The collector of every port of entry in the United States shall send a list of the seaman to whom certificates of citizenship have been granted, once every three months, to the Secretary of State [together with an account of such impressments or detentions, as shall appear, by the protests of the masters, to have taken place.] (R. S., 4591.)
The general duties of a shipping-commissioner shall be:
_First._ To afford facilities for engaging seamen by keeping a register of their names and characters.
_Second._ To superintend their engagement and discharge, in manner prescribed by law.
_Third._ To provide means for securing the presence on board at the proper times of men who are so engaged.
_Fourth._ To facilitate the making of apprenticeships to the sea service.
_Fifth._ To perform such other duties relating to merchant seamen or merchant ships as are now or may hereafter be required by law.
In any port in which no shipping-commissioner shall have been appointed, the whole or any part of the business of a shipping-commissioner shall be conducted by the collector or deputy collector of customs of such port; and in respect of such business such custom-house shall be deemed a shipping-office, and the collector or deputy collector of customs to whom such business shall be committed, shall, for all purposes, be deemed a shipping-commissioner within the meaning of this Title [R. S., 4501-4613]. (R. S., 4503.)
Every shipping-commissioner, and every clerk or employé in any shipping-office, who demands or receives any remuneration whatever, either directly or indirectly, for hiring or supplying any seaman for any merchant-vessels, excepting the lawful fees payable under this Title [R. S., 4501-4613], shall, for every such offense, be liable to a penalty of not more than two hundred dollars. [Fees payable by individuals abolished June 19, 1886.] (R. S., 4595; Mar. 4, 1911; June 19, 1886; R. S., 4508.)
Whoever, with intent that any person shall perform service or labor of any kind on board of any vessel engaged in trade and commerce among the several States or with foreign nations, or on board of any vessel of the United States engaged in navigating the high seas or any navigable water of the United States, shall procure or induce, or attempt to procure or induce, another, by force or threats or by representations which he knows or believes to be untrue, or while the person so procured or induced is intoxicated or under the influence of any drug, to go on board of any such vessel, or to sign or in anywise enter into any agreement to go on board of any such vessel to perform service or labor thereon; or whoever shall knowingly detain on board of any such vessel any person so procured or induced to go on board thereof, or to enter into any agreement to go on board thereof, by any means herein defined; or whoever shall knowingly aid or abet in the doing of any of the things herein made unlawful, shall be fined not more than one thousand dollars, or imprisoned not more than one year, or both. (Mar. 4, 1909; sec. 82; Repeals act of Mar. 2, 1907.)