The owners of Vessels engaged in this trade, and belonging to
Hull, Dundee, and Peterhead, find it convenient to engage large
numbers of their crew at Lerwick, where they call in their voyages
northwards in February or March and in May. For this purpose
agents at Lerwick are employed, who receive a commission of 21/2
per cent. on the wages of the men. None of these agents are, I
believe, licensed by the Board of Trade, under sec. 146 of the
Merchant Shipping Act of 1854; but no prosecution for penalties
for supplying seamen, under sec. 147 of the Statute, has been
directed against any of them, or against the masters of the ships for
which they act. The men are paid by monthly wages at a low rate,
and by sums of 'striking-money,' 'fish money,' 'oil money,' and
'bone money,' which vary according to the success of the voyage.
The whole earnings are payable when the men are discharged,
except a second payment of oil-money-a small balance left over
until the oil has been boiled, and its exact due amount ascertained.
It was stated by witnesses examined before Mr. Sellar in 1871,*
and by Mr. Hamilton in a Report to the Board of Trade partly
printed in the former Report,** that the chief profit of these
agents, who are also shopkeepers, 'arises from what they can make
out of the earnings of the men;' that the agents are interested in
finding employment for the men who are in their debt, the
inference being that they procure engagements for them in
preference to others; that, for security of the agent's advances,
allotment notes are made out in his favour; that even men who
have means to pay for their outfit are obliged to deal at the
agents' shops, that they may have their assistance in getting an
engagement; and that settlements of wages, which ought by law to
be made at the Custom-house within three days of the ship's
return, are often delayed for months, in order that the accounts at
the agents' shops may be increased.
*First Report, Min. of Ev., qu. 44,217 ** Report, p. xcix.