All shipments of seamen made contrary to the provisions of any act of Congress shall be void; and any seaman so shipped may leave the service at any time, and shall be entitled to recover the highest rate of wages of the port from which the seaman was shipped, or the sum agreed to be given him at his shipment. (R. S., 4523.)
Owners or masters may ship seamen in certain cases.
Any person other than a commissioner under this Title [R. S., 4501-4613], who shall perform or attempt to perform, either directly or indirectly, the duties which are by this Title set forth as pertaining to a shipping-commissioner, shall be liable to a penalty of not more than five hundred dollars.
Nothing in this Title [R. S., 4501-4613], however, shall prevent the owner, or consignee, or master of any vessel except vessels bound from a port in the United States to any foreign port, other than vessels engaged in trade between the United States and the British North American possessions, or the West India Islands, or the republic of Mexico, and vessels of the burden of seventy-five tons or upward bound from a port on the Atlantic to a port on the Pacific, or vice versa, from performing, himself, so far as his vessel is concerned, the duties of shipping-commissioner under this Title. Whenever the master of any vessel shall engage his crew, or any part of the same, in any collection-district where no shipping-commissioner shall have been appointed, he may perform for himself the duties of such commissioner. (R. S., 4504.)
Every shipping-commissioner appointed under this Title [R. S., 4501-4613] shall, if applied to for the purpose of apprenticing boys to the sea-service, by any master or owner of a vessel, or by any person legally qualified, give such assistance as is in his power for facilitating the making of such apprenticeships; but the shipping- commissioner shall ascertain that the boy has voluntarily consented to be bound, and that the parents or guardian of such boy have consented to such apprenticeship, and that he has attained the age of twelve years, and is of sufficient health and strength, and that the master to whom such boy is to be bound is a proper person for the purpose. Such apprenticeship shall terminate when the apprentice becomes eighteen years of age. The shipping-commissioner shall keep a register of all indentures of apprenticeship made before him. (R. S., 4509.)