Page:History of merchant shipping and ancient commerce (Volume 2).djvu/527

 the British mercantile marine of the variable and opposite qualifications of masters.

In the Dutch ships the qualifications for both masters and mates are considerable. Gentlemen of good families and superior education enter the merchant service of that country, and, long prior to any system of examination being established in England, the Dutch masters and mates were subjected to one.

But these examinations were confined to the officers employed in their largest description of vessels trading to India, or engaged on other distant voyages. In their coasting vessels, or galliots, of which on the following page there is an excellent illustration from Mr. Cooke's sketches, the masters and mates were not required to pass an examination except so far as to satisfy the owners of their competency for their respective duties.

In Prussia a mate, before he is licensed, must be twenty years of age, and have been five years at sea. There are two different grades, for each of which a licence is obtained. The first qualifies him for every voyage; the second limits him to the Baltic, in vessels of any size, but not exceeding forty lasts if they trade to the Cattegat, or the Skager-rock, as far as the Naze of Norway. Captains have three grades: the first class qualifying them to