outdated. This was not in cash, but in a ticket which ent.i.tled him to payment in full if he presented it at the pay office in London, but was subject to swinging deductions if he tried to cash it in another port.

Prize money from conquered ships was substantial. To encourage seamen to enter the navy, Parliament provided that the prizes be divided among flag officers, commanders, other officers, seamen, marines, and soldiers on board every ship of war, including private ships commissioned by the Admiral, as directed by the king, or as agreed with the owner of a private ship. It included an enemy's ships, and goods and arms on the ships or in fortresses on the land. There was also bounty money for enemy ships taken or destroyed. For retaking or salvaging English goods taken by the enemy, 1/8th their value was paid. Privateers colluding with others to fraudulently take their merchant ships forfeited their ships, with 1/3rd going to the person who made the discovery and prosecuted.

Later, any able seaman volunteering for the navy was to receive 5 pounds bounty. Any seaman volunteering for the navy was to receive a bounty of 3 pounds. If a navy seaman was killed or drowned, his widow was to receive a year's pay as bounty. No seaman in a merchant ship was to receive more than 35s. per month because of war at that time.

Still later, anyone who ran goods or avoided customs was excused and indemnified if he enlisted in the navy as a common sailor for three years.

Those under 18 or over 55 were made exempt from impressment into the king's service. The time of service was limited to five years if the serviceman so demanded. Worn out and decrepit seamen no longer being treated at the Royal Hospital for Seamen at Greenwich received a pension as determined by the hospital.

In war, the Navy favored blockading tactics over attack by fireships, which grew obsolete. In peace, when not used in convoys to remote lands, many ships of war were used as cruisers to guard the coast, to trade, and to accompany merchant ships going out and returning home. About 1755, marine forces of the navy were raised and quartered on sh.o.r.e.

No war ship could carry goods except gold, silver, and jewels and except the goods of a ship in danger of shipwreck or already shipwrecked.

The king was authorized to prohibit the export of gunpowder, saltpeter, ammunition, and arms.

When a ship had been forced on sh.o.r.e or stranded on the coast, it had been the practice for people to plunder it and to demand high payment for salvaging its goods. So a statute required that salvage only be done by sheriff, mayors, and other officials. A person who defaced the marks on goods or hindered the saving of the ship had to pay double satisfaction to the person aggrieved and spend 12 months at hard labor in a House of Correction. If a person unduly carried off goods, he forfeited treble damages. If he made a hole in the ship or stole the pump from the ship, he was guilty of felony without benefit of clergy.

The owner of the island of Skerries was allowed to erect a lighthouse and charge pa.s.sing ships other than Navy ships 1d. per tun.

Only pilots examined and admitted into the society of pilots and, if no such pilot was readily available, a ship's own owner, master, or mate could pilot ships up the Thames River, or else forfeit 10 pounds for the first offense, 20 pounds for the second, and 40 pounds thereafter. Any pilot losing a ship could no longer be a pilot. There had to be at least 120 qualified pilots. The prices of piloting were 3 pounds 10s. for ships drawing 7 feet of water, and 10s. more for each additional foot drawn up to 8 pounds 10s. for ships drawing 17 feet of water.

To preserve navigation, ships were not to throw any ballast, filth, rubbish, gravel, earth, stone, or filth into rivers or ports where the tide or water flowed or ran or else forfeit 50s.- 5 pounds. Ships on the Thames River could take as ballast to stabilize a ship without cargo: dung, compost, earth, or soil from laystalls in London. There was a toll on ships entering the port of London to pay for repairs to its walls.

Many persons insuring ships for large premiums became bankrupt, thus ruining or impoverishing many merchants and traders. So the king was authorized to grant charters to two distinct corporations for the insurance of ships, goods, and merchandise or going to sea or for lending money upon bottomry [borrowing money and and pledging the ship as security]. Each corporation had to pay 300,000 pounds to the Exchequer and to have sufficient ready money to pay for losses insured by them. They were to raise capital stock and could make calls of money from their members in proportion to their stocks for any further money required.

Any owner, master, or mariner who cast away, burned, or otherwise destroyed a ship to the prejudice of underwriters of policies of insurance or of any merchants whose goods have been loaded on the ship was to suffer death.

The owners of ships were not liable for losses by reason of theft without their knowledge by the master or mariners of goods beyond the value of the ship. This was to prevent the discouragement of owning ships.

The insurance of merchant ships must give salvage rights [rights to take what may be left of the ships insured after paying the insurance on them] to the insurer. A lender on bottomry had benefit of salvage. No insurance could be for a greater amount than the value of one's interest in the ship or in the goods on board.

No waterman carrying pa.s.sengers or goods for hire e.g. by wherryboat, tiltboat, or rowbarge, on the Thames River could take an apprentice unless he was a housekeeper or had some known place of abode where he could keep such apprentice or else forfeit ten pounds, and if he couldn't pay, do hard labor at the House of Correction for 14-30 days.

Also he could not keep the apprentice bound to him. No apprentice could be entrusted with a vessel until he was 16 if a waterman's son and 17 if was he the son of a landman, and he had at least two years' experience.

