BULLETIN OF THE
U.S.BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS

NO. 466

© WASHINGTON

October. 1928

SETTLEMENT FOR ACCIDENTS TO AMERICAN SEAMEN
Summary and Introduction

ARITIME law has long provided that a seaman * who is injured
M on duty or who becomes ill while on duty shall be entitled
to maintenance and cure and to wages to the end of the
voyage. Aside from these legal provisions, whatever compensation
for accident he may receive is obtained through agreement with his
employer or through court action.
When the longshoremen’s and harbor workers’ compensation bill
was introduced in Congress in 1926 it included seamen as well as
the designated maritime workers, but before passage the provision
relating to seamen was eliminated. The contention was made during
 the hearings on the bill that the rights of seamen were adequately
protected under maritime law, which secured not only a continuation
of wages and maintenance and “cure” in the sense of necessary
treatment and reasonable care but also the right to prosecute for
indemnity if the ship is liable for the accident through unseaworthiness
or negligence.
That contention raised the question of how injured seamen actually
fare under existing law. Discussions and hearings following the
introduction of compensation legislation for maritime workers evel.
oped the fact that there was a remarkable absence of information
regarding accidents to workers of that class. This condition was
also brought out in a speech before the marine section of the National
Safety Council at Chicago in September, 1927, by Capt. Irving L.
fon, urging shinowners to keep complete records, during which
e said:

The marine industry is seriously handicapped in that there is no central source
of information, reliable or otherwise, showing even approximately the number
of deaths and permanent personal injuries, to say nothing of accidents of a less
serious nature occurring aboard ship. * * *
The shipowner has complete information or “statistics,” as to the methods
and sources of obtaining cargo and passengers to carry and thereby earn revenue.
If they are to compete successfully with foreign-flag vessels they must look not
only to increasing the tonnage to be carried in American bottoms but also to the
reduction of overhead and operating expenses. This can be done. to some

! Section 4612 of the Revised Statutes defines master, seaman, vessel, and owner as follows: “In the con-Struetion
 of this title, every person having command of any vessel belonging to any citizen of the United
States shall be deemed the ‘master’ thereof; and every person (apprentices excepted) who shall be
employed to serve in any capacity on board the same shall be deerned and taken to be a ‘seaman’; and the
term ‘vessel’ shall be understood to comprehend every description of vessel navigating on any sea or
¢hannel, lake, or river, to which the provisions of this title may be applicable, and the term ‘owner’ shall
De taken and understood to comorehend all the saveral persons, if more than one, to whom the vaseal shall
ne.