Crowell v. Knight
District Court, D. Massachusetts
Libel for wages on a cod-fishing voyage from Marblehead to the Grand Banks, and elsewhere, during the season of 1S72. The libellants [Coleman Crowell and others] were two of the four “sharesmen,” the defendant [George Knight] was the owner of the vessel.
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Libel for wages on a cod-fishing voyage from Marblehead to the Grand Banks, and elsewhere, during the season of 1S72. The libellants [Coleman Crowell and others] were two of the four “sharesmen,” the defendant [George Knight] was the owner of the vessel. The contract was that the sharesmen were to have five-eighths of the fish which should be caught, after deducting-the general supplies and other supplies according to the custom and usage of the port of Marblehead; and the owner to have the right to sell all the fish and oil whenever he should think proper. Seven of ihe seamen shipped for…
1Opinion of the Court
LOWELL, District Judge.
It has been repeatedly decided in the whaling business that the owners are to pay the lays or shares •of the seamen according to the cash value of the oil and bone at the time of its arrival, and that the seamen have no concern with sales for credit, and 'are not chargeable with any losses that may be sustained by such sales. Some of these decisions have been reported. See Hazard v. Howland [Case No. 6.280]; Bourne v. Smith [Id. 1,701]. The reasons are, that the shares are wages; that the seamen have no ownership in the oil or other catchings, and no right to interfere…
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