absence of a statute or special contract. The managing owner is not entitled to a lien upon the ship for his compensation or disbursements but he may have a lien upon the profits of a voyage in his hands or upon the proceeds of the ship in the same situation. REFERENCES FOR GENERAL READING Shipping and Admiralty, Parsons, Vol. I, Chapter IV. Spedden v. Koenig, 78 Fed. 504. Law of Part-Owners of Vessels, 88 Am. Dec. 364. Gillespie v. Winberg, 4 Daly (N. Y.) 318. Mitchell v. Chambers, 43 Mich. 150. Maritime Law, Saunders, Chapters I and XV. CHAPTER IV THE MASTER 1. Appointment and General Authority.— The master is the commander of a merchant vessel. He has full charge of, and personal responsibility for the navigation and control of the ship, passengers, crew and cargo as the representative and confidential agent of the owner. The position is one of the most dignified and responsible known to the law. In order to have the ship seaworthy, an owner must provide a master who is fully competent in respect of care, skill and honesty, a man of sound judgment and discretion; and in general, there must also be provided one of sufficient ability to supply his place, in case of accident or disability. (The Niagara, 21 How. (U. S.) 7; 2 Parsons Sh. & Ad. 1.) Correspondingly, he is an officer to whom great power and wide discretion are necessarily confided. His authority is summary and often absolute, especially at sea, and can seldom be resisted by those over whom he is placed - as Chancellor Kent has expressed it: "He should have the talent to command in the midst of danger, and courage, and presence of mind to meet and surmount extraordinary perils. He should be able to dissipate fear, to calm disturbed minds, and inspire confidence in the breasts of all who are under his charge, in tempests as well as in battle. The commander of a ship must give desperate commands; he must require instantaneous obedience. He must watch for the health and comfort of the crew, as well as for the safety of the ship and cargo. It is necessary that he should maintain perfect order, and preserve the most exact discipline under the guidance of justice, moderation and good sense." Our statutes require that only those whom the law has examined and approved shall occupy that position. The master must be an American citizen (Rev. St. § 4139); he must have a license from the Inspectors, who are charged to examine into his charac 1 ter and habits, as well as his technical qualifications (§ 4439) he is sworn to the performance of the duties of his office (§ 4445); he must exhibit his license to the public (§ 4446); he is subject to summary punishment for incompetency (§ 4450); and his personal liability cannot be limited, as the owners may by law. In short the law contemplates the selection of picked men as masters in the merchant marine, and forbids the employment of others. No formalities are required in his appointment by the owner. Any authorization which would suffice to otherwise create the relation of master and servant, or principal and agent, is enough (The Boston, Blatch. & H. 309). His contract need not be in writing, even if for more than one year. His wages are a matter of contract; he has no lien on the ship (The Nebraska, 75 Fed. 598), unless, possibly, one is created by the local law of the ship's flag. In case of disaster, his duty requires him to stay by the ship as long as there is any possibility of good resulting therefrom. The popular phrase that "the captain should be the last man to quit the ship" is well founded in law (The Niagara, 21 How. (U. S.) 7). His authority is generally implied and is according to the law of the ship's flag. Generally speaking, he is the owner's agent and his authority extends to all matters within the scope of his appointment. Where the owner is present, or easily accessible, this authority is narrowed, but otherwise it may be very broad, and measured only by the necessities of the situation, and the use and employment of the ship. On shipboard, his authority is supreme, except, possibly, in the presence of the owner. He has power to enforce discipline and inflict punishment, not unlike that in the relationship of parent and child, or teacher and pupil, save that he is forbidden by statute to inflict corporal punishment (Act of March 4, 1915). The old flogging days, therefore, are over, and the master who inflicts corporal punishment is guilty of a crime. He may, in proper cases, discharge or disrate members of the crew. On the other hand, the law charges him with the duty of seeing 1 There are a few instances in which a master need not be licensed. All masters of steamers must be licensed, all masters of sailing vessels of over 700 tons and all vessels of over 100 tons carrying passengers for hire (§ 4438). Other masters need not be licensed, that the crew has sufficient provisions (§ 4564); proper medical care (§ 4569); protection against unlawful violence, and the like; and he is criminally liable for abandoning sailors in a foreign port (§ 5363).2 2. Personal Liability. His personal liability is practically unlimited. The owner may confine his liability to the value of the ship but the master has no such privilege. Thus materialmen may sue the master personally for supplies and repairs (General Admiralty Rule 12); the sailors may sue him for their wages (Rule 13); the pilot, for pilotage (Rule 14); suits for collision may be brought against him alone (Rule 15), and he is responsible for moneys loaned the ship in a foreign port (Rule 17); so, also he is liable for cargo injured by the ship and may be sued by the underwriters therefor (Co. v. Dexter, 52 Fed. 152). 