Santorinakis v. The S.S. Orpheus

WALTER E. HOFFMAN, District Judge.

Libellant, a Greek seaman holding a chief steward’s license, was injured on August 17, 1957, on board the steamship Orpheus, a Greek flag vessel owned by the respondent Panamanian corporation. The vessel was in the process of leaving the dock at Hamburg, Germany, when the accident occurred. As illegal advances of wages were made to libellant in United States ports, this Court exercised jurisdiction over the entire controversy following the arrest of the vessel at Norfolk, Virginia.

The law of the flag must control the substantive rights of the parties in…