32 SETTLEMENT FOR ACCIDENTS TO AMERICAN SEAMEN
Injured Seaman’s Right to Wages

In the case of a seaman injured in the service of a ship, where the
injury is of a serious nature, the master is obligated to direct the ship
to the nearest port where proper treatment can be obtained. If the
injury is not of a serious nature and reasonable medical attention can
be given him on beard ship the voyage may continue to the next
regular port of call. If the seaman is left in the intermediate port
or the next regular port of call, the master must pay him at that time
the accrued wages up to the time he leaves the ship. This is done
before a duly authorized shipping commissioner, or, if the ship is in
a foreign port, before a consular officer.
The general maritime law, as adopted by the courts of the United
States, allows a seaman falling sick or injured during the course of a
voyage wages to the end of the voyage, whether he remains on board
or 1s left in a port for medical treatment.
Very often—probably in the greater number of cases— when the
injury is of a minor nature, the seaman continues the voyage doing
less important tasks and receiving full wages to the end of the voyage
although his value to the ship is considerably impaired. Injured
seamen left in a foreign port are, when practicable, returned to the
port of shipment on the same ship or another ship belonging to the
same company. If they recuperate sufficiently, they sometimes work
their way back aboard other ships, or seek other employment ashore.
After a seaman has recovered from an injury or an illness, it is his
duty, as expressed in some court opinions, to seek employment to
minimize the amount of wages that the vessel owner may be called
upon to pay.
Wages for the period from the time a seaman is put ashore for
medical treatment after being injured to the termination of the ship's
articles are usually a constituent part of the settlement made by the
shipowner or the underwriter with the seaman in closing claims for
damages, pain and suffering, maintenance, ete., due as a result of
the injury.
A number of cases were used in the study in which the seamen,
left ashore for treatment, were able to go to work prior to the date
of the end of the voyage on which the injury occurred. The settlement
 in some of the cases was negotiated with the respective seamen
at the time a medical examiner pronounced him fit for duty. The
bureau could neither establish the date on which the seaman actually
went to work, if at all, nor the amount of earnings, if any, earned
before the end of the voyage. Hence the amount of wages the seaman
was entitled to in such cases was computed to the date the seaman
was physically able to work, on the assumption that he did find employment
 immediately and earned an amount equivalent to his former
wage plus maintenance.
A brief summary of the development and the adoption of maritime
law by the United States and a brief outline of court decisions construing
 the seaman’s right to wages, prepared by the legal department
of the Bureau of Labor Statistics, follows:
The present maritime law, which allows a seaman injured in the
service of the ship full wages at least to the end of the voyage, is based
on the Laws of Oleron but probably has an earlier origin. (Arts.
6. 7. I Pardess 327); the Laws of Wisby (arts. 19, 20, 21, I Pardess.