Page:History of merchant shipping and ancient commerce (Volume 3).djvu/37

 so in the rules and regulations drawn up for the internal management of their marine, they were able, at the commencement of their independence, to adopt from other nations such laws, even to their most minute details, as appeared to them the best fitted for their position. Thus, one of their earliest Acts, that of 1790, provides: that, "if a seaman is engaged without the execution of the shipping paper, the master or mariner shall pay to the seaman the highest wages that have been given within the three months next before the time of such shipping;" and the principle of this law has been long maintained, for the Act of 1840 declares that "any seaman so shipped may, at any time, leave the service, and demand the highest rate of wages given to any seaman shipped for the voyage." In the Bank and Cod-fisheries, the contract of seamen with the masters and owners is required to be in writing, expressing the general terms of the voyage; and in the Whale-fishery, though the shipping paper is not absolutely required by the law, there is still a regular engagement, generally in writing, stipulating, among other things, the terms of the voyage, and the shares or "lays" of each officer and seaman on board the ship.

The several modes in which seamen's contracts are executed, are the hiring by the month or by the voyage so long as it shall continue, or for a share of the profits, or of the freight earned in certain

be admitted for any purpose, or as a visitor, within the premises appropriated to the purposes of the said college." Such was Stephen Girard, master and mariner.]
 * [Footnote: or duty whatever in the said college; nor shall any such person ever