WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006):

articles of agreement
    n 1: a contract between crew and captain of a ship [syn:
         articles of agreement, shipping articles]

Bouvier's Law Dictionary, Revised 6th Ed (1856):

ARTICLES OF AGREEMENT, contracts. Relate either to real or personal estate,
or to both. An article is a memorandum or minute of an agreement, reduced to
writing to make some future disposition or modification of property; and
such an instrument will create a trust or equitable estate, of which a
specific performance will be decreed in chancery. Cruise on Real Pr. tit. 32
c. 1, s. 31. And see Id. tit. 12, c. 1.
     2. This instrument should contain: 1, the name and character of the
parties; 2, the subject-matter of the contracts; 3, the covenants which each
of the parties bind themselves to perform; 4, the date; 5, the signatures of
the parties.
     3.-1. The parties should be named, and their addition should also be
mentioned, in order to identify them. It should also be stated which persons
are of the first, second, or other part. A confusion, in this respect, may
occasion difficulties.
     4.-2. The subject-matter of the contract ought to be set out in clear
and explicit language, and the time and place of the performance of the
agreement ought to be mentioned and, when goods are to be delivered, it
ought to be provided at whose expense they shall be removed, for there is a
difference in the delivery of light and bulky articles. The seller of bulky
articles is not in general bound to deliver them unless he agrees to do so.
5 S. & R. 19 12 Mass. 300; 4 Shepl. 49.
     5.-3. The covenants to be performed by each party should be specially
and correctly stated, as a mistake in this respect leads to difficulties
which might have been obviated had they been properly drawn.
     6.-4. The instrument should be truly dated.
     7.-5. It should be signed by the parties or their agents. When signed
by an agent he should state his authority, and sign his principal's name,
and then his own, as, A B, by his agent or attorney C D.