REGULATIONS AFFECTING SEAMEN 21

ments. The other 16 claims totaled $131,038 and were settled for
$417.54. This amount was the aggregate of very small payments
which were paid the claimants rather than allow the cases to go into
litigation.
Fifty-four other cases were found to be for illness other than
“Occupational disease,” making a total of 480 rejected cases involving
American seamen. No claims were made in 353 of these. In 53
the claims totaled $460,546.50 and were settled with no money payments,
 while the claims in the remaining 74 cases amounted to $581,-014.90
 and were settled for $41,270.90.
Three hundred and six other cases after further research were
rejected because they were not applicable to the study. Thirty were
for hospitalization of alien seamen, 57 were seamen on ships of foreign
registry, 154 were longshoremen, 27 were passengers, 14 were repairmen,
 10 were dock employees, 8 were painters, 2 were lightermen,
and there was one each of the following: Customs inspector, immigration
 inspector, cattle tender, and a canal employee.
Regulations Affecting Seamen

THE life of a seaman is distinctly different from that of a landsman
 and is governed by various other factors. The statement is
made in Appendix A, page 45, that “Among the several factors that
operate to give to seamen a legal and economic status that differs
from that of employed persons generally, two may be noted as
especially influential: First, the absolute dependence of the sailor
upon his master for the necessaries of life—food, lodging, care in case
of sickness or accident, etc., on account of his isolation from other
recourse; and second, a like dependence of the master upon the continued
 and constantly available services of his employee till the
completion of his undertaking.” To afford a better understanding
of the material presented in this report, details of some of the
more important factors governing the seaman’s life will be explained.
The navigation laws of the United States provide that—
The master of every vessel bound from a port in the United States to any
foreign port other than vessels engaged in trade between the United States and
the British North American possessions, or the West India Islands, or the Republic
 of Mexico, or of any vessel of the burden of seventy-five tons or upward,
bound from a port on the Atlantic to a port on the Pacific, or vice versa, shall,
before he proceeds on such voyage, make an agreement, in writing or in print,
with every seaman whom he carries to sea as one of the crew, * * *
It is not unusual, however, for the masters of ships engaged in
trade exempted from the quoted law to sign their crews on articles
for their own protection as if it were a legal obligation. The same
form is used in coastwise and foreign shipping, differing only by
additional inserted stipulations. Such inserted stipulations for coastwise
 and other trade not subject to the law referred to usually
designate the voyage as from one port to the next so that in case of
accident or injury the seaman may be released from the articles and
put ashore at the next port, and the ship, for this reason, is not liable
or wages for any period after the seaman goes ashore.
The form of the articles used in the signing of the crew is also
specified by the navigation laws and is shown below: