SEVERAL INSTANCES OF THE WRONGS and OPPRESSIONS By Q's and R's, suffered by the Sailors of the English Navy, FROM The beginning of the Late WAR: Most humbly presented to the Fountain of Justice, the Parliament of ENGLAND.  
IT is the Misfortune of the poor Sailors of the English-Navy, to have few or no Friends to take their Part, or represent their Grievances to the Parliament, in order to have them Redressed: Justice indeed carries an equal Balance, but both the Scales hang over the Earth, without any respect to the Sea. Tho' our Sailors are as true to their Country as the Needle of their Compass is to the Course they Steer, as faithful as the Steel to the Loadstone; yet are they little minded by those in whose Power it is to do them Justice, as if their Generation were Monstrous, because their lives are Amphibious; are born on the Land, and do Service on the Water, yet have common Justice on neither: They are Englishmen but till they are 16 or 18 Years of Age, then arrived to the Ne plus ultra of their Liberty, their Freedom being in perpetual danger, liable to be invaded by every Press-Master; and those which were born to the Rights and Immunities of an Englishman, has all his Property knocked on the head at once, and hauled away and constrained on board Ship, an Honourable sort of Vassalage. Thus Wives have their Husbands torn from their Arms, Mothers the only hopes of their Families forced into Confinement more durable and uneasy than that of their Wombs, Fathers and Sons Imprisoned in one Wooden Goal. But were this all, the Bondage would seem more easy; the Mariners never think their Service to their Country too much, they plough the wide Ocean, contend with the raging Billows of the Deep; and with a Bravery peculiar to the Sons of the Sea, meet and fight their Enemy with a wonderful Contentment and Alacrity, in defence of their Country, and those Rights and Privileges of which they have so small a share. Indeed their Country has not been backward in making a Generous Allowance suitable to the Bravery of Men engaged in such dangerous Erterprises; but their ill Stars have laid them under such dismal Circumstances, under such a monstrous and unparallelled Conduct, that in the midst of the Plenty provided for them, they have been in the greatest Wants. It is commonly observed in dealings amongst Mankind, that the Service of Labourers require present Money, and the Laws of the Realm have a great respect to the Wages of Servants, allowing them to be first paid, even before Bonds, or any previous Obligations of a contrary nature: But some would have every Sailer an Exlex, and would make us believe that the same decorum of Justice is not to be used in States and Governments, as is practised amongst Men of inferior Ranks and Qualities: However, as the Debts to the Sailors are National, it ought to be a National Concern; and Grievances of this kind being Unredressed, may procure a National Judgement.  
That the Q's and Rs upon the Navy-Books, are a common Grievance to the poor Widows of Sailors, and their Attorneys, will loudly justify to their great Grief and Loss.  
The R, upon the Navy-Books is an immovable Letter, very significant of Injustice, and serves there as a Period in other Books, putting a full stop to the Sailors Pay; and tho' the Person that sets the permanent R, may be but a cipher himself in the account of Justice and true Worth, yet his Letter R, is productive of vast Sums of Money, into the Pocket of some Body or other, to the Ruin of the Seamen. This R, in Navy Language or Character (which you please) signifies Run, and this Run is of different Meaning and Signification too, it is Cramboed and tortured most damnably, forced to express the meaning of any thing the Commanders of the Navy please.  
If a poor Man be set Sick a Shoar, so that he cannot get a Board his Ship before she Sails, than he is made Run upon the Books: If he be a Shoar by the Captain's Order about the Ship's Business, and some Orders from Above force the Ship out of Harbour before he can get a Board, the Ship runs away from him, and he from the Ship at the same time; if he go immediately on Board another Ship, yet he is Run still. The immovable R, of the Navy, is as fixed as the Law of the Medes and Persians. If he make Interest at the Admiralty to get the R taken off, (for 'tis in the Power of those Men you know to do mighty Wonders) why then his Petition comes out with this pretty Device at the bottom, read the 11th of February refused, J. Burchett.  
But farther to discover the meaning of this significant Letter R, I shall give an account how it is applied to the poor Sailors upon the Navy-Books.  
I. Such as never designed to desert the Service, but being returned from long Voyages, and their Ships being either in Port or Dock, have adventured to visit their Friends, in order to provide themselves with Apparel and other Necessaries, and perhaps have met with Press-Gangs belonging to other Ships, and forced on Board; this has been esteemed by the Navy a Desertion, and they have made such Sailors Run, upon their Books.  
II. Those that have been turned over from one Ship to another, and after having served some time in the latter, their Tickets for their service in the former Ships have been delivered them, and after having served on Board several other Ships, perhaps two or three Years after being set Sick a Shoar, the first Tickets with the rest, have been made Queried or Run, and their Wages Forfeited.  
Now, that such Practices as these are contrary to all the Law, Justice and Reason in the World, is demonstrable.  
