authority to administer an oath to any witness attending to testify or depose in the course of such investigation. Idem, s. 9. That section six of said act of June twentieth, eighteen hundred and seventy-four, is so amended as to extend the compensation of the enrolled members of volunteer crews of life-boat stations therein named to occasions of actual and deserving service at any shipwreck, or in the relief of any vessel in distress, and that such persons as may volunteer to take the place of any absent or disabled enrolled members of a crew, and who shall be accepted by the keeper, may be paid therefor, in the discretion of the Secretary of the Treasury, a sum not to exceed eight dollars each on every such occasion: Provided, That all crews and volunteers employed under authority of this act who may be present at a wreck shall be required to use their utmost endeavors to save life and properly care for the bodies of such as may perish, and, when such efforts are no longer necessary, to save property and protect the same, under the direction of the senior keeper present or of the superintendent of the district, until the arrival of persons legally authorized to take charge; and for the time employed in so saving and protecting property volunteers shall be entitled to compensation not to exceed three dollars per day each, in the discretion of the Secretary of the Treasury. Iden, s. 10. Administerin g oaths. Volunteer crews Compensation. Duty of crews. Volunteers. Compensation for saving prop erty. cise. That the enrolled members of the crews of life-boat stations may be Drill and exercalled out for drill and exercise in the life-boat and life-saving apparatus as often as the general superintendent may determine, not to exceed twice a month, for each day's attendance at which they shall be entitled to the sum of three dollars each. Idem, s. 11. That the Secretary of the Treasury is hereby authorized to bestow Life-saving the life-saving medal of the second class upon persons making such medals. signal exertions in rescuing and succoring the shipwrecked, and saving persons from drowning, as, in his opinion, shall merit such recognition. Idem, s. 12. MEMORANDUM. Sec. An act of Sept. 30, 1854, chap. 90, v. 9, p. 533, provided for surf and life-boats for the preservation of life and property shipwrecked. The acts of Aug. 31, 1852, chap. 112, v. 10, p. 118, and March 3, 1853, chap. 97, v. 10, p. 200, provided for life-boats and other means of rendering assistance to wrecked mariners and others on the coasts of the United States; Aug. 4, 1854, chap. 242, v. 10, p. 563, authorized the purchase of metallic surf boats, to rescue lives and property, to be located at various ports on the lakes; Dec. 14, 1854, chap. 1, v. 10, p. 597. established life-saving stations on the coasts of Long Island and New Jersey; July 20, 1868, chap. 177, v. 15, p. 113, authorized a station on Narragansett Beach; April 20, 1871, chap. 21, v. 17, p. 12, authorized the employment of experienced surfmen: June 10, 1872, chap. 415, v. 17, p. 347, established stations at Cape Cod and Block Island; March 3, 1873, chap. 307, v. 17, p. 619, authorized ten stations on the coasts of New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Virginia, North Carolina, and other places deemed necessary; June 24, 1874, chap. 344, v. 18. p. 125, provided for a number of additional stations on the lakes and on the Atlantic and Pacific coasts; June 18, 1878, chap. 265, v. 20, p. 163, reorganized the Life-Saving Service, and established additional stations, and on the 30th June, 1882, there were 190 stations in commission. LIGHTS AND BUOYS. 4653. Organization of the Light-House Board. 4654. President of the Board. 4655. Chairman. 4670. Light-house districts. 4671. Light-house inspectors. Sec. 4678. Color of buoys prescribed. 4679. Restriction on compensation of officers, &c. 4680. Officers, &c., not to be interested in contracts. Jurisdiction over certain rivers. Title 55. Organization of SEC. 4653. The President shall appoint two officers of the Navy, of high rank, two officers of the Corps of Engineers of the Army, and two civilians of high scientific attamments, whose services may be at the the Light-House disposal of the President, together with an officer of the Navy and an Board. officer of engineers of the Army, as secretaries, who shall constitute the Light-House Board. 31 Aug., 1852, s. 8, v. 10, p. 119. SEC. 4654. The Secretary of the Treasury shall be ex-officio president President of of the Light-House Board. the board. Ibid., s. 9. Chairman. Light-house districts. spectors. SEC. 4655. The Light-House Board shall elect, by ballot, one of their number as chairman of the board, who shall preside at their meetings, when the president is absent, and shall perform such acts as may be prescribed by the rules of the board. Ibid. SEC. 4670. The Light-House Board shall arrange the Atlantic, Gulf, Pacific, and Lake coasts of the United States, into light-house districts, not exceeding twelve in number. [See post, June 23, 1874.] Ibid., s. 12. Light-house in- SEC. 4671. An officer of the Army or Navy shall be assigned to each district as a light-house inspector, subject to the orders of the LightHouse Board; and shall receive for such service the same pay and emoluments that he would be entitled to by law for the performance of duty in the regular line of his profession, and no other, except the legal allowance per mile, when traveling under orders connected with his duties. Ibid. SEC. 4678. All buoys along the coast, or in bays, harbors, sounds, or Color of buoys channels, shall be colored and numbered, so that passing up the coast prescribed. or sound, or entering the bay, harbor, or channel, red buoys with even numbers shall be passed on the starboard hand, black buoys with uneven numbers on the port hand, and buoys with red and black stripes on either hand. Buoys in channel-ways shall be colored with alternate white and black perpendicular stripes. 