was obtained or could not be obtained without unreasonable delay to the ship or was unreasonably withheld.

37.-(1.) Where a master of a British ship leaves a seaman behind on shore in any place out of the United Kingdom on the ground of his unfitness or inability to proceed to sea, he shall deliver to the person signing the required certificate of the proper authority a full and true account of the wages due to the seaman, and if that person is a consular officer shall deliver the account in duplicate.

(2.) If a master fails without reasonable cause to deliver the account, he shall for each offence be liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding ten pounds, and, if he knowingly delivers a false account, he shall for each offence be liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding twenty pounds, in addition in each case to the payment of the wages.

38.-(1.) The master shall pay the amount of wages due to a seaman left behind on the ground of his unfitness or inability to proceed to sea, if he is left in a British possession to the seaman himself, and if he is left elsewhere to the British consular officer.

(2.) Where payment is made to a British consular officer, that officer shall retain one duplicate of the account delivered to him, and, if satisfied with the account, endorse on the other duplicate a receipt for the payment, and return it to the master, and the master shall deliver the duplicate within forty-eight hours of his return to his port of destination, if that port is in the United Kingdom, to the superintendent at that port, and, if that port is not in the United Kingdom, to the proper authority as defined for the purpose of this Part of this Act.

(3.) The payment shall be made, whenever it is practicable, in money, and, when not so practicable, by bills drawn on the owner of the ship, but if payment is made by bill

(a.) The person signing the required certificate of the proper authority shall certify by endorsement on the bill that the bill is drawn for seamen's wages, and shall also endorse on the agreement with the crew the amount for which the bill is drawn, and such further particulars as the Board of Trade require;

(b.) If the bill is drawn by the master, the owner of the ship shall be liable to pay the amount to the holder or endorsee thereof; and it shall not be necessary in any proceeding against the owner upon the bill to prove that the master had authority to draw it;

(c.) A bill purporting to be drawn and endorsed under this section shall, if produced out of the custody of the Board of Trade or of the Registrar-General of Shipping and Seamen, or of any superintendent, be admissible in evidence; and any endorsement on any such bill purporting to be made in pursuance of this section shall also be admissible as evidence of the facts stated in the endorsement.

(4.) If a master fails, without reasonable cause, to make such payment of wages as provided by this section, he shall for each (M 81)

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offence be liable on summary conviction, in addition to the payment of the wages, to a fine not exceeding ten pounds.

39. Where the amount of wages due to a seaman left behind on the ground of his unfitness or inability to proceed to sea is so paid to a British consular officer, that officer shall deal with the sum so paid to him in the following manner, namely:

(1.) If the seaman subsequently obtains employment at or quits the port at which the payment has been made, he shall deduct out of the sum any expenses incurred by him in respect of the maintenance of the seaman under the Merchant Shipping Acts, except such as the owner or master is by the Merchant Shipping Acts required to defray, and shall pay the remainder to the seaman, and deliver to him an account of the sums so received and expended on his behalf;

(2.) If the seaman dies before his ship quits the port, he shall deal with the sum as part of the property of a deceased seaman; and

(3.) If the seaman is sent to a proper return port at the public expense under the Merchant Shipping Acts, he shall account for the sum to the Board of Trade; and the sum, after deducting any expenses duly incurred in respect of the seaman, except such expenses as the master or owner of the ship is required by the Merchant Shipping Acts to pay, shall be dealt with as wages of

the seaman.

40. The Board of Trade shall make regulations with respect to the relief, maintenance, and return to a proper return port of shipwrecked seamen and of seamen found otherwise in distress in any place out of the United Kingdom, and may, by those regulations (in this Act referred to as the distressed seamen regulations), make such conditions as they think fit with regard to that relief, maintenance, and sending to a proper return port, and a seaman shall not have any right to be relieved, maintained, or sent to a proper return port, except in the cases and to the extent and on the conditions provided by those regulations.

41.-(1.) Where either

(a.) Any seamen, whether subjects of His Majesty or not, are found in any place out of the United Kingdom, and have been shipwrecked from any British ship or any of His Majesty's ships, or by reason of having been discharged or left behind from any such ship in any place out of the United Kingdom, are in distress in that place; or

(b.) Any seamen, being subjects of His Majesty, who have been engaged by any person acting either as principal or agent to serve in a ship belonging to the government or to a subject or citizen of a foreign country, are in distress in any place out of the United Kingdom,

the proper authority as defined for the purpose in this Part of this Act may, and, if not a merchant, shall, in accordance with and on the conditions prescribed by the distressed seamen regulations,

provide in accordance with this Act for the return of those seamen (who are in this Act included in the term distressed seamen) to a proper return port, and also provide for their necessary clothing and their maintenance until their departure for such a port, and, in addition, in the case of shipwrecked seamen for the repayment of any expenses incurred in their conveyance to port after their shipwreck, and their maintenance while being so conveyed.

(2.) The authority shall be paid in respect of the expenses incurred under this section on behalf of distressed seamen such sums as the Board of Trade may allow, and those sums shall, on the production of the bills of disbursements, with the proper vouchers, be paid as provided by this Part of this Act.

42. (1.) Where any expenses (other than excepted expenses as defined by this section) are incurred by or on behalf of the Crown, or are incurred by the government of a foreign country, and repaid to that government by or on behalf of the Crown, on account of a distressed seaman, either for his maintenance, necessary clothing, conveyance to proper return port, or in case of death for his burial, or otherwise in accordance with this Act, those expenses (together with the wages, if any, due to the seaman) shall be a charge upon the ship, whether British or foreign, to which the distressed seaman belonged, and shall be a debt to the Crown from the master of the ship, or from the owner of the ship for the time being, or, where the ship has been lost, from the person who was owner of the ship at the time of the loss, or, where the ship has been transferred to some person not being a British subject, either from the owner for the time being or from the person who was the owner of the ship at the time of the transfer, and also, if the ship be a foreign ship, from the person, whether principal or agent, who engaged the seaman for service in the ship.

