Part 262 (1/2)
The rents are paid regularly, and he has nothing to do with the tenants except to draw their rent at the term.
10,930. Then what you deny in that sentence of Mr. Hamilton's Report is merely his statement as to the extent of the holdings of the men?-Yes. I hold they are three or four times larger than he says.
10,931. In the same sentence he adds, 'And it is from them (that is, the fishermen) and from their sons that the crews of the whaling vessels are mainly drawn.' Is that the case?-I don't deny that at all. It is quite true.
10,932. Is it also true that there are no whaling vessels belonging to Lerwick-that they belong princ.i.p.ally to Dundee, Peterhead, and Hull, and that the owners of these vessels engage large portions of their crews at Lerwick through agents?-Yes.
10,933. Is it also true that these agents get little direct profit from their agency?-They get 21/2 per cent. commission on the gross wages paid through them.
10,934. Do you consider that an adequate remuneration?-It is not nearly an adequate remuneration for the amount of trouble they have; but it has been the practice to pay that, and there is so much compet.i.tion amongst the agents that it has brought it down. I believe it was formerly 5 per cent.
10,935. I believe there are only three or four agents in Lerwick, and that the commission is fixed by mutual agreement between them and the s.h.i.+powners?-Yes. It has always been 21/2 per cent.
within my recollection.
10,936. Is it the compet.i.tion that prevents the commission from being raised to such a figure as would be a sufficient remuneration in itself?-Yes.
10,937. The agents are engaged in business as shopkeepers and outfitters?-Yes.
10,938. Then it is the case that they have little direct profit from their agency; and Mr. Hamilton goes on to say, 'Their chief profit arises from what they can make out of the earnings of the men.' Is that statement correct?-I think some of them make very little profit indeed from the men. They sell their goods as cheap, if not cheaper, than other shopkeepers do; they give credit to the men, and sometimes they lose a good deal of it through bad debts when there is a bad voyage.
10,939. Is a bad voyage in the whaling a thing of frequent occurrence?-It is very frequent, especially in the seal fis.h.i.+ng.
10,940. Then Mr. Hamilton says, 'Many of the men engaged are utterly unable, without the a.s.sistance of the agents, to provide themselves with the clothing necessary for the voyage?'-That is often the case with young hands. They come here without any clothing, and require perhaps from 5 to 6 worth in order to fit them out for the Greenland voyage. The wages for young hands are about 1 a month, and 1s. per tun of oil. When they have no success, they are back in about a month and a half; that is only 30s.
they have to get, and that is all the agent has for his advance.
10,941. You are speaking now of the sealing voyage?-Yes. It only occupies about five or six weeks with the steamers.
10,942. But when a man goes on a sealing voyage of that kind, is he taken for the whaling voyage afterwards?-Sometimes, but sometimes not.
10,943. Do many of them only go to the sealing voyage?-Yes.
Last year the majority bargained for the sealing voyage only, and did not go on the whaling voyage. Some of them re-engaged again, but many of them did not.
10,944. But, as a rule, do one-half of them engage for a second voyage after the sealing voyage was over?-I should say they do.
10,945. And many of them, I suppose, engage for a whaling voyage, who have not been at the sealing voyage at the commencement of the season?-That is sometimes the case.
10,946. How many men have you engaged for the last four or five years for the sealing voyages?-I could not say exactly for the last four or five years, but last year we engaged 207 for the sealing voyage, and 80 for the whaling, or 287 altogether.
10,947. Is not that an unusual proportion between the sealing and whaling voyages?-Yes. In former years we used to engage more for the whaling, and fewer for the sealing; but last year the owners took it into their heads to engage the men only for the sealing, and discharge them at the end of that voyage; and then, when the vessels were going to the whaling, they re-engaged only such men as they wanted.
10,948. What was their reason for that?-I suppose they were trying to economize. I don't know whether they economized or not, but it must have been with that view they tried it.
10,949 Are the crews larger in the sealing voyages than in the whaling?-They are. I should say that ten men fewer per s.h.i.+p are required for the whaling than for the sealing
10,950. How many s.h.i.+ps would these represent?-Seven for the sealing, and four for the whaling.
10,951. So that you had three s.h.i.+ps fewer under your care for the whaling than for the sealing last year?-Yes.
10,952 How did that happen? Did the s.h.i.+ps not go to the whaling?-The 'Esquimaux' did not call here for men last year.