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PART VIII.

1. MERCHANT SEAMEN AND THEIR SHIPMENT AND DISCHARGE.
2. LOG-BOOKS.

1.— MERCHANT SEAMEN AND THEIR SHIPMENT AND DISCHARGE.

(Revised Statutes, Title LIII, chap. 1.)

SEC. 4501. The several circuit courts within the jurisdiction of which there is a port of entry which is also a port of ocean navigation, shall appoint a commissioner for each such port which in their judgment may require the same, such commissioners to be termed shipping-commissioners; and may, from time to time, remove from office any commissioner whom the court may have reason to believe does not properly perform his duties, and shall then provide for the proper performance of his duties until another person is duly appointed in his place. Such courts shall regulate the mode of conducting business in the shipping. offices to be established by the shipping commissioners as hereinafter provided; and shall have full and complete control over the same, subject to the provisions herein contained.

SEC. 4502. Every shipping-commissioner so appointed shall give bond to the United States, conditioned for the faithful performance of the duties of his office, for a sum, in the discretion of the circuit judge, of not less than five thousand dollars, with two good and sufficient sure. ties therefor, to be approved by such judge; and shall take and subscribe the following oath before entering upon the duties of his office: "I do solemnly swear (or affirm, as the case may be) that I will support the Constitution of the United States, and that I will truly and faithfully discharge the duties of a shipping commissioner to the best of my ability, and according to law." Such oath shall be indorsed on the commission or certificate of appointment, and signed by him, and certified by the officer before whom such oath shall have been taken.

SEC. 4503. In any port in which no shipping-commissioner shall have been appointed, the whole or any part of the business of a shippingcommissioner shall be conducted by the collector or deputy collector of customs of such port; and in respect of such business such custom-house shall be deemed a shipping-office, and the collector or deputy collector

'Mariners (seamen) may be said to be citizens of the world, and it is usual for them of all countries to serve on board any merchant ship that will take them into pay. They may serve on board any merchant vessel engaged in contraband trade without incurring liability to prosecution or punishment for so doing.-(Opinion of Att'y-Gen., 1796.)

The master of a vessel is a “mariner" within the meaning of sections 3 and 4 of the act of Feb. 28, 1803.-(Opinion Att'y-Gen., Apl., 1866.)

He is entitled, if a citizen of the U. S., to additional wages on being discharged in a foreign port, as in the case of a like discharge of any other seaman or mariner.(Ibid.)

of customs to whom such business shall be committed, shall, for all purposes, be deemed a shipping-commissioner within the meaning of this Title.

SEC. 4504. Any person other than a commissioner under this Title, who shall perform or attempt to perform, either directly or indirectly, the duties which are by this Title set forth as pertaining to a shipping. commissioner, shall be liable to a penalty of not more than five hundred dollars. Nothing in this 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 this Title. Whenever the master of any vessel shall engage his crew, or any part of the same, in any collection-district where no shipping-commissioner shall have been appointed, he may perform for himself the duties of such commissioner.

SEC. 4505. Any shipping commissioner may engage clerks to assist him in the transaction of the business of the shipping-office, at his own proper cost, and may, in case of necessity, depute such clerks to act for him in his official capacity; but the shipping-commissioner shall be held responsible for the acts of every such clerk or deputy, and will be personally liable for any penalties such clerk or deputy may incur by the violation of any of the provisions of this Title; and all acts done by a clerk, as such deputy, shall be as valid and binding as if done by the shipping-commissioner.

SEC. 4506. Each shipping-commissioner shall provide a seal with which he shall authenticate all his official acts, on which seal shall be engraved the arms of the United States, and the name of the port or district for which he is commissioned. Any instrument, either printed or written, purporting to be the official act of a shipping-commissioner, and purporting to be under the seal and signature of such shipping. commissioner, shall be received as presumptive evidence of the official character of such instrument, and of the truth of the facts therein set forth.

SEC. 4507. Every shipping-commissioner shall lease, rent, or procure, at his own cost, suitable premises for the transaction of business, and for the preservation of the books and other documents connected therewith; and these premises shall be styled the shipping-commissioner's office.

