In the maritime law, desertion consists in quitting the ship and service by a sailor, without leave and against his duty, without an intent to return. If not justified, it works a forfeiture of wages. The mitigating circumstances must be such as amount to a reasonable excuse, founded on gross misconduct of the master or hard usage. Slight and transient causes will not answer, especially where the desertion appears to have been deliberate and premeditated, and not the result of sudden impulse. It was formerly the law that a deserting seaman might be arrested and imprisoned on shore by local magistrates on the complaint of the master and so compelled to return to his service (Robertson v. Baldwin, 165 U. S. 275). Recent legislation, however, has repealed the older statutes and there are now no laws of the United States which authorize the imprisonment of seamen deserting from vessels owned by citizens of the United States. This is probably true also in the case of foreign-owned vessels within American ports (Ex parte Larsen, 233 Fed. 708). Among the causes which have been held to justify desertion are sickness, unwholesome food, cruel treatment, deviation and unseaworthiness. But the justification must be clearly shown, for it is a serious thing to quit the ship, and the law will not permit it unless the reasons are sound and substantial. Of course, besides the forfeiture of wages which desertion entails, the deserter will be liable to the owner for such damages as his breach of contract may cause. The offense may be committed by any member of the ship's company.
11. Self-defense.—
Generally speaking, the remedy of the sailor for violence inflicted upon him on shipboard is to be sought in the courts of law alone. The exigencies of discipline require that, for the common good, authority on shipboard should not be resisted. Nevertheless cases occur where the right of self-defense may be lawfully claimed. Where the master assaults a seaman, the latter may endeavor to escape; if pursued and escape be impossible, and the assault continued, he may use necessary and equivalent force for his own protection.
It should be remembered that the power of punishment on shipboard is vested in the master personally and that the law does not permit his delegating it to others. A mate has no legal right to enforce his orders by beating one of the crew. Up to about seventy years ago corporal punishment of seamen was permitted by law, owing to the nature and supposed necessities of the service, and no doubt officers find it hard to give it up. Courts of admiralty endeavor to deal with these cases in a practical way. Altercations and assaults between master and crew have never been treated by them like those redressed in the common law courts, where the slightest blow may be treated as a trespass to one's dignity and feelings of self-respect. The crew are to be protected from injury and the maritime law will amply vindicate all beatings, woundings and maltreatment, criminally and civilly. The right of self-defense is only a last resort and will seldom need to be invoked.
12. Lien for Wages.—
The seamen have a maritime lien for their wages in preference over all other liens except for salvage. They are said to be the wards of the admiralty and it endeavors to see them paid over all other creditors of the ship. Thus the lien has priority over towage, claims for supplies and repairs, breach of contract, and port dues. It will not be superior to a lien for collision damage, if their negligence contributed to the disaster, at least as far as prior wages are concerned. Subsequent wages, earned in bringing the ship back to port, stand on a different footing.
This lien is said to inhere in the last plank of the ship and will be paid in preference to claims for penalties against the ship in behalf of the United States and port dues.
The lien for wages exists in the home port of the vessel as well as in foreign ports.
Where as sometimes in the case of a fishing voyage the crew has an interest in the result of the venture this does not affect the right to liens.
The weight of authority in the more recent decisions, reversing the older rule, is to give a lien to stevedores, longshoremen, watchmen and ship carpenters against foreign vessels (that is to say vessels not in the home port) while the authorities are in conflict as to whether such liens lie against domestic vessels.