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*Tracing Your Roots > South Asian > South Asian Perspective on UK Records
* Lascars and Seamen - A Brief History 
 
A Brief History
Indian seamen played a significant role in the 19th- and 20th-century expansion of the British maritime trade. The number of lascars engaged for service to the United Kingdom grew in the 1870s. Nevertheless, lascars encountered harsh conditions, substandard dietary provision and unequal treatment, including wages far below white seamen.

Unsurprisingly, lascar desertion was a problem. In 1871 lascar transfer officers were appointed by the Board of Trade at all major ports. These officers had the power to force Indian crews arriving in Britain to return on ships bound for India.

Officers who engaged in crackdowns on lascars in Britain claimed to be motivated by humanitarian aims: they hoped to prevent potential deserters from wandering into lives of destitution on the streets of Britain.

The Merchant Shipping Act
In 1894, the Merchant Shipping Act reiterated the fact that lascar contracts bound them to return to India, and its infamous section 125 gave ship owners enhanced powers to place lascars on crews heading back to India.

Section XXIII of the Merchant Shipping Act Amendment Act, 1855, 18 and 19 Vict. c. 91, which is available in the National Archives under reference *(PRO)MT 9/650 (File M 15609 / 1900) states:

When a lascar or Indian native seaman is engaged in India to serve as a seaman in a voyage from India to the United Kingdom and back to India, and when for any reason such lascar is transferred from the ship in which he proceeded from India to any other ship in any port or ports of the United Kingdom bound to any port in India, a further agreement must be entered into between the master of the ship to which he is transferred and the lascar or seaman. Before a seaman so transferred can be considered to be one of the crew of the ship to which he is so transferred, the Transfer Officer is to certify to the same effect.
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Creators: Abi Husainy

 
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