Merchant Shipping Act 1894

Apprenticeship to the Sea Service.

105Assistance given by superintendents as to apprenticeship.

All superintendents shall give to persons desires of apprenticing boys' to or requiring apprentices for the sea service, such assistance as may be in their power, and may receive from those persons such fees as the Board of Trade fix, with the concurrence, so far as relates to pauper apprentices in England, of the Local Government Board, and so far as relates to pauper apprentices in Ireland, of the Local Government Board for Ireland.

106Apprenticeships of paupers in Great Britain and Ireland.

Subject to the special provisions of this Act, apprenticeships to the sea service made by a board of guardians or persons having the authority of a board of guardians shall, if made in Great Britain, be made in the same manner and be subject to the same laws and regulations as other apprenticeships made by such boards or persons; and if made in Ireland, be subject to the following regulations:—

(a)The board of guardians or other persons in any poor law-union may put out and bind as apprentice to the sea service any boy who, or whose parent, is receiving relief in the union, and who has attained the age of twelve years, and is of sufficient health and strength, and consents to be bound :

(b)If the cost of relieving the boy is chargeable to an electoral division of a poor law union, then.(except where paid officers act in place of guardians) be shall not be so bound unless the consent in writing of the guardians of that division, or of a majority of them, if more than one, is first obtained, and that consent shall, if possible, be endorsed on the indenture :

(c)The expenses incurred in the binding and outfit of any such apprentice shall be charged to the poor law union or electoral division, as the case may be, to which the boy or his parent is chargeable at the time of his being apprenticed :

(d)All indentures made in a poor law union may be sued on by the board of guardians of the union, or persons having the authority of such board, by their name of office; and actions so brought shall not abate by reason of any death or change in the persons holding office, but such an action shall not be commenced without the consent of the Local Government Board for Ireland :

(e)The amount of the costs incurred in any such action, and not recovered from the defendant, may be charged as the expenses incurred in binding out the apprentice.

107Attestation of pauper apprenticeship.

Every indenture of apprenticeship to the sea service made in the United Kingdom by a board of guardians, or persons having the authority of a board of guardians, shall be executed by the boy and the person to whom he is bound in the presence of and shall be attested by two justices of the peace, and those justices shall ascertain that the boy has consented to be bound and has attained the age of twelve years and is of sufficient health and strength, and that the person to whom the boy is bound is a proper person for the purpose.

108Special provisions as to apprenticeship to the sea service.

(1)Every indenture of apprenticeship to the sea service shall be executed in duplicate and shall be exempt from stamp duty.

(2)Every indenture of apprenticeship to the sea service, made in the United Kingdom, and every assignment or cancellation thereof, and, where the apprentice bound dies or deserts, the fact of the death or desertion, shall be recorded.

(3)For the purpose of the record—

(a)a person to whom an apprentice to the sea service is bound shall within seven days of the execution of the indenture take or transmit to the Registrar-General of Shipping and Seamen, or to a superintendent, the indenture executed in duplicate, and the Registrar-General or superintendent shall keep and record the one indenture and endorse on the other the fact that it has been recorded and re-deliver it to the master of the apprentice;

(b)the master shall notify any assignment or cancellation of the indenture, or the death or desertion of the apprentice, to the Registrar-General of Shipping and Seamen, or to a superintendent, within seven days of the occurrence, if it occurs within the United Kingdom; or, as soon as circumstances permit, if it occurs elsewhere.

(4)If any person fails to comply with any requirement of this section, he shall for each offence be liable to a fine not exceeding ten pounds.

109Production of indentures to superintendent before voyage in foreign-going ship.

(1)The master of a foreign-going ship shall, before carrying an apprentice to sea from a port in the United Kingdom, cause the apprentice to appear before the superintendent before whom the crew are engaged, and shall produce to the superintendent the indenture by which the apprentice is bound, and every assignment thereof.

(2)The name of the apprentice, with the date of the indenture and of the assignments thereof, if any, and the names- of the ports at which the same have been registered, shall be entered on the agreement with the crew.

(3)If the master fails without reasonable cause to comply with any requirement of this section he shall for each offence be liable to a fine not exceeding five pounds.