Sec. 11. May 28, 1908. Sec. 6. Every such barge shall be equipped with the following appliances of kinds approved by the Board of Supervising Inspectors: At least one lifeboat, at least one anchor with suitable chain or cable, and at least one life-preserver for each person on board. A register, enrollment, or license shall not be issued Mar. 4, 1915. or renewed by any collector or other officer of customs to any such barge unless at the time of issue or renewal such barge has in force the certificate of inspection prescribed by section ten and on board the equipment prescribed by section eleven. May 28, 1908. Sec. 14. June 17, 1910. May 28, 1908. R. S., 4556. Dec. 21, 1898. If any such barge shall be navigated without such certificate of inspection, or without any part of the equipment prescribed by section eleven, the owner shall be liable to a penalty of five hundred dollars for each offense. The Commissioner of Light-Houses, the Supervising Inspector-General of the Steamboat-Inspection Service, and the Commissioner of Navigation shall convene as a board at such times as the Secretary of Commerce shall prescribe to prepare regulations limiting the length of hawsers between towing vessels and seagoing barges in tow and the length of such tows within any of the inland waters of the United States designated and defined from time to time pursuant to section two of the Act approved February nineteen, eighteen hundred and ninety-five, and such regulations when approved by the Secretary of Commerce shall have the force of law. The master of the towing vessel shall be liable to the suspension or revocation of his license for any willful violation of regulations issued pursuant to section fourteen in the manner now prescribed for incompetency, misconduct, or unskillfulness. 123. Inspection of seaworthiness at domestic ports. If the first and second officers under the master or a majority of the crew of any vessel bound on any voyage shall, before the vessel shall have left the harbor, discover that the vessel is too leaky or is otherwise unfit in her crew, body, tackle, apparel, furniture, provisions, or stores to proceed on the intended voyage, and shall require such unfitness to be inquired into, the master shall, upon the request of the first and second officers under the master or such majority of the crew, forthwith apply to the judge of the district court of that judicial district, if he shall there reside, or if not, to some justice of the peace of the city, town, or place for the appointment of surveyors, as in section forty-five hundred and fifty-seven provided, taking with him two or more of the crew who shall have made such request; and any master refusing or neglecting to comply with these provisions shall be liable to a penalty of five hundred dollars. [This section shall not apply to fishing or whaling vessels or yachts-Dec. 21, 1898, sec. 26.] Dec. 21, 1898. sec. 8. The judge, or justice, in a domestic port, shall, upon R. S., 4557. such application of the master or commander, issue his precept, directed to three persons in the neighborhood, the most experienced and skillful in maritime affairs that can be procured; and whenever such complaint is about the provisions one of such surveyors shall be a physician or a surgeon of the Public Health and Marine Hospital July 1, 1902. Service, if such service is established at the place where the complaint is made. It shall be the duty of such surveyors to repair on board such vessel and to examine the same in respect to the defects and insufficiencies complained of, and make reports to the judge, or justice, as the case may be, in writing, under their hands or the hands of two of them, whether in any or in what respect the vessel is unfit to proceed on the intended voyage, and what addition of men, provisions, or stores, or what repairs or alterations in the body, tackle, or apparel will be necessary; and upon such report the judge or justice shall adjudge and shall indorse on his report his judgment whether the vessel is fit to proceed on the intended voyage, and, if not, whether such repairs can be made or deficiencies supplied where the vessel then lies, or whether it is necessary for her to proceed to the nearest or most convenient place where such supplies can be made or deficiencies supplied; and the master and the crew shall, in all things, conform to the judgment. The master or commander shall, in the first instance, pay all the costs of such review, report, or judgment, to be taxed and allowed on a fair copy thereof, certified by the judge or justice. But if the complaint of the crew shall appear upon the report and judgment to have been without foundation, the master or commander, or the owner or consignee of such vessel, shall deduct the amount thereof, and of reasonable damages for the detention, to be ascertained by the judge or justice, out of the wages of the complaining seamen. [This section shall not apply to fishing or whaling vessels or yachts-Dec. 21, 1898, sec. 26.] Dec. 21, 1898. If, after judgment that such vessel is fit to proceed on R. S., 4558. her intended voyage, or after procuring such men, pro- sec. 9. visions, stores, repairs, or alterations as may be directed, the seamen, or either of them, shall refuse to proceed on the voyage, he shall forfeit any wages that may be due him. This section shall not apply to fishing or whaling vessels or yachts-Dec. 21, 1898, sec. 26.] R. S., 4559. Dec. 21, 1898. Sec. 5. ginning Nov. 4, 1915.) 124. Inspection of seaworthiness at foreign ports. Upon a complaint in writing, signed by the first and second officers or a majority of the crew of any vessel, Mar. 4, 1915. while in a foreign port, that such vessel is in an unsuit(Effective be able condition to go to sea because she is leaky or insufficiently supplied with sails, rigging, anchors, or any other equipment, or that the crew is insufficient to man her, or that her provisions, stores, and supplies are not or have not been during the voyage sufficient or wholesome, thereupon, in any of these or like cases the consul or a commercial agent who may discharge any of the duties of a consul shall cause to be appointed three persons of like qualifications with those described in section forty-five hundred and fifty-seven, who shall proceed to examine into the cause of complaint and who shall proceed and be governed in all their proceedings as provided by said section. [This section shall not apply to fishing or whaling vessels or yachts-Dec. 21, 1898, sec. 26.] R. S., 4560. R. S., 4561. June 26, 1884. Sec. The inspectors appointed by any consul or commercial agent, in pursuance of the preceding section, shall have full power to examine the vessel and whatever is aboard of her, so far as is pertinent to their inquiry, and also to hear and receive any other proofs which the ends of justice may require; and if, upon a view of the whole proceedings, the consul or other commercial agent is satisfied therewith, he may approve the whole or any part of the report, and shall certify such approval; or if he dissents, he shall certify his reasons for dissenting. The inspectors in their report shall also state whether in their opinion the vessel was sent to sea unsuitably proDec. 