I. Such as have their Tickets given them, are supposed to be guilty of no Crime at that Juncture; and such Tickets are and have been esteemed as the King's Bonds and Bills of Exchange, and were formerly paid upon Sight. Now, it is very hard, That a Sailer transgressing in one Ship, should become so guilty, as by that Crime to forfeit all his Wages in former Ships: So that good Service and bad, according to Navy Justice, are a like Punishable.  
II. Many well-affected People to His Majesty's Service, and out of Charity to their distressed Neighbours, have supplied many Sailors with Money, to the full value of their Tickets, and when they come to the Navy to be paid, receive nothing but an R for their Mony.  
III. The Querying and Running of such Tickets, have abominably lessened the Credit of the Navy in respect of Wages, and made the most Glorious Navy in the World, the most Scandalous by such barbarous Abuses, insomuch that Tickets formerly sold at 2 s. 6 d. per Pound, are now Sold for Seven, Eight, Ten and Twelve Shillings loss.  
The next thing to be Considered is the Letter Q. upon the Navy Books, which stands there as near Injustice, as it does to the Letter R in the Alphabet. This Q is generally put upon such as are set sick a Shoar. And then the poor Sailer is to query for Justice, which he may do till he is Blind, and never find it. That this Practice is Barbarous and Inhuman, is very evident.  
I. It sinks the Labourers Hire into private Pockets, deprives distressed Families of their Bread, purchased by the hazard of human Life, and brings unnecessary charge upon Parishes.  
II. This Q is a new Letter in the Navy Books, Queries being never heard of till the Year 1690. before which time, every Man set sick a Shoar had his Wages paid him, and was discharged from the Service.  
III. The great Sickness which at and since that time happened in the Fleet, was the Foundation of these Queries; a very hard Case, that a Sailer must lose his Money because he has lost his Health in the Service; must have bad Pay, because he has been poisoned with bad Provisions.  
IU. Many, if not most of those, who have been set sick a Shoar, have thought themselves Discharged, according to former Custom, being altogether ignorant of the new Practice of the Navy.  
V. Many that have been long Voyages, and sick for many Months together, seeing the Major part of the Ships Crew Buried, have been thereby disheartened to go a board Ship again, Diseases being more dreadful to Sailors than Battle or Storm.  
VI Nor can it be rationally expected, that such as have contracted Indispositions and Distempers, by unwholesome Provisions, or a contagious Air, should (after a Month's Refreshment in sick Quarters, or labouring 6 or 12 Months under their Maladies in an Hospital) be fit to return aboard Ship, or be capable of doing His Majesty service; but the contrary is evident, by the vast numbers that died soon after their return on Board, as well as those that were set sick a Shoar.  
And would it not now be just to pay such Men their Wages? Would it not be for the Honour of His Majesty, for the Reputation and Credit of the Navy to consider their Cases and pay the Debts due from the Nation to such?  

1. As have been set Sick on Shoar since the conclusion of the Peace.  
2. To the Executors and Attorneys of such as died in Sick Quarters, Hospitals or Hospital Ships.  
3. To such as after Recovery entered on Board any of his Majesty's Ships.  
4. To such as have been Wounded or hurt, and received Pensions, or Smart-Money for the same.  
5. To such as continued Six Months, or upwards, in Sick Quarters or Hospitals, or have been discharged from thence as Incurable.  
6. To such as the Captains of Ships have discharged by Tickets, as unserviceable, as being either Sick, Lame or Blind, etc.   
This Usage of free born Englishmen, might move Compassion in any but in those whose Business it is to cheat them, and raise their own Fortunes out of their Ruins. This indeed is a miserable Scene of humane Cruelty, unknown to the Heathen Nations, and yet practised in a Christian Country, built on the Pillars of good and wholesome Laws, and under a Government for no other reason that I know, but on purpose to destroy such Arbitrary Proceedings, and to dispense common Justice to all Men. There is little more difference betwixt a Galley Slave and an English Sailer, than that one serves in expectation of Pay, and the other without it; yet one is sometimes as well paid as the other. This barbarous usage of Mariners, have made them instead of deserting our Ships of War, and taking Merchant's Service, forsake their Country, and Sailwith Foreigners, in hopes of better Justice and Usage abroad than they have met with at home. This barbarous Usage has made many Thousands of them turn Pirates during the last War; and those that turn Freebooters are generally the Flower and Youth of the Seamen, so that in time our Ships shall be Man'd only with decrepit old Age, and the refuse of the Sea, to the weakening of the Nation and Government; for every Sailer lost is a Stone taken out of our National Walls, which suffering such continual Dilapidations, will at last tumble down, and leave us exposed to the Insults of any Invader.  
