in the fisheries are liable to the like penalties for desertion; and the fishing contract must be in writing, signed by the shipper and the fishermen, and countersigned by the owner.a The articles do not determine exclusively who are the owners, and the seamen may prove, by other documents, the real and responsible owners. The object of the articles is to place the crew of a fishing vessel upon a footing with seamen in the merchant service, and to make them liable to the same restrictions, and entitled to the same remedies.b Provision is made for the prompt recovery of seamen's wages, of which one third is due at every port at which the vessel shall unlade and deliver her cargo, before the voyage be ended; and at the end of the voyage, the seamen may proceed in the district court, by admiralty process, against the ship, if the wages be not paid within ten days after they are discharged.c The seamen having like cause of complaint, may all join in one suit, and they may proceed against the vessel within the ten days, if she be about to proceed to sea; but this remedy,

in rem, does not deprive the seamen of their remedy *179 at common law for the *recovery of their wages.d The

statutes further provide for the safety and comfort of the seamen, by requiring that every ship belonging to a citizen of the United States, of the burthen of one hundred and fifty tons or upwards, navigated by ten or more persons, and bound to a foreign port; or of the burthen of seventy tons or upwards, and navigated with six or more persons, and bound from the United States to any port in the West Indies, shall

commercial agents in foreign ports. In the state of Missouri, there are statute provisions for the regulation of boatmen on the navigable waters of that state, their contracts, their duties, their protection, and the remedies against them, as in analogous cases of seamen on the high seas. Revised Statutes of Missouri, 1835, 99. Act of Congress, June 19th, 1813, c. 2. sec. 1. 2.

Wait v. Gibbs, 4 Pick. 298.

• The voyage is ended when the vessel has arrived at her last port of destination, and is safely moored at the wharf. But the seamen may, by the terms of the contract, or the usage of the port, be bound to remain by the vessel after the voyage is ended, and assist in discharging the cargo, and their wages will be continued until that takes place. The Mary, Ware's Rep. 454.

Act of Congress, July 20th, 1790, c. 29. sec. 6. The statute of 59 Geo. III. c. 58, provided, also, an expeditious remedy for the recovery of seamen's wages, by allowing them to apply to the summary jurisdiction of a justice of the peace, when the wages do not exceed £20.

be provided with a medicine chest, properly supplied with fresh and sound medicines; and if bound on a voyage across the Atlantic Ocean, with requisite stores of water, and salted meat, and wholesome ship-bread, well secured under deck.a

It is further provided by statute, for the just and benevolent purpose of affording certain and permanent relief to sick and disabled seamen, that a fund be raised out of their wages, earned on board of any vessel of the United States, and be paid by the master to the collector of the port, on entry from a foreign port, at the rate of twenty cents per month for every seaman. The like assessment is to be made and paid on the new enrolment or license for carrying on the coasting trade, and also by persons navigating boats and rafts on the Mississippi. The moneys so raised are to be expended for the temporary relief and maintenance of sick and disabled seamen, in hospitals or other proper institutions established for such purposes; and the surplus moneys, when sufficiently accumulated, shall be applied to the erection of marine hospitals, for the accommodation of sick and disabled seamen. These hospitals, as far as it can be done with convenience, are to receive sick foreign seamen on a charge of seventy-five cents *per day, to be paid by *180 the master of the foreign vessel. And to relieve

Act of Congress, July 20, 1790, c. 56, sec. 8, 9, and ibid. March 2d, 1805, c. 88. Act of Congress, March 2d, 1819, c. 170. The Act of Congress of July 20th, 1790, sec. 9, gives to the seamen double wages for every day that they are put on short allowance, and the vessel has not the quantity and quality of provisions required. The British statute of 43 Geo. III. c. 56, has another very humane provision for the health and security of the passengers and crew. It provided that no British ship should clear out from a British port with a greater number of persons on board, including children and the crew, than in the proportion of one person for every two tons of the burthen of the ship, as appearing in the certificate of registry, or of that part of the ship unladen. A penalty of £50 is forfeited for each extra person. (1) Acts of Congress, July 16th, 1798, March 2d, 1799, and May 3d, 1802. By the act of March 1, 1843, c. 49, the provision in the act of 1798 for hospital money is extended to the masters, owners and seamen of registered vessels employed in carrying on the coasting trade.

