Page:Federal Reporter, 1st Series, Volume 3.djvu/930

 WORTH V. STEAM-BOA.T LI0NE8S KO. 2. 928 �H. E. Mills and J. P. Dawson, for libellants. �H. A. e A. C. Clover, for claimants. �Trbat, D. J. The demanda are b'y marinera, under ship- ping contracta. The libellants ahipped respectively at Pitts- burgh and Louisville, without shipping articles or any express statement as to the proposed voyage. AU parties knew that the vessel was engaged in towing claimant's barges from one point on the Ohio river to another point on the same river, and also to different points ou the Mississippi river. The ves- sel, in the course of her voyaging, encountered ice in the Mis- sissippi river and laid up at Bashburg, about 20 miles below St. Louis. As it was uncertain how long she might be detained, the voyage was broken up and the libellants were discharged, receiving the wages eamed to that time, They insisted upon a sum additional, sufiScient to return them to their respective ports of shipment, which request was ref used. The libels are to recover the necessary expenses of their return, and for the additional sum of $30 eaeh. �It is obvioua that the detention of the crew on full pay until the winter season ended, or the river was olear of ice, might have been very expensive to the vessel; yet their right to be transported to their port of shipment is well settled. A mariner who ships for a voyage cannot be discharged. with- out cause in a foreign port without the known legal results. When there are no shipping articles, and no preaeribed voy- age stated, the implied contract or legal preaumption is that he is to be returned to the port of ahipment. Were this otherwise, most disastrous consequences might often resuit. The doctrines as to seagoing vessels are well settled, and the principles on which they have been asserted apply to internai navigation, in the absence of any congresaional legislation upon the subject. If a mariner shipped on a vessel bound to Fort Benton, Montana, it could not be fairly urged that, in the absence of an express agreement, he could quit the vessel at Fort Benton, and with impunity disable her from retum- ing; nor, on the other hand, that he could be left in that dis- tant region without means of returning. The duties ara reciprocal. ����