Fowler

Appellant has appealed from the decree of the trial court dismissing his libel filed against appellee. Appellant seeks to recover damages from the American Mail Lines, Limited, appellee herein, owner of the steamship “President McKinley” on which appellant was employed as saloon watchman, under section 712 of title 46 USC^., which is as follows:

Appellant contends that the injuries he sustained at the hands of Fourth Officer Gill on the night of June 29, 1932, were the result of corporal punishment; that the master knew of the incident and failed to surrender Fourth Officer Gill to the proper authorities upon arrival in San Francisco at the end of the voyage as a result of which failure Gill escaped; and that appellee thus became liable for damages resulting from said corporal punishment under the above-quoted section.

At about 10 p. m. on June 29, 1932, while the vessel President McKinley was on the high seas, appellant went to the wheel house to make his hourly report and to take the customary lunch for the officer on duty. Not finding him there appellant went to the chart room close by and left the lunch on the table and then proceeded to the flying-bridge. It was a very dark…