Steeves

Appellants, seamen formerly on the American Steamship Capillo, destroyed by Japanese bombing in Manila, P. I., on December 29, 1941, while on a round voyage from the Columbia River to Asiatic ports and return, appeal from a decree in admiralty denying them recovery from appellee, then owner of the Capillo, for war bonus payments to them after her destruction, for the period while imprisoned by the Japanese and until their arrival in the United States in a Pacific Coast port and for the cost of their repatriation to such a port.

Appellants were freed by an exchange of prisoners with Japan and arrived on the Gripsholm in New York on December 1, 1943. It is stipulated that if appellee has the obligation to transport them to a Pacific Coast port, the value of such transportation for each seamen is $125.00.

The question before us is whether appellee agreed in the Capillo’s shipping articles, signed on October 11, 1941 by appellee and each appellant, to pay such a war bonus and to repatriate to a Pacific Coast port. The articles provided, in a rider thereto,

“The American Mail Line agrees to pay an emergency war bonus to the crew of the S.S. Capillo, Voyage Six (6), in accordance…