Sorry - typo in my posting - it has been pointed out to me that it should have been the Court of Common Pleas, not the Court of Common Please! Doh! Force of habit. -----Original Message----- From: mariners-bounces@rootsweb.com [mailto:mariners-bounces@rootsweb.com] On Behalf Of Piers Smith-Cresswell Sent: 04 August 2011 21:58 To: 'Barbara Neish'; MARINERS@rootsweb.com Subject: Re: [MAR] Captain & Crew Further to my posting this morning, and to Barbara's response to me off-list, I've turned up some further information as to how the crews of "Country Ships" were recruited - at least in 1797. A legal case heard that year in the Court of Common Please (on Google Books at http://tinyurl.com/3u83hl3 ) suggests that it was usual for crews to be recruited by the master contracting with a person called a Serang (described in the report as "captain of an Indian Crew", whose position is usual described as Bosun) to provide so many men for a given voyage at such and such a rate per month. It was thus the Serang who did the actual recruiting for the bulk of the crew and no doubt he did not lose out financially by the arrangement..... ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to MARINERS-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message