The Nevada

The appellants seek to establish a lien on a ship formerly known as the Rogday, and to recover for wages for one month after date of discharge. They allege that they shipped on December 15, 1919, under a written contract, with the Russian government through the Division of Supplies to the Russian Embassy at Washington, D. C.; that under the contract appellants agreed to serve as seamen on the ship, then a Russian naval transport, on a voyage from New York to Vladivostok and return to the United States. By the contract each agreed to do the work assigned to him to the best of his ability and knowledge, and “in accordance with the seamen’s laws of the United States of North America, as they apply to seamen on board foreign merchant *512 men, to wit, ships not flying the flag of the United States of North America.” The ship left New York, and upon arrival at San Francisco in February, 1920, the appellants, against their protests, were discharged and paid their wages.

In February, 1920, the libelants (except' eight of them) filed a libel against the ship, but the District Court held that a government-owned ship engaged in publie service was not liable to seizure. The Rogday, 279 F.…