Removal of master.
Any person or body corporate having more than one-half ownership of any vessel shall have the 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 ninth day of April, eighteen hundred and seventy-two. (R. S., 4250.)