R. S., 4588.

with the certificate of his declaration of intention to become a citizen, be admitted a citizen of the United States; and every seaman, being a foreigner, shall, after his declaration of intention to become a citizen of the United States, and after he shall have served such three years, be deemed a citizen of the United States for the purpose of manning and serving on board any merchant-vessel of the United States, anything to the contrary in any act of Congress notwithstanding; but such seaman shall, for all purposes of protection as an American citizen, be deemed such, after the filing of his declaration of intention to become such citizen.

The collector of every district shall, keep a book or books, in which, at the request of any seaman, being a citizen of the United States of America, and producing proof of his citizenship, authenticated in the manner hereinafter directed, he shall enter the name of such seaman, and shall deliver to him a certificate, in the following form, that is to say: "I, A. B., collector of the district of D., do hereby certify, that E. F., an American seaman, aged years, or thereabouts, of the height of feet inches, (describing the said seaman as particularly as may be,) has, this day, produced to me proof in the manner directed by law; and I do hereby certify that the said E. F. is a citizen of the United States of America. In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and seal June 19, 1886. of office, this day of." It shall be the duty of the collectors to file and preserve the proofs of citizenship so produced.

R. S., 4591.

R. S., 4508.

R. S., 4503.

The collector of every port of entry in the United States shall send a list of the seamen to whom certificates of citizenship have been granted, once every three months, to the Secretary of State [together with an account of such impressments or detentions, as shall appear, by the protests of the masters, to have taken place].

75. Shipping officers.

The general duties of a shipping-commissioner shall be: First. To afford facilities for engaging seamen by keeping a register of their names and characters.

Second. To superintend their engagement and discharge, in manner prescribed by law.

Third. To provide means for securing the presence on board at the proper times of men who are so engaged.

Fourth. To facilitate the making of apprenticeships to the sea service.

Fifth. To perform such other duties relating to merchant seamen or merchant ships as are now or may hereafter be required by law.

In any port in which no shipping-commissioner shall have been appointed, the whole or any part of the business of a shipping commissioner shall be conducted by the collector or deputy collector of customs of such port; and in respect of such business such custom-house shall be deemed

a shipping-office, and the collector or deputy collector of customs to whom such business shall be committed, shall, for all purposes, be deemed a shipping-commissioner within the meaning of this Title [R. S., 4501-4613].

Every shipping commissioner, and every clerk or employé R. S., 4595. in any shipping-office, who demands or receives any remuneration whatever, either directly or indirectly, for hiring or supplying any seaman for any merchant-vessels, excepting the lawful fees payable under this Title [R. S., 45014613], shall, for every such offense, be liable to a penalty of not more than two hundred dollars. [Fees payable by individuals abolished June 19, 1886.]

76. Illegal shipments.

June 19, 1886.

All shipments of seamen made contrary to the provi- R. S., 4523. sions of any act of Congress shall be void; and any seaman so shipped may leave the service at any time, and shall be entitled to recover the highest rate of wages of the port from which the seaman was shipped, or the sum agreed to be given him at his shipment.

Any person other than a commissioner under this Title R. S., 4504. [R. S., 4501-4613], who shall perform or attempt to perform, either directly or indirectly, the duties which are by this Title set forth as pertaining to a shipping-commissioner, shall be liable to a penalty of not more than five hundred dollars.

77. Owners or masters may ship seamen in certain cases.

Nothing in this Title [R. S., 4501-4613], however, shall R. S., 4504. prevent the owner, or consignee, or master of any vessel except vessels bound from a port in the United States to any foreign port, other than vessels engaged in trade between the United States and the British North American possessions, or the West India Islands, or the republic of Mexico, and vessels of the burden of seventy-five tous or upward bound from a port on the Atlantic to a port on the Pacific, or vice versa, from performing, himself, so far as his vessel is concerned, the duties of shipping-commissioner under this Title. Whenever the master of any vessel shall engage his crew, or any part of the same, in any collection-district where no shipping-commissioner shall have been appointed, he may perform for himself the duties of such commissioner.

