Crimps and agents. ship's side in cartloads, in such a state of intoxication that they were unable to walk on board. Riggers generally had charge of the vessel up to that time. In London the practice for owners of vessels going on voyages round the Cape of Good Hope or Cape Horn was to employ an agent, familiarly known as a "crimp," who engaged the greater part of the crew. If ten or twenty men were wanted, perhaps double that number were brought on board, out of which the chief mate selected a sufficient company; the agent receiving a note for two months' wages, a portion of which he had generally advanced previously to the seamen, either in cash or in slops,[1] and also 5s., his procuration fee. When the agents or crimps, who were too frequently of questionable character, saw that the seamen had signed the ship's articles in due form, they paid them the balance of the advance, taking care that another fee, varying from 5s. to 20s., was deducted from the proceeds of the notes, and that they, or their substitutes, were on board in time for sailing. In some instances the master, and occasionally the owner, if he had himself been at sea, selected the men; but a shipping master was even then needed to see them on board, and generally to complete the business.
All respectable owners not only attended to the seaworthiness and proper equipment of the ship, but were wont, in person, when they had time, though too many of them had not, or did not allow themselves the requisite time, to inspect the forecastle, to
- ↑ "Slops," general term for ready-made clothes (Maydman, 1691). In a MS. wardrobe of Queen Elizabeth there is an order to John Fortescue to deliver some fustian for "sloppe for Jack Green, our foole" (Adm. W. H. Smyth, p. 633).
