JANE. for the deliberation of the Court, and I have come to a conclusion. 1. That the receipts and discharges of claims by the crew of the vessel given in December last, are not a bar to their further claim for compensation. The receipts are good evidence of the money received, and for which they are to be charged, but no further. It appears to me from the testimony of Blouin the pilot, and of two of the messmates, that the settlement and receipts were made under undue and oppressive influence, and without free consent. The information upon which the coercion was founded was not true; at least there is no evidence that the vessel was regularly condemned, and for aught that appears, the information may have been false. Mariners, in the view of Admiralty law, are inopes consilii, and are under the special protection of the Court, in like manner as minors and weak persons are entitled to have the guardianship of a Court of Chancery thrown over them. They are treated as wards of the Admiralty. The observation of Lord Stowell in the case of the Juliana (a), and of Judge Story in Harden v. Gordon (b), as well as of Judge Ware in the case of the David Pratt (c), show in a strong light the jealousy and vigilance, and parental care of the Admiralty, in respect to hard dealings, under forbidden aspects, with the wages of seamen. I think that in the spirit and policy of the cases, the discharges and receipts in full, almost I may say extorted from the seamen, ought not to bar an equitable claim for compensation beyond what the promoters have received. 2. The amount of the compensation is another, and perhaps a more unsettled question. The decision of Lord Stowell in the case of the Elizabeth (d), comes nearer to the case before us than anything I have seen. It is there (a) 2 Dodson, 504. (c) Ware, 495. said that though the master be not at liberty to discharge his crew in a foreign port without their consent (and if he does, the maritime law gives the seamen entire wages for the voyage with the expenses of return), yet that circumstances-as a semi-naufragium-where repairs may be doubtful or very dilatory, might vest in him an authority to do so, upon proper conditions, as by providing and paying for their return passage, and their wages up to the time of their arrival at home. I think the present case would warrant the adoption of this rule; and yet there is a latitudinary discretion resting in the Admiralty Judge and must be under the special circumstances— and I apprehend he may consider what would be most just and reasonable; as, whether the wages were to be continued to the arrival of the seamen in England, or to the nearest open American commercial port, say Boston, or until the opening of the navigation of the St. Lawrence. One or the other of the alternatives, I think I must adopt, and from a local knowledge and view of the circumstances of this case, as they appear before me, I award wages, including the expense of board and lodging until the opening of the navigation of the St. Lawrence (e). Alleyn, for promoters. Duval, Q. C., for respondents. (e) The Factor, MSS. Reports of the Vice-Admiralty Court at Quebec, 16th June, 1836. JANE. LADY SEATON. Tuesday, 16th November, 1847. LADY SEATON-SPENCER. General Merchant Seamen's Act (7 & 8 Vict. c. 112, s. 2). Articles not signed by the master, as required by the General Merchant Seamen's Act, cannot be enforced. This was a proceeding on the part of William Hodgson, to recover a sum of money due to him for wages earned on a voyage from the port of London to Quebec. The demand was objected to on the ground that he had entered into an agreement with the master on the 1st of September last, to proceed on a voyage from London to Quebec and Montreal and "back to a port of discharge in Great Britain." It was urged, on the other hand, that the mariner's contract was irregular, because it had not been signed by the master as required by the Merchant Seamen's Act. The magistrate, before whom the complaint on behalf of the seaman was made under the authority of that Act, referred the case to be adjudged by this Court, and the following judgment was this day pronounced. JUDGMENT.-Hon. Henry Black. I am called upon in this case to enforce indirectly,-by refusing to the promoter wages for the services rendered by him to the ship,- his executory contract to Great Britain, as the ultimate port of discharge in the articles which have been produced, those articles not being signed by the master. The law respecting the reducing to writing in shipping articles the agreement between the seamen and the master is but a part of the law, as well common as statute, which relates to this important object, and to form a right adjudication upon any branch of it, it is necessary to have in mind the whole scope and policy LADY SEATON. of the one and the other law upon that head. Without touching upon this branch of law further than is necessary for the question immediately under consideration, it is to be observed that one of the ends and objects of that law is to ascertain with certainty, for the protection of a class of persons who, from their habits of carelessness and over-confidence, are often over-reached, the contract into which they enter, both as to the amount of remuneration that they are to receive, the description of the service, and the penalties to which they render themselves liable by any dereliction of the duties which are imposed upon them. The ship's articles, and the signing of them by the seamen, are therefore of importance, as settling the terms of the contract, and rendering present to the mind of the seaman, as a conventional obligation upon him, with the binding force of which he is better acquainted than that of statutes which he does not read,the necessity of obedience to the master, and of the faithful discharge of his duty; adding at once a promise to perform it, and an agreement to suffer all the penalties which the law imposes in case of failure. To attain this end, the legislature has prescribed a certain form of articles; they have conferred upon the master, upon his observing these forms, summary and extraordinary means of enforcing this contract, otherwise a simple contract locati conducti; and they have, on the other hand, subjected him to pecuniary penalties for taking into the service of the ship a seaman without executing regular articles. This contract stands not then upon the footing of an ordinary contract locati conducti. The provisions just adverted to are provisions of a great maritime power, in the discipline and order of whose seamen is to be found not only the foundation of its merchant navy, but also that of its national navy. With an object in view of such high importance, and to LADY SEATON. use the words of the preamble of the statute, to promote the increase of the number of such seamen, and to afford them all due encouragement and protection, on a large, constant, and ready supply of whom the prosperity, strength, and safety of the United Kingdom and of Her Majesty's dominions do greatly depend, it is enacted, "That it shall not be lawful for any master of any ship of whatever tonnage or description belonging to any subject of Her Majesty, proceeding to parts beyond the seas, or of any British registered ship of the burden of eighty tons or upwards, employed in any of the fisheries of the United Kingdom, or in proceeding coastwise, or otherwise, from one part of the United Kingdom to another, to carry to sea any seaman as one of his crew or complement (apprentices excepted), unless the master of such ship shall have first made and entered into an agreement in writing with such seaman, specifying what wages such seaman is to be paid, the quantity of provisions he is to receive, the capacity in which he is to act or serve, and the nature of the voyage in which the ship is to be employed, so that such seaman may have some means of judging of the period for which he is likely to be engaged; and that such agreement shall be properly dated, and shall be signed by such master in the first instance, and by the seamen respectively at the port or place where they shall be shipped; and that the signature of each of the parties thereto shall be duly attested by one witness at the least, and that the master shall cause the agreement to be read over and explained to every such seaman in the presence of such witness, before such seaman shall execute the same" (a). The statute confers summary remedies in various cases for enforcing this contract against the seamen, and subjects the master to a penalty of 107. for every seaman he shall carry out to sea with (a) 7 & 8 Vict. c. 112, s. 2. |