Shipping documents

“ These proofs, however, will be found mostly to supply an indirect kind of evidence; they contain no direct information regarding the existence and development of a national shipping which is certainly implied in the existence, development, and continuance of that maritime trade to which they so conclusively refer. ”

“ When goods come in, the receiving clerk will refer to his file of purchase order copies to find if the goods have been ordered. It will be remembered that an alphabetical file has been recommended for these orders, which are to be filed under the name of the shipper. The reason for this is that the package does not always show the nature of its contents, while the name of the shipper is almost invariably shown somewhere on the package or on the shipping tag. ”

“ All other kinds of goods imported and exported come and go without let or hindrance. The masters of vessels report on arrival, and before departure, the approximate quantity of cargo carried, and, to a certain extent, its nature. But the returns cannot be regarded as in any way even an approximation of the truth, and the value of the goods I cannot attempt to estimate. The Annual Reports of the Harbour Master give very exhaustive details of the origin and destination of the cargoes, as of the shipping using the port, and many other matters of interest. ”

“ Moreover, the vessels being loaded, must be provided with such certificates, or manifests, or other public documents, as are commonly given to vessels which depart from the ports from whence they have last sailed, containing a specification of the cargo, of the place from whence the vessel has departed, and that of her destination, in order that it may be known whether there are any contraband effects on board of the vessels, and whether they are destined to carry them to an enemy's country, or not. ”

“ By the law of the United States, in all foreign voyages, and in all coasting voyages to other than an adjoining state, there must be an agreement in writing, or in print, with every seaman on board the ship, (excepting only apprentices and servants of the master or owner,) declaring the voyage, and term or terms of time, for which such seaman is hired. [133] This contract is called the shipping-articles, and all the crew, including the master and officers, usually sign the same paper; it not being requisite that there should be a separate paper for each man. ”

“ He is not even to be presumed the owner, but may as probably be a shipping agent merely, who has fully executed all his authority by making the shipment. He has no funds for the purpose of these charges. He does not demand back the goods, but lets them go forward to their original destination on the old freight contract; they arrive in safety at New York. There is the place of destination, reached by the cargo. There is the proper place, and only proper place, of valuing the vessel, an American registered ship. The freight being lost, is a freight to the home port of destination. ”

“ Upon due compliance with such of the provisions of this section as relate to acts to be done at the port of destination in the United States, the shipping-commissioner shall grant to the master a certificate to that effect. No officer of customs shall clear any foreign-going vessel without the production of such certificate. ”

“ Besides making the packages of suitable size, goods for export must be packed to withstand hard usage, and must be well protected against the elements. Goods must be fully and accurately described in order that they may pass the custom house. The dimensions of each package must be shown on the shipping bills, for freight rates are based on the space occupied in the hold of the ship, rather than on weight. ”

“ Such collector of customs shall thereupon record the certificate. In case of a vessel covered by a preferred mortgage, the collector of customs at the port of documentation shall (1) indorse upon the documents of the vessel, or direct the collector of customs at any port in which the vessel is found, to so indorse, the fact of such discharge, and (2) shall deny clearance to the vessel until such indorsement is made. ”

“ Power is further taken by the Board of Trade to institute a special investigation, wherever there is reason to apprehend that any serious accident, occasioning loss of life or property, has been sustained, or that any of the provisions of the Act, or of any other Act relating to merchant shipping or merchant sailors, has been grossly neglected or disobeyed ”

“ The Merchant Marine Act of June 5, 1920 (see Appendix) , provides that no American vessel shall be sold or transferred to any one not a citizen or placed under foreign registry without obtaining the approval of the Shipping Board. Any vessel transferred in violation of this provision is subject to forfeiture and fine. An American vessel may not be sold by order of a district court of the United States in a suit in rem in admiralty to any person not an American citizen. ”

“ There is no obligation on the master to deliver part of the goods in a single bill of lading upon payment of part of the freight. (Abbott on Shipping, 493, marginal paging 377.)
3. The contract of the parties here is express, that the consignee shall receive the goods at 'the ship's tackles,' and that freight must be paid 'prior to delivery, if required.' The stamp is a part of the contract. ”

“ National vessels shall be liable to the same penalties on coming from a foreign port, and entering any of those not open to foreign commerce, if found shipping any effects whatever for a foreign country, and when they are found loading or unloading any kind of goods whatever at ports or places not open to foreign commerce or to the coasting trade. ”

“ On referring to the Customs’ entries and clearances, it will be found that out of the 5,000,000 tons of British shipping annually so entered, 2,000,000 came from our own colonies and dependencies, but that no less than 3,000,000 of British shipping are entered from foreign countries (“Hear, hear!” and confusion) , thus proving that our trade with foreign countries is much more valuable to us than the trade with our own possessions (cries of “Question!”) ”

“ If such a distinction had existed, the 'new lights' shed by the awareness of ever increasing complexity in modern shipping, a complexity equally incomprehensible to the shipper whether he deals with a private or common carrier, could, perhaps not without propriety, have been taken by this Court as a reason for erasing it. ”

“ Forwarders also have many other incidental duties. They check the marks on shipping papers and containers in order to be certain that they are in accordance with the regulations of the country of destination. They convert weights and measurements into the metric system when necessary. They keep records, for the convenience of the exporter, of all shipments dispatched. ”

