Log-book.
- dential person, to whom the owners, shippers, and
insurers look, in some measure, for special duties and qualifications. The master, therefore, cannot remove him from office, when abroad, except under very peculiar circumstances, and then must be able to prove his action in the matter justifiable. One of these duties which the law throws upon him, as we have shown, is the keeping of the log-book. This is a very important trust, as the record of the evidence of everything occurring during the voyage, the position of the ship, the sail she was under, the wind, and so forth, at any one given moment, may become matters of great consequence to all concerned. So it is in like manner with reference to anything that may occur between the master or officers and the crew. Each officer, at the end of his watch, not merely enters on the log-slate, which usually lies on the cabin table, or in some convenient place, the courses, distances, wind and weather during his watch, and anything worthy of note that may have occurred, but it is the duty of the chief mate once in twenty-four hours to copy from the slate the entries into the log-book, and to vouch for their accuracy, although the master usually examines it, making any corrections or observations he may consider necessary. The practice, however, of copying from the slate after it had been submitted to the master, led, in many instances, to great abuse, as the chief mate then became only the instrument of the master, and, too frequently, entered in the logbook whatever the latter might dictate. But these abuses have been remedied by the authorization, under the Merchant Shipping Act, of official logs, to which
