The Men on Deck: Master, Mates and Crew, Their Duties and Responsibilities

by Felix Riesenberg

Papers relating to crew.

The following rules shall be observed with reference to vessels bound on any foreign voyage:

First. The duplicate list of the ship's company, required to be made out by the master and delivered to the collector of the customs, under section forty-five hundred and seventy-three, shall be a fair copy in one uniform handwriting, without erasure or interlineation.

Second. It shall be the duty of the owners of every such vessel to obtain from the collector of the customs of the district from which the clearance is made, a true and certified copy of the shipping-articles, containing the names of the crew, which shall be written in a uniform hand, without erasures or interlineations.

Third. These documents, which shall be deemed to contain all the conditions of contract with the crew as to their service, pay, voyage, and all other things, shall be produced by the master, and laid before any consul, or other commercial agent of the United States, whenever he may deem their contents necessary to enable him to discharge the duties imposed upon him by law toward any mariner applying to him for his aid or assistance.

Fourth. All interlineations, erasures, or writing in a hand different from that in which such duplicates were originally made, shall be deemed fraudulent alterations, working no change in such papers, unless satisfactorily explained in a manner consistent with innocent purposes and the provisions of law which guard the rights of mariners.

Fifth. If any master of a vessel shall proceed on a foreign voyage without the documents herein required, or refuse to produce them when required, or to perform the duties imposed by this section, or shall violate the provisions thereof, he shall be liable to each and every individual injured thereby in damages, to be recovered in any court of the United States in the district where such delinquent may reside or be found, and in addition thereto be punishable by a fine of one hundred dollars for each offense.

Sixth. It shall be the duty of the boarding-officer to report all violations of this section to the collector of the port where any vessel may arrive, and the collector shall report the same to the Secretary of Commerce and to the United States attorney in his district. (R. S., 4575; Feb. 14. 1903; sec. 10.)