CHAPTER XIV

CRIMES COMMITTED AT SEA

=1. Definition.=--A crime consists in the violation of a public law either forbidding or commanding an act to be done. One act may constitute several crimes against different jurisdictions, as against a State and the United States and a foreign country. Crimes are classified as treason, felonies and misdemeanors. Treason against the United States consists only in levying war against them, or in adhering to their enemies, giving them aid and comfort. Felonies are crimes punishable by death or imprisonment in a state prison; all other crimes are misdemeanors.

Crimes committed at sea are those accomplished upon the high seas or within the jurisdiction of the admiralty, which extends over all navigable waters. Such crimes are punishable by the United States so far as Congress legislates on the subject and otherwise by the particular sovereignty within whose jurisdiction the offense is committed.

=2. Admiralty Criminal Jurisdiction.=--The constitutional grant embraces criminal as well as civil cases and no crime can escape punishment because committed on shipboard or on the high seas. The provisions of the Constitution in regard to the trial of crimes under the laws of the United States require the proceedings to be according to the practice of the common law, so that they are before a jury as in ordinary cases and the ordinary rules of criminal law are applied. These crimes are covered by the Criminal Code (10 U. S. Comp St. 1916, 10419-10444; 10445-10462; 10463-10483). There may also be other crimes according to the law of the place where the vessel may be or according to the laws of the State or country from which she hails. Merchant vessels are regarded for many purposes as floating portions of the country to which they belong and of the particular State of their home port. An American merchant vessel on the high seas will therefore continue under the appropriate laws both of the United States and of her own particular State, and while in foreign ports she will also be subject to local law. She will never be outside the scope of some law and although several jurisdictions may overlap, crimes committed on board will not escape punishment.

=3. Place of Trial.=--Whenever an offense is committed on board of an American vessel, it is the duty of the master and crew to detain the offender and surrender him to the proper authorities for trial as soon as may be. If the offense is within the limits of a particular State, the trial must be in a Federal court therein; if committed on the high seas, then in a like court of the district wherein the offender is apprehended or into which he is first brought; if within a port of a foreign country, the local laws may prevail. The jurisdiction of every independent nation over the merchant vessels of other nations within its boundaries is absolute and exclusive and arrests may be made thereon and offenders removed for trial according to the laws of the locality. The right of local authorities to search a vessel in their ports for a person charged with crime is established unless modified by treaty. The master is bound to submit to the jurisdiction within which his vessel lies. In practice a distinction is made between offenses affecting the peace and dignity of the foreign country and those only involving the internal order and discipline of the ship. A certain comity preserves the latter from outside interference and local authorities will usually decline to act in such cases or interfere with the general authority of the master. It is frequently provided by treaty that disputes between the masters, officers and crews may be adjudicated by their consuls, provided that they do not disturb the peace or tranquillity of the port.

=4. Offenses Not Consummated on Shipboard.=--Where the crime is committed on the high seas although not on shipboard, the admiralty jurisdiction as administered by the Federal courts will still be enforced. The case of Holmes, 1 Wall. Jr. 1; 26 Fed. Cas. No. 15,383, is an unusual example. The American ship, _William Brown_, loaded with passengers and cargo, struck an iceberg in the North Atlantic and had to be abandoned. Nine of the crew and thirty-two passengers got into the longboat; Holmes was one of the crew and took charge of her in an attempt to reach Newfoundland, then about three hundred miles away. The longboat proved leaky and was so seriously overloaded by those on board as to fill with water in the sea which began to rise. In the face of urgent necessity and under Holmes' general directions, sufficient of the passengers were thrown overboard to enable the boat to float until picked up by a passing ship. Holmes was convicted of manslaughter in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.