“ These restrictive laws often compel merchants to buy what they require, at greatly enhanced prices, articles not produced in the country from whence they are imported; as is the case in your importations from England of cotton, sugar, coffee, hemp, jute, silk, foreign wool, and numerous other articles, all arising in a great measure from the fact that the differential duties [315] imposed by your Navigation Laws oblige you to import foreign manufactures or produce, either in your own ships or in the ships of the country where the articles were produced. ”

“ Shippers have a lien by the maritime law upon the vessel employed in the transportation of their goods and merchandise from one port to another, as a security for the fulfilment of the contract of the carrier, that he will safely keep, duly transport, and rightly deliver the goods and merchandise shipped on board, as stipulated in the bill of lading or other contract of shipment. ”

“ Without these formalities, the sale is valid as against the grantor and persons having actual notice only; not as against any other persons claiming an interest in the ship. If an American vessel be sold to an alien without obtaining the Shipping Board's approval and without recording the transfer, the vessel is liable for forfeiture. ”

“ Similar agreements are required for vessels engaged in the coasting trade; but, in this case, they need only be entered into once in six months, and may be signed either on board the vessel or at the shipping office. Penalties are inflicted on masters for taking seamen to sea without such agreement, or for its non-production if required by the British Consul abroad, or by the shipping master, or Collector of Customs in the ports of Great Britain.
The masters and officers are examined in seamanship in its varied branches, as well as in navigation ”

“ Though the entries and clearances of British ships engaged in trade between the United Kingdom and her colonies, and foreign countries, could at both periods be obtained with accuracy, there were no certain returns of the amount of tonnage and of the number of men engaged in the Coasting trade, as the Customs did not take any notice of vessels sailing in ballast or with cargoes of a certain description. ”

“ The vast amount of shipping, now being built to class in Lloyd’s Register, is doubtless due chiefly to the confidence which the British shipping community repose in the Society’s present rules for the building of vessels, and the manner in which they are administered. ”

“ To make rules and regulations affecting shipping in the foreign trade not in conflict with law in order to adjust or meet general or special conditions unfavorable to shipping in the foreign trade, whether in any particular trade or upon any particular route or in commerce generally and which arise out of or result from foreign laws, rules, or regulations or from competitive methods or practices employed by owners, operators, agents, or masters of vessels of a foreign country ”

“ Indeed the exigencies of trade alone required that English merchant vessels should be provided in time of war with legally authorised certificates, so that they might be at once distinguished from those of other nations. Besides, the incalculable amount of property entrusted to owners of vessels obviously requires that their ships should be identifiable by a proper system of registration ”

“ It is reasonable to conclude that the interests concerned with shipping in its national and international aspects are substantially unconcerned with the rules of law to be applied to such limited situations. ”

“ The great difficulty in any method of shipping control is communication with the shipping itself and full co-operation by the merchant personnel. The moment a ship is captured the code either becomes dangerous or useless. The merchant code is being continually changed, and at all times it cannot be counted upon for more than a fortnight. ”

“ To limit § 15 to agreements that 'affect competition,' as the Commission used that phrase in the present case, simply does not square with the structure of the statute. [23]
The legislative history offers no support for a different view. The genesis of the Shipping Act was the 'Alexander Report' in 1914. ”

“ Art. 93. Such merchandise as is not subject to an export duty, shipped in a Moorish port to be transported by sea to some other port in the Empire, shall be accompanied by a certificate issued by the customs, under penalty of being subjected to the payment of import duties, and even of being confiscated, if not entered in the manifest. ”

“ Through the cooperation of the Post Office Department and the Shipping Board long-term contracts are being made with American steamship lines for carrying mail, which already promise the construction of 15 to 20 new vessels and the gradual reestablishment of the American merchant marine as a private enterprise. No action of the National Government has been so beneficial to our shipping. ”

“ The preparatory examinations of the captain and some of the crew of the captured ship are then taken, upon a set of standing interrogatories, before the commissioners of the port to which the prize is brought. These also are forwarded to the registry of the Court of Admiralty. A written notice, called a monition, is extracted by the captor from the registry, and served upon the Royal Exchange, notifying the capture, and calling upon all persons interested, to appear and show cause why the ship and goods should not be condemned. ”

“ There appear to be now employed in these questionable operations, no less than 117 Government surveyors, “shipwrights,” and “engineers,” stationed at different ports in the United Kingdom, twelve of whom are retired officers of the Royal Navy, besides a good many so-called “shipwrights,” who can have very little knowledge of the construction of merchant ships or of their requirements. ”

“ This important section of the Merchant Shipping Act of 1854 requires all sea-going vessels to be provided with a certain number of boats in proportion to their tonnage and the trade in which they are engaged. It lays down rules as to the meeting and passing of ships at sea, and the use of lights and fog-signals—a regulation of daily increasing importance and more completely carried [Pg 312] out in 1863, from the vast number of vessels now traversing the ocean, and especially the English and other great channels of commerce. ”

“ The Act also ordered that her name and the port to which she belonged should be painted conspicuously on her stern, and that her certificate of registration should contain full particulars of her dimensions, age, and owners, together with the name of her commander and other details. [227]
Some eminent writers on commerce, among whom the late J. R. McCulloch [228] stands conspicuous, have doubted the utility of compulsory registration; but this system, in after years materially improved, has been of great service to the State, as well as to individual shipowners. ”