28 Sept., 1850, s. 6, v. 9, p. 504. SEC. 4679. No additional salary shall be allowed to any civil, military, Restriction up- or naval officer on account of his being employed on the Light-House on compensation Board, or being in any manner attached to the light-house service. 31 Aug., 1852, s. 17, v. 10, p. 120. of officers &c. SEC. 4680. No member of the Light-House Board, inspector, lightOfficers, &c., keeper, or other person in any manner connected with the light-house not to be interest service, shall be interested, either directly or indirectly, in any contract for labor, materials, or supplies for the light-house service, or in any patent, plan, or mode of construction or illumination, or in any article of supply for the light-house service. ed in contracts. Ibid. That the jurisdiction of the Light-House Board, created by the act entitled "An act making appropriations for light-houses, light-boats, June 23, 1874. buoys, and so forth, and providing for the erection and establishment Jurisdiction of of the same, and for other purposes," approved August thirty-first, Light House eighteen hundred and fifty-two, is hereby extended over the Mississippi, Board extended. Ohio, and Missouri Rivers, for the establishment of such beacon-lights, 1852, ch. 112, § 8, vol. x, p. 118. day-beacons, and buoys as may be necessary for the use of vessels navigating those streams; and for this purpose the said board is hereby required to divide the designated rivers into one or two additional lighthouse districts, to be in all respects similar to the already existing lightAdditional house districts; and is hereby authorized to lease the necessary ground light-house districts. for all such lights and beacons as are used to point out changeable channels, and which in consequence cannot be made permanent. Sec. 23 June, 1874, v. 18, p. 204. MERCHANT VESSELS AND SERVICE. YACHTS. 4.11. 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 4518. Penalty for violating preceding section. 4540. Penalty for neglect in regard to seamen's ef 4541. Duties of consular officers in regard to deceased seamen's effects. 4548. Wages payable in gold. Sec. 4562. Payment of charges for inspection. 4565. Examination of provisions. 4566. Forfeiture for false complaint. 4577. Return of seamen. 4578. Penalty for refusal to receive seamen. 4580. Extra wages on discharge. 4581. Penalty for neglect to collect extra wages, 4589. Protest upon impressment. 4559. Appointment of inspectors by consul in for- 4600. Reclamation and discharge of deserters. eign ports. 4560. Report of inspectors. 4561. Discharge of seamen on account of unsea worthiness of vessel. 15363. Abandonment of mariners. SEAMEN. Shipping arti SEC. 4511. The master of every vessel bound from a port in the United Title 53, Chap. 2. States to any foreign port other than vessels engaged in trade between the United States and the British North American possessions, or the cles. 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 proper 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. 7 June, 1872, s. 12, v. 17, p. 264. 15 Jan., 1873, v. 17, p. 410. SEC. 4512. The following rules shall be observed with respect to agree ments: First. Every agreement, except such as are otherwise specially provided for, shall be signed by each seaman in the presence of a shippingcommissioner. 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 shipping-commissioner 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: "State of County 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. " 7 June, 1872, s. 13, v. 17, p. 265. Rules for ship ping-articles. SEC. 4513. The section forty-five hundred and eleven shall not apply Exception as to to masters of vessels where the seamen are by custom or agreement en- shipping-articles. titled to participate in the profits or result of a cruise or voyage, nor to masters of coast wise 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 seaman or the master. Idem, s. 12, and 27 Feb., 1877, v. 19, p. 252. 11181-16 Penalty for SEC. 4514. If any person shall be carried to sea, as one of the crew on shipping without board of any vessel making a voyage as herein before specified, without agreement. 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. 7 June, 1872, s. 14, v. 17, p. 265. Penalty for SEC. 4515. If any master, mate, or other officer of a vessel knowingly knowingly ship receives, or accepts, to be entered on board of any merchant-vessel, any ping seamen without articles. 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. Lost seamen may be replaced. Shipping sea men ports. Ibid. U. S. v. Steamship City of Mexico, 11 Blatch., 489. SEC. 4516. In case of desertion, or of casualty resulting in the loss of one or more seamen, the master 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. 7 June, 1872, s. 14, v. 17, p. 265. SEC. 4517. Every master of a merchant-vessel who engages any seain foreign man 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 shipping-commissioner 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. section. Ibid., s. 15. Penalty for vio. SEC. 4518. Every master who engages any seaman in any place in lating preceding 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. Ibid. Title 53, Chap. 3. SEC. 4538. Whenever any seaman or apprentice belonging to or sent home on any merchant-vessel, whether a foreign-going or domestic vesEffects of deceased seamen. sel, employed on a voyage which is to terminate in the United States, dies during such voyage, the master shall take charge of all moneys, clothes, and effects which he leaves on board, and shall, if he thinks fit, cause all or any of such clothes and effects to be sold by auction at the mast or other public auction, and shall thereupon sign an entry in the official log-book, and cause it to be attested by the mate and one of the crew, containing the following particulars: First. A statement of the amount of money so left by the deceased. Second. In case of a sale, a description of each article sold, and the sum received for each. Third. A statement of the sum due to deceased as wages, and the total amount of deductions, if any, to be made therefrom. 