None but freemen, i.e. one having served an apprenticeship of seven years, could row or work any vessel for hire or be subject to the same punishment. This was to avoid the mischiefs which happen by entrusting apprentices too weak, unable, and unskillful in the work, with the care of goods and lives of pa.s.sengers. Later amendment required that apprentices be age 14 to 20 and that there be no more than 40 pa.s.sengers, with the penalty of transportation if there were over 40 and one drowned.

No boat on the Thames River could be used for selling liquors, tobacco, fruit, or gingerbread to seamen and laborers because such had led to theft of ropes, cables, goods, and stores from the ships. Excepted were boats registered at the guilds of Trinity and of St. Clement, but they had to show their owner's name and could only operate in daylight hours.

The penalty was forfeiture of the boat.

All ships coming from places infected with the plague had to be quarantined and any person leaving a quarantined ship had to return and later forfeit 20 pounds, of which 1/3 could go to the informer, the rest to the poor. This was later raised to 200 pounds and six months in prison, and if the person escaped, he was to suffer death. Also later, a master of a ship coming from infected places or having infected people on board was guilty of felony and forfeited 200 pounds. If he did not take his vessel to the quarantine area on notice, he forfeited a further 200 pounds (later 500 pounds) and the ship, which could then be burned.

The king was authorized to prohibit commerce for one year with any country infected by the plague and to forbid any persons of the realm from going to an infected place.

By 1714, there was a clear distinction between a king's private income and the Crown's public revenue. From 1714, the king's Treasurer as a matter of routine submitted annual budgets to Parliament. He was usually also the leader of the House of Commons and the Chancellor of the Exchequer.

Proclamations by the Crown were more restricted to colonial and foreign affairs, to executive orders, and to instructions to officials. The high offices included the Chancellor, Keeper, President of the Council, Privy Seal, Treasurer, and two Secretaries of State, who were in charge of all foreign and domestic matters other than taxation, one for the north and one for the south. With Thomas More, the Chancellor had become more of a judge and less of a statesman. Other offices were: Paymaster General, Secretary of War, and Treasurer of the Navy. Starting with the monarch, government positions were given by patronage to friends and relatives, or if none, to the highest bidder. These offices were usually milked for fees and employed deputies, clerks, and scribes who worked for long hours at very modest wages. Most people believed that the offices of power and influence in the realm belonged to the n.o.bility and gentry as indubitably as the throne belonged to the king. a.s.saulting, wounding, striking, or trying to kill a member of the Privy Council engaged in his duties was punishable by death without benefit of clergy. Civil and military commissions, patents, grants of any office or employment, including Justice of a.s.size, Justice of the Peace, court writs, court proceedings continued in force for six months after a king's death, unless superceded in the meantime.

The king's ministers were those members of his Privy Council who carried out the work of government. By distributing patronage, the ministers acquired the influence to become leading members of the House of Commons or the House of Lords. They made policy, secured the king's consent, and then put through the necessary legislation. The king was to act only through his ministers and all public business was to be formally done in Privy Council with all its decisions signed by its members. The king gradually lost power. The last royal veto of a Parliamentary bill was in 1708. By 1714, the Privy Council ceased making decisions of policy. Instead a cabinet not identified with any particular party was chosen by the Queen, who presided over their meetings, which were held every Sunday. It dealt with Parliament. In 1720, the number of peers in the House of Lords was fixed, so that the Crown could create no more. About 1720, Robert Walpole, son of a country squire, who came to be first minister of the Crown and the leader of the Whigs, organized the cabinet so that it was of one view. He led it for twenty years and thus became the first prime minister. He was brilliant at finance and lessened taxation. He restored trust in the government after the South Sea bubble scandal. He was successful in preserving the peace with other nations and providing stability in England that led to prosperity. The Whigs opposed a standing army and over-reaching influence of the Crown. They espoused the liberty of individual subjects. Their slogan was "liberty and property". They generally favored foreign wars.

Members of the Parliament felt responsible for the good of the whole country instead of accounting to their electors, but self- interest also played a part. Leading commercial magnates of the realm sought to be members of Parliament or governors of the Bank of England so they could take up government loans at advantageous rates, snap up contracts to supply government departments at exorbitant prices, and play an important part in deciding what duties should be charged on what goods.

About 5% of the population could vote. Voting was open, rather than by secret ballot. Seats in Parliament could normally be bought either by coming to an arrangement with some landowner who had the right to nominate to a closed seat or by buying enough votes in const.i.tuencies where the electorate was larger and the contest more open. Factory owners and leading landowners sat together on committees drawing up plans for public works such as ca.n.a.l building, obtained the necessary permits from public authorities and organized the whole enterprise. In 1714, Parliament was allowed to last for seven years unless sooner dissolved by the king because of the expense and tumult of elections, which frequently occasioned riots, and sometimes battles in which men were killed and prisoners taken on both sides. Politics had become a career. Members of Parliament could not be arrested while Parliament was in session.