204 LAWS GOVERNING MARINE INSPECTION 



placed or posted up in such part of the vessel as to be accessible to the 

 crew ; and on default shall be liable to a penalty of not more than $100. 

 (R.S. § 4519.) 



Unlawful shipments void 



46 U.S.C. 578 (R.S. 4523) 



All shipments of seamen made contrary to the provisions of any 

 act of Congress shall be void ; and any seaman so shipped may leave 

 the service at any time, and shall be entitled to recover the highest rate 

 of wages of the port from which the seaman was shipped, or the sum 

 agreed to be given him at his shipment. (R.S. § 4523.) 



Duties (of Coast Guard Official) 



46 U.S.C. 545 (R.S. 4508) 



The general duties of a Coast Guard official to whom the duties of 

 shipping commissioner have been delegated shall be : 



First. To afford facilities for engaging seamen by keeping a regis- 

 ter of their names and characters. 



Second. To superintend their engagement and discharge, in manner 

 prescribed by law. 



Third. To provide means for securing the presence on board at the 

 proper times of men who are so engaged. 



Fourth. To facilitate the making of apprenticeships to the sea 

 service. 



Fifth. To perform such other duties relating to merchant seamen or 

 merchant ships as may be required by law. (R.S. § 4508 ; 1946 Reorg. 

 Plan No. 3, §§ 101-104, eff. July 16, 1946, 11 F.R. 7875, 60 Stat. 1097.) 



Penalty for personating shipping commissioner 



46 U.S.C. 546 (R.S. 4504) 



Any person other than a Coast Guard official to whom the duties 

 of shipping commissioner under title 53 of the Revised Statutes have 

 .been delegated, who shall perform or attempt to perform, either 

 directly or indirectly, the duties which are by such title set forth as 

 pertaining to a shipping commissioner, shall be liable to a penalty of 

 not more than $500. Nothing in such title, however, shall prevent the 

 owner, or consignee, or master of any vessel except vessels bound from 

 a port in the United States to any foreign port, other than vessels 

 engaged in trade between the United States and the British North 

 American possessions, or the West India Islands, or the Republic of 

 Mexico, and vessels of the burden of seventy-five tons or upward 

 bound from a port on the Atlantic to a port on the Pacific, or vice 

 versa, from performing, himself, so far as his vessel is concerned, 

 the duties of shipping commissioner under title 53 of the Revised 

 Statutes. Wlienever the master of any vessel shall engage his crew, 

 or any part of the same, in any collection district where no Coast 

 Guard official to perform the duties of shipping commissioner shall 

 have been appointed, he may perform for himself the duties of such 

 commissioner. (R.S. §4504; 1946 Reorg. Plan No. 3, §§ 101-104, eff. 

 July 16, 1946, 11 F.R. 7875, 60 Stat. 1097.) 



