(b) Consular investigation. In any case of misdemeanor or crime involving seamen on board vessels of the United States or American seamen, the consular officer shall investigate the circumstances in a manner appropriate to the situation. He should question witnesses separately and obtain their signatures to their statements as soon after their giving testimony as is possible. When there is apparent conflict in testimony, a witness may be allowed to make a second affidavit to supplement his first statement if that appears desirable.

(c) Consular action on misconduct cases. Consular officers shall discourage insubordination by every practicable means. The master of a vessel has considerable disciplinary power under the statues to cope with minor misdemeanors of which seamen may be guilty aboard ship. Masters should be assisted in taking authorized disciplinary measures when the evidence to support such action is considered sufficient. The consular officer may make suitable entiries in the ship's log as an official record of his recommendations to the master in the premises. Seamen guilty of misconduct should not be discharged unless their acts were caused by cruel treatment, or their presence on board ship would constitute a menace to the discipline of the vessel or endanger its operation. In discharging such seamen, the consular officer will give the reason therefor on the ship's articles and official log, properly certified by him.

(d) Consular action on criminal cases. When seamen accused of crime come under the jurisdiction of a consular officer, he shall obtain all possible sworn testimony and on the basis of such information take appropriate action. A consular officer has discretionary authority to return a seaman to the United States for trial. If the circumstances demand that the offender be sent to the United States for trial, the consular officer may discharge the seaman and apply to the local authorities for means to secure and detain him while he remains in port. Arrangements for return of witnesses will be made by the Depart

ment of Justice at the appropriate time.

(e) Consular action on mutiny cases. Consular officers shall investigate promptly reports of mutinies on vessels of the United States which arrive in their districts and, when necessary, shall take measures, consistent with treaties and usuage, to establish order on the vessel and to return the mutineers to the United States for trial. Consular officers have a wide discretion in deciding whether evidence justifies the detention and return to United States for trial of persons charged with mutiny.

(f) Detention of accused aboard ship. The accused shall be placed in the custody of the master who shall take such measures as he deems necessary to detain the seaman. The master will be given certified copies of the affidavits taken in the case to be turned over to the authority taking custody of the accused in the continental United States.

(R.S. 4600, as amended; 46 U.S.C. 703)

relief and repatriation of all seamen separated from their vessels at foreign ports for any reason except desertion or shipwreck.

§ 84.2 Financial responsibility of United States Government.

By statute, a United States consular officer must furnish or cause to be furnished relief and repatriation to any destitute American seamen, including seamen from documented fishing vessels of the United States. He is responsible in a like manner for shipwrecked or ill or injured American seamen, and is solely responsible for certified deserters who are United States citizens. He has temporary responsibility for the relief of stranded alien seamen signed on abroad and separated from vessels of the United States because of shipwreck, illness or injury, or bankruptcy on the part of the shipowner.

§ 84.3 Consular investigation of applicants for relief.

Before granting relief, a consular officer shall satisfy himself that the seaman is entitled to relief under the statutes, maritime usages, and Comptroller General decisions.

§ 84.4 Destitute seamen.

The question as to whether an American seaman is destitute within the meaning of R.S. 4577 (46 U.S.C. 678) is one for determination in the first instance by the United States consular officer to whom the seaman applies for relief. The consular officer's decision, in the absence of contrary facts, is sufficient. [2 Comp. Gen. 317]

§ 84.5 Shipwrecked seamen.

When seamen from vessels of the United States arrive after shipwreck at a port within a consular district, the consular officer concerned shall make immediate arrangements for their relief. Relief may be afforded without regard to the nationality of the seaman, whether he has status as an American seaman (see § 81.1(j) of this chapter) or whether he has funds in his possession. In addition, American seamen, if they cannot be reshipped should be provided with passage to the United States or to an intermediate

port where employment may be had or passage obtained. Alien seamen shipped at foreign ports are not entitled to transportation to the United States or to the port of shipment. However, an alien seaman may be granted temporary relief until reshipment is possible or until arrangement can be made with representatives of the government of which the alien seaman is a citizen or subject, for his care and transportation or other relief at the expense of that government. If the owners or operators of a shipwrecked vessel assume responsibility for the relief and repatriation of survivors, consular officers should interpose no objection. This assumption of responsibility which is customary, is on a voluntary basis and is in no sense demanded by the Department of State or consular officers. Seamen from shipwrecked yachts are to be granted relief only if destitute in fact, although seamen from fishing and whaling vessels may be furnished relief as outlined above.

(R.S. 4526, as amended; 46 U.S.C. 593)

§ 84.6 Ill or injured seamen.

