with a proper crew, to take a pilot, where required by custom or law, to stow the goods properly, to set sail in fair weather, to transport the cargo with care, and to provide against all but inevitable mishaps. In other respects, American and English laws are almost identical; the admirable decisions of Judge Story, Chancellor Kent, and Chief Justice Marshall having, however, made some refined distinctions.
Conditions of wages,
and remedies for their non-*payment;
As it was considered the duty of sailors to remain
by their vessel till the cargo was discharged, they
had no claim to their wages till then, but, if these
were not paid within ten days after such discharge,
they had a right to an admiralty process against the
vessel. Only one-third of the wages earned can be
demanded by the mariner at any port of delivery
during the voyage. There may be on this subject a
special stipulation; but, if the ship be lost or captured,
wages earned up to the last port of delivery
may be recovered by the mariner, on his return home,
to the place to which the vessel has carried freight;
freight being by the laws of all nations "the Mother
of Wages:" inasmuch, however, as they depend upon
the vessel's safety and the earning of the freight, they
cannot be insured. In all cases of capture, the seamen
lose their wages, unless the ship is restored. In
cases of rescue, recapture, and ransom, the wages
of mariners are subject to a general average, but
in no other case are they liable to contribute. In
cases of shipwreck the rule prevails, as elsewhere,
that, if parts of the ship be saved by the exertions of
the seamen, they hold a lien on those parts for some
kind of compensation, but this is viewed somewhat
in the light of salvage. When a seaman dies on
