633 



SHIPS AND SHIPPING. 



SHIPS AND SHIPPING. 



631 



voyage, to deprive them of all or any part of their wages ; they may 

 recover the whole, subject to the deduction of such wages as they have 

 earned elsewhere during the period claimed for. But if the ship be 

 lost, or if the mariner quit the vessel for the purpose of taking service 

 in her majesty's navy, he is entitled to the wages due up to the inter- 

 ruption of his service. By desertion, however, or misconduct of a 

 flagrant and serious character, he may forfeit all right to wages. In 

 case death put a period to his service on board during the voyage, it 

 seems his representatives are entitled to be paid wages up to the day 

 of the death, unless the contract made with the owners be such that 

 no right accrues if the seaman do not navigate the ship to the port of 

 destination. The French code, more liberal than our own law, where 

 the hiring is for the voyage, directs payment of half the stipulated 

 amount if the seaman dies on the outward voyage, and the whole if 

 tiie death happens during the homeward passage. 



In virtue of the maritime law the seamen have a lien on the ship for 

 the amount of their wages, which enables them by process from the 

 Court of Admiralty to arrest the vessel, and, unless the owners interpose 

 to pay their just demand, to sell her after sentence of condemnation. 

 The Merchant Shipping Act of 1854 confers the same advantage on the 

 master, who till then had no such remedy. The jurisdiction of the 

 Admiralty Court, however, in claims for wages, is restrained to the 

 case of a contract in the ordinary terms, and not under seal ; for if 

 either it be made under seal, or be special in its stipulations, it cannot 

 be the subject of a suit hi that court, at the peril of a writ of prohi- 

 bition issuing from the courts of common law. A further restriction 

 on that jurisdiction i placed by the statute, which prohibits any suit 

 for the recovery of wages, when the sum is under CO/., from being 

 instituted in any Court of Admiralty, Vice Admiralty, the Court of 

 Bessioii in Scotland, or any of the superior courts within her majesty's 

 dominions, unless the owner of the ship is adjudged bankrupt or 

 declared insolvent ; or unless the ship is under arrest, or is sold by the 

 authority of any such court; or unless any justices, acting under 

 authority of the statute, refer the case to the adjudication of such 

 court ; or unless neither the owner nor master is or resides within 

 twenty miles of the place where the seaman or apprentice is discharged 

 or put ashore. In lieu of this, the seaman is now enabled to proceed 

 summarily before any two justices of the peace, or one stipendiary 

 magistrate acting in or near the place at which the service is termi- 

 nated, or at which the discharge takes place, or, in Scotland, before 

 any sucB justices or the sheriff of the county, for any sum not 

 exceeding 501. over and above the costs. When the engagement is to 

 terminate in the United Kingdom he is not entitled to sue for his 

 wage* in any court abroad, unless he be discharged with the sanction 

 of the shipping master, chief officer of customs, British consular officer, 

 or two respectable merchants in or near the place, and with the written 

 consent of the master ; or unless he prove such ill-usage on the part 

 of the master, er by his authority, as to warrant reasonable appre- 

 hension of danger to life. On his return, however, if he prove either 

 such ill-usage or other misconduct on the part of the owner or master 

 as would have entitled him but lor the statutory prohibition to sue 

 for wages before the termination of the voyage, he is entitled, besides 

 his wages, to compensation not exceeding 20/. in amount. 



Uiscijilinc. fruttctire Lai'-n. We have already Been the authority 

 which is reposed by the law in the master for the maintenance o 

 discujine on board. His power necessarily enables him to inllic 

 punmnmeut for smaller offences upon the instant. In case of the 

 greater offences his power goes no further than to put the seaman, i 

 need be, in confinement, in order to deliver him up on reaching laud to 

 the proper authorities, for investigation of the charges made against 

 him, and the consequences which ought to follow thereon. The statute 

 has ascertained the amount of punishment to be inflicted in certain 

 particular cases by the magistrate. The Board of Trade, in certain 

 lesser offences, enables the owners and seamen to agree upon thi 

 penaltiea which the Board have recommended as reasonable and propel 

 to be adopted, and have set out in a schedule published by them in 

 pursuance with their authority under the Act. But no conviction 

 under the Merchant Shipping Act may be made in any summary pro 

 ceeding, unless such proceeding it) commenced within six months after 

 the offence was committed, or within two months after both parties 

 arrive or are at one time within the United Kingdom, or within the 

 jurisdiction of any court capable of dealing with the case in a British 

 possession. Nor can any order for the payment of money be made in 

 a summary proceeding, unless such proceeding is within six months 

 after the cause of complaint arose, or after both parties arrive or are 

 within the United Kingdom, er within the jurisdiction of any court in 

 a British possession capable of dealing with the ease. Any local 

 jurisdiction situate on the coast of any sea, or abutting on or projecting 

 into any bay, channel, lake, river, or other navigable water, is extended 

 by the Merchant Shipping Act to any ship or boat being in or lying or 

 pawing off such coast, or being in or near such bay, channel, lake, river, 

 or navigable water, and to all persons on board or for the time being 

 i(ing thereto, as if such ship, boat, or persons were within the 

 limits of the original jurisdiction. And every offence is to be deemed 

 to have been committed, and every cause of complaint to have arisen, 

 either in the place it was committed or arose, or where the offender or 

 person complained against may be. 



