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LITIGIOUS MARINERS: WAGE CASES IN THE SEVENTEENTH-CENTURY ADMIRALTY COURT

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 June 1999

GEORGE F. STECKLEY
GEORGE F. STECKLEY
Affiliation:
Knox College
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Abstract

The merchant mariner could appeal to the law in the seventeenth century for remedies against arbitrary treatment. But historians have argued that even when the sailor was able to afford legal process he faced judges who served the interests of master and shipowner. This essay estimates the fees of a suit for wages in the seventeenth century, the mariner's propensity to initiate action, and his chances of winning. Evidence for such an appraisal, and for describing the attitudes of judges toward mariner complaints, comes from all wage cases decided by the High Court of Admiralty in sixteen years chosen from across the century. The results add to recent discoveries about the nature of justice in a litigious age and test claims that the sailor was commonly a victim both at sea and at law.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Historical Journal , Volume 42 , Issue 2 , June 1999 , pp. 315 - 345
Copyright
© 1999 Cambridge University Press

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Footnotes

I am grateful for research support from the Edgar S. and Ruth W. Burkhardt Fund for History at Knox College. I am also indebted to Bonnie Laughlin for her expert assistance with the data base and to Henry Horwitz, Rodney Davis, and the anonymous referees for their helpful comments on earlier drafts of the argument.