Full resolution (JPEG) - On this page / på denna sida - Second part - XII. Shipping and Navigation - The Sailors, by A. Raphael, Ph. D., D. C. L., Stockholm, H. Burström, Actuary at the Royal Central Bureau of Statistics, and Captain Hj. Gulda, R. N., Stockholm
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THE SAILORS.
973
are settled by royal proclamation of 1896. The food stipulated in it, the captain
has, however, a right to reduce during the voyage when he finds this necessary;
for this reduction the crew is entitled to a reasonable indemnification, the amount
of which, in case of contest, is decided by arbitrators.
To offer sailors living abroad an opportunity of sending: home savings —
to support relatives at home or for depositing and putting out to interest for
future need — the consuls are enjoined to assist in the sending home of those
means
Special institutions for the welfare of sailors are the so-called seamen’s
register offices and the merchant service pension fund. The former are maintained
partly by certain navigation fees (tonnage) (see above), partly by contributions
from the sailors themselves; whereas the merchant service pension fund is
altogether kept up on State subventions. The Seamen’s Register Offices
(Sjömanshusen) —, which, besides acting as institutions of relief for sailors and their
surviving family members, have for their object to keep lists of vessels and sailors
—, are 47 in number or one in every staple town of the Kingdom, (i. e.,
town with customs service). The pensions distributed by the seamen’s offices are
partly pro tempore ones, for the benefit of which certain conditions are stipulated,
partly annuities awarded to sailors in narrow circumstances and no more fit for
naval service. These annuities are regulated in accordance with the wants of the
applicant and the means of the seamen’s office, and are awarded upon the same
principles also to seamen’s widows and motherless children.
The principal income of the seamen’s offices consists partly in tonnage paid
down for each ship bound for a foreign port, these fees amounting to 3 Ore
(0*4 d.) for Swedish, Norwegian, and certain foreign vessels, or else to 5 öre
(0*7 d.) per ton (see under the headihg Shipping Dues), partly also in personal
fees, which are paid down by the crew at the paying-off of a Swedish ship
coming from abroad. The personal fees are: for a captain 2 %, for mates and
engineers lVa and for common sailors 1 % of their wages received since the
musterday. The tonnage fees at all the seamen’s register offices amounted in
1897 to 145,320 kronor, the personal fees to 61,487 kronor, and the pensions
and supports distributed, to a total of 141,541 kronor.
The Merchant service Pension fntid, founded in 1864, was instituted as a
compensation for the right formerly accruing to a sailor going abroad of bringing
back into the country a certain quantity of commodities custom-free (/öring).
The public treasury subvention amounted in 1902 to 98,000 kronor. Pensions
are assigned to sailors employed chiefly in foreign navigation after attaining 55
years of age, and when having been enrolled for 25 years at a Swedish seamen’s
register office. The pensioners are divided in four classes, the two first of which
are intended for captains with a certificate, the third for other captains, mates,
and engineers, and the fourth for common sailors and stokers on board steamers.
The number of pensions is fixed and at present amounts to 170 in each of the
three first classes and 780 in the fourth. The pension sums are 160, 120, 100,
and 60 kronor respectively. As pensions were distributed 113,545 in 1902,
and the capital fund of the institution at the end of that year was 884,462
kronor.
A reform in the pensioning of seamen has long been meditated, and the
matter is at present being brought under discussion in a Committee appointed by
the Government.
The old committee- for workmen’s insurance has effected many interesting
investigations into the conditions of life of sailors, as well as into those of other
trades. In the ages of 30/35, 67 ’/, of the captains and mates were found to
be married but only 45 % of the sailors, which latter figure is lower than for any
other trade. Uncommonly many sailors fall on the parish at an early age.
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