SEAMEN, such as are reserved to serve the king, or other persons at sea, who may not depart without license. &c. Seamen fighting, quarrelling. or making any disturbance, may be punished, by the commissioners of the navy, with fine and imprisonment. Registered seamen are exempted from serving in any parish of fice, &c. and are allowed bounty money besides their pay. By the law of mer chants, the seamen of a vessel are ac countable to the master or commander, and the master to the owners, and the owners to the merchants, fordamages sus tained, either by negligence or otherwise. Where a seaman is hired for a voyage, and he deserts it before it is ended, he shall lose his wages ; and in case a ship be lost by a tempest, or in a storm, the seamen lose their wages, as well as the owners their freight.
Sicommi, in law : by various statutes, sai lors, having served the king for a limited time, are free to use any trade, or prOfes sion, in any town of the kingdom By 2 George II. c. 36. made perpetual by 2
George III. c. 31. no master of any vessel shall carry to sea any seaman, his own ap. Prentice excepted, without first entering into an agreement with such seaman for his wages ; such agreement to be made in writing, and to declare what wages such seamen is to receive during the whole of the voyage, or for such time as shall be therein agreed upon ; and such agree ment shall also express the voyage for which such seaman was shipped to per form the same, under a penalty of 101. for each mariner carried to sea without such agreement, to be forfeited by the master to the use of Greenwich Hospital. This agreement is to be signed by each mariner within three days after entering on board such ship, and is, when execut ed, binding on all parties.