Shipping clerk

“ Of the two copies of the back order, one goes to the shipping clerk, while the other is kept in the office. The office copy is used to follow up the shipment of the order. It is necessary for the [200] shipping clerk to know immediately when goods required to fill back orders are received. When a separate receiving clerk is employed, the back order is sometimes made in triplicate, one copy for the receiving clerk, who notifies the shipping clerk when the goods arrive.
Fig. 7. Back-Order Blank
When a back order is filled, the shipping clerk returns his copy to the office. ”

“ The stock man should check his part of the order as he assembles the goods, and again before he forwards them to the shipping room, or the next floor. When received in the shipping room, the goods should be checked against the shipping clerk's order, and again just before they are packed.
It should be a positive rule that all goods shall be checked when they are placed in the cases. The items should be called off by the packer as he handles them, and checked on the order by a checker. ”

“ He maintains a record of sales and manufacturing orders so that he can keep informed on manufacturing or stock requirements. All invoicing of shipments is done in this department.
The shipping clerk maintains records of rates of transportation by rail, water, or truck, and keeps posted on routes and facilities. He supervises the packing of all goods, and secures proper receipts from transportation lines.
Credit Man. The position of the credit man is an important one in any establishment. ”

“ The office boy becomes shipping clerk, or bookkeeper, and may acquire that knowledge of commerce and that judgment which fit him to control the operations of a great manufacturing or mercantile establishment. ”

“ By Letters Patent of 12th December 1480, the office of clerk of the ships was once more reconstituted in the person of Thomas Rogers, with a salary of one shilling and sixpence a day for himself and a clerk, and two shillings a day for travelling expenses, when employed on the king’s service. In later patents Rogers is described as a citizen and fishmonger, and as a merchant of London, and as having been purser of a king’s ship. ”

“ If they be driven by storm or chased by enemies beyond it—i.e., westward of it—let them not buy or receive anything but what is necessary for repairing their vessels, and for sacrifice; and let them take their departure within five days of the time of their landing. Whatever merchant or ship-owner may arrive on the business of merchandise let him pay no duty, except the fee of the broker and the clerk. Let the public faith be security for the seller, for whatever is sold in the presence of these officers—that is to say, whatever is sold in Africa or Sardinia. ”

“ When goods come in, the receiving clerk will refer to his file of purchase order copies to find if the goods have been ordered. It will be remembered that an alphabetical file has been recommended for these orders, which are to be filed under the name of the shipper. The reason for this is that the package does not always show the nature of its contents, while the name of the shipper is almost invariably shown somewhere on the package or on the shipping tag. ”

“ William Broke, ‘Comptroller of all our shippes,’ with £50 a year, four shillings a day for travelling expenses, eight pounds for boat hire, and sixteenpence a day for two clerks; Benjamin Gonson, [383] ‘Surveyor of all our shippes,’ with £40 a year, the same travelling allowance and boat hire as the comptroller, but only eightpence a day for one clerk; Richard Howlett, Clerk of the Ships, with £33, 6s 8d a year, three shillings and fourpence a day travelling expenses, and six pounds for boat hire. ”

“ The forms in returning stores are still more difficult. The foreman afloat, who is often examining some ship in the harbour, must be brought to attend with a survey clerk, a block-maker to examine the blocks, a blacksmith to overhaul pins, hooks, thimbles, &c. labourers from the store-keeper’s department to measure all cables, cordage, &c.; which is first to be inspected by a master-attendant; thus are the warrant officers pacing from place to place in search of people; frequently to no purpose. After the stores are thus examined and surveyed, a return note is made by the survey-clerk ”

“ But, though some Shipowners were of opinion that the system did not work well, and that they should be allowed to engage seamen, as other employers engage their workmen, without the presence of a shipping master, the Commissioners were of opinion that the shipping offices had been of great value and ought to be maintained, tersely remarking that if the captain of a merchant ship would take trouble to seek out eligible men he could arrange to meet them at the shipping offices, indeed, could engage them on board or elsewhere under a special application. ”

“ As a class, particularly those serving as common sailors, they are proverbially improvident, and frequently the prey of unscrupulous landsmen. Soon stripped when in port of their hard earnings, they are generally willing to accept employment on almost any terms. Their necessitous condition often compelled them to submit to harsh contracts which placed them completely in the power of masters of vessels. To remedy these evils, the office of shipping commissioner was created ”

“ He is not even to be presumed the owner, but may as probably be a shipping agent merely, who has fully executed all his authority by making the shipment. He has no funds for the purpose of these charges. He does not demand back the goods, but lets them go forward to their original destination on the old freight contract; they arrive in safety at New York. There is the place of destination, reached by the cargo. There is the proper place, and only proper place, of valuing the vessel, an American registered ship. The freight being lost, is a freight to the home port of destination. ”

“ The master is bound to deliver the goods in a reasonable time. What may be so, depends upon the facilities there may be for the discharge of the cargo at the port of delivery, and the impediments in the way of it. When the shipment is large, or, from the master's storage of it, it cannot be landed in a day, if he lands a part of it, his lien upon the whole gives him the power to ask from the consignee of the merchandise a satisfactory security for the payment of the entire freight as called for by the bill of lading. ”

“ When cargo is coming in or going out he stands in the gangway to keep an account, while the second mate is in the hold with some of the crew, breaking out or stowing, he being responsible for the proper stowage and delivery of the cargo. When the master is on shore, the chief mate is necessarily commander of the ship for the time, and though the law will extend his power proportionably for cases of necessity, yet, except in instances which will not admit of delay, he must not attempt to exercise any unusual powers, but should refer everything to the master’s decision. ”