7 June, 1872, s. 43, v. 17, p. 271. Proceedings in SEC. 4539. In cases embraced by the preceding section, the following regard to effects rules shall be observed: of deceased sea men. First. If the vessel proceeds at once to any port in the United States, the master shall, within forty-eight hours after his arrival, deliver any such effects remaining unsold, and pay any money which he has taken charge of, or received from such sale, and the balance of wages due to the deceased, to the shipping-commissioner at the port of destination in the United States. Second. If the vessel touches and remains at some foreign port before coming to any port in the United States, the master shall report the case to the United States consular officer there, and shall give to such officer any information he requires as to the destination of the vessel and probable length of the voyage; and such officer may, if he considers it expedient so to do, require the effects, money, and wages to be delivered and paid to him, and shall, upon such delivery and payment, give to the master a receipt; and the master shall within forty-eight hours after his arrival at his port of destination in the United States produce the same to the shipping-commissioner there. Such consular officer shall, in any such case, indorse and certify upon the agreement with the crew the particulars with respect to such delivery and payment. Third. If the consular officer does not require such payment and delivery to be made to him, the master shall take charge of the effects, money, and wages, and shall, within forty-eight hours after his arrival at his port of destination in the United States, deliver and pay the same to the shipping-commissioner there. Fourth. The master shall, in all cases in which any seaman or apprentice dies during the voyage or engagement, give to such officer or shipping-commissioner an account, in such form as they may respectively require, of the effects, money, and wages so to be delivered and paid; and no deductions claimed in such account shall be allowed unless verified by an entry in the official log-book, if there be any; and by such other vouchers, if any, as may be reasonably required by the officer or shipping-commissioner to whom the account is rendered. Fifth. Upon due compliance with such of the provisions of this section as relate to acts to be done at the port of destination in the United States, the shipping-commissioner shall grant to the master a certificate to that effect. No officer of customs shall clear any foreign-going vessel without the production of such certificate. Ibid., s. 44. to seaman's ef SEC. 4540. Whenever any master fails to take such charge of the Penalty for money or other effects of a seaman or apprentice during a voyage, or neglect in regard to make such entries in respect thereof, or to procure such attestation fects. to such entries, or to make such payment or delivery of any money, wages, or effects of any seaman or apprentice dying during a voyage, or to give such account in respect thereof as is above directed, he shall be accountable for the money, wages, and effects of the seaman or apprentice to the circuit court in whose jurisdiction such port of destination is situate, and shall pay and deliver the same accordingly; and he shall, in addition, for every such offense, be liable to a penalty of not more than treble the value of the money or effects, or, if such value is not ascertained, not more than two hundred dollars; and if any such money, wages, or effects are not duly paid, delivered, and accounted for by the master, the owner of the vessel shall pay, deliver, and account for the same, and such money and wages and the value of such effects shall be recoverable from him accordingly; and if he fails to account for and pay the same, he shall, in addition to his liability for the money and value, be liable to the same penalty which is incurred by the master for a like offense; and all money, wages, and effects of any seaman or apprentice dying during a voyage shall be recoverable in the courts and by the modes of proceeding by which seamen are enabled to recover wages due to them. Ibid., s. 45. Duties of consular officers in SEC. 4541. Whenever any such seaman or apprentice dies at any place out of the United States, leaving any money or effects not on regard to deceasboard of his vessel, the consular officer of the United States at or near- ed seaman's efest the place shall claim and take charge of such money and effects, fects. and shall, if he thinks fit, sell all or any of such effects, or any effects of any deceased seaman or apprentice delivered to him under the provisions of this Title, and shall quarterly remit to the district judge for the district embracing the port from which such vessel sailed, or the port where the voyage terminates, all moneys belonging to or arising from the sale of the effects or paid as the wages of any deceased seamen or apprentices which have come to his hands; and shall render such accounts thereof as the district judge requires.* Ibid., s. 46. Unclaimed wages and effects, after six years, go to the fund for the relief of disabled and destitute seamen. § 4545. |