The Moana

Libelants, four seamen, shipped on board the British vessel Moana at San Francisco for a voyage, as they claim, from Sau Francisco to New Zealand and return. None of them speaks English very well, though all of them understand it to some small degree. Their claim is that before they went aboard, which was in fact just before the vessel sailed and to replace others who had been employed, but at the last moment had failed to appear, they were told by the assistant in the engineer’s department, by whom they were actually employed, that the voyage upon which they were entering was to be from San Francisco to New Zealand and return, and that otherwise they would not have gone on board. Three days after leaving port they signed the ship’s articles, which provided only, in so far as they were concerned, for a voyage to New Zealand; the vessel being then on the return trip of a voyage from New Zealand to San Francisco and return, and the articles being the original articles providing for such voyage. Libelants all testify that they were told at the time of signing the articles that these provided for a return trip to San P'rancisco. The purser, however, before whom the articles were…