Most of the agents engaged in this business came forward to
contradict the statements of the former witnesses, and of Mr.
Hamilton's official Report; and they evinced much indignation,
especially with regard to the latter. Upon their own evidence,
however, the state of matters in times not very long past is not
inaccurately described by Mr. Hamilton. It is true, indeed, that his
Report, as printed, does not notice that the Board of Trade, acting
through Mr. Gatherer, Collector of Customs and Superintendent of
the Mercantile Marine Office at Lerwick, had, shortly before he
wrote, taken measures to secure that the men should be paid
their wages according to law, in cash, in presence of the
Superintendent; but the efforts of the authorities do not appear
to have been quite successful at the time when the Report was
written. Although even now some improvements are required, the
men's dealings with the agents have evidently decreased during
the last few years.
[L.F.U. Garriock, 12,543.]
The understanding that men shall get their supplies where they
get their employment is so universal in Shetland, that it is not
surprising that it should have extended to the men employed in the
whaling ships; and although Mr. Hamilton's description may be
coloured by his personal acquaintance with a few extreme cases, a
knowledge of the system prevailing in the local fisheries certainly
raises the strongest presumption in favour of its substantial
accuracy.
[A. Sandison, 7088; A. Moffat, 16,352; A. Goodlad, 16,399; P.
Halcrow, 15,549; W. Robertson, 16,581.]
The substance of the evidence on this subject may be stated in a
few sentences:-
The debts of the seamen to the agents are often considerable in
bad years, and the agents often lose a great deal by bad debts. The
amount of the accounts after successful voyages may be seen from
the abstracts given in by Messrs. Hay & Co. and Mr. Tulloch.
Mr. Tulloch and Mr. Tait agree in saying that the men's average
out-takes still amount to about one-fifth of their earnings; and Mr.
Robertson estimates them at one-fourth. In the case of the
'Camperdown,' in 1865, under the old system, the men's earnings
for both the seal and whale fishery amounted to £1537, 10s. 3d.;
the amount of cash paid was £1120, 12s. 3d.; leaving £416, 18s.
for goods sold. This case was selected by the witness. The
accounts in the agent's ledger are settled when the men come to
Lerwick for the purpose, many within a month or two after the
men are landed, but in other cases, where the men live at a
distance, not for several months. No doubt the men are in some
measure to be blamed for this; but there can be no doubt that they
would attend for payment at the proper time if the agents and
shipmaster seriously insisted on their doing so. Before 1867 the
men received the balance of wages due to them at the agent's
office, the whole of the payments in cash and supplies of goods
made in the course of the year to themselves or their families
having been deducted. The account was balanced by payment of
the sum remaining due after these deductions. Since 1867 the
account in the agent's books is still in the same form, and is
balanced exactly in the same way; but the seaman goes through the
form of receiving at the Mercantile Marine Office the whole sum
due to him, under deduction only of the advances, etc., allowed by
the Merchant Shipping Act. His account is read over and made
ready for settlement before he goes to the Mercantile Marine
Office; and after he has got the lawful sum of money there, he
returns to the agent's office, and either hands back what he owes
for goods or cash advanced over and above the legitimate
deductions already made, or he hands over the whole money he
has got at the Custom-house to the agent, that he may pay himself,
and settle the account in the regular Shetland fashion. The
accounts due for former years to other agents are sometimes
deducted from the balance due; and with this view, it was formerly
the practice, not yet quite obsolete, that lists of indebted men
should be handed from one agent to another, and that their old
accounts should be found standing against them in the books of
their new agent. Down to 1870 accounts were still 'squared' at the
Custom-house in some cases, the agent handing over there only the
exact sum due to the men.
[W. Robertson, 10,938, 10,048; J. Gatherer, 15,895; A. Munro,
16,193; W. Robertson, 16,631; W. Robertson, 11,130, 11,213; J.
Leisk, 14,632; A. Goodlad, 16,419; A. Munro, 16,161; G.
Williamson, 9624; W. Robertson, 11,029; W.B. Tulloch, 14,382;
W. Garriock, 16,800; W.Robertson, 10,974, 11,031; W.B. Tulloch,
14,420, A. Munro, 16,182.]
It is explained to the men, when they first come to the agent's
office and have their ledger account adjusted, that the 'account of
wages' settled at the Mercantile Marine Office does not include
the agent's account of supplies, and that he has to pay that
afterwards; or he is told at the Custom-house to go down and pay
his money back. It is still quite understood that the agent having
the first claim on the man's wages in honour, if not in law, he has
to go down at once to pay the amount of his account; and instances
of failure in this respect are hardly known.
[W. Robertson, 11,022, 11,212; G.R. Tait, 14,529.]
