The seaman may enforce his right to obtain maintenance and cure, or damages, either in personam against the employer or in rem against the vessel, or he may sue at common law either in the Federal courts or the State courts. He may not, however, recover under the Jones Act by a proceeding in rem in the ad miralty courts. The representative of a deceased seaman may recover damages for the death of a seaman by an action in personanr in admiralty or an action at common law. Where death statutes give no lien, and they generally do not, the representative may not sue in rem in admiralty to enforce a cause of action for death.
The Federal Government provides a number of marine hospi tals at the more important ports of the United States, at which seamen may obtain free hospital and medical attention in case of injury or illness occurring while in the service of a merchant vessel. Formerly shipowners were required to contribute to the maintenance of this hospital service, but there is no longer any such requirement. In case a seaman is injured and unable to continue in the service of the ship while she is in a foreign port, the ship-owner has the primary duty of rendering the seaman proper medical attention and arranging for his transportation to a port in the United States. By Act of Congress, however, the U.S. consuls are also required, in case disabled seamen are dis charged, to transport them to a port in the United States at the expense of the Government. In case the consul refuses to dis
charge a seaman, the shipowner must bear the expense of return ing him to the United States.
American seamen who are rendered destitute in a foreign coun try for any reason whatever, are entitled on application to the American consul to be furnished with subsistence and passage to some port in the United States. The consul is empowered to require the master of any American vessel to take such destitute seamen on board at the expense of the Government.
Formerly masters of vessels were permitted to flog seamen in order to enforce discipline. Such practice is now prohibited. Desertion was formerly an offence carrying the penalty of arrest and imprisonment. The seaman is now subject only to the loss of his clothing left on board and his wages. Moreover, there is no provision whereby deserters from either American or foreign vessels may be compelled to rejoin their vessels. The present situation is designed to approximate in the case of seamen to the freedom of obtaining and leaving employment which exists in shore employments.
For the complete text of statutes relating to merchant seamen and their interpretation by the courts, see U.S. Code Annotated.