THE
Deplorable
CASE
Of
great
Numbers
of
Suffering
Subjects
,
concerned
in
the
Ships
and
Vessels
employed
in
Their
Majesties
Transport-Service
:
Humbly
Offerred
to
the
High
COURT
of
PARLIAMENT
Now
Assembled
.
IN
the
beginning
of
the
Year
1689.
many
Ships
and
Vessels
were
hired
into
their
Majesties
Service
,
to
carry
their
Majesties
Land-Forces
,
with
Arms
,
Ammunition
,
Stores
and
Provisions
for
Ireland
,
in
order
to
the
reducing
thereof
;
none
departing
the
said
Service
,
until
discharged
by
their
Majesties
Officers
,
or
lost
in
the
Service
,
and
others
of
them
are
still
continued
in
the
same
to
this
very
day
.
Several
of
the
Masters
and
Mariners
of
these
Ships
have
died
in
this
Service
,
through
the
Hardships
which
they
have
undergone
therein
.
It
has
been
the
Unhappiness
of
the
Masters
,
Owners
and
Proprietors
,
That
after
their
Ships
were
hired
they
were
called
by
the
Name
of
TRANSPORT-SHIPS
,
(
although
several
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
justly
intitled
(
as
they
are
advis'd
.
)
So
that
the
Owners
and
Proprietors
of
most
of
the
Ships
which
are
discharged
the
Service
,
have
received
very
little
of
the
Money
due
unto
them
for
the
same
,
more
than
a
small
matter
called
Imprest
Money
;
paid
to
some
few
for
one
Month
,
to
others
for
a
Fortnight
,
but
to
many
nothing
at
all
.
Those
Ships
also
that
are
still
continued
in
the
Service
have
likewise
received
only
some
small
Imprest
Money
,
with
a
very
little
more
,
towards
Subsistence
,
and
most
of
that
in
Tallies
upon
the
Fond
of
the
double
Ninepences
Excise
payable
after
Nine
Hundred
and
Sixty
Thousand
Pounds
;
which
,
through
the
pressing
Necessities
of
the
Masters
and
Owners
,
they
have
been
constrained
to
receive
and
turn
into
ready
Money
at
a
very
great
Loss
.
These
unhappy
and
unexpected
Disappointments
have
proved
very
fatal
to
most
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
arrested
and
imprisoned
for
the
Debts
contracted
in
this
Service
;
and
their
Wives
and
Children
thereby
reduced
to
very
great
Necessities
,
and
some
to
a
begging
Condition
.
Several
of
the
Ships
have
also
been
arrested
and
condemned
by
the
Seamen
for
Wages
due
,
and
others
lying
in
a
perishing
Condition
,
for
want
of
Money
to
repair
them
,
to
the
utter
disabling
of
them
in
the
way
of
their
Trades
.
And
this
is
the
more
deplorable
,
that
in
a
greater
or
lesser
degree
,
it
is
the
Case
of
all
the
Sea-Ports
of
this
Kingdom
,
even
from
Whitehaven
to
Berwick
upon
Tweed
.
The
Summ
total
yet
due
,
upon
account
of
this
Service
,
by
the
nearest
Computation
,
being
betwixt
Three
and
Four
Hundred
Thousand
Pounds
.
And
whereas
it
has
been
suggested
,
That
his
Majesty
has
been
abused
in
the
Tonnage
or
Burthen
of
the
Ships
and
Vessels
imployed
in
this
Service
;
the
Owners
have
submitted
their
Ships
to
an
Admeasurement
,
in
obedience
to
his
Majesties
Patent
granted
to
Mr
John
Bowles
for
that
purpose
;
whereby
it
appears
,
that
as
there
are
several
of
their
Ships
that
do
under-measure
,
so
there
are
many
that
do
over-measure
considerably
.
Moreover
,
many
of
those
their
Ships
,
as
well
English
as
Forreign
built
,
that
have
under-measured
,
do
really
carry
the
Tonnage
for
which
the
Masters
hired
them
into
this
Service
;
as
it
appears
by
the
Custom-House
Books
,
that
they
have
all
along
paid
the
King's
Customs
for
so
much
Tonnage
as
they
are
lett
for
,
if
not
more
.