APPENDIX. No. 13. APPENDIX No. 13. MERCHANT SEAMEN'S FUND. Quarterly Relief. 1. All persons applying for a pension are required to present to the corporation a petition on one of the printed forms, which must be filled up in every respect agreeably to the directions contained in the margin thereof, and attested by the signatures and certificates therein required; but in cases when, from unavoidable circumstances, the requisite signatures cannot be obtained, the petitioners are required to produce such testimony in support of the representations made in the petition as shall be satisfactory to the corporation. 2. Applicants must be in indigent circumstances, and not possessed of a permanent annual income exceeding the amount here-under specified for each class, viz., Masters, 301.; Mates, 201.; Seamen or other persons, 157. 3. All persons who, after admission to the Pension List, shall become possessed of an income which would have rendered them ineligible, shall be deemed disqualified, and taken off the books. 4. Applicants to be admitted to a pension upon the highest class to which they can prove themselves qualified. 5. Men are not eligible until they have attained the age of 60 years, after having served at sea for the period of five years, or 60 months, but if they are, by sickness, wounds, or other accidental misfortunes, rendered wholly incapable of following the profession of Seamen, they are eligible at any age. 6. Widows without children, or with a child or children above the age of 14 years, are not eligible until they have attained the age of 50 years, unless they are disabled by blindness or other extreme infirmity. 7. Widows with a child or children are eligible to admission as pensioners on the death of their husbands, and to receive the highest rate of pension to which their husbands would have been entitled, until such child, or all such children, attain the age of 14 years; upon which event such widows, if then under 50 years of age, to go upon the lowest rate of the same class of pension from which they were receiving relief until they attain the age of 50 years. 8. Widows and children of Seamen, or other persons not residing at the port of Kingston-upon-Hull, or within the limits thereof, are eligible to be placed on the Pension List, without being required to prove a term of service of not less than five years, provided their husbands were killed, slain, or drowned, on board of, or in the service ships, and vessels belonging to the port of Kingston-upon-Hull, or the limits thereof, and also provided they are otherwise eligible under these regulations, and that such widows be placed on the lowest rate of pension of the class to which they respectively may belong. 9. In case of a male pensioners dying, and leaving a widow eligible under these regulations, the pension to be transferred to her. 10. A widow remarrying is ineligible to continue a pensioner. 11. Orphans and fatherless children are eligible to admission as pensioners, provided their fathers were at the time of their decease qualified to receive relief; but no pension shall be granted or continued to any child who has attained the age of 14 years, unless afflicted with blindness, or any other extreme infirmity which wholly disables him or her from earning a livelihood, and is at the same time a proper object of charity. 12. Children under 14 years of age whose mothers may have forfeited their pension by reason of a second marriage, and who after such second marriage shall have again become widows, without becoming entitled to a pension, to be relieved as follows, viz., to have the allowance formerly granted to their mother, together with an additional allowance of 5s. per quarter for each child, until they respectively attain the age of 14 years. 13. No Seaman or other person, or the wives, widows, or children of such as shall have quitted the sea service, and entered upon and engaged in any other mode of obtaining a livelihood, when under the age of 35 years, are eligible to receive relief, unless they gain a requalification by sailing or serving on board of ships and vessels belonging to the port of Hull, or to ports or places situated within the limits and liberties thereof, for the period of five years, or 60 months at the least, in which case the former period of service shall be allowed for accordingly. Provided, nevertheless, that the same shall not operate to the prejudice of any person who may have so quitted the sea service by reason of any accident happening to such person while employed in the service of ships and vessels belonging to the said port, or to any port or place within the limits and liberties thereof, who, after such accident may have abstained from applying for relief, or who shall have been considered by the Board as still able to gain a livelihood on the shore until a more advanced period of life. 14. No in-pensioner of Greenwich Hospital, or any other public charity, hospital, or establishment whatever, nor any person permanently fixed or maintained in the parish work or poorhouse, is eligible to receive relief. 15. No pension or allowance to be made to the child of any Seaman born after the expiration of two years from the time such Seaman shall have left off the sea service. 