Page:History of merchant shipping and ancient commerce (Volume 3).djvu/499

 and mortar apparatuses for the saving of life on different parts of the coast; the supply of life-buoys and belts in case of shipwreck; the carrying of life-*boats in all passenger vessels; a revision of the laws and administration for the protection from plunder of wrecked property; international regulations for vessels meeting at sea, and a code of laws for the guidance and protection of seamen. All of these recommendations, and many others for the protection of life and property at sea, have since been carried into effect.

In 1846, and again in 1848, further Acts were passed having the same laudable object in view, and these, with all the other Acts, including the important Act of 1850, to which I have already referred at length, were carefully revised and improved by the great Act of 1854, and by subsequent measures. Nor have the health and interests of seamen, as well as the preservation of their lives from shipwreck, been overlooked in this mass of legislation. In 1835, a register office for seamen and apprentices was established, but the system, not answering the objects in view, was abolished in 1853. By the Acts of 1844 and 1845 seamen were enabled to recover their wages summarily, and they were, for the first time, protected from imposition at the hands of crimps By these laws, all merchant ships were required to carry a sufficient supply of medicine, as also of lime-juice for the use of the crew; and, by the Act of 1854,