Alaska S. S. Co. v. United States

This action was brought in the District Court by appellant to recover the cost of transporting from Ketchikan, Alaska, to Seattle, Wash., the erew of the steamship Depere, owned and operated by appellant, which vessel, on November 15,1920, while en route from Seattle to Ketchikan, was wrecked near Port McArthur, Alaska, where the erew went ashore. The following day, November 16, in response to radio messages from the Depere at the time of the wreck, a United States Coast Guard boat transported the erew of the Depere to Ketchikan, Alaska, where they were landed on November 17, 1020. The United States Deputy Collector of Customs at Ketchikan took charge of the crew of the Depere as destitute seamen and provided them with lodging and sustenance, as required by sections 678 and 670 of title 46, USCA, which are as follows:

“§ 678. Subsistence, to Destitute Seamen; Return to United States. It shall be the duty of the consuls and vice consuls, from time to time, to provide for the seamen of the United States, who may he found destitute within their districts, respectively, sufficient subsistence and passages to some port in the United States, in the most reasonable manner, at the…