16. Persons admitted to a pension, and failing to apply for the same for a period of 15 months, shall be struck off the books. Payment of Pensioners. To masters and their widows, at 10 o'clock in the forenoon; and to Seamen and their widows, at 2 o'clock in the afternoon, on the Monday after the first Wednesday in March, June, September, and December. Rates of Pension to the Master or the Widow of Master. Temporary Relief. £. s. d. TABLE of RATE of RELIEF to be granted to the Warden or his Deputy, in cases of sickness or accident. Per week. £. s. d. 6 6 0 0 6 .00 6 To a seaman or the widow of a seaman And to each child under 14 years of age, in addition Relief in Cases of Shipwreck. The relief granted by the Trustees at any port in Great Britain, or Ireland, to Seamen, on their landing, after being wrecked in ships, or vessels registered at the port of Hull, or at any port or place situated within the limits and liberties thereof, is repaid to the said Trustees, provided the same does not exceed in amount the following rates, viz. :— d. 007 0 10 0 APPENDIX No. 14. PORT OF BRISTOL. REGULATIONS for the ADMISSION and GOVERNMENT of PENSIONERS on the MERCHANT Applicants for relief must deliver to the receiver a petition, setting out the particulars of their (or their husband's) services at sea, commencing with their apprenticeship or first service, if not apprenticed, and appear before the Trustees for examination into the state of their health, means of sup port, &c. Those applicants who, from infirmity or illness, are incapable of complying with the above, must cause to be delivered, with their petition, a certificate from some competent medical practitioner, stating the nature and extent of the disease or infirmity under which they labour, and whether it is likely to be a permanent or temporary disablement, those applying in consequence of injury received, or illness contracted in service, must produce a declaration made by the owner, master, or other officer of the ship, stating that such injury or sickness was incurred in the ship's duty, and not otherwise, and a medical certificate as above. Widows and children of Seamen killed, slain, or drowned must furnish a similar declaration, stating that the casuality occurred on the ship's duty, when and where it occurred, and the time the deceased had been in the service of the vessel. All pensioners on this fund failing to appear at the general inspection made at the Merchant's Hall in November of each year, of which due notice is annually published, will be suspended from the list permanently or temporarily, at the discretion of the inspecting Trustees, as well as all such pensioners appearing as by reason of improved health or circumstances may be considered ineligible for con tinuance. In case of distant residence, illness, or other unavoidable absence, the Trustees will receive a certificate from the minister and churchwardens, or other respectable inhabitants, of the parish in which such pensioner resides, stating the condition of such pensioner; and that he, she, or they have been seen by them on the day of the date of such certificate, and that they are proper recipients of the pension of this Fund. No. 14. APPENDIX. No. 15. APPENDIX No. 15. BYE LAWS for the Management of the MERCHANT SEAMEN'S FUND, at the united ports of 1. The annual meeting of the owners, and masters, and commanders employed on board of ships and vessels belonging to persons residing at the above-mentioned ports and their dependencies shall be held at Glasgow, on such day, within ten days after the twenty-sixth day of December annually, and at such place and hour as shall be fixed by the Trustees resident at Glasgow, for the purpose of electing the 15 Trustees for these united ports, in terms of the Act. 2. Immediately after that election at Glasgow, or so soon after as convenient, the 15 Trustees elected shall meet for the purpose of electing a chairman from among the Trustees resident at Glasgow; of considering the whole accounts and proceedings of the Trustees resident at the several ports during the preceding year; of making or altering bye laws; of examining the state of the Fund; of electing a general treasurer; of fixing one uniform scale of pensions for the different ports; and, in general for the consideration of the whole business of the Fund, so that there may be a regular and harmonious system of management at all the ports of the Clyde. 3. The chairman of the Trustees shall be the convener of the five Trustees resident at Glasgow, and may at any time when necessary call general meetings of the Trustees, to be held in that city for these purposes, or any of them. 4. The general treasurer shall be resident in Glasgow, and shall take charge of all funds belonging the trust, receive regular statements of the receipts and disbursements at the respective ports; examine and check the pension lists; superintend the application of the funds; keep accounts of the aggregate management, and prepare an annual statement of the same, for the general meeting; and shall prepare and transmit to the President and Governors in London the account of the receipts and expenditure, required by the Act. He shall also be clerk to the general Trustees, and treasurer to the Trustees resident at Glasgow. 