SEC. 4508. The general duties of a shipping-commissioner shall be: First. To afford facilities for engaging seamen by keeping a register 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 are now or may hereafter be required by law.

SHIPMENT.

(Revised Statutes, chap. 2.)

SEC. 4509. Every shipping-commissioner appointed under this Title shall, if applied to for the purpose of apprenticing boys to the sea-service, by any master or owner of a vessel, or by any person legally quali fied, give such assistance as is in his power for facilitating the making of such apprenticeships; but the shipping-commissioner shall ascertain that the boy has voluntarily consented to be bound, and that the parents or guardian of such boy have consented to such apprenticeship, and that he has attained the age of twelve years, and is of sufficient health and strength, and that the master to whom such boy is to be bound is a proper person for the purpose. Such apprenticeship shall terminate when the apprentice becomes eighteen years of age. The shippingcommissioner shall keep a register of all indentures of apprenticeship made before him.

SEC. 4510. The master of every foreign-going vessel shall, before carrying any apprentice to sea from any place in the United States, cause such apprentice to appear before the shipping-commissioner before whom the crew is engaged, and shall produce to him the indenture by which such apprentice is bound, and the assignment or assignments thereof, if any; and the name of the apprentice, with the date of the indenture and of the assignment or assignments thereof, if any, shall be entered on the agreement; which shall be in the form[,] as near as may be[,] given in the table marked "A" in the schedule annexed to this Title; and no such assignment shall be made without the approval of a commissioner, of the apprentice, and of his parents or his guardian. For any violation of this section, the master shall be liable to a penalty of not more than one hundred dollars.

SEC. 4511. The master of every vessel 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, or of any vessel of the burden of seventy-five tons or upward, bound from a port on the Atlantie to a port on the Pacific, or vice versa, shall, before he proceeds on such voyage, make an agreement, in writing or in print, with every seaman whom he carries to sea as one of the crew, in the manner hereinafter mentioned; and every such agreement shall be, as near as may be, in the form given in the table marked A, in the schedule annexed to this Title, and shall be dated at the time of the first signature thereof, and shall be signed by the master before any seamen signs the same, and shall contain the following particulars:

First. The nature and, as far as practicable, the duration of the intended voyage or engagement, and the port or country at which the voyage is to terminate.

Second. The number and description of the crew, specifying their respective employments.

Third. The time at which each seaman is to be on board, to begin work.

Fourth. The capacity in which each seaman is to serve.
Fifth. The amount of wages which each seaman is to receive.
Sixth. A scale of the provisions which are to be furnished to each

seaman.

Seventh. Any regulations as to conduct on board, and as to fines, short allowance of provisions, or other lawful punishments for miscon

duct, which may be sanctioned by Congress as proper to be adopted, and which the parties agree to adopt.

Eighth. Any stipulations in reference to advance and allotment of wages, or other matters not contrary to law.

SEC. 4512. The following rules shall be observed with respect to agreements:

First. Every agreement except such as are otherwise specially provided for, shall be signed by each seaman in the presence of a shippingcommissioner.

Second. When the crew is first engaged the agreement shall be signed in duplicate, and one part shall be retained by the shipping-commissioner, and the other part shall contain a special place or form for the description and signatures of persons engaged subsequently to the first departure of the ship, and shall be delivered to the master.

Third. Every agreement entered into before a shipping-commissioner shall be acknowledged and certified under the hand and official seal of such commissioner. The certificate of acknowledgment shall be indorsed on or annexed to the agreement; and shall be in the following form:

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"On this - day of personally appeared before me, a shipping-commissioner in and for the said county, A. B., C. D., and E. F., severally known to me to be the same persons who executed the foregoing instrument, who each for himself acknowledged to me that he had read or had heard read the same; that he was by me made acquainted with the conditions thereof, and understood the same; and that, while sober and not in a state of intoxication, he signed it freely and voluntarily, for the uses and purposes therein mentioned."

