Page:Federal Reporter, 1st Series, Volume 7.djvu/700

 688 TEOEBAL BEPOBTSR. �authority upon the questions involved in this case. The case of TTie Lionesa, decided by Judge Treat, of the eastem district of Missouri, and reported in the third volume of the Fedeeal Eepobter, page 922, is analogous in many of its features to this. The Lionesa was a tow-boat engaged upon the Ohio and Mississippi rivers, her home port being Pittsburgh. Her crew were shipped in the spring, for the season. The boat was laid up by the ice at a small landing about 20 miles below St. Louis. In that case the learned judge allowed the men their wages until the time of their arrivai at their home port, as well as their expenses. I do not find any warrant in the authorities cited in th^t case for the payment of wages, as a rule, until the arrivai of the crew at the port of shipment; although that case was undoubtedly rightly de- cided, in view of its special facts. �In the case of an American vessel sold in a foreign port before the completion of her voyage, the master bas a right to discharge his seamen; but he must pay them three months' wages and their expenses home, or make some suit- able provision, approved by the American consul at the port where the discharge takes place. But this law affords no criterion or rule for the government of the master in a case like this. �I am, therefore, of opinion that the report and finding of the commissioner in this case should be sustained. The exceptions to the report will be overruled, and a decree en- tered in conformity with the recommendation of the com- missioner, awarding the libellants their wages, and their expenses from Escanaba to Chicago, together with the costs of this suit, to be taxed. ��� �