Nathan Clifford

“ Shipping commissioners are vested with certain powers and are charged with the performance of certain duties in engaging seamen for the merchant service; and the act of Congress providing for their appointment forbids other persons, in certain cases, from performing the duties with which such commissioners are charged by the provisions of that act. ”

“ Seamen, however, for such a voyage must be regularly shipped; and the master, before he proceeds on the voyage, must make with each seaman whom he carries to sea as one of the crew an agreement in writing or in print, in the manner and form required by that act. Voyages of the kind not being within the operation of the body of sect. 12, the agreement is not required to be signed in the presence of such a commissioner. Instead of that, the owner or consignee or the master of the ship, so far as the ship is concerned, may himself in such a case perform the duties of such a commissioner ”

“ Tested by these considerations, it is clear that no legal offence is properly charged against the defendant, from which it follows that it must be certified to the court below that the act in question does not apply to coast ise voyages from one port to another on our Atlantic coast. ”