OFFICERS AND MERCHANT SEAMEN 215 



(c) No allotment shall be valid unless in writing and signed by 

 and approved by the Coast Guard official to whom the duties of ship- 

 ping commissioner have been delegated. It shall be the duty of the 

 said Coast Guard official to examine such allotments and the parties 

 to them and enforce compliance with the law. All stipulations for 

 the allotment of any part of the wages of a seaman during his absence 

 which are made at the commencement of the voyage shall be inserted 

 in the agreement and shall state the amounts ancl times of the pay- 

 ments to be made and the persons to whom the payments are to be made, 

 or by directing the payments to be made to a savings bank or a United 

 States postal savings depository in an account maintained in his name. 



(d) No allotment except as provided in this section shall be legal. 

 Any pei-son who shall falsely claim to be such relation, as above de- 

 scribed, or to be a savings bank or a United States postal savings de- 

 pository and as such an allottee of the seaman under this section 

 shall for every such offense be punished by a fine not exceeding $500 

 or imprisonment not exceeding six months, at the discretion of the 

 court. 



(e) This section shall apply as well to foreign vessels while in 

 waters of the United States, as to vessels of the United States, and 

 any master, owner, consignee, or agent of any foreign vessel who has 

 violated its provisions shall be liable to the same penalty that the 

 master, owner, or agent of a vessel of the United States would be 

 for similar violation. 



The master, owner, consignee, or agent of any vessel of the ITnited 

 States, or of any foreign vessel seeking clearance from a port of the 

 United States, shall present his shipping articles at the office of 

 clearance, and no clearance shall be granted any such vessel unless the 

 provisions of this section have been complied with. 



(f) The Commandant of the Coast Guard shall make regulations 

 to carry out this section. This section shall not apply to fishing or 

 whaling vessels or yachts. 



(g) The provisions of this section shall not apply to, or render 

 unlawful, deductions made by an employer from the wages of a sea- 

 man, pursuant to the written consent of the seaman, if (1) such de- 

 ductions are paid into a trust fund established for the sole and 

 exclusive benefit of seamen employed by such employer, and their 

 families and dependents (or of such seamen, families, and dependents 

 jointly with seamen employed by other employers and their families 

 and dependents) ; and (2) such payments are held in trust for the 

 purpose of providing, either from principal or income or both, for the 

 benefit of such seamen, their families, and dependents, medical and/or 

 hospital care, pensions on retirement or death of the seamen, life 

 insurance, unemployment benefits, compensation for illness or injuries 

 resulting from occupational activity, sicknevSS, accident, and disability 

 compensation, or any one or more of the foregoing benefits, or for the 

 purpose of purchasing insurance to provide any one or more of such 

 benefits. (June 26, 1884, ch. 121, § 10, 23 Stat. 55; Dec. 21, 1898, ch. 

 28, §§24, 26, 30 Stat. 763, 764; Apr. 26, 1904, ch. 1603, § 1, 33 Stat. 

 308; Mar. 4, 1915, ch. 153, § 11, 38 Stat. 1168; June 5, 1920, ch. 250, 

 § 32, 41 Stat. 1006 ; June 30, 1932, ch. 314, § 501, 47 Stat. 415 ; May 27, 

 1936. ch. 463, § 1, 49 Stat. 1380: May 31. 1939. ch. 158. 53 Stat. 794; 



