RELATING TO BRITISH- CLAIMS. 343 



insurance in November and December to seal along the coast. The 

 total premium is divided into four parts; one-fourth is paid in cash, the 

 other three-fourths in notes payable in three, six, and nine months, 

 with the privilege of canceling the policy on return of vessel to port, 

 and where no loss is claimed the premium on each entire month, not 

 entered upon, is returned to the owner. The cost of 

 survey is from ten to twenty dollars. In case of seiz- 

 ure of vessel the policy is void and the insured usually survey fee. 

 do not pay their notes, claiming that they are broken seizure voids poi- 



up. 



icy. 



1ST. T. James. 



Subscribed and sworn to before me this 15th day of October A. D. 

 1892. 

 [seal.] Clement Bennett, 



Notary Public. 



Deposition of A. P. Lorentzen, shipping agent, oicner^ and outfitter of 



vessels. 



State of California, 



City and county of San Francisco, ss : 

 A. P. Lorentzen, being duly sworn, deposes and says: 

 I am fifty-four years of age, an American citizen, and reside in Ala- 

 meda, Cal. My occupation is shipping agent and owner 

 and outfitter of vessels. My place of business is 11£ o^pat.on. 

 Stewart street, San Francisco. Have been engaged in the business to a 

 greater or less extent since 1865, and since 1885 I have been an owner 

 and otherwise interested in vessels engaged in the sealing business. 

 Have fitted ont vessels and am thoroughly familiar with the business. 

 Vessels going on a sealing cruise are usually fitted out 

 for an eight or nine months' voyage in January or Feb- er 0utfitting of 8eal * 

 ruary of each year, and the cost of a complete outfit for 

 a fairly good vessel, carrying a crew of from twenty to twenty- five men, 

 is about three thousand dollars. This would include the entire cost of 

 provisions and subsistence of a crew of white men, including insurance, 

 as well as all other expenses for a complete outfit of a sealing vessel, but 

 would not include advances to the men. In estimating the cost of pro- 

 visions, water, etc., we allow fifty cents per day for each person com- 

 posing a white crew, and it will fully cover the expense. I have had 

 no experience with Indian crews, but, as they largely furnish their 

 own subsistence and their own canoes, it would cost very much less to 

 fit out a vessel carrying that kind of a crew. The cost 

 of chartering a vessel from forty to a hundred tons, se aiers of charterillg 

 registered burden, engaged in sealing, is about three 

 dollars per ton, dependiug somewhat on the condition of the vessel 

 and the demand at the time of charters. The cost of provisions and 

 outfit at present, as compared with 1886 and 1887, is about the same. 

 The cost of constructing a sealing schooner is about a 

 hundred dollars per registered ton. A small schooner se ^.* of buildin s 

 might cost a little more per ton. The same would cost 

 about eighty dollars per registered ton to build it in Victoria. The 



