TITLE XLVIII.

REGULATION OF COMMERCE AND NAVIGATION.

CHAPTER I.

Registry and Recording.

1407. SEC. 4131. Vessels registered pursuant to law, and no others, except such asshall be duly qualified, according to law, for carrying on the coasting trade and fisheries, or one of them, shall be deemed vessels of the United States, and entitled to the benefits and privileges appertaining to such vessels; but they shall not enjoy the same longer than they shall continue to be wholly owned by citizens, and to be commanded by a citizen of the United States.

1408. All the officers of vessels of the United States shall be citizens of the United States, except that in cases where, on a foreign voyage, or on a voyage from an Atlantic to a Pacific port of the United States, any such vessel is for any reason deprived of the services of an officer below the grade of master, his place, or a vacancy caused by the promotion of another officer to such place, may be supplied by a person not a citizen of the United States until the first return of such vessel to its home port; and such vessel shall not be liable to any penalty or penal tax for such employment of an alien officer.

1409. SEC. 4190. No sea-letter or other document certifying or proving any vessel to be the property of a citizen of the United States, shall be issued, except to vessels duly registered or enrolled and licensed as vessels of the United States, or to vessels which shall be wholly owned by citizens of the United States, and furnished with or entitled to sea-letters or other custom-house documents.

1410. SEC. 4204. All vessels belonging to citizens of the United States, and bound from any port in the United States to any other port therein, or to any foreign port, or from any foreign port to any port in the United States, shall, before clearance, receive on board all such bullion, coin, United States notes and bonds, and other securities, as the Government of the United States or any department thereof, or any Minister, Consul, ViceConsul, or Commercial or other Agent of the United States abroad, shall offer and shall securely convey and promptly deliver the same to the proper authorities or consignees, on arriving at the port of destination; and shall receive for such service such reasonable compensation as may be allowed to other carriers in the ordinary transaction of business.

1411. SEC. 4212. Upon the entry of every vessel of the United States from any foreign port, the master thereof shall make return, on oath, show

ing that he has promptly delivered at such foreign port all mails placed on board of the vessel under his command before clearance from the United States. And in case the master shall fail to make such oath, showing that he has delivered the mails placed on board his vessel in good faith, the vessel shall not be entitled to the privileges of a vessel of the United States. (See 2 3976, 3988.)

1412. SEC. 4213. It shall be the duty of all masters of vessels for whom any official services shall be performed by any Consular Officer, without the payment of a fee, to require a written statement of such services from such Consular Officer, and, after certifying as to whether such statement is correct, to furnish it to the collector of the district in which such vessels shall first arrive on their return to the United States; and if any such master of a vessel shall fail to furnish such statement, he shall be liable to a fine of not exceeding fifty dollars, unless such master shall state under oath that no such statement was furnished him by said Consular Officer. And it shall be the duty of every collector to forward to the Secretary of the Treasury all such statements as shall have been furnished to him, and also a statement of all certified invoices which shall have come to his office, giving the dates of the certificates, and the names of the persons for whom and of the Consular Officer by whom the same were certified. (See ? 1726.)

1413. SEC. 4222. No Consul or Consular Agent of the United States shall exact tonnage fees from any vessel of the United States, touching at or near ports in Canada, on her regular voyage from one port to another within the United States, unless such Consul or Consular Agent shall perform some official services, required by law for such vessel, when she shall thus touch at a Canadian port. (See ? 2793.)

1414. SEC. 4238. Consuls and Vice-Consuls, in cases where vessels of the United States are stranded on the coasts of their Consulates, respectively, shall, as far as the laws of the country will permit, take proper measures, as well for the purpose of saving the vessels, their cargoes and appurtenances, as for storing and securing the effects and merchandise saved, and for taking inventories thereof; and the merchandise and effects saved, with the inventories thereof so taken, shall, after deducting therefrom the expenses, be delivered to the owners. No Consul or Vice-Consul shall have authority to take possession of any such merchandise or other property, when the master, owner, or consignee thereof is present or capable of taking possession of the same.

1415. SEC. 4250. Any person or body corporate having more than onehalf ownership of any vessel shall have the same power to remove a master

who is also part owner of such vessel, as such majority owners have to remove a master not an owner. This section shall not apply where there is a valid written agreement subsisting, by virtue of which such master would be entitled to possession, nor in any case where a master has possession as part owner, obtained before the [nineteenth] [ninth] day of April, eighteen hundred and seventy-two.

Regulation of Vessels in Foreign Commerce,

1416. SEC. 4306. Every vessel of the United States, going to any foreign country, shall, before she departs from the United States, at the request of the master, be furnished by the collector for the district where such vessel may be, with a passport, the form for which shall be prescribed by the Secretary of State. In order to be entitled to such passport, the master of every such vessel shall be bound, with sufficient sureties, to the Treasurer of the United States, in the penalty of two thousand dollars, conditioned that the passport shall not be applied to the use or protection of any other vessel than the one described in it; and that, in case of the loss or sale of any vessel having such passport, the same shall, within three months, be delivered up to the collector from whom it was received, if the loss or sale take place within the United States; or within six months, if the same shall happen at any place nearer than the Cape of Good Hope; and within eighteen months, if at a more distant place.

1417. SEC. 4307. If any vessel of the United States shall depart therefrom, and shall be bound to any foreign country, other than to some port in America, without such passport, the master of such vessel shall be liable to a penalty of two hundred dollars for every such offense.

