: The Law of the Sea A manual of the principles of admiralty law for students mariners and ship operators by Brinton J Y Jasper Yeates Canfield George L George Lewis Dalzell George W George Walton - Maritime law United States; Admiralty United States

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"Carriers may doubtless become partners, but not merely by becoming joint owners of a chattel, and using it for a common purpose. And the principle is peculiarly applicable to ships or other craft, the exceptions to it in respect to them being always founded in very special circumstances."

Now, where the vessel is not partnership property, according to the clear weight of authority in this country, one part owner has no lien for his advances and disbursements upon the share of his co?wner. Nor does it make any difference that the part owner making such advances was also the ship's husband. In treating of this subject, Mr. Justice Curtis, in the case of the Larch, 2 Curt. 434, State, after remarking that in England the law is now settled against the existence of the lien, said:

"There has been some diversity of decision in this country, but I think it has proceeded from diversity in the views taken of the particular facts of the cases, rather than from any real difference in principles. That the owners of a vessel may be copartners in respect to that, as well as any other property, and that, when they are so, each has a lien, can not be doubted. But where no such special relation exists, where they are merely part owners, and as such tenants in common, that one has no lien on the share of another for advances, I believe to be equally clear."

It is unlawful, without obtaining permission of the Shipping Board, to place under foreign registry, a vessel owned wholly or in part by an American corporation or to transfer such vessel to any person other than a citizen , and within the meaning of that act no corporation is deemed a citizen unless the stock control and management are vested in individual Americans. To enable a corporate-owned vessel to engage in the coasting trade, 75 per cent of the interest in the corporation must be American owned.

The majority of the owners have a right to employ the ship in such voyages as they may please; giving a stipulation to the dissenting owners for the safe return of the ship, if the latter, upon a proper libel filed in the admiralty, require it. And the minority of the owners may employ the ship in the like manner, if the majority decline to employ her at all.

Similarly Justice Clifford, in The Wm. Bagaley, 5 Wall. 377:

Even where the part owners of a ship are tenants in common, the majority in interest appoint the master and control the ship, unless they have surrendered that right by agreeing in the choice of the ship's husband as managing owner.

If the owner be a corporation, the control of the vessel is usually directed by the Board of Directors, as in the case of other corporate enterprises, though the holders of a majority of the capital stock may determine the disposition of the vessel and all matters relating to her, by voting their stock at regular or special stockholders' meetings, called in accordance with the company's charter and by-laws and the laws of the state in which the company is incorporated.

Admiralty, however, in certain cases, if no ship's husband has been appointed, will interfere to prevent the majority from employing the ship against the will of the minority without first entering into a stipulation to bring back the ship or pay the value of their shares. But the dissenting owners in such a case, bear no part of the expenses of the voyage objected to, and are entitled to no part of the profits.... Unless the co?wners agree in the choice of a managing owner or the dissenting minority go into admiralty, the majority in interest control the employment of the ship and appoint the master.

It is a principle discernible in all maritime codes, that every encouragement and assistance should be afforded to those who are ready to give their ships constant employment; and this not only for the particular profit of owners, but for the general interests and prosperity of commerce. If agriculture be, according to the happy allusion of the great Sully, "one of the breasts from which the State must draw its nourishment," commerce is certainly the other. The earth, parent of both, is the immediate foundation and support of the one, and ships are the moving powers, instruments and facilities of the other. Both must be rendered productive by industry and ingenuity. The interests and comforts of the community will droop and finally perish if either be permitted to remain entirely at rest. The former will less ruinously bear neglect, and throw up spontaneous products; but the latter require unremitted employment, attention and enterprise, to insure utility and product. A privation of freight, the fruit of the crop of shipping, seems therefore to be an appropriate mulct on indolent, perverse or negligent part owners. The drones ought not to share in the stores acquired and accumulated by the labor, activity, foresight and management of the bees. Although the hive may be common property, it is destructively useless to all, if not furnished with means of profit and support by industry and exertion; which should be jointly applied by all before they participate in beneficial results. Nor should the idle and incompetent be permitted to hold it vacant and useless to the injury and ruin of the industrious and active.

Seaworthiness is a relative term. The ship must be fit in design, structure, condition and equipment to encounter the ordinary perils of the voyage. She must have a competent master and a sufficient crew. Absolute perfection, of course, is not required; the real test is that the ship shall have that degree of fitness which the ordinary careful and prudent owner requires of his vessel at the commencement of the voyage in view of all the circumstances which may attend it.

The law does not insist that the shipowner shall in person attend to all his duties in respect of the ship. It recognizes that most of these must be met by agents. It contemplates that shipowners may avail themselves of the facilities common to business men and be relieved whenever they have properly employed competent agents to supervise the ship at sea and in port. In most instances where the maritime law may be applied the owner will not be responsible beyond his interest in the ship, for the acts or omissions of agents whom he has selected with due care.

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