Merchandise taken from one to another port of the United States, in a foreign vessel, is forfeited, but there is an exception in favor of British ships authorized by the treaty of Washington to trade between our different ports on the St. Lawrence, the great lakes and the connecting rivers. § 212. Unloading Imported Goods Without Reporting, Etc. Forfeiture is the penalty of foreign grown or manufactured goods and distilled spirits, found on board or landed from a vessel such as is described in Revised Statutes, Section 4355, for the offense, on the part of the captain, of not delivering his manifest, or a certificate that he has no cargo, to the collector on arrival at port; and if there should be eight hundred dollars worth of such spirits and foreign grown or foreign made merchandise, the vessel too is forfeited. There is a pecuniary penalty also, though not bearing a lien upon the vessel, nor collectable of her. For failure to report to the proper collector the arrival of foreign merchandise transported by permit over land, across certain states, within twenty-four hours; failure to deliver up permit, and failure to enter such merchandise, it shall be forfeited. Some watches having been transported from Maryland to Pennsylvania, across the State of Delaware, were libelled as goods of foreign make, conveyed without a permit, in contravention of the Act of Feb. 18, 1796, section 19, similar to the revised section above cited. They were condemned, and the Supreme Court, in affirming the decree, said, "The case stated, comes clearly within the 19th section of the Act of Congress, for enrolling and licensing vessels to be employed in the coasting trade and fisheries. The provisions of the section are salutary, and were made to guard against frauds upon the revenue, in the transportation of goods of foreign growth or manufacture, across the several states. It is obvious that the * * claimant is an offender within the purview of the 19th section. "Whenever a vessel, licensed for carrying on the fisheries, is 1 Rev. Stat., § 4347. 2 Rev. Stat., § 4355, 4356, 4359, 4360. See R. S., § 4350, and The Atlantic, 1 Ware, 121; United States v. Shackford, Id. 171; Phillips v. Ledley, 1 Wash. C. C. 226. Rev. Stat., §§ 4362, 4363. found within three leagues of the coast, with merchandise of foreign growth or manufacture, exceeding the value of five hundred dollars, without having" permission to touch and trade at a foreign port, (as provided in Rev. Stat., section 4364,) "such vessel, together with the merchandise of foreign growth or manufacture, imported therein, shall be subject to seizure and forfeiture."1 Foreign steamtug boats, for towing "documented" vessels of the United States, from one of our home ports to another, forfeit, for each offense, fifty cents per ton on the measurement of each offending tug, to be recovered by action against the thing.2 tered. § 213. Trading Without Enrollment, Etc., When UnregisThis would be an action against a thing as indebted. Every unregistered vessel, of twenty tons burden, or upward, found trading or fishing without enrollment and license, (or one less than twenty tons but not less than five, without license,) having on board foreign goods or distilled spirits (other than sea stores,) shall be forfeited with her lading;3 though, if such ship has had license, which has expired at sea, she may avoid all liability to forfeiture by giving up the old and taking out a new license upon arrival at port. Section 4372. A licensed vessel, transferred in whole or part, to one not a resident citizen of the United States, shall, together with her cargo, be forfeited. And if she engage in any other trade than that for which she is licensed, or is found with a forged or altered license, or with one granted to another vessel, the same penalty applies to her and her cargo, except that, if licensed for the mackerel fishery, she is not forfeitable if found catching cod or other fish. The courts, under the original statute, distinguished more particularly between the different branches of the fishing business. 1 Rev. Stat., § 4365. 2 Rev. Stat., § 4370. Goods, however, belonging not to the 3 Rev. Stat., § 4371; The Schooner America, 1 Gall. 231; United States v. Burroughs, 8 How. 1; The Margaret Yates, 22 Vt. 663. 4 Rev. Stat., § 4377; The Mohawk, 3 Wall. 566; Phillips v. Ledley, 1 Wash. C. C. 226; The Schooner Two Friends, 1 Gall. 118; The Sloop Active, 7 Cr. 100. The Schooner Nymph. 