In all other cases the owner is entitled to deduct from the wages of any seaman or apprentice any reasonable expenses incurred by the owner in respect of his illness, or in respect of his burial if he dies in the owner's service (k). The Merchant Shipping Act, 1867, by sect. 7 further provides that if it is shown that any seaman or apprentice who is ill has, through the neglect of the master or owner, not been provided with proper food and water according to his agreement, or with such accommodation, medicines, medical stores, or anti-scorbutics as are required by the Acts of 1854 and 1867, then, unless it can be shown that the illness has been produced by other causes, the owner or master is liable to pay all expenses properly and necessarily incurred by reason of such illness (not exceeding in the whole three months wages), either by such seaman himself or by her majesty's Government, or any officer of her majesty's Government, or by any parochial or other local authority on his behalf, and such expenses may be recovered in the same way as if they were wages duly earned. This enactment does not operate, however, so as to affect any further liability of any owner or master for such neglect, or any remedy which a seaman already possesses. But by sect. 8 of the Merchant Shipping Act, 1867, where a seaman is by reason of illness incapable of performing his duty, and it is proved that such illness has been caused by his own wilful act or default, he shall not be entitled to wages for the time during which he is by reason of such illness incapable of performing his duty. Independently of these statutory provisions, the master has no authority to pledge the credit of the owner for medicines and attendance furnished to members of the crew who have vides that whenever, in compliance with any regulations issued by the Local Government Board under that act, any poor law medical officer performs any medical service on board any vessel his charge for such service shall be paid by the master on behalf of his owners, together with any reasonable expense for the treatment of the sick. See Supp. App. p. 164. As to Scotland, see "The (Scotland) Public Health Act, 1867," 30 & 31 Vict. c. 101, s. 54. (k) These sections, which occur in Part III. of the M. S. Act, 1854, M.P. are not excepted in sect. 13 of the M. S. Act, 1862, which extends the greater portion of that part to seagoing fishing coasting vessels, ships of the three General Lighthouse Boards and sea-going pleasure yachts. Consular officers, or other persons acting on behalf of the Crown, who pay expenses in respect of the illness or injury of seamen, may claim them from the master, and if not paid, they are a charge on the ship, and may be recovered from the owner as a debt. The M. S. Act, 1854, s. 229. Р Rights of crew with been hurt in the ship's service, unless it appear that it was necessary to do this for the due prosecution of the voyage (1). The Merchant Shipping Act, 1854, also contained other provisions for the benefit of the crew which it is not necessary to space, air, &c. mention in detail. Thus, sect. 231 fixed the sleeping space to respect to Right of crew to go on shore to make complaint. DISCHARGE OF Discharge be- mencement of the voyage. Discharge by order of Naval Court. Discharge out of the Queen's dominions. Protection be allowed to each seaman, and required that it should be kept free, properly constructed and caulked, and well ventilated. This section is repealed by sect. 3 of the Merchant Shipping Act, 1867, but sect. 9 of that act contains more complete and stringent provisions for effecting the same object (m). And by sect. 232 it is provided, that any seaman or apprentice shall be allowed to go on shore to make complaint against the master or any of the crew. It is provided by sect. 167 of the Merchant Shipping Act, 1854, that any seaman who has signed an agreement and is afterwards discharged before the voyage commences, or one month's wages are earned, is entitled (if the discharge was without his consent, and without fault on his part justifying it) to receive from the master or owner, in addition to any wages earned, due compensation for the damage thereby caused to him, not exceeding, however, one month's wages; and this compensation may be recovered as if it were wages duly earned. We have seen that by the 263rd section of the Merchant Shipping Act, 1854, seamen may be discharged by the order of any Naval Court before which an investigation under the 260th section of the act has been held (n). The same statute also contains, in sect. 205, provisions for the purpose of protecting seamen from being wrongfully discharged or left behind abroad. Thus, it is provided that whenever any against aban- British ship is transferred or disposed of at any place out of the Queen's dominions, and any seaman or apprentice belonging thereto does not, in the presence of some British consular officer, donment abroad. (1) Organ v. Brodie, 10 Ex. 449. Court must be entered in the official log of the ship to which the parties to the proceedings before the Court belong. See the M. S. Act, 1854, s. 264. or, if there is no such consular officer there, in the presence of one or more respectable British merchants residing at the place, and not interested in the ship, signify his consent in writing to complete the voyage, and also, whenever the service of any seaman or apprentice belonging to any British ship terminates at any place out of the Queen's dominions, the master must give to each seaman or apprentice a certificate of discharge, in a form sanctioned by the Board of Trade. In the case of any certificated mate, whose certificate he has retained, he must also return it to him. The master must also, besides paying the wages to which the seaman or apprentice is entitled, either provide him with adequate employment on board some other British ship, bound to the port in the Queen's dominions at which he was originally shipped, or to such other port in the United Kingdom as may be agreed upon by him, or he must furnish the means of sending him back to such port, or provide him with a passage home, or deposit with the consular officer or merchants such a sum as may be by