cate as per Form No. 26 of the attending physician. Unless it is furnished, the drafts of the Consul will not be paid.

279.. In places where opportunities of sending seamen home seldom occur, and employment on board of American vessels cannot be obtained, the Consul may ship them to an intermediate port where they may be likely to find such employment or a passage to the United States. He will, in this case, make a specific agreement with the master of the vessel at the most reasonable rate for their passage, giving to him a certificate (Form No. 163) requesting the Consular Officer at the port of destination to pay to the master of the vessel the amount agreed upon for the passage of the seamen upon their arrival at the Consulate and the presentation of the certificate. The Consular Officer to whom they are sent must indorse on the certificate the fact of the arrival of the seamen and cause the master to receipt thereon for the passage-money paid to him. The certificate, so indorsed and receipted, should be transmitted with the account of the Consul for relief of seamen, in which the amount so paid for the passages of the seamen should be debited to the United States.

280..In the exercise of this discretion in respect to sending destitute seamen to intermediate ports, the Consul will take into consideration the relative cost of keeping the seamen where they are and at the port to which they can be sent, together with the expense of their passage thither and the probability of their obtaining employment there or a passage home, and he will adopt the course which may seem best, having a due regard for the interests of the United States and a proper concern for the seamen. In the event that the Consul to whom seamen are thus sent should not have sufficient funds to pay the passage money, he should negotiate a draft for the proper amount, drawn upon the Secretary of State, and pay the amount from the proceeds. It is not desirable, and it will often be inconvenient, for the master to negotiate such a draft, and, unless otherwise requested, the Consul should himself negotiate it. Information of the drawing of such drafts, together with a report of the number of seamen, the cost of passage, and the Consul by whom they were sent, must at ouce be communicated

Shipment to intermediate ports.

Duties of Consul.

Transportation on

steamers.

Clothing, &c., supplied, to be reported.

Additional allow.

ance.

Transportation of shipwrecked sea

men.

to the Department of State. In the absence of information in these respects, payment of the drafts may be withheld.

281..It is understood, however, that the greater number of seamen sent by Consular Officers to intermediate ports are forwarded on regular passenger steamers, on which, as a rule, payment of passage is required in advance. When, therefore, the passages of destitute seamen are paid in advance, the Consular Officer by whom they are sent should transmit to the Consul at the port of destination, either by the same vessel or the quickest route, a list of the seamen forwarded, with the name of the vessel, requesting him to certify the arrival of the seamen on the list and to transmit it at once to the Fifth Auditor of the Treasury. It will be the duty of the latter to comply with such requests without delay. In case a draft should be necessary to meet the expense of the passages so paid in advance, it should be drawn upon the Secretary of State and negotiated and reported as provided for in the preceding paragraph.

282.. When destitute seamen are forwarded to intermediate ports, as provided for in the preceding paragraphs, and supplies of clothing are furnished them by the Consul by whom they are forwarded, a list of the clothing should be transmitted to the Consul at the port of destination, in the manner prescribed in paragraph 268.

283..To meet cases in which American seamen are transported from districts where there are no Consular Officers of the United States to ports of the United States, the statute has authorized such reasonable allowance, in addition to the ten dollars fixed by law, as shall be deemed to be equitable by the First Comptroller of the Treasury. The accounts for services of this kind should be sent directly to that Officer.

284..It not unfrequently happens that the seamen of American vessels are taken up at sea, in consequence of shipwreck or otherwise, and transported either to a port of the United States or to a foreign port. It is usual in such cases for the Department of State, when the circumstances are deemed to justify it, to compensate the master or owner of the transporting vessel for the subsistence and supplies furnished to the seamen, at a rate not exceeding fifty cents a day for each seaman while on board. Such compensation,

however, is not often demanded. When seamen are landed at a Consulate under these circumstances, and it is believed that reimbursement should be made for their expenses, the Consular Officer should be careful to communicate to the Department the number of seamen and the time they were subsisted, together with a report of the circumstances under which they were taken on board. When an account for subsistence and supplies is sent to the Department, it will save time if it is prepared in duplicate and receipted by the proper parties.

Passage money to be paid from arrears

285..It is observed that Consuls sometimes fail to deduct the amount paid, or agreed to be paid, for passage on of wages, &c. a Consular certificate, from the arrears of wages or extra wages of the seaman who is sent to the United States on such a certificate; and they are, in consequence, subjected to disallowances in the adjustment of their accounts. It should, therefore, be stated that the amount to be paid at the Treasury Department for the passage of a seaman to the United States on a Consular certificate is to be estimated with the expenses of the seaman, and deducted from his arrears of wages or the two months' extra wages, in the same manner as the expenses for relief that are paid directly by the Consular Officer. When, also, a seaman is sent to an intermediate port, if any part of the arrears of wages or the two months' extra wages is available for the purpose, the amount paid in advance for his passage, or requested to be paid, by the Consular Officer at the port of destination, should be deducted in like manner.

