the necessary expenses, or such written authorization as will secure to him the reimbursement of any outlays he may be called upon to make.

271. Relief of shipwrecked seamen.—When seamen of American vessels are rescued from shipwreck, or are brought after shipwreck from places where there is no consular officer, and are landed at or find their way to a port where such an officer is stationed, the latter will be authorized to afford relief without regard to the nationality of the seaman, or the character of American seaman, as herein defined. If they can not be reshipped, they should be provided with passages to the United States, or to an intermediate port where employment may be had or passages obtained.

272. Character of relief.-The relief afforded will comprise lodging, subsistence, clothing, medical attendance, and medicines. The lodgings should be in a healthy locality, removed, if possible, from scenes of temptation and vice. The subsistence should be simple but sufficient. It is usual, however, to contract for the board of seamen. The medical attendance and medicines should be found at a hospital, if there be one in the place, unless special instructions otherwise are given. If private treatment is provided, the reasons therefor must be communicated to the Department of State. A form of order to send seamen to a hospital and a form of certificate when seamen leave a hospital against the physician's advice are given in Forms Nos. 22 and 23.

273. Report of clothing furnished. The clothing should be of the cheapest kind consistent with strength and durability, and such as seamen are accustomed to wear. Whenever seamen are sent to the United States by way of a foreign port at which there is a consular officer, the consular officer sending the seamen should transmit to his colleague there, either by the same vessel or by the quickest route, a statement showing the names of the seamen and the quantity and

kind of clothing furnished them, and at what dates; and if the seamen are sent from such foreign port to another intermediate port where there is a consular officer, the list of names and clothing should be in like manner transmitted.

274. Vouchers for relief.-Proper vouchers for the board, subsistence, clothing, medical attendance and medicines, and any expenditure for the relief of destitute seamen must be taken in every case. (Forms Nos. 95, 96, 97, and 98.) The vouchers for board and medical attendance should show the name of the seaman, the time of subsistence or treatment, giving the date of beginning and termination and the rate per day or week, and, whenever it is practicable, the name of the ship from which and the place where the seaman was discharged. Under the rules of the accounting officers of the Treasury Department the receipts for clothing, necessaries, and supplies, given by a seaman making his mark, or otherwise, should be witnessed. The witness should be a disinterested person, not a member of the firm furnishing the articles. The accounts for the relief of seamen must be accompanied by a certificate of the consul that he has neither received nor will receive, directly or indirectly, any pecuniary or other advantage whatever from the expenditures set forth in the accounts.

275. Consul not to be interested in hospital or supplies.-Consular officers are forbidden from owning, maintaining, or having, directly or indirectly, any pecuniary interest in any hospital abroad to which American seamen are sent, whether located within or without their respective jurisdictions. A consular officer known to be so interested, or if interested in like manner in the supplies furnished to destitute seamen, will be removed. Such cases are within the prohibition of the statute, and an officer so offending is liable to prosecution under its provisions.-R. S., sec. 1719. (Paragraph 514.)

ARTICLE XVI.

TRANSPORTATION OF SEAMEN.

276. Consuls to provide transportation. It is made the duty of consuls to provide for the seamen of the United States who may be found destitute within their districts passages to some port in the United States, in the most reasonable manner, at the expense of the United States, subject to such instructions as the Secretary of State shall give.-R. S., sec. 4577. Seamen who are entitled to relief in accordance with the preceding article, and none others, are entitled to be returned to the United States. It has been held that a master is not obliged to take on board persons accused of crimes to be transported to the United States for prosecution. He will also not be required to take an insane seaman, unless harmlessly so or in the custody of a keeper; nor a sick seaman who is likely to die on the voyage; but in the latter case the consul must determine whether the seaman is too sick to be sent, and whether the voyage may not benefit or restore him.-3 Sumn., 115; 7 Op. Att. Gen., 722.

277. Obligation of vessels to transport.-It is obligatory upon a master of a vessel of the United States bound to a port of the United States to take such destitute seamen on board his vessel at the request of the consul, and to transport them to his port of destination in the United States on such terms, not exceeding $10 for each person for voyages of not more than thirty days, and not exceeding $20 for each person for longer voyages, as may be agreed between the master and the consular officer when the transportation is by a sailing vessel; and the regular steerage-passage rate, not to exceed 2 cents per mile, when the transportation is by steamer. The consular officer shall issue certificates for such transportation, which

certificates shall be assignable for collection. If any such destitute seaman is so disabled or ill as to be unable to perform duty, the consular officer shall so certify in the certificate of transportation, and such additional compensation shall be paid as the Comptroller of the Treasury shall deem proper. The penalty for refusal is in the sum of $100 for each seaman so refused. The certificate of the consul, given under his hand and official seal, is made presumptive evidence of such refusal in any court of law having jurisdiction for the recovery of the penalty. It is not required, however, that a master should take a greater number than one man for every 100 tons burden of the vessel on any one voyage, or to take any seaman having a contagious disease.-R. S., sec. 4578; 23 Stat. L., 53, sec. 9; 24 Stat. L., 83, sec. 18. (Paragraph 281.) 278. Seamen to do duty.-When American seamen are put on board a vessel of the United States in a foreign port by a consul for transportation, they are bound by the same regulations as articled seamen, they are subject to the laws respecting the crew, and they are bound to do duty as other seamen according to their several abilities. They are, on the other hand, entitled to receive the same accommodations, subsistence, and treatment as the seamen of the transporting vessel.-Peters, C. C., 118; R. S., sec. 4577.

279. From ports where no consular officer.-When distressed seamen of the United States are transported from foreign ports where there is no consular officer of the United States to ports of the United States, there will be allowed to the master or owner of such vessel in which they are transported such reasonable compensation, in addition to the allowance now fixed by law, as shall be deemed equitable by the Comptroller of the Treasury. Accounts or claims for services of this kind should be sent to the Auditor for the State and other Departments-R. S., sec. 4579; 28 Stat., 207.

280. When transported seaman is a foreigner.-When the destitute seaman sent to the United States is a foreigner, the consular officer will give such seaman a certificate that he is a returned seaman, to be exhibited by him to the examining officer at the home port to prevent any difficulty about his being permitted to land in the United States on account of the law excluding pauper immigrants.

281. What vessels to transport.-The statute does not impose the duty of transportation upon every American vessel found in a foreign port. Such a requirement might, under many circumstances, operate oppressively upon masters and owners. But the provision is limited in its application to such vessels of the United States as shall be bound to some port thereof. It does not apply to vessels bound to another foreign port and thence to some port of the United States. Where, however, the opportunities of sending seamen to the United States do not often occur, and they are likely otherwise to remain a charge on the consulate, the consul should request the master to take them on board for transportation to an intermediate port at which such opportunities can be found, if the vessel is to touch at such a port, and for this service a suitable compensation will be allowed.

282. Transportation, how paid.-Consuls will be careful, on sending destitute American seamen to the United States, to give to the master of the vessel on board of which they are placed a certificate in accordance with Form No. 24, setting forth their names and the amount to be paid for their passage. This certificate is payable at the Treasury of the United States, and not by the collectors of customs. latter, however, are required to indorse upon the certificate the fact of the arrival of the seamen within their several districts, upon which the certificate should be sent to the Auditor for the State and other Departments, when the amount agreed upon for the passage of the seamen will be remitted to the

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