SECT. 7. Application of Act to seamen. officer to whose custody the original document was entrusted, and that officer shall furnish such certified copy or extract to any person applying at a reasonable time for the same, upon payment of a reasonable sum for the same, not exceeding 4d. for every folio of 90 words; but a person shall be entitled to have— (a) a certified copy of the particulars entered by the registrar in the register book on the registry of the ship, together with a certified statement showing the ownership of the ship at the time being; and (b) a certified copy of any declaration or document, a copy of which is made evidence by this Act, on payment of one shilling for each copy. (3) If any such officer wilfully certifies any document as being a true copy or extract knowing the same not to be a true copy or extract, he shall for each offence be guilty of a misdemeanour, and be liable on conviction to imprisonment for any term not exceeding 18 months. (4) Provisions for punishment of anyone guilty of forging, &c. any such document. Where owner liable under Merchant Shipping Act, 1894. Clauses (d) and (e) of sect. 7, sub-sect. (1), provide that where an owner is liable under the Merchant Shipping Act, 1894, he shall not be liable for the same matters under the Act. (d) In the case of the death of a master, seaman, or apprentice, leaving no dependants, no compensation shall be payable, if the owner of the ship is, under the Merchant Shipping Act, 1894, liable to pay the expenses of burial : (e) The weekly payment shall not be payable in respect of the period during which the owner of the ship is, under the Merchant Shipping Act, 1894, as amended by any subsequent enactment, or otherwise, liable to defray the expenses of maintenance of the injured master, SECT. 7. seaman, or apprentice. By sect. 207 of the Merchant Shipping Act, 1891, the owner is made liable for certain expenses connected with the illness of seamen, &c. This section has already been amended by sect. 31 of the Merchant Shipping Act, 1906, and accordingly by the Interpretation Act, 1889 (u), it is by this latter Act we must determine the liability referred to. The sections are not referred to by number, but the one intended seems clearly to be the following: : 34.-(1) If the master of, or a seaman belonging to, a ship receives any hurt or injury in the service of the ship, or suffers from any illness (not being venereal disease, or an illness due to his own wilful act or default or to his own misbehaviour), the expense of providing the necessary surgical and medical advice and attendance and medicine, and also the expenses of the maintenance of the master or seaman until he is cured, or dies, or is returned to a proper return port, and of his conveyance to the port, and in the case of death the expense (if any) of his burial, shall be defrayed by the owner of the ship, without any deduction on that account from his wages. (2) If the master or a seaman is on account of any illness temporarily removed from his ship, for the purpose of preventing infection, or otherwise for the convenience of the ship, and subsequently returns to his duty, the expense of the removal and of providing the necessary advice and attendance and medicine, and of his maintenance while away from the ship, shall be defrayed in like manner. (3) The expense of all medicines, surgical and medical advice, and attendance given to a master or seaman whilst on board his ship shall be defrayed in like manner. (4) In all other cases any reasonable expenses duly incurred by the (u) Whether the Interpretation Act applies to an amending Act actually in existence when the amended Act is referred to and deliberately passed by is not Application of Act to seamen. SECT. 7. Application of Act to seamen. owner for any seaman in respect of illness, and also any reasonable expenses duly incurred by the owner in respect of the burial of any seaman who dies whilst on service shall, if duly proved, be deducted from the wages of the seaman. And the "return port" referred to is defined as follows by sect. 45 of the same Act: 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. And by sect. 742 of the Merchant Shipping Act, 1894, “port " includes a place. Under this section a difficult question has arisen. It enacts a workman shall not be entitled to compensation under the Act for such time as his employer is liable to him under this sect. 34 of the Merchant Shipping Act, and it will be observed part of such liability is to pay him his full wages. This is a very good reason for not giving him compensation in addition. But Sched. I. (3) says that in fixing the compensation "regard shall be had to any payment, allowance, or benefit which the workman may receive from the employer during the period of HIS INCAPACITY.” Therefore it was claimed, and the Court of Appeal (Kennedy, L. J., dissenting) allowed the claim, that all the wages paid during the period of incapacity should be taken into account when assessing the compensation; i.e., that for such period the workman would get no compensation, and have to refund all wages received. This hardly accords with one's sense of justice, and one would feel the true reading of the statute should be that the period from the accident until the close of the liability of Act to under the Merchant Shipping Act should not be reckoned for SECT. 7. Clause (f) requires compensation to be paid in full to a seaman. Sect. 503 of the Merchant Shipping Act, 1894, is as follows: 503.-(1) The owners of a ship, British or foreign, shall not where all or any of the following occurrences take place without their actual fault or privity (that is to say), (a) Where any loss of life or personal injury is caused to any person being carried in the ship; (b) Where any damage or loss is caused to any goods, merchandise, or other things whatsoever on board the ship; (c) Where any loss of life or personal injury is caused to any person carried in any other vessel by reason of the improper navigation of the ship; (x) McDermott v. Owners of S.S." Tintoretto, (1909) 2 K. B. 704. Hearing in the House of Lords reported in the Times, SECT. 7. Application of Act to seamen. (d) Where any loss or damage is caused to any other vessel, or to any goods, merchandise or other things whatsoever on board any other vessel, by reason of the improper navigation of the ship; be liable to damages beyond the following amounts (that is to say), (i) In respect of loss of life or personal injury, either alone or together with loss of, or damage to, vessels, goods, merchandise or other things, an aggregate amount not exceeding fifteen pounds for each ton of their ship's tonnage; and (n) In respect of loss of, or damage to, vessels, goods, merchandise, or other things, whether there be in addition loss of life or personal injury or not, an aggregate amount not exceeding eight pounds for each ton of their ship's tonnage. (2) Provides for the measurement of the tonnage of ships. The result of this clause is that an owner liable as an employer must pay his "workmen" the full amount of the compensation. they are entitled to under the Act. If the "Lusitania" went to the bottom this might be well over half a million sterling. On the other hand, if, through negligent navigation, &c. he becomes liable to other people he will be entitled to limit his liability to 157. for each ton of his ship's tonnage. (2) This Act shall not apply to such members of the crew of a fishing vessel as are remunerated by shares in the profits or the gross earnings of the working of such vessel. As regards this section the ordinary test of master and servant is not material, as the very section is framed in contemplation of the relation of master and servant being in existence. Whether we ought to read the section as solely remunerated or in part remunerated is not yet definitely decided. If a man receives fixed wages and a small percentage of the profit, the section might be held not to apply. On the other hand, where the engineer on a fishing vessel met with an accident, and he was remunerated with a twentyfourth share of the profits, it was held he was excluded from the |