6. Lien.—
As has been remarked the general rule is that the master has no lien on the ship for his wages. In the Orleans v. Phœbus, 11 Peters 175, wherein Phœbus sought to enforce a lien on the steamboat Orleans for his wages as master, the Supreme Court said:
By the maritime law the master has no lien on the ship even for maritime wages.
This is supposed to be for the reason that he contracts on the personal credit of the owner and also because it would tend to impair the owner's personal confidence in his integrity. Another ground is that where the master collects the freight he can pay himself directly and so needs no lien. But a lien may be given by the terms of his contract or by a statute of the state from which the vessel hails; if it is, it will be enforced in the admiralty.
He has no lien on the cargo belonging to the owner of the ship, and, according to the weight of authority, no lien upon cargo belonging to any other shipper. He has, however, as has been said, a lien on the freight earned by the vessel for his wages, disbursements and necessary liabilities. This may be asserted by withholding from the moneys collected by him or by an attachment or garnishment. In the Arcturus, 17 Fed. 95, the vessel had on board a quantity of telegraph poles owned by a shipper and intended for delivery at Sandusky, upon which the shipper was to pay freight in the usual way. Before the poles were unladen at Sandusky, the vessel was seized by the marshal under a libel filed by certain creditors, so that the master could not and did not unload the poles, and the owner was compelled to pay $70 to have them unloaded. In addition to this, before they were unladen the owner of the poles was compelled to pay into the registry of the court the entire freight which would have been earned had the vessel delivered the poles to him. The master filed a libel, asserting that the whole freight money should be applied to his unpaid wages, and claiming also a lien on the poles, the cargo, for his wages. The court found that the master had no lien on the cargo for his wages beyond the amount of the freight; that he was only entitled to the freight actually earned by the vessel, that being the freight less what it cost to unload at Sandusky, and that he was entitled to a decree for that part of the freight so actually earned, to be applied on his wages as master.
Where the master performs seamen's duties in addition to his own it has been held he is not entitled to a lien for compensation for such work, but in some more recent cases such liens have been allowed. There is a substantial conflict of authority on this point.