=5. Penalties and Forfeitures.=--The ship herself may be a quasi-criminal under maritime law. All commercial nations find it necessary for the enforcement of their laws and regulations in regard to commerce by sea, to impose penalties upon the vessel by or through which violations occur. So a vessel which has engaged in any piratical aggression may be condemned and sold for the use of the United States. Violation of a blockade or carriage of contraband of war renders the ship liable to seizure and sale by the Government. A ship licensed for the coasting trade may be forfeited if she engages in any other, and many penalties may be inflicted upon the vessel for acts of which the owner is entirely innocent. Similarly a false oath made in order to obtain the registry of a vessel, or any other fraud for the purpose of obtaining registry, enrollment or licenses will result in her forfeiture, and so will a sale to an alien without complying with the provisions of the statutes (Chapter 11, § 10, _supra_). Forfeiture of a vessel will also result from an attempt to change her name, otherwise than by the method provided by law (Chapter 11, § 9, _supra_), or to deceive the public as to her true name and character by any contrivance, device or advertisement of law where the owner or the master is privy to the offense, as for example the importation of diseased cattle. The doctrine of the personality of the ship again appears in the criminal law of the admiralty which treats her like an individual for purposes of regulation and punishment. The principle was laid down by Justice Story in the brig Malek Adhel, 2 How. (U. S.) 210:

It is not an uncommon course in the admiralty, acting under the law of nations, to treat the vessel in which or by which, or by the master or crew thereof, a wrong or offense has been done as the offender, without any regard whatsoever to the personal misconduct or responsibility of the owner thereof.

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The acts of the master and crew, in cases of this sort, bind the interest of the owner of the ship, whether he be innocent or guilty; and he impliedly submits to whatever the law denounces as a forfeiture attached to the ship by reason of their unlawful or wanton wrongs.

Thus if a vessel fails to carry the wireless equipment prescribed by law a fine is imposed upon the master and is a lien upon the ship enforceable by law in admiralty. The statute governing the equipment of vessels with radio telegraph apparatus is given under § 11 _infra_. Innocent cargo is not involved in the forfeiture of a guilty vessel, and where the owner and master of a vessel is innocent she will not usually be forfeitable by reason of the guilt of the cargo.

The sending, or attempting to send to sea, of a vessel so unseaworthy as to be likely to endanger life, is a misdemeanor for which the person guilty is to be punished by fine or imprisonment, or both (Act of December 21, 1898, § 11), unless he is able to prove either that he used all reasonable means to insure her being sent to sea in a seaworthy state, or that her going to sea in an unseaworthy state was under circumstances reasonable and justifiable.

=6. Federal Criminal Code.=--This was promulgated by the Act of March 4, 1909, and will be found in 10 Comp. St. 1916, commencing at page 12491. Maritime offenses are grouped in Chapter 11, "Offenses within the admiralty and maritime and the territorial jurisdiction of the United States," and Chapter 12, "Piracy and other offenses upon the Seas." Unlike the legislatures of the several States, which have an inherent power to define and punish any act as a crime, subject to constitutional limitations, Congress is confined to the powers enumerated in the Federal Constitution. In regard to offenses at sea, its power is derived from § 8 of Article 1, "To define and punish Piracies and Felonies committed on the high seas, and Offenses against the Law of Nations," and from Article III which provides that the judicial power shall be versed "in such inferior courts as the Congress may from time to time ordain and establish" and shall extend "to all cases of admiralty and maritime jurisdiction." Chapter 11 provides for the punishment of murder, manslaughter, felonious and simple assaults, attempts to commit murder or manslaughter, rape, seduction, loss of life by misconduct of officers of vessels, maiming, robbery, maritime arson, larceny and receiving stolen goods, when committed upon the high seas, or any other waters within the admiralty and maritime jurisdiction of the United States and out of the jurisdiction of any particular State, or within such admiralty jurisdiction on board of any vessel belonging in whole or in part to the United States, or any citizen thereof, or corporation created under its laws or those of any of its States, Territories or Districts; also, when committed upon any American vessel on a voyage on the Great Lakes, or upon any island, rock or key, containing deposits of guano and appertaining to the United States.