5. Penalties and Forfeitures.—
The ship herself may be a quasi-criminal under maritime law. All commercial nations find it necessary for the enforcement of their laws and regulations in regard to commerce by sea, to impose penalties upon the vessel by or through which violations occur. So a vessel which has engaged in any piratical aggression may be condemned and sold for the use of the United States. Violation of a blockade or carriage of contraband of war renders the ship liable to seizure and sale by the Government. A ship licensed for the coasting trade may be forfeited if she engages in any other, and many penalties may be inflicted upon the vessel for acts of which the owner is entirely innocent. Similarly a false oath made in order to obtain the registry of a vessel, or any other fraud for the purpose of obtaining registry, enrollment or licenses will result in her forfeiture, and so will a sale to an alien without complying with the provisions of the statutes (Chapter 11, § 10, supra). Forfeiture of a vessel will also result from an attempt to change her name, otherwise than by the method provided by law (Chapter 11, § 9, supra), or to deceive the public as to her true name and character by any contrivance, device or advertisement of law where the owner or the master is privy to the offense, as for example the importation of diseased cattle. The doctrine of the personality of the ship again appears in the criminal law of the admiralty which treats her like an individual for purposes of regulation and punishment. The principle was laid down by Justice Story in the brig Malek Adhel, 2 How. (U. S.) 210:
It is not an uncommon course in the admiralty, acting under the law of nations, to treat the vessel in which or by which, or by the master or crew thereof, a wrong or offense has been done as the offender, without any regard whatsoever to the personal misconduct or responsibility of the owner thereof.
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The acts of the master and crew, in cases of this sort, bind the interest of the owner of the ship, whether he be innocent or guilty; and he impliedly submits to whatever the law denounces as a forfeiture attached to the ship by reason of their unlawful or wanton wrongs.
Thus if a vessel fails to carry the wireless equipment prescribed by law a fine is imposed upon the master and is a lien upon the ship enforceable by law in admiralty. The statute governing the equipment of vessels with radio telegraph apparatus is given under § 11 infra. Innocent cargo is not involved in the forfeiture of a guilty vessel, and where the owner and master of a vessel is innocent she will not usually be forfeitable by reason of the guilt of the cargo.
The sending, or attempting to send to sea, of a vessel so unseaworthy as to be likely to endanger life, is a misdemeanor for which the person guilty is to be punished by fine or imprisonment, or both (Act of December 21, 1898, § 11), unless he is able to prove either that he used all reasonable means to insure her being sent to sea in a seaworthy state, or that her going to sea in an unseaworthy state was under circumstances reasonable and justifiable.