Page:Federal Reporter, 1st Series, Volume 9.djvu/534

THOKSON E. PETERSON. 519 harbor and until her arrivai in Pentwater, doing duty as mate all the time she was in South Haveu harbor, and he had full charge oi the vessel part of the time, because the captainwas absent looking for a tug. On the arrivai of the vessel at Pentwater, the cai^tain announced to Thorson and Oleson that he intended to pay them the sum of $20 each, and $7 extra, which would pay their fare tO Chicago, and that he con- sidered them both as employed by the round trip, and that they were bound by their obligation to remain on board until the vessel was unloaded; and that he would only pay them what he proposed to pay on condition that they did so remain on board and assist in un- loading. On this announcement both libellants left, and ths captain refused to pay them auy wages or advance them aiiy money on account of their services. The libellants further claim that the master of the vessel, having employed them without shipping articles, is Hable, under sections e620 and 4521 of the Kevised Statutes of the United States, to pay them the highest wages which shall have been given for the preced- ing three months at the port of shipment, and insist that the proof shows such wages to be four dollars per day for seamen, and four dollars and twenty-five cents per day for mates, and that, therefore, they are entitled to recover wages at these rates. But this statuts is only applicable to voyages from a port in one state to a port "in any other tban an adjoining state," and, as this court is bound to take notice of the legally-established boundaries of the different states, it must be held that Illinois and Michigan are "adjoining States" within the meaning of this statute. The boundary line is the middle of Lake Michigan, and the process of this court, for instance, or an Illinois state court, could, undoubtedly, be executed on the lake any where west of this boundary line. The mere fact that the boundary line is upon the water, and therefore, perhaps, difficult to determine by physical boundaries, or lines palpable to the eye, does not change the operation of the statute in this respect. So that these seamen cannot either of them, I think, invoke this statute in aid of their case, and recover larger wages on the ground that the master hired them without shipping articles. As I have already said, there is no doubt that Oleson shipped for the round trip from Chicago to Pentwater and return at tho gross sum of $20. But I am satisfied that by the dismasting of the sehooner the voyage was broken up, and the seamen who had shipped for the voyage were at liberty to leave as soon as the vessel was in a