Page:Federal Reporter, 1st Series, Volume 3.djvu/355

Sis FEDERAL BSPOBTEB. �for by the Eevised Statutes, title 53, § 4615, by receiving on board, on that day, three seamen named in the libel, who had been engaged and supplied as such seamen contrary to the provisions of that title, in this, that he "did not then and there, before proceeding on said voyage from Boston to South Amboy, make a eontract in writing, or in print, with said sea- men, " etc. In another count it is alleged that on the second day of December, 1879, further penalties were incurred by the act of the master in receiving two seamen before proceed- ing on a similar voyage, then and there about to be under- taken, without having made the requisite written or printed agreemeut. The answer admits the material averments of fact, and deni-^s the inferences of law. �The Eevised Statutes have brought together in one title the several acts concerning merchant seamen, and section 4515 declares that if an y master, mate, or other officer of a vessel, knowingly receives or accepts, to be entered on board of any merchant vessel, any seaman who has been engaged or sup- plied contrary to the provisions of that title, the vessel on board which any such seaman shall be found, shall, for every Bueh seaman, be liable to a penalty of not more than $200. �The asserted illegality of the engagement of the five sea- men, for which a penalty not exceeding $1,000 is here sued for, consists in a breach of the Eevised Statutes, §§ 4520 and 4521, which require every master of a vessel above 50 tons burden, bound from a port of one state to a port in any other than an adjoining state, to make a eontract in writiu^' or in print with every seaman; and declare that if any master shall "carry ont" any seaman, without such eontract being first made, the seaman shall have the highest rate of wages and certain other rights, and the master shall be liable to a penalty of $20 for every such seaman, one-half for the United States, and one-half for the common informer. These sec- tions represent what remained of the law of 1790, after the Btatute of 1872 was passed, �The most obvions remark upon the information îs that it does not allege that the master "carried out" any seamen; there is no averment of any performed voyage, but only ����