(a) Statutory responsibility of Government. The statutes provide that when a seaman becomes ill or is injured in the service of a vessel of the United States and is formally discharged before a consular officer by reason of being incapacitated on account of such injury or illness relief may be furnished the seaman by the consular officer, regardless of the cause of his illness or injury and regradless of whether or not the said seaman may have funds of his own sufficient for his immediate needs. Also relief may be furnished ill or injured seamen from documented fishing vessels even if not signed on shipping articles.

(b) Responsibility of owners under maritime practice. Maritime usage has placed upon the operator of the vessel the primary responsibility for ill or injured seamen whose disability is not the result of their own misconduct.

(c) Responsibility according to Comptroller General. The Comptroller General, to whom United States consular officers must account for ex

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penditure of Government funds, has placed responsibility for all ill or injured seamen, regardless of the cause of their disability, upon the operators and has indicated that consular officers should not discharge seamen until responsibility for their care and repatriation has been assumed by the master or agent on behalf of operators. The Comptroller General has stated that notwithstanding a seaman's discharge from a vessel on account of venereal disease, a duty devolves upon a shipping company to furnish hospitalization, subsistence and repatriation to a seaman then and previously in its employ, and to furnish such reasonable medical care and treatment as may be necessary during the return voyage. Under maritime custom and as a matter of public policy, the obligation of the shipping company goes further than a mere contractual relationship with the seaman, and said obligation is not terminated on the discharge of the seaman in a foreign country. [Comp. Gen. A-17383, April 1, 1927]

(d) Effect of failure to discharge before consular officer. If the seaman becomes ill, or is injured in the service of a vessel, whether or not through his own fault, but is not discharged before a consular officer, the consular officer is not required by law to furnish relief to the seaman from United States funds unless the said seaman is found destitute within the consular officer's district. If a seaman becomes ill or is injured while a member of the crew of a vessel and is place in a hospital by the master of the vessel prior to his being discharged before a consular officer, the consular officer is not authorized to pay from Government funds any part of the hospital expenses incurred, either after discharge if later accomplished or prior thereto.

(e) Emergency relief at Government expense. Where conditions are such that United States consular officers cannot procure prompt medical and hospital treatment and subsistence for American seamen at the expense of the master or owner of the vessel upon which the seaman last served, relief may be furnished at the expense of the Government and payment made therefor from the appropriation for

the relief of American seamen. Refu al on the part of a master or owne should be in writing in order that th consular officer may show basis for ex penditure of funds.

(f) Liability of shipowner. Consula officers shall report promptly all case were vessels or owners refuse t assume responsibility for the care an repatriation of seamen in accordanc with law. 29 Op. Att. Gen. 54 states:

An American seaman, disabled in the ser ice of the vessel and who was left in a hosp tal at a foreign port, is entitled to medica expenses incident to a recovery from th injury and transportation back to th United States, and where these expenses ar paid out of funds belonging to the Unite States, after notice to the owners of th Ivessel that they were liable for the sam and demand made for payment, the owner of the vessel may be held liable therefor. (R.S. 4581, as amended; 46 U.S.C. 683)

§ 84.7 Stragglers.

A seaman, who fails to rejoin his vessel but without intent to desert, is termed a "straggler". Responsibility for his maintenance and repatriation remains with the shipowner. [Comp. Gen. A-30607, Mar. 22, 1930]

§ 84.8 Deserters.

(a) Responsibility of the Government. There is no obligation on the owner of a vessel from which an American seaman has deserted while the vessel was at a foreign port to transport the seaman back to the United States, and where such seaman has become destitute while abroad payment from public funds for transportation back to the United States, even though furnished on a vessel of the same company as the vessel on which the seaman originally shipped, may be made under the laws applicable to destitute American seamen. [3 Comp. Gen. 936] (See § 82.19 of this chapter.)

(b) Documentation of deserters. However, the Comptroller General will not recognize desertions unless reported if possible by the master to a consular officer at the port of desertion within forty-eight hours or, where necessary, at the next port of call. The desertion must be certified by the consular officer and all desertions must conform to the definitions given in

§ 82.19 of this chapter. A copy of the log of a vessel certified by a United States shipping commissioner stating that a seaman had deserted the vessel in a foreign port, unsupported by evidence that the seaman was reported as a deserter to an American consular officer within forty-eight hours and by a certificate of desertion issued by the consular officer in accordance with these regulations in this part, is not sufficient to establish desertion or that the company has been relieved of liability to return the seaman to the United States. [8 Comp. Gen. 194]

§ 84.9 Relief at Government expense.

(a) Lodging and subsistence. The lodging should be in a healthy locality, removed, if possible, from scenes of temptation and vice. The subsistence should be simple but sufficient. It is usual to contract for the board of

seamen.