3. Restriction on Authority. The master is the owner's agent in all matters fairly within the scope of his authority but has no more authority to bind him than any other special agent. He is not a general agent and his powers are usually confined to the property in his charge. In cases of necessity, when the owner is not present, his authority is very broad but it is correspondingly restricted when the owner is present. He cannot bind the owner personally beyond the value of the ship and freight pending; he cannot vary or annul the owner's agreements; he cannot make a promissory note binding on the owner; or bind him for cargo not actually on board by a bill-of-lading; or admit an invalid claim; nor purchase a cargo on his account. 2A question sometimes arises whether a particular individual occupies the position of master or not. The fact that the man is enrolled as master is not necessarily conclusive of this question. Where a man was clothed with and did actually exercise the duties of master during the illness of the registered master he was held to have been de facto master and hence not entitled to a maritime lien for his wages (Hattie Thomas, 29 Fed. 297). On the other hand, the engineer of a dredge who was highest officer on the vessel and directed the firemen and other hands but who had no authority to engage or dismiss men or purchase supplies, was held not to be the master and his lien for wages was sustained (Atlantic, 53 Fed. 607). In the Calypso, 230 Fed. 962, it was said: "the master of a ship is pro hac vice the agent of the owner and . . . his appointment or authorization lies in contract, . if the master has not been appointed by the owner enrollment cannot make him such." 3 The rules referred to are "Rules of Practice for the Courts of the United States in Admiralty and Maritime Jurisdiction on the instance side of the court." In a number of leading cases attempts were made to hold the owner liable for shortage in cargo where the master had signed bills of lading In dealing with other persons on board his vessel his authority is as broad as the exigencies of his situation require and he may, in proper cases, and after exhausting pacific measures put even passengers under arrest. But he cannot delegate this authority to minor officials or others on board but must personally exercise such responsible duties and see to it that nothing unreasonable is done. It has been held that while he may restrain, or even confine, a passenger who refuses to submit to the necessary discipline of the ship, he ought not to inflict any higher punishment than a reprimand upon a passenger without first conferring with his officers and entering the facts on the log. His authority to punish members of the crew must be exercised with moderation and in reason. He has no authority to punish by flogging or the use of any illegal instrument and in testing the legality of punishment or chastisement the methods and weapons employed are important." 66 for goods not actually on board. Among these are the Freeman, 18 How. 182; Grant v. Norway, 10 C. B. 665; McLean v. Fleming, L. R. 2 H. L. Sc. 128 (English cases), and American Sugar Refining Co. v. Maddock, 93 Fed. 980. The principle laid down in these cases is not merely that the captain has no authority to sign a bill of lading in respect to goods not on board but the nature and limit of his authority are well known among mercantile persons." Ragland v. Norfolk & Washington Steamboat Co., 163 Fed. 376. This was a libel in personam in which the libellant claimed damages on account of an alleged improper arrest while a passenger on board respondent's vessel. The court said: "Officers of steamboats and passenger vessels should be exceedingly careful before putting a passenger under arrest. They are the servants of the passengers on their boats, paid for the purpose of treating them kindly. The trouble on this occasion arose from a misapprehension on the part of the captain of the steamer of his power and duty as master of the ship. The master of a passenger steamer is an exceedingly important officer. He should be of exceptional firmness, intelligence and character, and more than ordinarily endowed with common sense and tact and always gentle and courteous. He has vast power in dealing with passengers in situations that are liable to and do arise on his vessel, and he may in a proper case after exhausting pacific measures, place a passenger under arrest, but, to suppose, as he testified he did, that he could delegate this authority to minor officials or others on board, cannot be sanctioned. When the time comes to arrest passengers, an occurrence on a steamboat only second in importance to navigating the vessel in safety, it is his duty to properly care for and protect them as far as is reasonably possible, and personally to exercise the responsible duties at hand, and at least give personal direction to what is being done." The Lizzie Burrill, 115 Fed. 1015, with reference to the duty of the master toward the crew. The court quotes a number of American and English authorities. The syllabus summarizes the decision as follows: "It is the duty of the master of a ship while at sea to protect his crew from violence and brutal treatment by other officers under his command. "The master of a ship while on board is the agent of the owners in respect to all matters which come within the scope of his duty, and the |