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<ETS>
<TEMPHEAD>
<REVDESCR>
<CHANGE>
<DATE>2012-10-02</DATE>
<RESPSTMT>
<NAME>John Pas</NAME>
<RESP>MURP</RESP>
</RESPSTMT>
<ITEM>Proofed and reviewed as part of batch B120725.pdcc.</ITEM>
</CHANGE>
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<EEBO>
<IDG S="marc" R="UM" ID="B08913">
<STC T="W">D1068E</STC>
<STC T="C">R174603</STC>
<BIBNO T="oclc">[ocm]62369158</BIBNO>
<VID>187869</VID>
</IDG>
<TEXT LANG="eng">
<BODY>
<DIV1 TYPE="text">
<PB REF="1" MS="y">
<HEAD>THE Deplorable CASE Of great Numbers of <HI>Suffering Subjects,</HI> concerned in the Ships and Ve&s;&s;els employed in Their Maje&s;ties <HI>Tran&s;port</HI>-Service: Humbly Offerred to the High COURT of PARLIAMENT Now A&s;&s;embled.</HEAD>
<P>IN the beginning of the Year 1689. many Ships and Ve&s;&s;els were hired into their Maje&s;ties Service, to carry their Maje&s;ties Land-Forces, with Arms, Ammuni|tion, Stores and Provi&s;ions for <HI>Ireland,</HI> in order to the reducing thereof; none departing the &s;aid Service, until di&s;charged by their Maje&s;ties Officers, or lo&s;t in the Service, and others of them are &s;till continued in the &s;ame to this very day.</P>
<P>Several of the Ma&s;ters and Mariners of the&s;e Ships have died in this Service, through the Hard&s;hips which they have undergone therein.</P>
<P>It has been the Unhappine&s;s of the Ma&s;ters, Owners and Proprietors, That after their Ships were hired they were called by the Name of TRANSPORT-SHIPS, (although &s;everal of them taken up by the Navy and Ordnance) whereby they have been denied the Benefit of any Money hitherto given for Payment of the Navy and Army; whereunto they were ju&s;tly intitled (as they are advis'd.) So that the Owners and Proprietors of mo&s;t of the Ships which are di&s;charged the Service, have received very little of the Money due unto them for the &s;ame, more than a &s;mall matter called Impre&s;t Money; paid to &s;ome few for one Month, to others for a Fortnight, but to many nothing at all.</P>
<P>Tho&s;e Ships al&s;o that are &s;till continued in the Service have likewi&s;e received only &s;ome &s;mall Impre&s;t Money, with a very little more, towards Sub&s;i&s;tence, and mo&s;t of that in Tallies upon the Fond of the double Ninepences Exci&s;e payable after Nine Hun|dred and Sixty Thou&s;and Pounds; which, through the pre&s;&s;ing Nece&s;&s;ities of the Ma|&s;ters and Owners, they have been con&s;trained to receive and turn into ready Money at a very great Lo&s;s.</P>
<P>The&s;e unhappy and unexpected Di&s;appointments have proved very fatal to mo&s;t of the Owners and Proprietors, therein concerned; in that they have not only expended their ready Money, but contracted very many great Debts, in victualling their Ships, and paying their Seamens Wages, as far as they could. Several of them having been arre&s;ted and impri&s;oned for the Debts contracted in this Service; and their Wives and Children thereby reduced to very great Nece&s;&s;ities, and &s;ome to a begging Condition. Several of the Ships have al&s;o been arre&s;ted and condemned by the Seamen for Wages due, and others lying in a peri&s;hing Condition, for want of Money to repair them, to the utter di&s;abling of them in the way of their Trades. And this is the more deplorable, that in a greater or le&s;&s;er degree, it is the Ca&s;e of all the Sea-Ports of this Kingdom, even from <HI>Whitehaven</HI> to <HI>Berwick</HI> upon <HI>Tweed.</HI> The Summ total yet due, upon account of this Service, by the neare&s;t Computation, being betwixt Three and Four Hundred Thou|&s;and Pounds.</P>
<P>And whereas it has been &s;ugge&s;ted, That his Maje&s;ty has been abu&s;ed in the Ton|nage or Burthen of the Ships and Ve&s;&s;els imployed in this Service; the Owners have &s;ubmitted their Ships to an Admea&s;urement, in obedience to his Maje&s;ties Patent gran|ted to M^r <HI>John Bowles</HI> for that purpo&s;e; whereby it appears, that as there are &s;everal of their Ships that do under-mea&s;ure, &s;o there are many that do over-mea&s;ure con&s;idera|bly. Moreover, many of tho&s;e their Ships, as well Engli&s;h as Forreign built, that have under-mea&s;ured, do really carry the Tonnage for which the Ma&s;ters hired them into this Service; as it appears by the Cu&s;tom-Hou&s;e Books, that they have all along paid the King's Cu&s;toms for &s;o much Tonnage as they are lett for, if not more.</P>
<PB REF="2">
<PB REF="2" MS="y">
</DIV1>
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</TEXT>
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