1418. SEC. 4308. Every unregistered vessel owned by a citizen of the United States, and sailing with a sea-letter, going to any foreign country, shall, before she departs from the United States, at the request of the master, be furnished by the collector of the district where such vessel may be with a passport, for which the master shall be subject to the rules and conditions prescribed for vessels of the United States.

1419. SEC. 4309. Every master of a vessel, belonging to citizens of the United States, who shall sail from any port of the United States, shall, on his arrival at a foreign port, deposit his register, sea-letter, and Mediterranean passport with the Consul, Vice-Consul, Commercial Agent, or ViceCommercial Agent, if any there be at such port; and it shall be the duty of such Consul, Vice-Consul, Commercial Agent, or Vice-Commercial Agent, on such master or commander producing to him a clearance from the proper officer of the port where his vessel may be, to deliver to the master all of his papers, if such master or commander has complied with the provisions

of law relating to the discharge of seamen in a foreign country, and to the payment of the fees of Consular Officers. (See ? 1718.)

1420. SEC. 4310. Every master of any such vessel who refuses or neglects to deposit the papers as required by the preceding section, shall be liable to a penalty of five hundred dollars, to be recovered by such Consul, Vice-Consul, Commercial Agent, or Vice-Commercial Agent, in his own name, for the benefit of the United States, in any court of competent juris

diction.

TITLE LIII.

MERCHANT SEAMEN.

CHAPTER I.

Shipping-Commissioners.

1421. SEC. 4501. The Secretary of the Treasury shall appoint a commissioner for each port of entry, which is also a port of ocean navigation, and which, in his judgment, may require the same; such commissioner to be termed a shipping-commissioner, and may, from time to time, remove from office any such commissioner whom he may have reason to believe does not properly perform his duty, and shall then provide for the proper performance of his duties until another person is duly appointed in his place: Provided, That shipping-commissioners now in office shall continue to perform the duties thereof until others shall be appointed in their places. Shipping-commissioners shall monthly render a full, exact, and itemized account of their receipts and expenditures to the Secretary of the Treasury, who shall determine their compensation, and shall, from time to time, determine the number and compensation of the clerks appointed by such commissioner, with the approval of the Secretary of the Treasury, subject to the limitations now fixed by law. The Secretary of the Treasury shall regulate the mode of conducting business in the shipping offices to be established by the shippingcommissioners as hereinafter provided, and shall have full and complete control over the same, subject to the provisions herein contained; and all expenditures by shipping-commissioners shall be audited and adjusted in the Treasury Department in the mode and manner provided for expenditures in the collection of customs. All fees of shipping-commissioners shall be paid into the Treasury of the United States and shall constitute a fund which shall be used under the direction of the Secretary of the Treasury to pay the compensation of said commissioners and their clerks and such other expenses as he may find necessary to ensure the proper administration of their duties.

1422. SEC. 4502. Every shipping-commissioner so appointed shall give bond to the United States, conditioned for the faithful performance of the duties of his office, for a sum, in the discretion of the circuit judge, of not less than five thousand dollars, with two good and sufficient sureties there

for, to be approved by such judge; and shall take and subscribe the following oath before entering upon the duties of his office: "I do solemnly swear (or affirm, as the case may be) that I will support the Constitution of the United States, and that I will truly and faithfully discharge the duties of a shipping-commissioner to the best of my ability, and according to law." Such oath shall be indorsed on the commission or certificate of appointment, and signed by him, and certified by the officer before whom such oath shall have been taken.

1423. SEC. 4503. In any port in which no shipping-commissioner shall have been appointed, the whole or any part of the business of a shippingcommissioner shall be conducted by the collector or deputy collector of customs of such port; and in respect of such business such custom-house shall be deemed a shipping office, and the collector or deputy collector of customs to whom such business shall be committed shall, for all purposes, be deemed a shipping-commissioner within the meaning of this Title.

1424. SEC. 4504. Any person other than a commissioner under this Title, who shall perform, or attempt to perform, either directly or indirectly, the duties which are by this Title set forth as pertaining to a shipping-commissioner, shall be liable to a penalty of not more than five hunderd dollars. Nothing in this Title, however, shall prevent the owner, or consignee, or master of any vessel except vessels 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, and the 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, from performing himself, so far as his vessel is concerned, the duties of shipping-commissioner under this Title. Whenever the master of any vessel shall engage his crew, or any part of the same, in any collection-district where no shipping-commissioner shall have been appointed, he may perform for himself the duties of such commissioner.

1425. SEC. 4505. Any shipping-commissioner may engage clerks to assist him in the transaction of the business of the shipping-office, at his own proper cost, and may, in case of necessity, depute such clerks to act for him in his official capacity; but the shipping-commissioner shall be held responsible for the acts of every such clerk or deputy, and will be personally liable for any penalties such clerk or deputy may incur by the violation of any of the provisions of this Title; and all acts done by a clerk, as such deputy. shall be as valid and binding as if done by the shipping-commissioner.

1426. SEC. 4506. Each shipping-commissioner shall provide a seal with which he shall authenticate all his official acts, on which seal shall be engraved the arms of the United States, and the name of the port or district for which he is commissioned. Any instrument, either printed or written, purporting to be the official act of a shipping-commissioner, and purporting to be under the seal and signature of such shipping-commissioner, shall be received as presumptive evidence of the official character of such instrument, and of the truth of the facts therein set forth.

1427. SEC. 4507. Every shipping-commissioner shall lease, rent, or procure, at his own cost, suitable premises for the transaction of business, and