Merchant Shipping Act, The

DESCRIPTION: ""Come all you fo'c'sle lawyers that always take delight By brooding o'er your troubles to set all matters right." The singer complains about the Merchant Shipping Act. Sailors must endure the bad food, the work, the bad officers, because of the Act
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1920 (The Mariner's Mirror), with the chorus found in 1876 (Two Years Abaft the Mast)
KEYWORDS: sailor hardtimes
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1894 - Merchant Shipping Act combines various earlier shipping regulations and adds more.
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Palmer-OxfordBookOfSeaSongs 140, "The Merchant Shipping Act" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: F. W. H. Symondson, _Two Years Abaft the Mast: Or, Life as a Sea Apprentice_ (Edinburgh and London: William Blackwood and Sons, 1876, available on Google Books), p. 150, "The Merchant Shipping Act" (chorus only)
(no author listed), _The Mariner’s Mirror_, Vol. 6, No. 1 (London and Birmingham: J. G. Hammond, January, 1920; available on Google Books), p. 31, "The Merchant Shipping Act/The Lime Juice Ship" (3 verses and 2 versions of the chorus under the heading "Queries")
Roud #17763
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "According to the Act" (subject of crew's rights under shipping regulations)
File: PaSe140

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