Volume Twelve - Pre-Victorian to the Present Day - further aspects - Mercantile Marine Offices - An article from the Nautical Magazine for 1876. . . .

By Section 124 of that Act, it is provided :-

"It shall be the general business of shipping masters appointed as aforesaid,

"To afford facilities for engaging seamen by keeping registries of their names and characters ;

"To superintend and facilitate their engagement and discharge in manner hereinafter mentioned ;

"To provide means for securing the presence on board at the proper times of men who are so engaged ;

"To facilitate the making of apprenticeships to the sea service ;

"To perform such other duties relating to merchant seamen and merchant ships as are hereby, or may hereafter under the powers herein contained, be committed to them ."

In the Amendment Act of 1862, the expressions or titles "shipping master,” and “deputy shipping master," are abolished, and those of "superintendents of Mercantile Marine," and "deputy superintendents of Mercantile Marine" inserted in lieu thereof. The name "shipping office," also thereby became obsolete, and the present name "Mercantile Marine Office" given, by which, in the United Kingdom, they are known at present. The mere duty of engaging seamen as crews of merchant ships by getting them to sign articles of agreement, and discharging them officially from those contracts, still forms part of the business of those offices, but the duties are not restricted thereto, as when they were at first created. For instance, a savings bank for seamen has been since 1855 added ; a money order office has also been established ; the receipt of fees on ship measurement and surveys, together with the payment of surveyors under the Board of Trade ; wreck accounts, Colonial lighthouse accounts, accounts relating to "inquiries," the local management of the Royal Naval Reserve, and other details connected with the multifarious ramifications of the Board of Trade. If it were practicable to return to the old system of shipping crews and paying them off on board ship, as is argued for by some , a considerable amount of work would still remain to give these offices a raison d'etre.