Lerwick, January 30, 1872, PETER HALCROW, examined.
15,546. Are you a seaman?-Yes.
15,547. Have you gone on sealing and whaling voyages for some years back?-Yes, for nine years.
15,548. What agents in Lerwick have you been engaged by?-The whole of them.
15,549. Did you always get your outfit from the agent you engaged with?-Yes, the most part of it.
15,550. And you settled your account with him at the end of the year?-Yes.
15,551. Had you always a balance to receive in money?- Generally. Once I had not; that was in my second year.
15,552. Have you always got any money that was due to you paid in cash?-No.
15,553. When did you not?-The first year I was out.
15,554. Was there something due to you that year?-Yes,
15,555. Did you ask for it to be paid to you?-Yes, at different times; but I did not get it. I was told that the agent had not got it himself, and that therefore I could not get it.
15,556. When did you return that year?-On 1st October.
15,557. How long was it after that before you got your money paid?-I never got it paid at all. I had to take goods for it out of Mr. Leask"s shop.
15,558. Were you told to take goods?-No, he did not tell me to take them; but I had to take them when I could not get the money.
I was in need of them.
15,559. Did you want the goods?-Yes, I was requiring things, and I got them there.
15,560. Did he say that you had better take goods, as the money had not come?-No, he did not say that. He only said it was not come every time I came and asked for it, and as I could not wait longer I just took the things I had to get.
15,561. How long was it after you returned before you began to take the goods?-About a month or five weeks.
15,562. How often had you asked for the money within that time?-Three or four times.
15,563. Were you offered the goods?-No, I was never offered them until I asked for them.
15,564. Did you say anything about not getting your money to the agent or any of his people?-No, I did not say anything.
15,565. Are you sure there was 4 due to you at that time?- There was 4, 10s. due when we left home from the owners, and 30s. from the Shipwrecked Mariners" Fund, because we were shipwrecked.
15,566. Then there was no oil-money that year?-None.
15,567. Did you not get the payment from the Shipwrecked Mariners" Fund in cash?-No.
15,568. Did you apply for it in cash?-Yes; I applied at the shop for it, and I got a very little cash, perhaps about 1 at one time and another-not all at once.
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15,569. Have you ever taken part of your earnings in goods since then?-Yes, I have done so almost every year that I have been out.
15,570. But that was just in the account which you opened when you went away?-Yes.
15,571. Did your people get any advances when you were absent from the agent with whom you shipped?-Yes; a little.
15,572. And they get any supplies anywhere else?-They generally got them from the agent.
15,573. Why was that?-I don"t know; they just got them there.
15,574. Do you not get a month"s advance when you leave?-We get a month"s advance now. We don"t get the money before we leave, but we get a ticket to be paid three days after the ship sails.
We generally give it to the agent, and get a little money on it, but not to the full amount of the advance.
15,575. Do you not leave that ticket at home?-Some of the men leave them at home, and the value of them is got afterwards.
15,576. Why do you not do that?-Because I may want the money before I go away, and I get a part of it from the agent.
15,577. In that case you have to leave your ticket with the agent?-Yes, we have to give it up to him.
15,578. Do you not get allotment tickets when you leave?-I don"t know them.
15,579. Can you not get half-pay tickets if you want them?-Yes.
15,580. Is it not the practice to get them?-Sometimes they get them if they ask for them.
15,581. Do you take them?-No.
15,582. Why?-I don"t know. We generally just get what we want in money or in goods, as we ask for it.
15,583. Do the agents give these half-pay tickets whenever they are asked for?-Yes.
15,584. Would they prefer you not to take them, but to take goods instead?-I don"t know about that. I have not been told so.
15,585. Did you hear the evidence of Francis Gifford?-Yes.
15,586. Do you think what he said was generally correct?-I think so.
15,587. Was he correct in what he said about a man who was in debt to the agent getting a berth more readily than another?-Yes.
15,588. Have you known that in your own experience?-I got a ship when I was in debt in my second year.
15,589. Do you think you got it more easily because you were in debt?-I cannot say for that.
15,590. Have you heard men speaking about getting a ship more easily when they were in debt?-I have heard them talking about it, but still I don"t know about it myself except on that one occasion.
15,591. Have you known any case like that which Francis Gifford mentioned, of inferior men being put on board a ship because they were in the agent"s debt, in preference to better men?-I never knew of that, but still it may have happened. I wish to say that in 1866 I shipped in the "Diana" of Hull, for the west ice in Davis Straits, and when we were out I was beset in her for thirteen months, and for seven months we were on short allowance. We have never been paid for that short allowance, although the men in Hull were paid for it.