ABSTRACT
The payment of advances of wages was more extensively regulated in 1845 and in 1850 all allotments of wages by a seaman to another person had to be entered into the articles. Indeed, if seaman 'works by' the ship while in port but not under a crew agreement he is nevertheless entitled to wages for so doing. The tradition of paying advances of wages is a long one. It must have been common at least by the seventeenth century, for the Act of 1721 mentions that such payments made abroad were a cause of men turning to piracy. In Rowlands v. Miller a seaman sued for his full wages notwithstanding the fact that he had had an advance note because he believed he received less than its proper value. An advance is the paying of money to a third party which the seaman reimburses out of his wages.