Accounts and

286.. All accounts relating to the relief and transporta- drafts. tion of destitute seamen must be in the name of the principal Consular Officer, and drafts on the Department of State must be made by those officers only. No account or draft of a Vice-Consul or Vice-Commercial Agent or Consular Agent will receive attention, unless in the absence of the principal Consular Officer from his post, in which case a certificate of that fact must accompany the account or draft.

ARTICLE XVII.

punished.

Desertion of Seamen.

Desertion, how 287..It is provided by statute that desertion shall be R S., secs. 4596, punished by imprisonment for not more than three months,

4599, 4600.

Forfeiture of clothes, wages, &c. R. S., sec. 4604.

and by the forfeiture of all or any part of the clothes or effects the deserter leaves on board, and of all or any part of the wages or emoluments which he has then earned; and that when a seaman or apprentice neglects or refuses to join the ship, or deserts from or refuses to go to sea, in any vessel in which he is duly engaged to serve, or is found otherwise absenting himself therefrom without leave, at any place out of the United States, he may be apprehended and detained or conveyed on board. It is also made the duty of Consular Offi :ers to reclaim deserters, and to employ the local authorities for the purpose, whenever that can be done.

288.. The clothes, effects, and wages which are forfeited for desertion are to be applied in payment of the expenses occasioned by the desertion to the master or owner of the vessel from which the desertion took place, and the balance, if any, is to be paid by the master or owner to any shipping commissioner resident at the port at which the voyage of the vessel terminates. In all cases of forfeiture of wages, the forfeiture shall be for the benefit of the master or owner

12 Op. Atty. Genl. by whom the wages are payable. Under the povisions of

520.

Upon sale of vessel abroad.

this statute it has been decided that a Consular Officer has no anthority to demand and receive from the master the money and effects belonging to a deserter from the vessel.

289.. It is believed, however, that if a vessel is sold in a foreign port, and the master then has a balance of wages of a deserter in his hands, which would be delivered to the shipping commissioner if the voyage were to terminate in a port of the United States, the Consul may properly demand such balance; and he is instructed to make the necessary inquiries of the master in this respect. If the master refuses to comply with the demand, the Consul will report the facts, together with the amount of the balance and the name of the deserter, to the Department of State. If the master complies with the demand, it will be the duty of the Consul to give a receipt for any money delivered to him, and to

transmit the amount, through the Department of State, to the Shipping Commissioner at the port to which the vessel belonged, or, if there is no shipping commissioner, then to the district judge for the district in which the port is situated.

fund arising from R. S., secs. 4604,

290.. Under the provisions of statute all clothes, effects, Consul to protect and wages of deserters are forfeited, and are to be applied, forfeitures. first, to the payment of the expenses occasioned by the de- 4545. sertion, to the master or owner of the vessel, and the balance, if any, is to be paid to the shipping commissioner, and ultimately goes into a fund for the relief of sick and disabled and destitute seamen. It is the duty of a Consular Officer, so far as possible, to protect this fund. To that end, therefore, he will require the master, when a desertion list is to be settled and certified, to exhibit his slop-book and an account of all items charged against the seaman, and the amount, if any, due to him from the ship at the date of desertion. He will closely examine the account of the ship against the seaman, and he may withhold his approval, if he shall be satisfied that the account is overstated, or the prices of articles are extortionate, or that the account is fraudulent in any respect, until the master shall consent to its rectification. In settling the account of a deserter's wages, or his interest in the cargo, no allowance or deduction shall be made except for moneys actually paid, or goods at a fair price supplied, or expenses incurred for the seaman, any receipt or voucher from or arrangement with the seaman to the contrary notwithstanding.

291.. Desertion is defined to be the quitting of the ship Desertion defined. and her service by one of the ship's company, without leave and against the obligation of the party, and with an intent not again to return to the ship's duty. Neglect or refusal to rejoin the ship, after an absence with leave, when ordered to return, is desertion; but it is not desertion when a mariner, through excess of indulgence, overstays his time of leave, and when he has not refused or neglected to comply with an order to return; nor when the seaman leaves the ship on account of cruel or oppressive treatment; or for want of sufficient provisions in port when they can be procured by the