Page:History of merchant shipping and ancient commerce (Volume 2).djvu/337

 imaginary letter from a merchant in Rotterdam to the shipowner.

Thus provided, the vessel set forth from London to encounter the manifold perils of the sea. The most respectable houses in London made application for similar licences, and every merchant who, with the privity of his clerks, sailed a vessel under such circumstances was compelled to become conversant with the humiliating mysteries of this fraudulent trade. But to make matters still worse, the forgeries were confirmed by the solemn oaths of the captain and the crew when they arrived at their destined port. Indeed it had become so common a practice that perjury under such circumstances was not dealt with as a crime, nor was it considered a crime on their part, as their owners compelled them to swear that all their letters and documents were genuine. Every sort of interrogatory was put to the captain and the crew calculated to discover the real port whence the vessel had sailed, and these questions the captain and crew were obliged to evade by numerous false oaths. The feeling that they were doing no wrong could alone have induced them thus to act. They were even obliged to declare from what quarter the wind blew when they left Rotterdam and took a pilot on board, although they were never near the place, together with many other particulars, all confirmed by oath, perjuring themselves at every stage. To such an extent did these frauds prevail that at last they were reduced to a regular system. Individuals formed themselves into established mercantile agencies, in order to facilitate the simulation of these papers.