The ihip'a stores, the water on board, and the medicine chest, are 



subject to inspection by certain public officers. The seaman may com- 

 >lain of the stores and have them inspected, at the peril however of 

 >eing mulcted in one week's wages in case his complaint be frivolous. 

 En case he is kept on short allowance, not iu the way of punishment 

 lor through any fault of the master, but solely from those accidents 

 of the sea that may delay the best provisioned ship that sails, he is 

 entitled to a certain compensation per day while the deficiency lasts. 

 This is rather in the way of wages to him. If he were to be injured, 

 lowever, by deficiency or badness, either of the stores or medicines, 

 where there is negligence in the master, his right of actiou for damages 

 is clear. A seaman is not entitled to bring an action because the vessel 

 was unseaworthy and he Buffered by it ; yet, as the statute provides for 

 liis being well and comfortably accommodated, any defect of the ship 

 that should form an encroachment upon such statutory right would be 

 a good ground of action to any seaman suffering injury thereby. 



Medicines and medical assistance on board are supplied to the 

 seamen at the owner's expense ; and so must they be, also, together 

 with subsistence, if the patient is removed from on board to prevent 

 infection, or otherwise for the ship's convenience, in case he sub- 

 sequently return to duty on board. If the sickness be the result of 

 injury received iu the service of the ship he must be supplied by the 

 owner with medical advice and medicines, subsistence and attendance, 

 until he is cured, or dies, or is brought back to some port in the 

 United Kingdom, or in any British possession, according as he shipped 

 from one country or the other ; and his conveyance thereto, or burial, 

 must also be at the owner's expense. It is only when he is absent, 

 however, from the United Kingdom, or the British possession from 

 which he shipped, that the seaman in case of injury suffered in the 

 ship's service is entitled to such assistance; for upon well-known 

 general principles, every servant is presumed to make his contract with 

 a full knowledge of all the risks of the service upon which he is 

 entering. 



A most praiseworthy effort has been made to bring the British 

 seaman in every quarter of the globe completely within the protection 

 of the British laws. There is a system of lists of crews for foreign- 

 going ships upon every voyage, and for home-trade ships once every 

 six months, by which a complete register of British seamen is produced, 

 and a somewhat minute knowledge of each individual and his where- 

 abouts in attained. On every sea where her majesty's flag floats over a 

 vessel of war, on every coast where a British magistrate resides, or a 

 British consular officer officiates, there is opportunity for the injured 

 seaman to complain and obtain justice ; and any attempt of the master 

 or other officer of his own ship to interfere with or prevent him com- 

 plaining is an offence punishable with fine and imprisonment. 



It is a misdemeanor for a master to force on shore or wilfully leave 

 behind any seaman or apprentice in or out of her majesty's dominions. 

 It is a misdemeanor to discharge any seaman or apprentice at any 

 place out of her majesty's dominions, or in any British possessiou, 

 except that from which he may have originally shipped, without the 

 sanction in writing of the shipping master, chief officer of customs, 

 British consular officer, or of two respectable merchants resident at or 

 near the place. It is a misdemeanor to leave behind a seaman or 

 apprentice without at the same time obtaining a certificate from such 

 officer or merchants, stating the fact and the cause indorsed on the 

 ship's articles, unless that was impracticable, and the proof of that lies 

 on the master. In case such discharge however be sanctioned, the 

 wages of the seaman are to be paid on the spot by bill or money. And 

 wherever such discharge i rendered necessary by the transfer of the 

 chip .it a place out of her majesty's dominions, unless the crew consent 

 to continue with the vessel, it is obligatory on the master to procure a 

 passage homeward for the seaman, or provide him with employment 

 in some other British ship bound for the shipping port in this country, 

 besides paying their wages, and giving them each a certificate of 

 discharge. 



-DiacAan/ea. The discharge of seamen at home from foreign-going 

 ships is to be before a shipping master. The wages are to be paid in 

 his presence, subject to his cognisance of the rights of both parties 

 under the agreement. No deductions can be made unless the book in 

 which they were entered at the time of forfeiture be produced to the 

 shipping master twenty-four hours before the time of payment. The 

 time of payment fixed by the statute iu the case of home-trade ships, 

 is within two days after the termination of the agreement, or other- 

 wise at the time of discharge; and in all other cases, except those 

 where the seaman is remunerated by shares in the adventure, within 

 three days after delivery of the cargo, or within five days after the 

 seaman's discharge, whichever first happens. A mutual release is 

 given by the master and seaman, countersigned and attested by the 

 shipping master; it operates a mutual discharge of all demands in 

 respect of the voyage or engagement, and is the only evidence of the 

 release or satisfaction of any claim required to be thus settled. 



Wills. The wills of seamen have always hitherto been deemed good 

 and effectual although made without writing. No change in this re- 

 spect lias been made that is imperative. But as the Board of Trado 

 are put in possession of the effects of all seamen dying abroad or at 

 en, that Board may in virtue of the statute refuse to give eftect to 

 any will which is not in writing, and signed or acknowledged by tho 

 testator in the presence of the master, or first or only mate of the whip, 

 and attested by such master or mate ; or if made on shore, unless 