“ TRANSPORTS LEAVING SOUTHAMPTON ON THE NIGHT PASSAGE TO FRANCE V MANNING
SEA-LABOUR cannot be likened to employment on shore. Once signed and boarded and to sea, there can be no dismissal and replacement of the men such as may be seen any morning at the street gates of a workshop or shipyard. Good or bad, we are bound as shipmates for a voyage. Ordinary laws and regulations cannot reach us in our sailing; we are given the Merchant Shipping Act for our guidance, the longest and wordiest Act on the Statute Book, a measure that presupposes a discipline that no longer exists. ”

“ Power is further taken by the Board of Trade to institute a special investigation, wherever there is reason to apprehend that any serious accident, occasioning loss of life or property, has been sustained, or that any of the provisions of the Act, or of any other Act relating to merchant shipping or merchant sailors, has been grossly neglected or disobeyed ”

“ In regular passenger-ships the cook is not required to do any duty about decks, except in case of necessity, or of common danger. In other vessels, if strongly manned, neither the cook nor steward is sent upon the yards, yet it can, without doubt, be required of them, by the usage and understanding of the Merchant Service, to go upon a topsail or lower yard to reef or furl. In a merchant vessel where all hands are called the order applies to every one on board except the passengers. ”

“ Masters have the same remedies for wages as Seamen. Relief to seamen's families out of poor rates is chargeable on a certain proportion of their wages. Ample provisions are made for the safety of the effects and wages of deceased Seamen, which are to be entered in the Log-book, paid over to the Consuls or Shipping Masters, and remitted to the Board of Trade; and if under £50 may be administered without probate by by the person entitled to do so. On the discharge of Seamen abroad by sale of the ship, or otherwise, the Seamen are to be sent home at the expense of the Owner. ”

“ A purser could not receive his warrant till he had served a year or eighteen months as a captain’s clerk, or keeper of the ship’s books. The captain usually appointed his own clerk, or at anyrate recommended his own choice for the appointment. He had therefore considerable power [Pg 102] over his purser, and often shared the plunder that worthy gathered. Before a man could commence duty as a purser he had to sign a bond, giving “two proper and competent persons as his securities.” ”

“ Shipping commissioners may ship and discharge crews for any vessel engaged in the coastwise trade, or the trade between the United States and the Dominion of Canada, or Newfoundland, or the West Indies, or the Republic of Mexico, at the request of the master or owner of such vessel, the shipping and discharging fees in such cases to be one-half that prescribed by section forty-six hundred and twelve of the Revised Statutes, for the purpose of determining the compensation of shipping commissioners. ”

“ Is the United States Shipping Board Merchant Fleet Corporation, as an agency of the United States, immune for suit for the tortious acts of persons whom it has employed to carry on the operation of merchant vessels of the United States, and who have been selected by it with due care? ”

“ Any person shipping oil of vitrol, unslaked lime, inflammable matches, or gunpowder, in a vessel taking cargo for divers persons on freight, without delivering, at the time of shipment, a note in writing, expressing the nature and character of such merchandise, to the master, mate, officer, or person in charge of the lading of the vessel, shall be liable to the United States in a penalty of one thousand dollars. ”

“ Once or twice men have offered to pay me at the Shipping Office, and particularly on one occasion when a man had a trifle to pay he offered it there, which seemed greatly to offend the shipping master, who appeared to dislike the trouble of having to take the men separately. ”

“ Upon due compliance with such of the provisions of this section as relate to acts to be done at the port of destination in the United States, the shipping-commissioner shall grant to the master a certificate to that effect. No officer of customs shall clear any foreign-going vessel without the production of such certificate. ”

“ If the chief officer is a competent man, the master in person is not expected to trouble himself with the details of any of these things; indeed, were he to do so to any extent, it would probably lead to unpleasantness and difficulty.
In the packet ships, either from Liverpool to New York, or in other important mail vessels, in which there were a considerable number of passengers, the master had still less to do with the day’s work. The navigation and working of the ship, with proper attention to his passengers, being sufficient to occupy his entire thoughts. ”

“ There appear to be now employed in these questionable operations, no less than 117 Government surveyors, “shipwrights,” and “engineers,” stationed at different ports in the United Kingdom, twelve of whom are retired officers of the Royal Navy, besides a good many so-called “shipwrights,” who can have very little knowledge of the construction of merchant ships or of their requirements. ”

“ The usual precautions were observed in shipment, a trusted clerk of the Marine Bank carrying the package to the express company's office and taking a receipt for it from the money-clerk, who examined it first to make sure that the seals of the bank were intact and that in all respects it presented a correct appearance. Having satisfied himself on these points, the money-clerk placed the package in one of the canvas pouches used by the United States Express Company, sealed it carefully with the company's private seal, and attached a tag bearing the address of the company's agent at Susquehanna. ”

“ An importer having reason to anticipate the arrival of goods by a certain steamer, by putting himself in communication with the office of the company, may usually secure a notice of several hours of the actual arrival of the vessel at her wharf. It seems, too, by the sixteenth finding in this case, that, in lieu of a personal notice to each consignee or of publication through the papers, a custom has grown up in the port of New York of posting on a bulletin board in the customhouse a notice of the time and place of discharge. ”