Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XIV.djvu/895

 SHIPPING 869 a ship be transferred while at sea or abroad, the old register must be given up, and all the requirements of law as to registry must be complied with within three days after her arrival at the home port. The rights of part owners of ships form an important branch of the law of shipping. Two or more per- sons may become part owners by building a ship together, or by joining in purchasing it, or each may purchase his share independent- ly of the others ; and their rights and obliga- tions are the same in all these cases. A ship may form part of the stock or capital of a co- partnership, and then it will be governed in all respects by the law of partnership. But part owners are not necessarily partners. Any one of them may at any time sell his share, but he cannot sell the share of any other part own- er without his authority. A majority of the owners may generally direct the employment of the ship at their discretion ; but a court of admiralty will interfere to do justice between them, and prevent any one from inflicting in- jury on the others. In the absence of the rest, and without prohibition from them, one part owner may, in the exercise of good faith and a sound discretion, manage the ship as for him- self and them; and the contracts into which he enters in relation to the employment or preservation of the ship bind all the part own- ers in favor of an innocent third party. In general, all the part owners are liable in soli- do, or each one for the whole amount, for all the repairs of a ship or for necessaries actually supplied to her in good faith ; but if it can be clearly shown that especial credit was given and intended to be given to one owner person- ally to the exclusion of the others, the others cannot be holden. One of the part owners generally acts as ship's husband. His ordina- ry duty and authority include equipping and repairing the ship, taking care of her while in port, furnishing her with all regular and proper papers, and making contracts for freight or passage. He cannot unless specially em- powered make insurance, buy a cargo, borrow money, or surrender the owners' lien on the cargo for freight. The owner of a ship may employ it in carrying his own goods or those of another. He may carry the goods of oth- ers while he himself retains the possession and direction of the ship, or he may lease it to others. In one case, he carries goods on freight ; in the other, he lets his ship by char- ter party. When goods are carried on freight, the rights and obligations of ship owner and shipper are stated generally in the bill of lading, which is now in universal use among commer- cial nations with but little, variety of form It should contain the names of the consignor and consignee of the vessel, of the master, of the places of departure and destination; also the price to be paid as freight, with primage and other charges if any there be ; and either in the body of the bill or in the margin the marks and numbers of the things shipped The bill should be signed by tho master of the ship,, who by the strict maritime law has no authority to sign a bill of lading until the goods are actually on board. One copy of the bill of lading is usually retained by the master, and three copies are given to the consignor; of these he retains one, and the others he sends to the consignee, one of them with tho goods and the other by some other conveyance. The bill promises delivery to the consignee or his assigns. The consignee may designate his as- signs by a particular indorsement, or he may indorse the bill in blank. As the bill is evi- dence against the ship owner as to the recep- tion of the goods, and their quantity and quali- ty, it is common to say : " Contents unknown." Yet between the ship owner and the shipper the bill is not conclusive, and the former may show that the goods were injured or destroyed on the passage by reason of some intrinsic de- fect, which was not apparent or easily to be as- certained when the goods were shipped. But if the bill has altered the situation of parties relying on its truth, so that either an innocent party must suffer or else the ship owner whose agent signed the bill either fraudulently or heedlessly, it is he and not the innocent party who must bear the loss. The contract of af- freightment is entire ; therefore no freight is earned unless the whole is earned by carrying the goods quite to their destination. If the transportation is incomplete, having been in- terrupted by wreck or other cause, there is no absolute right of freight. Yet there is a con- ditional right ; for as soon as the ship receives the goods, it not only comes under the obligation of carrying them to their destination, but at the same time, or perhaps more exactly, on break- ing ground and beginning the voyage, acquires the right of so carrying them. Therefore, if any interruption intervene, the ship owner has the right of transshipping the goods and carry- ing them on to their original destination. The goods are to be delivered by the bill of lading in good condition excepting " the dangers of the seas," and such other risks or perils as may be expressed. Damage caused to goods by an excepted risk is therefore the loss of the ship- per or consignor, and not the loss of the own- er. But if goods are lost in substance, even if not in form, as if sugar is washed out of boxes or hogsheads, or wine leaks out of casks by reason of injury sustained from a peril of the sea, though the master may deliver the hogsheads or casks, this is not a delivery of the sugar or of the wine, and no freight is due. But freight must be paid if the goods are in- jured or actually perish and disappear from any internal defect or decay or change; that is, from causes inherent in the goods themselves If goods are delivered, although damaged am deteriorated from faults for which the ship owner is responsible, as bad stowage, deviation, negligent navigation, or the like, freight is due, the amount of the damage being first deducted. The rules in respect to passage money are quit