Page:History of merchant shipping and ancient commerce (Volume 3).djvu/629

 Vessels to North America were required to be victualled for twelve weeks, so as to afford a daily allowance for each person of 1/2 lb. of meat, 1-1/2 lb. of biscuit or oatmeal, with 1/2 pint of molasses, and 1 gallon of water. Regulations were prescribed for mustering the passengers and for promoting cleanliness on the voyage, and a surgeon was to be carried. The master and surgeon were obliged to give bond in the sum of 100l. severally to keep a true journal, which journal was, on the return of the vessel, to be delivered to the officer of Customs and verified on oath. Bond was likewise to be given by the owners or master for the seaworthiness of the ship and the delivery of the passengers at their destined ports. An abstract of the Act was to be hung up on board.

Some slight amendments of detail were made in this law in 1813 by the 53 Geo. 3, cap. 36; and in the year 1816 it was further amended by the Act 56 Geo. 3, caps. 83, 114. By the first of these Acts, which is confined in its operation to Newfoundland and the coast of Labrador, the tonnage check was omitted, and the limitation was changed to the check by space, viz. 6 feet in length by 2 feet in breadth for each passenger, with the full perpendicular height between the two decks in vessels having two decks, and 5 feet perpendicular between the cargo and deck when there was no second deck.

The dietary scale was increased to

1 lb. of bread or biscuit,       } per day, 1 lb. of beef, or 3/4 lb. of pork } per passenger; 2 lbs. of flour,  } 3 lbs. of oatmeal, } weekly; 1/2 lb. of butter, }

but the allowance of water was reduced from 8 to 5 pints.

In 1817 the original Act (43 Geo. 3, cap. 56), which had been previously repealed in respect of Newfoundland and Labrador, was repealed in respect of the rest of British North America by the 57 Geo. 3, cap. 10. By this Act the number of passengers was limited to one passenger for every 2-1/2 tons burthen—and in ships partly laden with goods, in the same proportion for the unladen portion only. A distinction in computation was, for the first time, made between children and adults; three children under fourteen being reckoned, for space purposes, as one adult. The dietary was the same as in the repealed Act of 56 Geo. 3, cap. 83. The Shipowner was to give bond for the number of