1 Sumner, master, owner or mariners of such vessel, are exempt from forfeiture, if the duties have been paid. Section 4378. And this exemption applies to all the forfeitures under Title 1. of the United States Revised Statutes. Any master or owner of a steam vessel who shall refuse to repair his vessel, when legally required to do so by the local inspectors, and proceed to navigate her after having been so required, shall be liable to a fine of five hundred dollars, and to any damage which passengers may suffer in person or baggage, which liabilities are made recoverable of the ship by action in rem.1 Cotton or hemp, carried on a passenger steamer, and nɔt compactly pressed and thoroughly covered with bagging or similar fabric and bound with ropes or iron bands, shall be liable to a penalty of five dollars per bale by action directly against such goods. Section 4373. So, by section 4476, dangerous articles, such as gunpowder, nitro-glycerine, etc., not permitted, secured and conveyed according to statute provisions, may be proceeded against and forfeited; and, in addition, the master or person at fault, shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor and liable to a fine of $2,000 as the maximum, recoverable in a criminal action against him personally. Not to particularize here, since almost every offense of the kind differs in feature, it may be said generally that illegal traffic by a vessel in the coasting trade renders her forfeit.2 § 214. Damages to Passengers and Others. Title lii. of the Revised Statutes, entitled, "Regulations of Steam Vessels," contains many provisions, such as fixing the number of passengers, keeping passenger list, providing fire-pumps and hose, transporting dangerous articles, mode of packing certain articles, keeping a watchman, providing fire extinguishers, wire tellerropes, bell-pulls, boats, life-preservers, fire-buckets, axes, stairways, gangways, etc.: and "whenever damage is sustained by 1 Rev. Stat., § 4454. 2 The Sloop Active, 7 Cr. 100; The Schooner Two Friends, 1 Gall. 118; United States v. Sears et al., Id. 223; The Schooner Mars, Id. 237; The Boat Eliza and Cargo, 2 Gall. 4; The any passenger or his baggage, from explosion, fire, collision or other cause, the master and the owner of such vessel, or either of them, and the vessel shall be liable to each and every person so injured, to the full amount of damage, if it happens through any neglect or failure to comply with the provisions of this Title, or through known defects or imperfections of the steaming apparatus or the hull; and any person sustaining loss or injury through the carelessness, negligence or willful misconduct of any master, mate, etc." may sue by personal action, etc. 1 * The language is peculiar: only passengers can sue the ship in rem, though any person injured may have personal action against the ship's officers and owners or any one of them, for personal misconduct. The whole section is useless, except the part which authorizes the action against the vessel: for, without this section, "passengers" and "any person" might sue for injuries; and the former would not, any more than the latter, be obliged to take, as his measure of damages, the full amount of actual damages, but might, without this statute, recover exemplary damages where the facts might warrant such recovery. The section is unobjectionable, so far as we have to do with it in following up our subject; and its authorization of personal actions will not, it is believed, limit by implication, the right of a passenger who may lose a leg by the explosion of nitroglycerine illegally transported, to the marketable value of the lost limb, in his personal action against the captain and owners of the vessel. Would the action against the ship be against her as a thing. guilty or as a thing indebted? Clearly, the latter, since the suit would be to collect damages-not to forfeit the vessel. 1 Rev. Stat. 4493. 2 Vide post, Chapters on "Collision" and "Other Marine Torts." $215. Statute Law of Piracy. Vessels are guilty and forfeitable, under the "Regulations for the Suppression of Piracy,"1 for the following offenses: 1 For being used in the committal of the crime of piracy as known to the law of nations." 2. For being built, bought, held or fitted out for the purpose of being employed in piratical aggression, search, restraint, depredation, seizure or any act of piracy known to the law of ⚫ nations. 3 3. For, while armed, attempting to commit piracy upon any other vessel.4 Piracy is succinctly defined, by the law of nations, as robbery upon the seas. Sometimes it is said to be robbery or The definition of the law of nations has murder upon the seas. been adopted by the United States. The constitution provides that Congress shall have power "to define and punish piracies and felonies committed on the high seas, and offenses against the law of nations." Pursuant to this grant of power, Congress has followed the public law as piracy is therein understood, as appears in our first specification of the offenses under the statute, and has more particularly defined the term in the other specifications which we have mentioned above. 'Rev. Stat., Title xlviii., Chap. 8. • Id. § 4294. 'R. S. § 4293-5. * Id. § 4296. Art. 1, § 8, clause 10. |