Page:History of merchant shipping and ancient commerce (Volume 3).djvu/376

 *gineers whom they employed, alleging, among other reasons, that they were thus frequently prevented from promoting men in their service who had served them well and faithfully—as for instance, those in an inferior capacity, such as the head stoker—there can be no doubt that the effect of the law, enforcing these examinations, has been as salutary in the case of engineers as it has proved in the case of masters and mates. There may be exceptions to the rule, but, on the whole, the requirements of the Act have tended, materially, to improve the class of men now employed as engineers on our merchant steamers, and have, as such, been generally accepted by the men themselves.

But, before closing my remarks on the mercantile marine legislation of the twelve years subsequent to the repeal of the Navigation Laws, there is one measure, apparently trivial in itself, which has been a great boon to our seamen. Before any of these Acts came into operation, they, as I have endeavoured to show, were to a great extent under the control of a class of men familiarly known as "crimps," who were the "sailor's agents." They found him a ship, discounted his advance note at usurious rates, assisted him to receive his wages at the end of the voyage, *