78. Apprentices.

Every shipping-commissioner appointed under this Title R. S., 4509. [R. S., 4501-4613] shall, if applied to for the purpose of apprenticing boys to the sea-service, by any master or owner of a vessel, or by any person legally qualified, give such assistance as is in his power for facilitating the making of such apprenticeships; but the shipping-commissioner shall ascertain that the boy has voluntarily consented to be bound, and that the parents or guardian of such boy have consented to such apprenticeship, and that he has attained the age of

R. S., 4510.

R. S., 4511.

March 3, 1897.

Sec. 19.

twelve years, and is of sufficient health and strength, and that the master to whom such boy is to be bound is a proper person for the purpose. Such apprenticeship shall terminate when the apprentice becomes eighteen years of age. The shipping commissioner shall keep a register of all indentures of apprenticeship made before him.

The master of every foreign-going vessel shall, before carrying any apprentice to sea from any place in the United States, cause such apprentice to appear before the shippingcommissioner before whom the crew is engaged, and shall produce to him the indenture by which such apprentice is bound, and the assignment or assignments thereof, if any; and the name of the apprentice, with the date of the indenture and of the assignment or assignments thereof, if any, shall be entered on the agreement; which shall be in the form, as near as may be, given in the table marked "A" in the schedule annexed to this Title [R. S., 4501-4613]; and no such assignment shall be made without the approval of a commissioner, of the apprentice, and of his parents or his guardian. For any violation of this section, the master shall be liable to a penalty of not more than one hundred dollars.

79. Agreement to ship in foreign trade.

The master of every vessel bound from a port in the United States to any foreign port other than vessels engaged in trade between the United States and the British North American possessions, or the West India Islands, or the republic of Mexico, or of any vessel of the burden of seventy-five tons or upward, bound from a port on the Atlantic to a port on the Pacific, or vice versa, shall, before he proceeds on such voyage, make an agreement, in writing or in print, with every seaman whom he carries to sea as one of the crew, in the manner hereinafter mentioned; and every such agreement shall be, as near as may be, in the form given in the table marked A, in the schedule annexed to this Title [R. S., 4501–4613], and shall be dated at the time of the first signature thereof, and shall be signed by the master before any seamen signs the same, and shall contain the following particulars:

First. The nature and, as far as practicable, the duration of the intended voyage or engagement, and the port or country at which the voyage is to terminate.

Second. The number and description of the crew, specifying their respective employments.

Third. The time at which each seaman is to be on board, to begin work.

Fourth. The capacity in which each seaman is to serve. Fifth. The amount of wages which each seaman is to receive.

Sixth. A scale of the provisions which are to be furnished to each seaman.

Seventh. Any regulations as to conduct on board and as to fines, short allowances of provisions, or other lawful punishments for misconduct, which may be sanctioned by Congress or authorized by the Secretary of the Treasury

not contrary to or not otherwise provided for by law, which the parties agree to adopt.

Sec. 10.

Eighth. Any stipulations in reference to allotment of June 26, 1884. wages, or other matters not contrary to law. [Repealed so far as relates to allotments in trade between the United States, Dominion of Canada, Newfoundland, the West Indies and Mexico, and coasting trade of the United States, except between Atlantic and Pacific ports, by sec. 25 of Act of December 21, 1898.]

Dec. 21, 1898.

Sec. 25.

The following rules shall be observed with respect to R. S., 4512. agreements:

First. Every agreement except such as are otherwise specially provided for, shall be signed by each seaman in the presence of a shipping-commissioner.

