Seamen; when entitled wages. to or Wages when be Wages as af wreck on the 560. If the voyage or freight be lost by the negligence, fraud, or misconduct of the owner or master, or voluntarily abandoned by them; if the owner has contracted for freight upon terms or contingencies differing from the general rules of the maritime law; or, if he has chartered his ship to take a freight at a foreign port, and none is to be earned on the outward voyage-in all these cases the mariner is entitled to wages, notwithstanding no freight has accrued. 561. Where freight is, or might be, earned, wages are due for the full period of employment in the ship's service, whether the freight is actually received by the owner or not. No private contract between the owner and the shipper, with regard to freight, can affect the right to wages. 562. If the vessel and cargo are lost on the outfected by ship- ward voyage, before any freight is earned, and no outward voy- part of either is saved by the crew, the wages of the seamen are also lost, and the original contract there age. wrecked on the age. for is annulled, but the advance wages are not in such case to be returned. Wages when 563. If the vessel is lost on the homeward voyage, the vessel is and freight has been, or might have been, by the homeward voy-general principles of law, earned to an outward port, the wages for the outward voyage to that port are deemed to have been earned. No abatement is to be made from the wages in case of the freight being partially lost or diminished by maritime accidents or perils. Whole wages; 564. If freight is earned, whether it be large or when to be small, the whole wages, which are deemed to have been earned, are to be paid without deduction. paid. 565. When the vessel is lost between intermediate ports, the wages are to be calculated up to the last When the vesport of the delivery or receipt of cargo, and for half sel is lost bethe time that the ship lies there. tween interme diate ports. 566. Where a voyage is divided by various ports Proportional of delivery, a claim for proportional wages attaches wages. at each of such ports of delivery upon safe arrival; and all attempts to evade or invade that title, by renunciations obtained from the mariners without any consideration, by collateral bonds, or by contracts inserted in the body of the shipping articles, not usual, not fully explained to these illiterate and inexperienced persons, are ineffectual and void. Protection and Care of Seamen. heard. 567. It is provided by the sixteenth section of the Complaints of act of July 20, 1840, that the crew of any vessel seamen to be shall have full liberty to lay their complaints before the consular officer in any foreign port, and shall in no respect be restrained or hindered therein by the master or any officer, unless some sufficient and valid objection exist against their landing; in which case, if any mariner desire to see the consular officer, it shall be the duty of the master to acquaint him with it forthwith, stating the reason why the mariner is not permitted to land, and that he is desired to come on board; whereupon it shall be the duty of such officer to repair on board and inquire into the causes of the complaint, and proceed therein as the act directs. men. 568. One essential object of the consular appoint- Consular proment is the protection of American mariners—a class tection of seaof our fellow-citizens whose habits of life require a kind guardianship of their persons and interests in foreign countries, but at the same time a strict vigi Mr. Webster men. lance over their conduct. The law makes it the duty of American consular officers to provide, at the public expense, for all mariners and seamen of the United States merchant marine' who may be found destitute within their respective districts. It is no bar to their relief that they have been left abandoned by the wreck of their vessel, or otherwise, on a foreign shore. They are still "mariners and seamen of the United States," and the circumstance of their destitution entitles them to all the benefits and protection provided by the fourth section of the act of February 28, 1803. They are within the words of the act, and they are within all the reasons of humanity and policy which dictated its provisions.2 Rules of Mr. 569. The principles which have heretofore been Jefferson and established in regard to the protection, as distintouching sea- guished from the relief of seamen, are plain and well settled. The rule laid down by the distinguished person who first held the office of Secretary of State, Mr. Jefferson, was, "that the vessel being American, shall be evidence that the seamen on board are such;" and, fifty years afterwards, it was restated with no less precision by one of the most eminent of American statesmen, "that in every regularly documented merchant vessel, the crew who navigate it will find their protection in the flag which is over them." 1 Opinions of the Attorneys General, vol. iii. p. 683. 2 Opinion of the Attorney General, May 12, 1852. 3 Mr. Webster to Lord Ashburton, Works of Daniel Webster, vol. vi. p. 325. CHAPTER XXVII. THE DUTIES OF CONSULAR OFFICERS IN RELATION TO WRECKS. 570. By the third section of the act of Congress of Duties of con officers April 14, 1792, consular officers, in cases where ships sular in cases of or vessels of the United States shall be stranded on wrecks. the coast of their respective consulates, are required, as far as the laws of the country permit, to take proper measures, as well for saving such ships or vessels, their cargoes, and appurtenances, as for storing and securing the effects and merchandise saved, and for taking an inventory or inventories thereof; and the merchandise and effects saved, with the inventory or inventories, must, after deducting therefrom the expense, be delivered to the owner or owners. But no consular officer is permitted to take possession of any such goods, wares, merchandise, or other property, when the master, owner, or consignee thereof is present, or capable of taking possession of the same.1 571. In the execution of the duties prescribed by Course of prothis part of the act, every consular officer is in- ceeding. structed that all vessels, parts of vessels, and any portion of their cargo, belonging to citizens of the United States, saved, and brought into the consular jurisdiction after being wrecked, or in consequence 1 Statutes at Large, vol. i. p. 225. Owner's inter tected. of any disaster at sea, are to be proceeded with in the same manner as if the vessel had stranded within the consular jurisdiction; and if salvage be claimed and allowed by a competent tribunal, the remainder of the effects, or the proceeds thereof, if sold, shall be disposed of in the same manner as is directed in the twenty-eighth chapter of these Instructions respecting the estates of persons dying intestate; provided, in the case of salvage, that the court deciding the same will permit the consular officer to receive the effects and remainder of the property after the salvage is paid. 572. In some countries (as in Sweden) chartered est to be pro- companies have the privilege of taking possession of all property wrecked; in others, it may be vested in particular magistrates or officers. In such cases the consular officer is not to interfere with the legal function of the proper officer, but he may ask leave, as the representative of the absent master or owner, or as his official adviser if he be present, to assist at the taking of the inventory, the sale, and all other proceedings in relation to the property. It is his duty to protect the interest of the owner, and, if his reasonable requests are not complied with, to take the necessary evidence of the facts in the case, and transmit it to the Department of State. Wrecks of sels to be re ported. 573. When any American vessel is wrecked within American ves- his jurisdiction, the consular officer is to give immediate notice to the Department of State, naming the vessel and her owners or master, and giving in detail as many of the circumstances attending the loss of the property as may be known at the time. Disposition of property. 574. When there is no impediment from the laws of the country, all proceedings in relation to property |