The outfit and some of the family supplies are almost always taken
from the agent's shop; but many of the men live so far from
Lerwick, that the distance forbids them to deal with him to a large
extent. The circumstances of the men are generally so much better
than those of ordinary ling fishermen, that they are not compelled
to get credit to the same extent, or perhaps can get it near home,
since the enforcement of the law in 1867 gave some security that
the earnings of the year's voyages would not be forestalled. The
outfit is still almost invariably got from the agent; and Mr.
Robertson, whose special mission was to deny everything in the
former evidence and in the Report by Mr. Hamilton, could not
point to any case where it had been got elsewhere. Young hands
in their first voyage must get their outfit from the agent; and as in
their case the outfit is generally very expensive, the number of
young hands engaged since 1867 has decreased, the agents being
unwilling to give an outfit or credit, which one season's wages are
often insufficient to pay.
[W. Robertson, 10,973; A.B. Jamieson, 14,318, 14, 321; J. Leisk,
14,637, 14,680; W. Robertson, 10,940, 10,954; W.B. Tulloch,
14,448; L.F.U. Garriock, 12,509; W. Robertson, 16,593; P.
Moodie, 14,675.]
Notwithstanding the enforcement of the law as to payment of
wages, the old custom of dealing with the agent who gets the
engagement is still not without force; and some men say that it is
still so strong as to deprive them of credit elsewhere, because they
are expected not only by the agent, but by other tradesmen, to be
running an account at his shop.
[A. Moffat, 16,352; A. Goodlad, 16,399.]
Allotment notes have not come into general use at Lerwick; and
when they are drawn up, they are sometimes taken in the name of
the agent, or some one in his employment. Many families in either
case are supplied with goods as they want them, or, if they live in
Lerwick, with a weekly allowance of meal, the only difference
being that the sums in allotment notes need not undergo the
process of being handed over at the Mercantile Marine Office.
The money obtained on advance notes is often paid back at once to
the agent for outfit or supplies, or rather the advance note is left
with the agent, in security of the goods supplied. It is stated by
Mr. Robertson (10,968) that the first month's advance is paid in
cash. and that the men may spend it where they like. But since
leaving Shetland I have received a very detailed statement by a
seaman, that he was this year refused such payment unless he took
two-thirds in goods. That statement, however, is not an oath, and
therefore does not form part of the evidence. Of course an
advance note is not strictly due until after the man has joined the
ship; but the practice is as Mr. Robertson states in his evidence.
Only one case is spoken to in which an agent refused or hesitated
to give cash for a balance due to a seaman. But in older times it
was usual to 'shove off' the men, giving 10s. or £1 at a time, and
refusing to settle with them.
[A. Blanch, 9144; G. Williamson, 9608; A.B. Jamieson, 14,311,
W. Robertson, 11,180; A. Goodlad, 16,358; P. Halcrow, 15,552;
W. Laurenson, 15,601.]
It is in evidence that many men believe that the agents, who have
unquestionably a voice in regard to the selection of the men,
procure berths in the first place for those who are indebted to them
for outfit and supplies. Of course they have, as they admit, a
strong interest to do so; and it is said that masters have complained
of inferior men being put upon them for this reason. But no very
distinct evidence as to this could be obtained. Two cases are
referred to in which agents declined to procure engagements for
men, or tried to prevent their being engaged. In one of these the
offence was having drawn the money due for the sealing voyage,
instead of letting it remain until after the whaling voyage.
[W.R. Tulloch, 14,490; W. Robertson, 16,572; W. Garriock,
16,280; T. Gifford, 15,552; W. Robertson, 10,959; G.R. Tait,
14,558; F. Gifford, 15,499; W.R. Tulloch, 14,483.]
While, therefore, Mr. Hamilton's Report must be received with
some qualification in regard to one or two points as to which he
could not have full information, and while it must be granted that a
cursory perusal of it leaves a stronger impression of the abuses it
exposes than a more critical study of its language justifies, its
general correctness with regard to a recent time has not been
disproved but confirmed by the attacks to which it has been
subjected. Indeed, nothing could more clearly demonstrate the
truth of the general conclusions to which it leads, than the fact's,
(1) that Messrs. Hay & Co., Mr. Tait, and Messrs. Laurenson &
Tulloch, three out of the four agents at Lerwick, have within the
last two years retired from the business, all stating that the
commission of 21/2 per cent. is insufficient to remunerate them for
the trouble of engaging and settling with the men; and (2) that
all the agents concur, by refusing credits, in excluding from
engagements the 'green hands,' from whom the chief part of their
profits was formerly derived. It is not surprising that these
respectable merchants, whose error consisted in carrying on
business on a system deeply rooted in the country, and which in
more than one case had descended to them from their fathers and
grandfathers, should have felt deeply the interference of new laws,
the expediency of which they were naturally unable to see. But, in
noticing the effect of these laws, imperfectly as they have hitherto
been observed, it is impossible to avoid asking whether some
analogous regulations might not effectually extirpate the truck
system in the other fishing industries in Shetland.