5. As the ports of Glasgow, Greenock, and Port Glasgow, with their dependencies, are, for the purposes of the Act, declared to be one united port, the sums levied at each port shall not form a separate fund, subject to the exclusive appropriation of the resident Trustees; but the funds levied at all the ports, and from ships or vessels belonging to either of them, shall be a common stock, applicable for the benefit of Seamen, and the widows and children of Seamen, of any of those ports or their dependencies, who shall receive the relief which may be awarded to them at either of those ports most convenient, the surplus revenue of one port being applicable for supplying the deficiency of the other, so that there may be a fair assimilation and perfect equality of distribution at all; and all harbours, creeks, and places within the custom-house district of those ports severally, for the time, shall be dependencies of the port of that custom-house. 6. Subject to that provision, and to such rules and regulations as shall from time to time be enacted by the Trustees at a general meeting, the five Trustees resident at each port shall have full and independent power for collecting, distributing, and managing the rates leviable at their respective ports. They shall elect one of their number to be their chairman, who shall be convener, and who shall have a deliberative, and in case of equality, a casting vote. Any three of their number shall constitute a quorum. They shall meet at such time and place as their conveners, on a notice of 24 hours, may appoint; and in case of his absence or refusal to call a meeting, it shall be competent for any two to convene the Trustees. They shall appoint a receiver of the duties, and (with the exception aforesaid) a Treasurer for the distribution and management of the same, with such remuneration as they may award. They shall hold an annual meeting during the second week of December previously to the annual general meeting, for the purpose of examining and checking the collection-book of the receiver, and the pension-book and the accounts of the treasurer, and if found correct, of docqueting the same. 7. The receiver and treasurer shall be removable at the pleasure of the resident Trustees of the port. The treasurer at each port shall keep a regular pension-book, in alphabetical order, in which shall be entered the name and address of each pensioner, the name and port of the ship in which the Seaman last served, in respect of which service the pension is given, the date of his or her enrolment, and the periodical payment of his or her pension, of which the entry shall be held as evidence of payment without any receipt. The treasurer shall also keep a regular account-book, in which all his receipts and disbursements (referring for particulars to the pension-book) shall be duly entered, and which shall be balanced on the 30th day of November annually, when he shall also make out a concise abstract, classifying under separate heads the revenue and expenditure of the preceding year. He shall also act as clerk to the resident Trustees of the port, shall be present at all their meetings, and shall keep regular minutes thereof. He shall likewise communicate copies of his pension-list and accounts to the general treasurer at Glasgow half-yearly. 8. The receiver at each port shall keep a collection-book, in which he shall regularly enter, under separate columns, the date of arrival of each Clyde ship at his ports, the name and port of the ship, master's name, tonnage, number of men, whence arrived, time of last payment of duties, time of entry into pay, time of discharge, and amount of duties paid to him for the crew. He shall, upon the close of each quarter, on 31st March, 30th June, 30th September, and 31st December, make out a certified copy of the entries in that book during the preceding quarter, deduct his commission from the amount of rate received, and hand over that copy, along with all the muster-rolls lodged with him, and the balance of rates to the treasurer. He shall preserve the collection-book itself as a record until finished, when he shall hand it for preservation to the treasurer. He shall keep a similar, but separate, record of vessels which do not belong to the Clyde, and transmit the certified copy, balance of rates, and muster-rolls applicable to these, to the secretary of the president and governors, London, quarterly, but shall deliver the record itself, when completed, to the treasurer at his port for preservation. 9. The treasurer at each port shall preserve the certified copies of the collection-book, carry to his debit the gross amount of collections, and take credit for the commission, that his accounts may show the gross collection and expense of management. The muster-rolls shall be transmitted to the treasurer at the port to which the ships respectively belong, and there arranged and preserved under the name of each ship, with an index, to facilitate reference for ascertaining the past service and contribution of Seamen. 10. The vouchers for the Fund shall be taken in name of the chairman of the Trustees and the treasurer, and their successors in office, at the port at which they are deposited, for behoof of the Trustees; and the whole proceedings shall be conducted in name of the Trustees of the Merchant Seamen's Fund for the Clyde Ports. 11. The following persons only can receive from the Clyde Fund, under the provisions of the Act 4 and 5 Will. IV. c. 52:-1st. Seamen who have become decrepit and are worn out, or are unfitted for service by old age, after having paid the monthly rates for five years as rated Seamen on board of a British merchant ship. Such Seamen can be enrolled on the Clyde Fund only in case they shall have contributed more to that Fund than to any other Fund during that period. 