And after all, Pray what is become of the Money that was ordered to pay the Seamen, upon whom the R's and Q's have been put? If it remains still in the King's Hands, there is yet some hopes of Relief left to the miserable Sailors; but if it be otherwise disposed of, their Disease seems Incurable. When we look into the Payoffice and see there some Clerks at 30 l. per Annum purchasing Estates, others turning Merchants, and employing vast Sums of Money in Trade, we may give a shrewd Guests what is become of the Poor Sailor's Money. And how shall their Creditors be paid? How shall their Widows and numerous Fatherless Children be provided for? Will not the charge to the several Parishes, upon this account, be heavier upon the Subject than the Taxes during the War.  
Dwelling so long upon the R's, and Q's, which to me appear like Figures in Sorcery; for the Projectors of their meaning in Navy Dialect have placed them backwards, as Witches say their Prayers: I had almost forgot the Injuries daily committed to those Sailors who have cheerfully Registered themselves, to be the more ready upon all occasions to serve their Country, the Parliament has settled on every one of them Forty Shillings a Year for their Encouragement; and last Year the Officers of that Registry have received 80000 l. to pay off those Tickets, out of which they have only distributed 35000 l. and refuse to pay one Farthing more, pretending they have not Money, so that Forty five thousand Pounds is sunk unaccountably into some body's Pocket.  
All these things are worthy the Consideration of our Representatives in Parliament, who are the only Persons can redress Grievances of this nature.  
Now for some short Account of the Register-Office and conclude; there were mighty things promised from this Office, and truly had it been well founded and managed, it might have been of very good Service to the Nation; for 'tis more than time, some measures should have been taken to retrieve our sinking Navy; but this being contrived and governed by the Projectors, who seem rather by their Carriage to ruin or drive all the Seamen out of the Kingdom, than to encourage and keep them here, has had the contrary effect expected by Parliament, that made a large Provision for this Office, and made a Calculation of 30000 Seamen to be Registered, now of these 30000 there is about 15000 Thousand Registered, which most of them Registered themselves a-Board of Ship before the Conclusion of the Peace, being chiefly threatened and compelled to it; but since the Peace there have been a very inconsiderable number have Registered, and one may believe now the Register-Office may sit down contented, and save the charge it puts the Kingdom to for any more Men of any sort that will Register themselves. But now to show what may be depended upon from those already Registered, half of them are Officers who are forced to do it, or otherwise lose their Employments; but as they have not the 40 s. a Year, provided for every Seaman by the Act, so they are not obliged to surrender themselves to the Service, but they were only compelled to Register themselves, not for any use they were that way to the Kingdom, but for Encouragement to the Seamen, or to wheedle them to follow their Example. A moiety of this remaining 7000 are Land Men or wretched Creatures taken or Pressed into the Service, more to make up the Compliment, and rather pester a Ship, when Seamen could not be got: above half the remainder, which we will suppose to be Seamen, are at Sea in Merchant's service on Foreign Voyages, the Act obliging none to stay at home to wait a Call; so that in fine, by a modest Calculation, the Nation in the utmost Exigency cannot rely upon the Register-Office for Two thousand able Seamen of the 30000 which was expected in six months' time: But to give some Particulars how this Office is a Discouragement, or rather an Oppression in many Respects to Seamen than an Encouragement, as was promised to the Parliament when 'twas Established by Law, at a great charge to the Nation.  
I. The Seaman that Registered himself was promised by the Act, 40 s. per Annum, which is a great deal in a poor Seaman's Pocket, and Estimates given every Session to the Parliament yearly of this particular Charge, and if I mistake not, Fonds raised and received for this use: Now the Seamen have never received a Farthing of this; but on the contrary, the Seaman is glad to sell his Register Ticket for 10 s. in the Pound, which every Body will not give, for to my knowledge, People that have made enquiry at the Register-Office how, and when these Tickets would be paid, 'twas answered, 'twas not yet determined, nor did they believe ever would; an excellent Encouragement to Seamen; but to help out the matter, here is a Tax levied upon every Seaman in England of 6 Pence per Mensem, toward the support of this Establishment, which I never heard any Seaman the better for: Again, the Act says, the King's Ships shall be Man'd with Registered Seamen; they to have the Preference, and out of them only are the inferior Officers to be made; now several Captains have been put to a Plaguy puzzle on this account, for by reason of the discouragements before mentioned, very few good Seamen have Registered themselves, so that a Captain cannot find enough, or sufficient out of his Registered Men to make Officers of.  
There might be a great deal more said of the ill Usage of these poor Creatures; but to avoid prolixity I shall omit it now, and humbly hope this already said, may be worth the Consideration of the Supreme Judicature; it being designed to no other end, than that in doing Justice, and showing Mercy to these poor People, it may at last turn to be of the greatest service to the Nation.  
GERRALD BYRNE, A lover of the King and Country.   

LONDON. Printed by G. Croom, at the Blew-Ball over against Bridewell near Fleet-bridge, 1699.  
Price 2 d.