"serangs", as well as "tindals" who often assisted serangs, were the only men able to communicate directly with the captain and were the men who often spoke for the lascars. Many lascars made attempts to learn English but few would have been able to talk at length to their European captains. Lascars served on ships for assisted passage to Australia, and on troopships during Britain's colonial wars including the Boer Wars and the Boxer Rebellion. In 1891 there were 24,037 lascars employed on British merchant ships. For example, the ship "Massilia" sailing from London to Sydney, Australia in 1891 lists more than half of its crew as Indian lascars. By 1815, the Committee Report on Lascars and other Asiatic Seamen introduced new requirements for reimbursing lascar workers, namely that lascar workers be provided with "a bed, a pillow, two jackets and trousers, shoes and two woollen caps."" Twentieth century Lascars served all over the world in the period leading up to the First World War. Lascars were barred from landing at some ports, such as in British Columbia. At the beginning of World War I, there were 51,616 lascars working on British merchant ships in and around the British Empire. In World War II thousands of lascars served in the war and died on vessels throughout the world, especially those of the British India Steam Navigation Company, P&O and other British shipping companies. The lack of Canadian naval manpower led to the employment of a total of 121 Catholic Goans and 530 Muslim British Indians on the Empress vessels of the Canadian Pacific Railway, such as the Empress of Asia and Empress of Japan. These ships served in the Indian Ocean both as ANZAC convoy ships and in actions at Aden. The ships were placed under the British Admiralty as part of Canada's contribution to the war effort and all of the Indian men were awarded medals by the Admiralty, though none of them were delivered. In the 1950s the use of the term "lascar" declined with the ending of the British Empire. The Indian “Lascar Act” of 1832 was finally repealed in 1963. However, "traditional" Indian deck and Pakistani engine crews continued to be used in Australia until 1986 when the last crew was discharged from the P&O and replaced by a general-purpose crew of Pakistanis. Lascars in the Mascarene Islands Presumably because Muslim lascars manned the "coolie ships"