4509. Apprentices.

CHAPTER TWO.

SHIPMENT.

4510. Indentures of apprentices to be produced to commissioner, 4511. Shipping-articles.

4512. Rules for shipping-articles.

4513. Exceptions as to shipping articles.

4514. Penalty for shipping without agreement.

4515. Penalty for knowingly shipping seamen without articles.

4516. Lost seamen may be replaced.

4517. Shipping seamen in foreign ports.

4518. Penalty for violating preceding section.

4519. Posting copy of agreement.

4520. Shipping-articles for vessels in coasting trade.

4521. Penalty for shipping without articles. 4522. Penalty for omitting to begin voyage. 4523. Unlawful shipments void.

§ 4509. Apprentices.-Every shipping-commissioner appointed under this Title shall, if applied to for the purpose of apprenticing boys to the sea-service, by any master or owner of a vessel, or by any person legally qualified, give such assistance as is in his power for facilitating the making of such apprenticeships; but the shippingcommissioner shall ascertain that the boy has voluntarily consented to be bound, and that the parents or guardian of such boy have consented to such apprenticeship, and that he has attained the age of twelve years, and is of sufficient health and strength, and that the master to whom such boy is to be bound is a proper person for the purpose. Such apprenticeship shall terminate when the apprentice becomes eighteen years of age. The shippingcommissioner shall keep a register of all indentures of apprenticeship made before him.

§ 4510. Indenture of apprentice.-The master of every foreign-going vessel shall, before carrying any apprentice to sea from any place in the United States, cause such apprentice to appear before the shipping-commissioner before whom the crew is engaged, and shall produce to him the indenture by which such apprentice is bound, and the assignment or assignments thereof, if any; and the name of the apprentice, with the date of the indenture and of the assignment or assignments thereof, if

DESTY C. & N.-13.

any, shall be entered on the agreement; which shall be in the form as near as may be given in the table marked “A” in the schedule annexed to this Title; and no such assignment shall be made without the approval of a commissioner, of the apprentice, and of his parents or his guardian. For any violation of this section, the master shall be liable to a penalty of not more than one hundred dollars.

§ 4511. Shipping-articles.-The master of every vessel bound from a port in the United States to any foreign port other than vessels engaged in trade between the United States and the British North American possessions, or the West India Islands, or the republic of Mexico, or of any vessel of the burden of seventy-five tons or upward, bound from a port on the Atlantic to a port on the Pacific, or vice versa, shall, before he proceeds on such voyage, make an agreement, in writing or in print, with every seaman whom he carries to sea as one of the crew, in the manner hereinafter mentioned; and every such agreement shall be, as near as may be, in the form given in the table marked A, in the schedule annexed to this Title, and shall be dated at the time of the first signature thereof, and shall be signed by the master before any seaman signs the same, and shall contain the following particulars:

First. The nature and, as far as practicable, the duration of the intended voyage or engagement, and the port or country at which the voyage is to terminate.

Second. The number and description of the crew, specifying their respective employments.

Third. The time at which each seaman is to be on board, to begin work.

Fourth. The capacity in which each seaman is to serve. Fifth. The amount of wages which each seaman is to receive.

Sixth. A scale of the provisions which are to be furnished to each seaman.

Seventh. Any regulations as to conduct on board, and as to fines, short allowance of provisions, or other lawful punishments for misconduct, which may be sanctioned by Congress as per to be adopted, and which the parties agree to adopt.

Eighth. Any stipulations in reference to advance and allotment of wages, or other matters not contrary to law.

Seamen's contracts to be evidenced by writing-The City of Mex ico, 7 Ben. 33; The Crusader, 1 Ware, 437; Slocum v. Swift, 2 Low. 212; Desty S. & A. § 144.

Description of voyage-Brown v. Jones, 2 Gall. 479; Anon. 1 Am. L. J. 209; Magee v. The Moss, Gilp. 227; Desty S. & A. § 145.

§ 4512. Rules for shipping-articles.-The following rules shall be observed with respect to agreements:

First. Every agreement, except such as are otherwise specially provided for, shall be signed by each seaman in the presence of a shipping-commissioner.

Second. When the crew is first engaged the agreement shall be signed in duplicate, and one part shall be retained by the shipping-commissioner, and the other part shall contain a special place or form for the description and signatures of persons engaged subsequently to the first departure of the ship, and shall be delivered to the

master.

Third. Every agreement entered into before a shippingcommissioner shall be acknowledged and certified under the hand and official seal of such commissioner. The certificate of acknowledgment shall be indorsed on or annexed to the agreement; and shall be in the following form:

County of:

day of

"State of On this personally appeared before me, a shipping-commissioner in and for the said county, A. B., C. D., and E. F., severally known to me to be the same persons who executed the foregoing instrument, who each for himself acknowledged to me that he had read or had heard read the same; that he was by me made acquainted with the conditions thereof, and understood the same; and that, while sober and not in a state of intoxication, he signed it freely and voluntarily, for the uses and purposes therein mentioned."

