or
want of skill to have caused injury to a British vessel, until the
necessary application for satisfaction or security be made to the local
authorities. Every British mercantile ship, not carrying passengers, on
entering a port gives into the custody of the consul to be endorsed by
him the seamen's agreement, the certificate of registry, and the
official log-book; a failure to do this is reported to the
registrar-general of seamen. The following five provisions are also made
for the protection of seamen. If a British master engage seamen at a
foreign port, the engagement is sanctioned by the consul, acting as a
superintendent of Mercantile Marine Offices. The consul collects the
property (including arrears of wages) of British seamen or apprentices
dying abroad, and remits to H.M. paymaster-general. He also provides for
the subsistence of seamen who are shipwrecked, discharged, or left
behind, even if their service was with foreign merchants; they are
generally sent home in the first British ship that happens to be in want
of a complement, and the expenses thus incurred form a charge on the
parliamentary fund for the relief of distressed seamen, the consul
receiving a commission of 21/2% on the amount disbursed. Complaints by
crews as to the quality and quantity of the provisions on board are
investigated by the consul, who enters a statement in the log-book and
reports to the Board of Trade. Money disbursed by consuls on account of
the illness or injury of seamen is generally recoverable from the owner.
With regard to passenger vessels, the master is bound to give the consul
facilities for inspection and for communication with passengers, and to
exhibit his "master's list," or list of passengers, so that the consul
may transmit to the registrar-general, for insertion in the Marine
Register Book, a report of the passengers dying and children born during
the voyage. The consul may even defray the expenses of maintaining, and
forwarding to their destination, passengers taken off or picked up from
wrecked or injured vessels, if the master does not undertake to proceed
in six weeks; these expenses becoming, in terms of the Passenger Acts
1855 and 1863, a debt due to His Majesty from the owner or charterer,
where a salvor is justified in detaining a British vessel, the master
may obtain leave to depart by going with the salvor before the consul,
who, after hearing evidence as to the service rendered and the
proportion of sh