Second. When the crew is first engaged the agreement shall be signed in duplicate, and one part shall be retained by the shipping commissioner, and the other part shall contain a special place or form for the description and signatures of persons engaged subsequently to the first departure of the ship, and shall be delivered to the master. Third. Every agreement entered into before a shippingcommissioner shall be acknowledged and certified under the hand and official seal of such commissioner. The certificate of acknowledgment shall be indorsed on or annexed to the agreement; and shall be in the following form: "State of"On this -, personally appeared before me, a shipping-commissioner in and for the said county, A. B., C. D., and E. F., severally known to me to be the same persons who executed the foregoing instrument, who each for himself acknowledged to me that he had read or had heard read the same; that he was by me made acquainted with the conditions thereof, and understood the same; and that, while sober and not in a state of intoxication, he signed it freely and voluntarily, for the uses and purposes therein mentioned."

County of -day of

Feb. 18, 1895.

Section 4511 shall not apply to masters of vessels where R. S., 4513. the seamen are by custom or agreement entitled to participate in the profits or result of a cruise or voyage, nor to masters of coastwise nor to masters of lake-going vessels that touch at foreign ports; but seamen may, by agreement, serve on board such vessels a definite time, or, on the return of any vessel to a port in the United States, may reship and sail in the same vessel on another voyage, June 19, 1886. without the payment of additional fees to the shippingcommissioner.

[NOTE.-Section 4511, however, does apply in part to masters of coastwise vessels whose crews are shipped under provisions of the act of February 18, 1895.]

The master shall, at the commencement of every voyage R. S., 4519. or engagement, cause a legible copy of the agreement, omitting signatures, to be placed or posted up in such part of the vessel as to be accessible to the crew; and on default shall be liable to a penalty of not more than one hundred dollars.

June 26, 1884.
Sec. 19.

R. S., 4514.

R. S., 4515.

R. S., 4516.
Dec. 21, 1898.
Sec. 1.

R. S., 4517.

80. Period of engagement.

A master of a vessel in the foreign trade may engage a seaman at any port in the United States, in the manner provided by law, to serve on a voyage to any port, or for the round trip from and to the port of departure, or for a definite time, whatever the destination. The master of a vessel making regular and stated trips between the United States and a foreign country may engage a seaman for one or more round trips, or for a definite time, or on the return of said vessel to the United States may reship such seaman for another voyage in the same vessel, in the manner provided by law, without the payment of additional fees to any officer for such reshipment or re-engagement.

81. Penalty for shipment without agreement.

If any person shall be carried to sea, as one of the crew on board of any vessel making a voyage as hereinbefore specified, without entering into an agreement with the master of such vessel, in the form and manner, and at the place and times in such cases required, the vessel shall be held liable for each such offense to a penalty of not more than two hundred dollars. But the vessel shall not be held liable for any person carried to sea, who shall have secretly stowed away himself without the knowledge of the master, mate, or of any of the officers of the vessel, or who shall have falsely personated himself to the master, mate, or officers of the vessel, for the purpose of being carried to sea.

If any master, mate, or other officer of a vessel knowingly receives, or accepts, to be entered on board of any merchant-vessel, any seaman who has been engaged or supplied contrary to the provisions of this Title [R. S., 4501-4613], the vessel on board of which such seaman shall be found shall, for every such seaman, be liable to a penalty of not more than two hundred dollars.

82. Undermanning.

In case of desertion or casualty resulting in the loss of one or more seamen, the master must ship, if obtainable, a Lumber equal to the number of those whose services he has been deprived of by desertion or casualty, who must be of the same grade or rating and equally expert with those whose place or position they refill, and report the same to the United States consul at the first port at which he shall arrive, without incurring the penalty prescribed by the two preceding sections. [This section shall not apply to fishing or whaling vessels or yachts, Dec. 21, 1898, sec. 26.]

83. Shipment in foreign ports before consuls.

Every master of a merchant-vessel who engages any seaman at a place out of the United States, in which there is a consular officer or commercial agent, shall, before carrying such seaman to sea, procure the sanction of such officer, and shall engage seamen in his presence; and the rules