(2.) The debt, in addition to any fines which may have been incurred, may be recovered by the Board of Trade, on behalf of the Crown, either by ordinary process of law or in the court and manner in which wages may be recovered by seamen.

(3.) In any proceeding for such recovery the production of the account (if any) of the expenses furnished in accordance with this Act or the distressed seamen regulations, and proof of payment of the expenses by or on behalf of the Board of Trade, shall be primâ facie evidence that the expenses were incurred or repaid under this Act by or on behalf of the Crown.

(4.) For the purpose of this section, excepted expenses are expenses incurred in cases where the certificate of the proper authority obtained on leaving a seaman behind states, or the Board of Trade are otherwise satisfied, that the cause of the seaman being left behind is desertion, or disappearance, or imprisonment for misconduct, or discharge from his ship by a naval court on the ground of misconduct, and expenses incurred on account of the return to a proper return port of a distressed seaman who has (M 81)

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been discharged at the port at which he was shipped, or at some neighbouring port.

43. A person belonging to a British ship shall not wrongfully force a seaman on shore and leave him behind or otherwise cause a seaman to be wrongfully left behind at any place, either on shore or at sea, in or out of His Majesty's dominions, and if he does so he shall in respect of each offence be guilty of a misdemeanor.

44.-(1.) Every fine imposed on a seaman for any act of misconduct for which his agreement imposes a fine shall be deducted as follows (that is to say) :

(a.) If the offender is discharged in the United Kingdom, and the offence, and the entry in the log-book required by the Merchant Shipping Acts in respect thereof, are proved to the satisfaction, in the case of a foreign-going ship of the superintendent before whom the offender is discharged, and in the case of a home-trade ship of the superintendent at or nearest the port at which the crew are discharged, the master or owner shall deduct the fine from the wages of the offender;

(b.) If the offender enters His Majesty's naval service or is discharged abroad, and the offence and the entry as aforesaid are proved to the satisfaction of the officer in command of the ship he so enters, or of the proper authority by whose sanction he is discharged, as the case may be, the fine shall be deducted as aforesaid and an entry made in the official log-book of the ship and signed by the officer or authority to whose satisfaction the offence is proved.

(2.) Every fine so deducted shall be paid

(a.) If the offender is discharged in the United Kingdom, to the superintendent;

(b.) If the offender enters His Majesty's naval service, on the return of the ship to its port of destination, if that port is in the United Kingdom, to the superintendent before whom the crew is discharged, or in the case of a home-trade ship to the superintendent at or nearest to the port at which the crew is discharged, and, if the port of destination is not in the United Kingdom, to the proper authority as defined for the purpose of this Part of this Act;

(c.) If the offender is discharged at any place out of the United Kingdom, to the proper authority.

(3.) A proper authority shall remit any amounts received by them under this section at such times and in such manner, and render such accounts in respect thereof, as the Board of Trade require.

(4.) If a master or owner fails without reasonable cause to pay any fine as required by this section, he shall for each offence be liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding six times the amount of the fine not so paid.

(5.) An act of misconduct for which any fine has been inflicted

and paid by, or deducted from the wages of, the seaman, shall not be otherwise punished under the Merchant Shipping Acts.

45. For the purpose of this Part of this Act, either the port at which the seaman was shipped or a port in the country to which he belongs, or some other port agreed to by the seaman, in the case of a discharged seaman, at the time of his discharge, shall be deemed to be a proper return port:

Provided that in the case of a seaman belonging to a British possession who has been shipped and discharged out of the United Kingdom the proper officer may treat a port in the United Kingdom as a proper return port.

46.-(1.) A seaman may be sent to a proper return port by any reasonable route, either by sea or land, or partly by sea and partly by land.

(2.) Provision shall be made for the return of the seaman as to the whole of the route if it is by sea, or as to any part of the route which is by sea, by placing the seaman on board a British ship which is in want of men to make up its complement, or, if that is not practicable, by providing the seaman with a passage in any ship, British or foreign, or with the money for his passage, and, as to any part of the route which is by land, by paying the expenses of his journey and of his maintenance during the journey, or providing him with means to pay those

expenses.

(3.) Where the master of a ship is required under this Part of this Act to provide for the return of a discharged seaman to a proper return port, the master may, instead of providing the seaman's passage, or the expenses of his journey, or of providing the seaman with means to pay his passage or those expenses, deposit with the proper authority such sum as that authority consider sufficient to defray the expenses of the return of the seaman to a proper return port.

(4.) The Board of Trade may, by the distressed seamen regulations, make such provision as may be necessary for enabling the proper authority, and in the case of expenses required to be incurred in the United Kingdom any officer named for the purpose by the Board, to defray on behalf of the authority originally making arrangements for the return of a distressed seaman to a proper return port any expenses on account of that seaman which the authority originally acting in respect of him could defray, and any expenses so incurred shall for the purposes of this Part of this Act relating to distressed seamen be deemed to be expenses incurred on behalf of the distressed seaman.

47. If any question arises as to what return port a seaman is to be sent to in any case, or as to the route by which he should be sent, that question shall be decided by the proper authority, and, in deciding any question under this provision, the authority shall have regard both to the convenience of the seaman and to the expense involved, and also, where that is the case, to the fact