Page:History of merchant shipping and ancient commerce (Volume 3).djvu/40



By the Act of the 20th February, 1803, it was provided that the master of any merchant vessel, clearing for a foreign port, should enter into a bond in the sum of 400l. for the production of his crew at the first port at which he should arrive on his return to the United States, unless any one or more of the crew had been discharged in a foreign country, with the consent of the American consul or commercial agent of the United States, except in the case of death, of absconding, or of forcible impressment into some other service. This Act, likewise, provided that, when a vessel was sold abroad, and the crew discharged by mutual consent, the master should pay to the consul for any seaman thus discharged three months' wages over and above those he had earned up to the time of his discharge; two-thirds thereof to be paid to the seaman himself, on his engagement to return to the United States, and the remaining third to be retained towards a fund for the payment of the passages for seamen, citizens of the United States, who may be desirous of returning home; and for the maintenance of destitute American seamen resident at the port of discharge.

Although many persons were of opinion that the Act of 1803, requiring, under the circumstances named, a payment of three months' extra wages, and empowering consuls to send seamen home, disabled or otherwise, "in the most reasonable manner," frequently led to improper expenditure, and that a more strict accountability, than then existed, ought to be enforced, these clauses remained unaltered until 1840, when their features were changed; consuls and commercial agents of the United States being