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![handle is hein.hoil/lgstase0001 and id is 1 raw text is: 61ST CONGRESS, SENATE. I DOCumENT
Rd sesion. f No. 552.
LEGAL STATUS OF SEAMEN.
Mr. LA FOLLETTE presented the following paper:
BEING A TRANSLATION BY MR. E. ELLISON, ON ANCIENT MARI-
TIME LAWS, PREPARED AND PUBLISHED BY THE MARITIME
COMMISSION OF NORWAY.
MAY 19, 1910.-Referred to the Committee on Commerce and ordered to be printed.
LEGAL STATUS OF SEAMEN-INVOLUNTARY SERVICE,
(A review of the development of the ancient maritime laws upon which are based existing maritime
law, prepared and published by the Maritime Commission of Norway. Translated by E. Ellison.]
I.
PREFACE.
The world's oldest regulations regarding seamen are to be found in
the maritime law of King Hammurabi of Babylon, of about 2250
B. C. It contains regulations concerning the shipmaster (234-240).
In this law the person who builds a vessel is regarded as the shipowner
and the shipmaster. If the vessel is poorly constructed, so that she
is leaking on her first voyage, the builder has to strengthen her and
repair her at his own expense (235). If the vessel is wrecked and it is
proven that the wreck was due to the fault or neglect of the builder,
he is liable to pay for the loss of the vessel and also for the cargo in case
she was loaded (236). In his capacity as shipbuilder the law regards
the shipmaster as a free man. The crew, on the contrary, were by'
the law classed as slaves, and they were the property of the ship-
master. This conception of the status of the crew, recognized by
this ancient law, forms the basis for a long succession of maritime
customs and practices that have originated in the Mediterranean.
Under pressure of the contempt in which manual labor was held by
the peoples of the Mediterranean countries both the merchant and
the shipmaster were debased until they were regarded as little better
than slaves.
The evolution in the maritime law followed the highways of com-
merce over Phoenecia, North Africa, Rhodes, to Greece and Rome.
Later it became identified with certain great seaports, until the laws
of Barcelona, Spain, of the fourteenth century A. D. occupied the
most prominent place. This evolution has fought its way through
oriental and Roman soil, where labor performed at sea, in common
with labor on land, was branded as slaves' work.](ViewImageLocal?handle=hein.hoil/lgstase0001&div=1&collection=&method=preview&ext=.png&size=3)