PROTECTION OF DEEP SEA FISHERIES. 425 



and would really be more competent to complete the 

 voyage than an entire stranger. Certificated men would 

 not be likely to be standing about waiting to be shipped, 

 as inferior hands do, and the time consumed in looking 

 or waiting for a certificated master would often cause a 

 vessel and her crew to lose at least one night's fishing, 

 which would mean sometimes from ;ioo to 200. 



Section 145 of the Merchant Shipping Act, here incor- 

 porated, provides that apprentices and boys under eighteen, 

 and their indentures or agreements, should be brought 

 before the shipping master before each voyage, and taking 

 this in conjunction with Clause G. of these clauses, this 

 would be necessary in many cases every other day or so ; 

 as, whenever the vessel returned to port, the apprentices 

 and boys with their indentures and agreements would have 

 to attend before the shipping master. As fishing vessels 

 frequently proceed to sea immediately they have delivered 

 their catch of fish, the delay caused by this would be 

 unendurable. Sections 150 to 154 provide for running 

 agreements, the need of which is not known under the 

 present system, as crews ship for the voyage and there the 

 matter ends ; no alteration in this respect is required, nor 

 would it benefit anybody. 



Section 157 imposes a penalty of $ for shipping sea- 

 men without an agreement duly executed, but in practice, 

 in case of a hand being shipped on an emergency, there is 

 frequently no time, if the vessel is to save the tide and her 

 night's fishing, to enter into any written agreement, for the 

 sailing of a fishing vessel is not of so momentous a nature as 

 that of a large foreign-going ship ; and it frequently happens, 

 especially since the passing of the Act of 1880, that a casual 

 hand has to be shipped at a few moments' notice. In fact, 

 in large drift-fishing ports there is always a class of men 