To be signed in presence of shipping-commissioner-The City of Mexico, 7 Ben. 33; The Grace Lothrop, I Holmes, 542; Desty S. & A. $144.

§ 4513. Exception as to shipping-articles. - Section forty-five hundred and eleven shall not apply to masters of vessels where the seamen are by custom or agreement entitled to participate in the profits or result of a cruise or voyage, nor to masters of coastwise nor to masters of lake-going vessels that touch at foreign ports; but seamen may, by agreement, serve on board such vessels a definite time, or, on the return of any vessel to a port in the United States, may reship and sail in the same vessel on another voyage, without the payment of additional fees to the shipping-commissioner, by either the seamen or the master.

The words "section forty-five hundred and eleven" substituted for preceding section" in the first line-Amend. Act, Feb. 27th, 1877; 19 U.S. Stats. 252.

§ 4514. Penalty for shipping without agreement. If any person shall be carried to sea, as one of the crew on board of any vessel making a voyage as hereinbefore specified, without entering into an agreement with the master of such vessel, in the form and manner, and at the place and times in such cases required, the vessel shall be held liable for each such offense to a penalty of not more than two hundred dollars. But the vessel shall not be held liable for any person carried to sea, who shall have secretly stowed away himself without the knowledge of the master, mate, or of any of the officers of the vessel, or who shall have falsely personated himself to the master, mate, or officers of the vessel, for the purpose of being carried to sea.

§ 4515. Shipping seamen without articles. If any 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 supplied contrary to the provisions of this Title, the vessel on board of which such seaman shall be found shall, for every such seaman, be liable to a penalty of not more than two hundred dollars.

The City of Mexico, 7 Ben. 33; 11 Blatchf. 489; Bartlett v. Wyman, 14 Johns. 260.

§ 4516. Lost seamen.-In case of desertion, or of casualty resulting in the loss of one or more seamen, the inaster may ship a number equal to the number of whose services he has been deprived by desertion or casualty, and report the same to the United States consul at the first port at which he shall arrive, without incurring the penalty prescribed by the two preceding sections.

§ 4517. Shipping seamen in foreign ports.-Every master of a merchant-vessel who engages any seaman at a place out of the United States, in which there is a consular officer or commercial agent, shall, before carrying such seaman to sea, procure the sanction of such officer, and shall engage seamen in his presence; and the rules governing the engagement of seamen before a shippingcommissioner in the United States, shall apply to such engagements made before a consular officer or commercial agent; and upon every such engagement the consular officer or commercial agent shall indorse upon the agreement his sanction thereof, and an attestation to the effect

that the same has been signed in his presence, and otherwise duly made.

A seaman shipping in a foreign port is not required to sign articles -D'Olivera, 1 Gall. 474; Desty. S. & A. § 144.

§ 4518. Violating preceding section.-Every master who engages any seaman in any place in which there is a consular officer or commercial agent, otherwise than as required by the preceding section, shall incur a penalty of not more than one hundred dollars, for which penalty the vessel shall be held liable.

§ 4519. Posting copy of agreement.-The master shall, at the commencement of every voyage or engagement, cause a legible copy of the agreement, omitting signatures, to be placed or posted up in such part of the vessel as to be accessible to the crew; and on default shall be liable to a penalty of not more than one hundred dollars.

§ 4520. Shipping-articles for vessels in coastingtrade.-Every master of any vessel of the burden of fifty tons or upward, bound from a port in one State to a port in any other than an adjoining State, except vessels of the burden of seventy-five tons or upward, bound from a port on the Atlantic to a port on the Pacific, or vice versa, shall, before he proceeds on such voyage, make an agreement in writing or in print, with every seaman on board such vessel except such as shall be apprentice or servant to himself or owners, declaring the voyage or term of time for which such seaman shall be shipped.

Required for seamen engaged in the coasting trade-U. S. v. Hamilton, I Mason, 443; U. S. v. Haines, 5 Ibid. 272; Milligan v. The B. F. Bruce, Newb. 539; Oliver v. Alexander, 6 Peters, 143; Gladding v. Constant, 1 Sprague, 73; The Crusader, 1 Ware, 437; U. S. v. Idell, 16 Int. Rev. Rec. 147; U. S. v. Smith, 95; U. S. 536; Desty S. & A. § 144.

§ 4521. Shipping without articles.-If any master of such vessel of the burden of fifty tons or upward shall earry out any seaman or mariner, except apprentices or servants, without such contract or agreement being first made and signed by the seamen, such master shall pay to every such seaman the highest price or wages which shall have been given at the port or place where such seaman was shipped, for a similar voyage, within three months next before the time of such shipping, if such seaman shall perform such voyage; or if not, then for such time as he shall continue to do duty on board such vessel; and shall moreover be liable to a penalty of twenty dollars for