21, 1898. vided in any important or essential particular, by neglect or design, or through mistake or accident; and in case it was by neglect or design, and the consular officer approves of such finding, he shall discharge such of the crew as request it, and shall require the payment by the master of one month's wages for each seaman over and above the wages then due, or sufficient money for the return of such of the crew as desire to be discharged to the nearest and most convenient port of the United States, or by furnishing the seamen who so desire to be discharged with employment on a ship agreed to by them. But if in the opinion of the inspectors the defects or deficiencies found to exist have been the result of mistake or accident, and could not, in the exercise of ordinary care, have been known and provided against before the sailing of the vessel, and the master shall in a reasonable time remove or remedy the causes of complaint, then the crew shall remain and discharge their duty. [This section shall not apply to fishing or whaling vessels or yachts-Dec. 21, 1898, sec. 26.] R. S., 4562. The master shall pay all such reasonable charges for inspection under such complaint as shall be officially cer tified to him under the hand of the consul or commercial agent; but in case the inspectors report that the complaint is without any good and sufficient cause, the master may retain from the wages of the complainants, in proportion to the pay of each, the amount of such charges, with such reasonable damages for detention on that account as the consul or commercial agent directing the inquiry may officially certify. Every master who refuses to pay such wages and R. S., 4563, charges shall be liable to each person injured thereby, in damages, to be recovered in any court of the United States in the district where such delinquent may reside or be found, and in addition thereto be punishable by a fine of one hundred dollars for each offense. 125. Provisions and water. Should any master or owner of any merchant vessel of the United States neglect to provide a sufficient quantity of stores to last for a voyage of ordinary duration to the port of destination, and in consequence of such neglect the crew are compelled to accept a reduced scale, such master or owner shall be liable to a penalty as provided in section forty-five hundred and sixty-eight of the Revised Statutes. Any three or more of the crew of any merchant-vessel R. S., 4565. of the United States bound from a port in the United States to any foreign port, or being of the burden of seventy-five tons or upward, and bound from a port on the Atlantic to a port on the Pacific, or vice versa, may complain to any officer in command of any of the vessels of the United States Navy, or consular officer of the United States, or shipping-commissioner or chief officer of the customs, that the provisions or water for the use of the crew are, at any time, of bad quality, unfit for use, or deficient in quantity. Such officer shall thereupon examine the provisions or water, or cause them to be examined; and if, on examination, such provisions or water are found to be of bad quality and unfit for use, or to be deficient in quantity, the person making such examination shall certify the same in writing to the master of the ship. If such master does not thereupon provide other proper provisions or water, where the same can be had, in lieu of any so certified to be of a bad quality and unfit for use, or does not procure the requisite quantity of any so certified to be insufficient in quantity, or uses any provisions or water which have been so certified as aforesaid to be of bad quality and unfit for use, he shall, in every such case, be liable to a penalty of not more than one hundred dollars; and upon every such examination the officers making or directing the same shall enter a statement of the result of the examination in the log-book, and shall send a report thereof to the district judge for the judicial district embracing the port to which such vessel R. S., 4566. R. S., 4567. R. S., 4568. is bound; and such report shall be received in evidence in any legal proceedings. If the officer to whom any such complaint in regard to the provisions or the water is made certifies in such statement that there was no reasonable ground for such complaint, each of the parties so complaining shall forfeit to the master or owner his share of the expense, if any, of the survey. [This section shall not apply to fishing or whaling vessels or yachts-Dec. 21, 1898, sec. 26.] If any seamen, while on board any vessel, shall state to the master that they desire to make complaint, in accordance with the two preceding sections, in regard to the provisions or the water, to a competent officer, against the master, the master shall, if the vessel is then at a place where there is any such officer, so soon as the service of the vessel will permit, and if the vessel is not then at such a place, so soon after her first arrival at such place as the service of the vessel will permit, allow such seamen, or any of them, to go ashore, or shall send them ashore, in proper custody, so that they may be enabled to make such complaint; and shall, in default, be liable to a penalty of not more than one hundred dollars. If, during a voyage, the allowance of any of the provisions which any seaman is entitled to under section fortysix hundred and twelve of the Revised Statutes is reduced except for any time during which such seaman willfully and without sufficient cause refuses or neglects to perform his duty, or is lawfully under confinement for misconduct either on board or on shore; or if it shall be shown that any of such provisions are, or have been during the voyage, bad in quality or unfit for use, the seaman shall receive, by way of compensation for such reduction or bad quality, according to the time of its continuance, the following sums, to be paid to him in addition to and to be recoverable as wages: First. If his allowance is reduced by any quantity not exceeding one-third of the quantity specified by law, a sum not exceeding fifty cents a day. Second. If his allowance is reduced by more than onethird of such quantity, a sum not exceeding one dollar a day. Third. In respect to bad quality, a sum not exceeding one dollar a day. But if it is shown to the satisfaction of the court before which the case is tried that any provisions, the allowance of which has been reduced, could not be procured or supplied in sufficient quantities, or were unavoidably injured or lost, or if by reason of its innate qualities any article becomes unfit for use and that proper and equivalent substitutes were supplied in lieu thereof, the court shall take such circumstances into consideration and shall modify or refuse compensation, as the justice of the case may require. [This section shall not apply to fishing or whaling vessels or yachts-Dec. 21, 1898, sec. 26.] |