such officer or merchants deemed sufficient to defray the expenses of his subsistence and passage home. The consular officer or merchants must endorse upon the agreement of the ship the particulars of the payment, provision or deposit; and if the master refuses or neglects to comply with these requirements, the expenses, if defrayed by the consular officer, or by any other person, are made (unless the seaman or apprentice has been guilty of barratry), a charge upon the ship, and upon the owner for the time being; and they may be recovered, with costs, at the suit of the consular officer or other person. If the expenses have been allowed to the consular officer out of the public moneys, they may be recovered as debts due to the Crown, and if they have been defrayed by the seaman or apprentice they are recoverable as wages due to him. It is also provided, by sect. 206 of the statute, that any master, or other person belonging to a British ship, who wrongfully forces on shore and leaves behind, or otherwise wilfully and wrongfully leaves behind in any place, on shore or at sea, in or out of the Queen's dominions, any seaman or apprentice belonging to the ship, before the completion of the voyage for which he was engaged, or the return of the ship to the United Kingdom, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor. And, by sect. 207, the following acts, if committed by the master of any British ship, amount to a misdemeanor (p), and may be inquired into summarily on the spot by the functionaries whose sanction or certificate is required for the discharge of seamen abroad :: (1.) The discharge of any seaman or apprentice, in any place situate in any British possession abroad (except the possession in which he was shipped), without previously obtaining the sanction in writing, indorsed on the agreement, of some public superintendent of a mercantile marine office, or other officer duly appointed by the local government in that behalf, or (in the absence of any such functionary) of the chief officer of customs resident at or near the place where the discharge takes place: (2.) The discharge of any seaman or apprentice at any place out of the Queen's dominions, without previously obtaining the sanction, indorsed as above mentioned, of the British consular officer there, or (in his absence) of two respectable merchants resident there: (3.) The leaving behind any seaman or apprentice at any place situate in any British possession abroad, on any ground whatever, without previously obtaining a certificate in writing, indorsed as above mentioned, stating the fact and the cause of it, whether the cause be unfitness or inability to proceed to sea, or desertion or disappear ance: (4.) The leaving behind any seaman or apprentice at any place out of the Queen's dominions, on shore or at sea, on any ground whatever, without previously obtaining the certificate, indorsed as mentioned above, of the British consular officer there, or (in his absence) of two respectable merchants, if there be any such at or near the place where the ship then is (q). Whenever seamen or apprentices are left on shore abroad under a certificate of unfitness or inability, the master is bound, (p) See supra, p. 189. (9) Upon any trial for discharging or wrongfully leaving behind any seaman, it must be proved by the person charged with the offence that the sanction or certificate mentioned in the text was obtained, or that it was impracticable to obtain it; the M. S. Act, 1854, s. 208. By the French law, the captain can in no case discharge a seaman in a foreign country. Code de Commerce, Art. 270. By the American law, the master has the right to discharge a seaman for just cause, and to put him ashore in a foreign country. 3 Kent Com. 183 (ed. 1873). under sects. 209 and 210 of this statute, to deliver to the functionaries mentioned above a full and true account of all the wages which are due, which must be then paid either in money or by a bill on the shipowner (→). The Merchant Shipping Act, 1862, provides that the payment of wages required by sect. 209 of the Merchant Shipping Act, 1854, as above mentioned, shall, whenever it is practicable, be made in money and not by bill; and where payment is made by bill drawn by the master, the owner of the ship is liable to pay the amount of the bill to the holder or indorsee of it. It is not necessary in any proceeding on the bill against the owner, to prove that the master had authority to draw it, and any bill purporting to be drawn in pursuance of the section above referred to, and to be indorsed as therein required, is receivable in evidence if produced out of the custody of the Board of Trade or of the Registrar-General of Shipping and Seamen, or of any superintendent of a mercantile marine office; any indorsement on any such bill, moreover, which purports to be made in pursuance of the section referred to, and to be signed by one of the functionaries mentioned in it, is receivable in evidence and to be deemed primâ facie evidence of the facts stated in the indorsement (s). tressed sea men abroad. By sect. 211 of the Merchant Shipping Act, 1854, the Relief of disgovernors, consular officers and other officers of the Queen in foreign countries are bound to provide for the subsistence of all seamen or apprentices, being subjects of the Queen, who have been shipwrecked, discharged, or left behind at any place abroad, whether from a merchant or Queen's ship, or who have been engaged to serve in a ship belonging to a foreign power, or to the subject of a foreign state, and who are in distress in any place abroad, until they are able to provide them with a passage home, and for this purpose they must cause the seamen or apprentices to be put on board some ship belonging to a British subject bound to any port of the United Kingdom, or to the British possession to which they belong (as the case may require), which is in want of men to make up its complement, and in default of any such ship they must provide them with a passage home as soon as possible in some ship belonging to a British subject bound as mentioned above. And in places where there (r) The Rajah of Cochin, Swa. 475. (s) The M. S. Act, 1862, s. 19. |