SEC. 4513. The preceding section shall not apply to masters of vessels where the seamen are by custom or agreement entitled to participate in the profits or result of a cruise or voyage, nor to masters of coast wise nor to masters of lake-going vessels that touch at foreign ports; but seamen may, by agreement, serve on board such vessels a definite time, or, on the return of any vessel to a port in the United States, may reship and sail in the same vessel on another voyage, without the payment of additional fees to the shipping-commissioner, by either the seamen or the master.

SEC. 4514. If any person shall be carried to sea, as one of the crew on board of any vessel making a voyage as herein before specified, without entering into an agreement with the master of such vessel, in the form and manner, and at the place and times in such cases required, the vessel shall be held liable for each such offense to a penalty of not more than two hundred dollars. But the vessel shall not be held liable for any person carried to sea, who shall have secretly stowed away himself without the knowledge of the master, mate, or of any of the officers of the vessel, or who shall have falsely personated himself to the master, mate, or officers of the vessel, for the purpose of being carried to sea.

SEC. 4515. If any master, mate, or other officer of a vessel knowingly receives, or accepts, to be entered on board of any merchant-vessel, auy seaman who has been engaged or supplied contrary to the provisions of this Title, the vessel on board of which such seaman shall be found shall, for every such seaman, be liable to a penalty of not more than two hundred dollars.

SEC. 4516. In case of desertion, or of casualty resulting in the loss of one or more seamen, the master may ship a number equal to the number of whose services he has been deprived by desertion or casualty,

and report the same to the United States consul at the first port at which he shall arrive, without incurring the penalty prescribed by the two preceding sections.

SEC. 4517. Every master of a merchant-vessel who engages any seaman at a place out of the United States, in which there is a consular officer or commercial agent, shall, before carrying such seaman to sea, procure the sanction of such officer, and shall engage seamen in his presence; and the rules governing the engagement of seamen before a shipping-commissioner in the United States, shall apply to such engagements made before a consular officer or commercial agent; and upon every such engagement the consular officer or commercial agent shall indorse upon the agreement his sanction thereof, and an attestation to the effect that the same has been signed in his presence, and otherwise duly made.

SEC. 4518. Every master who engages any seaman in any place in which there is a consular officer or commercial agent, otherwise than as required by the preceding section, shall incur a penalty of not more than one hundred dollars, for which penalty the vessel shall be held liable.

SEC. 4519. The master shall, at the commencement of every voyage or engagement, cause a legible copy of the agreement, omitting signatures, to be 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 one hundred dollars.

SEC. 4520. Every master of any vessel of the burden of fifty tons or upward, bound from a port in one State to a port in any other than an adjoining State, except vessels of the burden of seventy-five tous or upward, bound from a port on the Atlantic to a port on the Pacific, or vice versa, shall, before he proceeds on such voyage, make an agreement in writing or in print, with every seaman on board such vessel except such as shall be apprentice or servant to himself or owners, declaring the voyage or term of time for which such seaman shall be shipped.

SEC. 4521. If any master of such vessel of the burden of fifty tons or upward shall carry out any seaman or mariner, except apprentices or servants, without such contract or agreement being first made and signed by the seamen, such master shall pay to every such seaman the highest price or wages which shall have been given at the port or place where such seaman was shipped, for a similar voyage, within three months next before the time of such shipping, if such seaman shall perform such voyage; or if not, then for such time as he shall continue to do duty on board such vessel; and shall moreover be liable to a penalty of twenty dollars for every such seaman, recoverable, one-half to the use of the person prosecuting for the same, and the other half to the use of the United States. Any seaman who has not signed such a contract shall not be bound by the regulations nor subject to the penalties and forfeitures contained in this Title.

SEC. 4522. At the foot of every such contract to ship upon such a vessel of the burden of fifty tons or upward, there shall be a memo randum in writing of the day and the hour on which the seamen who ship and subscribe shall render themselves on board to begin the vorage agreed upon. If any such seaman shall neglect to render himself on board the vessel, for which he has shipped, at the time mentioned in such memorandum, and if the master of the vessel shall, on the day on which such neglect happened, make an entry in the log-book of such vessel, of the name of such seaman, and shall in like manner note

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