(1) See an act to regulate the carriage of passengers in merchant vessels, passed February 22, 1847; and an act to provide for the ventilation of passenger vessels, &c., passed May 17, 1848 ; and an act to extend the provisions of all laws now in force, relating to the carriage of passengers in merchant vessels, and the regulations thereof, passed March 3, 1849. The acts show that the health and security of passengers and crews have engaged the attention of the American Congress as well as of the British Parliament.

American seamen who may be found destitute in foreign places, and as evidence of the constant and paternal solicitude of the United States for the preservation and protection of their seamen abroad, it is made the duty of the American consuls and commercial agents, to provide for those who may be found destitute within their consular districts, and for their passages to some port in the United States, in a reasonable manner, at the expense of the United States; and American vessels are bound to take such seamen on board, at the request of the consul, but not exceeding two men to every hundred tons burthen of the ship, and transport them to the United States on such terms, not exceeding ten dollars for each person, as may be agreed on. So if an American vessel be sold in a foreign port, and her company discharged, or a seaman be discharged with his consent, the master must pay to the consul or commercial agent at the place, three months' pay, over and above the wages then due, for every such seaman, two thirds of which is to be paid over to every seaman so discharged, upon his engagement on board of any vessel to return to the United States; and the other third to be retained for the purpose of creating a fund for the maintenance and return of destitute American seamen in such foreign port.a

The act of congress of March 3d, 1813, c. 184, declared that no seaman who was not a native or naturalized citizen of the United States, should be employed on board of any public or private vessel of the United States. But the provision against the employment of foreign seamen is probably without any efficacy, for it applies only to those nations who shall, in like manner, have prohibited the employment of American seamen. There is no other act of congress which prohibits the employment of foreign seamen in our ships; and while foreigners are employed as seamen in our merchant ships, they are deemed mariners and seamen within the act of congress of 1803, c. 62, respecting provision for them by

Act of Congress, February 28th, 1803, c. 62. The three months' extra wages, under the Act of Congress, applies only to a voluntary sale of the vessel in a foreign port, and not when the sale is rendered necessary by shipwreck. The Dawn, Ware's R. 485.

consuls when destitute abroad. And in the navigation act of 1st March, 1817, c. 204, a discrimination is made in favour of American citizens as seamen, relative to the fishing bounty and to foreign tonnage.

Greenwich hospital, in England, is a noble asylum for decayed and disabled seamen belonging to the *181 royal navy; but another national establishment was wanting for seamen maimed or disabled by sickness or accidental misfortunes, or worn out by age, in the merchant service. This was provided for by the statute of 20 Geo. II. c. 38, which created a corporation attached to Greenwich hospital, and laid the foundations of a magnificent charity, with liberal, careful and minute provisions, some of which have been copied into our own statutes; and it is sustained by an assessment similar to our own, of sixpence sterling per month, out of seamen's wages. In one respect, the English charity is much broader than ours, for it reaches to the poor widow and infant children of every seaman who perishes in the service, and who shall be found to be proper objects of charity.b

Matthews v. Ofley, 3 Sumner, 116.