2nd. Seamen disabled by wound or accident, when in discharge of their duty as rated Seamen on board a Clyde ship. Such Seamen may be enrolled as pensioners although they have not contributed five years, if the accident. occurred when in discharge of their duty on ship's service. 3rd. Seamen temporarily unfitted for service by sickness or accident. Such Seamen may be enrolled as temporary pensioners although they have not contributed five years, provided the sickness or accident occurred when in discharge of their duty as rated Seamen on board a Clyde ship. 4th. Rated Seamen who have been wrecked on board a British merchant ship, and are on their way home only. 5th. The widows and children of Seamen killed, slain, or drowned in discharge of their duty on board a Clyde ship. Those widows and children may be enrolled although the deceased had not contributed five years to the Fund, provided he lost his life on ship's duty as a rated Seaman in the service of a Clyde ship. 6th. The widows and children of Seamen who die a natural death, after having contributed 21 years to the Merchant Seamen's Fund. N.B.-Widows and children of Seamen who die a natural death cannot be enrolled as pensioners unless the deceased Seaman paid the monthly rates 21 years.-(See Act 4 and 5 Will. IV. c. 52, s. 2.) Those rates commenced, as to Scotch ships, on 1st January, 1835, so that no widow or child of a Seaman who died a natural death can be enrolled on this Fund before 1st January, 1856. Lastly. Widows and children of Seamen who at the time of their death were permanent pensioners on the Fund. Such widows shall not be relieved unless married to the deceased Seaman before he came a pensioner on the Fund. 12. The following shall be the rates of pension until varied or altered by the Trustees:1. To superannuated Clyde Seamen of 60 years of age and upwards Under that age from 31. to 2. To Clyde Seamen permanently injured— By loss of both legs By loss of both arms By loss of one leg . £6 a-year. 6 APPENDIX. No. 15. By loss of one arm By loss of sight Otherwise, according to circumstances, from 31. to 3. To Clyde Ship-masters, double the above rates. 4 Temporary relief to Clyde Seamen, when under sickness or recovering from accident, from 10s. to 20s. a-month, according to circumstances; and to Ship-masters, from 20s. to 40s. amonth. 13. The following rules shall be observed in deciding upon applications for relief or enrolment :1st. No person shall be enrolled who is capable of earning his or her own livelihood. 2nd. Widows under 50 years of age shall not be enrolled as permanent pensioners unless very distressing circumstances are proved, and in that case, only for a limited time, not exceeding five years. 3rd. Children above 14 years of age shall not be enrolled, or continued on the roll, unless permanently disabled by blindness, idiotcy, &c. 4th. Contribution to any other fund shall not be reckoned in ascertaining the time of contributing to this Fund. 5th. Strict inquiry shall be made into the fact of contribution for the statutory period by all, and in the case of carpenters, coopers, stewards, cooks, engineers, firemen, and sailmakers, strict inquiry shall be made into the fact of their contributions having extended in whole to that period, as those classes of men are not continuously in the merchant service, and are often long on shore without contributing. 14. Applicants for relief shall apply to the Trustees by petition, setting forth their age and residences, the period of service in respect of which the application is made, the names of the ships on board of which the party served during the last five years, the port from which those ships hailed, and to which they belonged, the name of the owner of each, the year of the service, time on board, and capacity of the person serving; and the printed forms of petitions hitherto in use shall be continued. 15. The enactments under the second section of the Act (4 and 5 Will. IV. c. 52), regarding the proof of service and incapacity, accident, or death alleged, and their causes, shall, insofar as practicable under the particular circumstances of each case, be complied with; but in no case shall enrolment be made unless the facts are proved to the satisfaction of the Trustees, by the certificate of the master, or owner, or agent of the ship in which the Seaman served, and such other additional evidence as the Trustees shall require. 16. The temporary allowance shall be paid monthly, on the first Monday of each month, and the permanent pensioner shall be paid half-yearly, on the last Monday of April and October, or at any time between those days and the ensuing term of Whitsuntide or Martinmas; and those allowances and pensions shall be continued and paid during the pleasure of the Trustees. 17. A surgeon shall be engaged at Glasgow, Greenock, and Port Glasgow severally, to investigate and report upon the fitness or state of health of the applicants: and a right shall be purchased of sending Seamen and their widows and children, under sickness or accident, to the hospital at each of those ports. 18. An officer shall be engaged at each of those ports, who shall visit all the pensioners resident at them, respectively, at least once each six months, and who shall take a general superintendence of them, and attend during their payment, to check imposition. |