CHAPTER XXVI. Relief of sea men. What lieved. seamen DUTIES OF CONSULAR OFFICERS IN RELATION TO SEAMEN OF THE UNITED STATES. 528. By the fourth section of the act of February 28, 1803, it is made the duty of consular officers to provide for American mariners and seamen who may be found destitute within their districts sufficient subsistence and passage to 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; and it also provides for the manner in which such mariners are to be transported to the United States.1 Relief and discharge of Seamen. 529. In order that consuls may understand what are to be re-seamen are embraced within the provisions of the several acts of Congress relative to the relief of destitute seamen, the payment of extra wages in case of discharges from vessels, and the passage of destitute seamen to the United States, they are instructed that all seamen who are citizens of the United States, except such as are regularly shipped in foreign vessels, and all foreigners regularly shipped in American vessels at any port in the United States, 1 Statutes at Large, vol. ii. p. 204. are to be regarded as American seamen and citizens within the provisions of the said acts.1 530. The relief to be provided includes board, Kind of relief. lodging, and clothing, also medical attendance, when necessary; all to be on the most reasonable scale consistent with the comfort and proper support of the individual. 531. Seamen applying for relief must be exam- Examination of ined touching the manner of their being left desti- seamen. tute, and the name of the vessel, and her master, on board of which they last shipped, and the time and place, and cause of discharge; and if it shall appear from such examination that they have been discharged from any American vessel contrary to the provisions of the third section of the act of February 28, 1803, or of any other provisions of the said act or other laws of the United States, in every such case it shall be the duty of the consular officer to report the facts to the Department of State, with such other information as may enable it to cause prosecution to be instituted for such breach of the laws, taking care to designate the places at which the necessary witnesses may be found. relieved to be 532. Every consular officer is required to keep a List of seamen detailed list of all mariners discharged by him, in ac- discharged and cordance with the prescribed form, (No. 16,) specify- kept. ing their names and the names of the vessels from which they were discharged, and the payments, if any, afterwards made on account of each, and to make quarterly official returns of the said list to the Fifth Auditor of the Treasury. 533. In all cases of relief afforded, whether the Account to be seamen who have received it be returned to the kept of sums 1 See decision of Judge Minot, late Fifth Auditor. MS. expended in re lieving seamen. Entry to be list and ship United States or not, an exact account must be furnished, in the returns made by a consular officer, of the name of the individual, and of the ship, her master, owner, and the port to which she belonged, together with the sum expended, supported by vouchers, where, from the nature of the case, they can be procured. 534. Every consular officer of the United States is made on crew required to make an official entry of every discharge ping articles of which he may grant on the list of the crew and shipseamen dis ping articles of the vessel from which any mariners charged. shall be discharged; specifying the payment, if any, Liability of which has been required in each case. (See Form No. 41.). 535. By the act of March 1, 1817,1 American vesshipmasters for sels, on arrival from foreign ports, are subject to a certain cases. tonnage duty of fifty cents per ton, unless the officers and two-thirds of the crew are, for the whole tonnage duty in Duty of consu- Voyage, American citizens. Whenever application lar officers in is made by the master of an American vessel for the American sea- discharge of a seaman, he being an American citizen, discharging men. the consular officer will be careful to remind the said master that the consular certificate of the discharge will not exempt his vessel from the payment of the tonnage duty incurred as above. The only exemption provided by law is in cases of sickness, death, desertion, or being made prisoners of war, which must be respectively certified by a consular officer of the United States. (See Form No. 42.) The attention of consular officers is specially called to the liability which may thus be incurred, the Treasury Department having no power to remit the penalty.2 1 Statutes at Large, vol. iii. p. 352. 2 Decisions of the Treasury Department, No. 63, edition of 1856, p. 77. seamen. 536. Whenever application is made to a consular Application for officer for the discharge of a seaman, he will be discharge of guided by the provisions of the twenty-sixth section of the act of August 18, 1856, and the two following sections of these Instructions.1 cers account 537. Consular officers are specially instructed, that Consular offiif they discharge any seaman or mariner, and neglect able for the exto require the payment of the extra wages required tra wages. to be paid in such case by the act of February 28, 1803, or that of July 20, 1840, so far as those acts remain in force under the act of August 18, 1856, and to collect the same, they are accountable to the government of the United States for the full amount of its share of such wages, and to such seaman or mariner to the full amount of his share thereof. If any seaman or mariner shall, after his discharge, Expenditures incur any expense for board or other necessaries at for the relief of the port or place of his discharge before shipping deducted from again, such expense shall be paid out of the share of his share of the the three months' extra wages to which he is entitled, extra wages. which shall be retained for that purpose, and after the payment of all expenses thus incurred, the remaining part of such share only is to be paid over to him when he shall have engaged on board of some vessel. In cases of wrecked or stranded ships or Extra wages; vessels, or ships or vessels condemned as unfit for when not to be service, no payment of extra wages is required. a seaman to be required. for the dis 538. Consular officers are not to discharge a sea- Reasonable man for slight or venial offences, and certainly not cause required for a single offence unless of a very aggravated charge of a seacharacter. If the charge be negligence, drunkenness, man. disobedience, or dishonesty, the question should be, whether the misconduct was of such a degree as to 1 Statutes at Large, vol. xi. p. 62. Extra wages; to seamen. show an habitual inattention to or unfitness for duty, having always in view the particular station of the party and the nature of his duty. If the allegation be that the seaman is a dangerous person, from a spirit of insubordination, or hostility to the master, it has been held that the master must show that the danger is such as would affect the mind of a man of ordinary firmness. But even in cases of aggravated offences, or of a continued course of conduct which would justify the discharge of a seaman, if he repents and offers amends, the principle which is always operating in his favor against all kinds of forfeiture, with very rare exceptions, intervenes to restore him to his rights, and he is ordinarily entitled to be received again on board. To deprive a mariner of the benefit of this rule, it should appear that the misconduct amounts to a radical disqualification, as dishonesty and habitual drunkenness in a steward; or that the party is really dangerous to the peace and safety of the ship. These principles receive additional force from the general policy of the laws of the United States, which discountenances the discharge of seamen in foreign ports. The various enactments in respect to destitute seamen sufficiently show the parental solicitude of the government for the preservation and protection of the seamen of the country.1 539. The two months' extra wages are not to be when to be paid paid in any case, unless the person so discharged has engaged on board of some vessel as a seaman, or to return to the United States, and does not previous to his sailing become a charge upon the consulate; in the latter case only the residue of the two months' extra wages is to be paid to him. 1 Curtis's Merchant Seamen, pp. 149, 150; Ware's R. pp. 65, 325. |