The contributions from merchant ships to the trustees of Greenwich Hospital, in 1828 and 1829, exceeded £20,000 sterling a year, and yet there was not on the establishment a single individual who had been exclusively employed in the merchant service. The statute of 4 and 5 Wm. IV. c. 34, directed, therefore, that the contribution of sixpence per month by seamen in the merchant service should cease from 1st January, 1835, and that £20,000 a year should be advanced from the consolidated fund to the hospital to make good the deficiency. The act of Wm. IV. repealed the statute of 20 Geo. II., except so far as it related to the establishment of the corporation; and it repealed so much of the act of 37 Geo. III. c. 73, as related to the wages of seamen dying while employed in the West India trade, and it introduced a new system. This system provides contributions for a new fund; and every master and owner of a British merchant ship or vessel is to pay 28. per month, and every seaman serving on board such ship or vessel, 1s. per month; and the institution is to provide in its hospital for seamen becoming incapable by sickness, wounds or other accidental misfortunes, or worn out by age, and in certain cases for their widows and children. The masters and owners, and their widows and children, being objects of charity as aforesaid, are to partake of the bounty; the contributions to the fund are estimated to amount hereafter to £50,000 sterling a year. M'Culloch's Com. Dict. tit. Seamen. A summary of the acts of congress for the protection and relief of seamen, and the decisions of the federal courts in relation thereto, is given in the notes to Abbott on Shipping, 5th Am. edit. Boston, 1846, pp. 257 to 264.

The Athenians had humane institutions for the relief and support of disabled

With respect to the behaviour of the master and seamen, and the discipline on board of merchant ships, it is held, that the master is personally responsible in damages for any injury or loss to the ship or cargo, by reason of his negligence or misconduct. Being responsible over to others for his conduct as master, the law, as well on that account as from the necessity of the case, has intrusted him with great authority over the mariners on board. Such authority is requisite to the safe navigation of the ship, and the preservation of good order and discipline. He may imprison, (1) and also inflict reasonable corporal punishment upon a seaman, for disobedience to reasonable commands, or for disorderly, riotous or insolent conduct; and his authority, in that respect, is *182 analogous to *that of a master on land over his apprentice or scholar. The books unite in the lawful

soldiers, and which afterwards embraced the aged, the sick, the blind and infirm of every description; and this charitable provision has been attributed to Solon. St. John's History of the Manners and Customs of Ancient Greece, vol. iii. 69-74. The ancient Romans never provided any asylum for the poor. Humanity was no part of their national character. Its cultivation, as a public duty, is one of the inestimable blessings of the introduction of Christianity. Constantine, the first Christian Cæsar, founded the first public system of relief of pauperism. There did not exist in the Roman legislation any provision for the poor, unless, says Hugo, (History of the Roman Law, sec. 154,) we may consider the law of the twelve tables, which regulated funeral expenses, to have been introduced in their favour, as a means to prevent the ruin of families. But there was a provision in favour of the Roman soldiers, which shows the wise policy, if not humanity, of the Roman discipline. Half of the donatives of the soldiers was withdrawn and placed in security in camp for their use, to prevent its being wasted in extravagance and debauchery. Vegetius considered it a divine institution. There was likewise a contribution by each soldier, to a common fund in camp, to defray his funeral expenses. Vegetius, De Re Militari, 1. 2. c. 20. Chelsea Hospital, in England, for the reception of sick and superannuated soldiers, has infinitely better pretensions than the Roman provision to be regarded as divinitus institutum.

Molloy, b. 2. c. 3. sec. 12. Thorne v. White, 1 Peters' Adm. Rep. 168. Rice v. The Polly and Kitty, 2 ibid. 420. The United States v. Smith, 8 Wash. Cir. Rep. 525. Michaelson v. Denison, 3 Day's Rep. 294. Comersford v. Baker, before Lord Stowell, June, 1825. The United States v. Dewey, New-York Circuit, June, 1828. Lord Stowell, in the case of the Agincourt, 1 Hagg. Adm. Rep. 272. The Lowther Castle, ibid. 384. The United States v. Freeman, 4 Mason's Rep. 512. Turner's Case, 1 Ware, 83. Butler v. M'Lellan, District Court of Maine, ibid. 219.

(1) Something more than a suspicion that a sailor is a dangerous man, is required to justify his imprisonment. Jay v. Almy, 1 Wood, & M. R. 262.