Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XIV.djvu/763

SEAMAN 737 provide a seaworthy ship, and our statutes furnish the means of lawfully ascertaining her condition on the complaint of one of the mates and a majority of the crew, by a regular sur- vey at home or abroad. If seamen, after ship- ping, refuse to proceed on the voyage and are arrested for the mutiny, the condition of the vessel, if that is the excuse, is inquired into by the court; and if she is found unseaworthy, their punishment is reduced and mitigated ac- cordingly. So, unseaworthiness is a sufficient defence to the charge of endeavoring to com- mit a revolt by compelling the master to re- turn to port. Provisions of due quality and quantity are to be furnished by the owner, under the general principles of law as applied from the earliest times to this particular con- tract. The quantity for each man on board is here prescribed by statute, under penalty of a day's wages to every seaman for the days on which he is on short allowance. But these wages are not to be paid if the necessity of short allowance arose from a peril of the sea or any accident of the voyage, or the delivery of a part of the provisions to another vessel in distress. Nor, as it is clear that the master must have a discretion in the expenditure of the provisions, is putting the crew on an al- lowance necessarily the same thing as putting them on short allowance. A deficiency in one kind of provisions is not compensated by an abundance of another. By the general law merchant there is an obligation upon every ship owner or master to provide for a seaman who becomes sick, wounded, or maimed in the discharge of his duty, whether at home or abroad, at sea or on land, if it be not by his own fault, suitable care, medicine, and medi- cal treatment, including nursing, diet, and lodging. Sickness is provided for by express statutes, which go so far as to require that every ship bound from a port of the United States to any foreign port, or being of the bur- den of 75 tons and upward and bound from an Atlantic to a Pacific port or vice versa, should have a proper medicine chest on board. Whenever other appliances are required, or whenever surgical skill, or attendance, or nursing, other and better than that which the ship can afford, becomes necessary, the ex- pense will be charged on the owners under the general maritime law. By other statutes the master may deduct 40 cents a month from every seaman's wages to make up a fund for the support of marine hospitals, in which every sailor may have medical treatment. Disobedience or misconduct of a sailor is of necessity punishable with great severity. For- merly there was no specific limit to the right of punishment ; it might be administered by the master in any form and in any measure, he always being responsible for any excess or cruelty, both criminally and in damages to the seaman. But by the statute of 1850 flogging is abolished and prohibited. This has been declared by very high authority to include the use of the cat and every similar form of pun- ishment, but not necessarily to include all cor- poral punishment, such as a blow with the hand, or a stick or rope. The statute contem- plates deliberate flogging, and not that sudden violence, like blows, which may be inflicted in an emergency, to compel immediate obedi- ence. Generally the only punishments which can now be resorted to, to secure good con- duct, are forfeiture of wages, irons, impris- onment, hard labor, and such other means as may be invented in the place of flogging. The penalty of forfeiture of wages may not be im- posed for one trivial act of irregularity, nor for a single or occasional act of intemperance ; the offence must be habitual to warrant the infliction of the penalty. The master or a sea- man may forfeit all his wages for smuggling; or the damage actually sustained by the own- ers of the vessel from this offence may be charged upon the wages of the offender, but only those wages earned before the act of mis- conduct are forfeitable. Desertion is distin- guished from absence without leave by the in- tention not to return. Thus, it is not deser- tion for the seaman to leave the ship, against orders, for the purpose of entering complaints for ill treatment before the consul ; nor is it desertion when the vessel is left for a good cause, as a change of the voyage without con- sent, cruelty, insufficient provisions, or unsea- worthiness of the ship. The seaman must be received, if he offers to return in a proper way and in a reasonable time, before any oth- er person is engaged to take the place. If he returns after desertion and is received by the master, or by the owner, this is a condo- nation of his offence and a waiver of the for- feiture, and it has this effect even if there be a clause to the contrary in the shipping arti- cles. If the sailor deserts before the voyage begins, by not rendering himself on board, he forfeits his advance wages and an equal sum in addition, or he may be apprehended under the warrant of a justice and be compelled to go on board. If he deserts on the voyage, he forfeits all or any part of his wages and all or any part of his property on board the ship. The right of the sailor to be brought back to his home is very jealously guarded by our laws. Every ship must be provided with the shipping articles and a shipping list verified under the oath of the master; this he is re- quired to present to the consul or commercial agent of the United States at every port which lie visits, when so requested, and is under bond to deliver to the boarding officer who comes on board his ship at the first home port which he reaches, and to produce the persons named therein that it may be ascertained that he has his whole crew on board. If it ap- pears that any of them are missing, he must account for their absence. If he discharges any of them abroad, with his or their own consent, he must pay to the American consu of the port or the commercial agent, over and