(b) Clothing. The clothing should be as inexpensive as is consistent with strength and durability. The quantity of clothing furnished should be limited to that necessary adequately to clothe the seaman until his arrival in the United States.

(c) Medical attendance and medicine. Medical attendance and medicine may be provided in emergency cases. These should be obtained at a hospital, if there is one in the place, unless special instructions to the contrary are given. If private treatment is provided, the voucher must indicate the reasons.

§ 84.10 Repatriation ports.

(a) Shipwrecked American seamen. In cases of shipwreck, American seamen survivors are entitled to repatriation to the port of shipment, regardless of whether it is a foreign port or a United States port. However, shipwrecked American seamen shipped in a foreign port, may if they prefer and the circumstances are not unfavorable, be repatriated to a port in the continental United States. (See paragraphs (c) and (d) of this section.)

(b) Destitute American seamen. The primary purpose of repatriation at Government expense is to make the seamen available for service in the American merchant marine. Therefore, destitute American seamen,

other than survivors of shipwrecks, are entitled to repatriation only to a port in the United States. The port of repatriation may be any convenient port in the continental United States to which the transporting vessel is destined. For rules governing repatriation to an insular or territorial port of the United States or to an intermediate port, see paragraphs (c) and (d) of this section.

(c) Repatriation to United States insular or territorial ports. Employment conditions in ports of the territorial and insular possessions of the United States do not ordinarily warrant consular officers in repatriating American seamen to such ports. Consular officers should not, therefore, arrange for the transportation of American seamen to ports of the territorial or insular possessions of the United States, except those of the Panama Canal Zone, unless the seamen reside in those ports or other special circumstances clearly warrant such action. (d) Repatriation to intermediate ports. In places where opportunities for repatriating seamen seldom occur and employment on board vessels of the United States cannot be obtained, the consular officer may send destitute seamen to an intermediate port. He shall consider the relative cost of keeping the seamen where they are and at the port to which they can be sent, together with the expense of their passage there and the probability that they may obtain employment at that port or a passage home; and he shall adopt the course which may seem best, having a due regard for the interests of the United States and a proper concern for the seamen.

able to travel, accept the first offer of repatriation whether as a workaway or otherwise. Refusal to accept passage deprives the seaman of his right to further assistance.

§ 84.12 Repatriation of seamen without consular authorization.

(a) Authorized expenditures. Whenever distressed or destitute American seamen are transported from foreign ports where there is no United States consular officer, or from points on the high seas, to ports of the United States; or from such foreign ports or points on the high seas to a port accessible to a United States consular officer for the further relief and repatriation of such seamen, the master or owner of the transporting vessel shall be allowed such compensation as the Secretary of State determines is equitable.

(b) Transportation direct to the United States. Accounts and claims for transporting direct to a port of the United States distressed or destitute seamen picked up at sea or at some foreign port where there is no United States consular officer should be submitted to the Secretary of State for consideration and transmittal to the Comptroller General. Such claims should be accompanied by satisfactory evidence as to the services rendered, the length of time the seamen were on board the transporting vessel, and the arrival of the seamen in the United States.

(c) Transportation to Foreign Service office. When distressed or destitute American seamen picked up at sea or at a foreign port where there is no United States consular officer are transported to a port where there is a consular officer or to a port accessible to his office, the consular officer is authorized to pay the master of the transporting vessel an amount not exceeding 60 cents a day for each seaman. The master may, if he does not consider such compensation adequate, submit his claim direct to the Secretary of State. The claim will receive the administrative consideration of the Secretary of State, and will then be sent to the Comptroller General for settlement.

§ 85.1 Financial responsibility for burial of seamen.

(a) Owners or operators of vessels of the United States. The owner of a vessel of the United States is responsible for the payment of burial expenses of a seaman from the vessel, if such owner would have been liable for the seaman's care, subsistence and repatriation but for the seaman's death. The burial expenses are properly chargeable to the ship and may not be deducted from the seaman's wages.

(b) United States Government. Burial expenses are paid by the Government only in cases where the circumstances would have warranted expenditure of Government funds for the seaman's maintanance and repatriation if he had not died. The expenses chargeable to the Government are for preparation of the remains and ordinary expenses of interment in foreign countries or in territories and possessions of the United States. A United States flag may be used to drape the casket. Although charges for flowers, religious services, and other similiar items, which are not necessary for interment, are not allowable, the service should be conducted with dignity. Vouchers covering burial expenses must be fully itemized to show the cost of each item.

§ 85.2 Shipment of remains.

No appropriation is available for the shipment of remains of seamen.