1. Seamen — -Injury in Service — Duty of Shir to Make Nearest Port.

Loss of time and risk to cargo are matters which cannot properly be permitted to outweigh the duty of a vessel to procure surgical aid for a seaman injured in the service of the vessel without his fault or negligence, when such assistance is reasonably necessary, and cannot be otherwise obtained than by putting into port. The obligation of the ship is discharged only when the master has used reasonable care to provide for the comfort and care of the seaman. Whether he is required to deviate from his course to touch at some port will depend upon the circumstances of the particular case, such as the nature of the injury, the means for treating it on board, and the probability of being able to reach a port in time for his relief. If a person of ordinary judgment would know that the injury was such as to seriously endanger the seaman’s life or limb, and that he should have medical or surgical aid at the earliest possible moment, It Is the Imperative duty of the master to take the necessary steps to procure such aid, if within his power.

3. ¡3AME.

Libelant, who was a seaman 20 years old, fell to the deck during a gaie without negligence on his part, and sustained a simple fracture of the bones of one leg below the knee. There was no surgeon on board, but the master, with the assistance of others, undertook to set the bones, bound the leg in splints, and proceeded on his voyage to San Francisco, where the ship arrived in about 10 weeks, and where libelant was paid off, and went to a hospital. The bones had failed to unite, owing to improper and unskillful treatment, and, because of the lapse of so long a time, could not be made to do so, and it became necessary to amputate the leg. At the time of the injury the ship was southwest of Cape Horn, and 450 miles from a port in the Falkland Islands, where surgical aid could have been obtained, and which the ship could have reached in two or throe days, although it would have required four or five weeks, owing to head winds, to put back to such port, and again recover the distance lost. Heidi, that the injury was such that the master must be presumed to, have known that the services of a,competent surgeon were required to make a recovery reasonably certain, and his duty required him to make an attempt to procure them by putting into port, regardless of the loss of time and expense incident to such deviation.

8. Same.

The fact that libelant mad© no objection to the action taken by the master, and did not request to be taken to the nearest port, where he was not consulted, did not prejudice his rights, nor relieve the ship from liability for the failure to perform the duty which his condition demanded.

4 Damages — Loss of Leg — Amount of Award.

A seaman 20 years old, strong and in good health, who lost his leg from an injury received in the service of the ship through the failure of the master to put into port where he could obtain surgical attendance, held entitled to damages in the sum of $3,000.