1. Seamen — Wages—Breach of Contract by Master — Excessive Loading — Deserting Vessel in Foreign Port.

The English merchant shipping act, 1876, in section 25, requires British ships, with certain exceptions, to he conspicuously marked with longitudinal lines, showing the position of each deck above the water line. Section 26, subd. 3, requires the owner entering his ship outward from any port of the united kingdom to insort in the form of entry delivered to the collector the distance in feet and inches of each of these lines from the plimsol mark; and subdivision 4 authorizes the collector to refuse to enter the ship outwards unless this regulation is complied with. By subdivisions 5 and 6 the same statement must be inserted in the shipping articles before they are signed by any member of the crew, and also in the official log-book. Subdivision 7 provides that a ship thus marked shall toe kept so marked until her next return to a port of discharge in the united kingdom. Held, that the seamen of such a vessel are directly interested in maintaining the load-line as indicated by the plimsol mark, and that to load her a foot and a half deeper, against their protest, constitutes such a breach of their agreement as will justify them in leaving the ship in a foreign port.

8. Same — Libel for Wages — Jurisdiction of Foreign Court.

Where seamen, upon the advice of the British consul, thus left a vessel in the port of San Francisco, and it appeared that she was loaded with a cargo for Chili, which was then in a state of insurrection, that her movements were uncertain, and her probable return to England remote, and that she was under bottomry, and liable to be sold, the United States district court will take jurisdiction of a libel for wages, especially when so requested by the British consul, notwithstanding that the wages were payable only in England, and that the English merchant shipping act, 1854, § 190, provides that no seaman engaged for a voyage which is to terminate in the united kingdom shall he entitled to sue for wages in any foreign court, unless discharged with the sanctions therein prescribed, and with the master’s written consent, or proves such ill usage as to warrant a reasonable apprehension of danger to his life if he remain on board.

8. Same — Wages—Damages.

It appearing that all the seamen found employment on other vessels, no allowance will be made for their passage home, hut they will be awarded wages to the time they left the vessel, with §10 each as general damages for breach of the contract.