Decision. Report to the Board of Trade. may be obtained from the detailed description of Investigations before a Local Marine Board (ante, page 143). It will, however, be borne in mind that no code of procedure has been laid down in the statute other than the directions before described ("), and that accordingly the control and direction of the proceedings rests, in fact, with the Court itself. If the certificate of an officer has been called in question the decision with respect to cancelling or suspending it must, at the conclusion of the case, or as soon afterwards as possible, be stated in open Court (). The powers which may be exercised by a Naval Court at the conclusion of the case, including the powers to order payment of costs and compensation, have been already fully stated (), and it would be convenient that the decisions and sentences of the Court on every point should be stated in open Court, although it is only in the case above-mentioned that the statute has made that course obligatory (4). If the Court exercise their power of superseding the master, the presiding officer of such Court shall indorse on the certificate of registry, a memorandum of such change of master, and subscribe his name to such endorsement, and forthwith report the change of master to the Registrar-General of Shipping and Seamen (*). When the proceedings are concluded, a report (1) must be made to the Board of Trade. It is necessary for the administrative purposes of the Department to be furnished with other and more ample details of every Investigation by a Naval Court than those prescribed by statute, and accordingly consular officers are instructed that the report should contain the following particulars (8)— See ante, page 172. 25 & 26 Vict., c. 63, .s. 23, sub-sec. 3. See ante, page 162. (c) See ante, page 170. Instructions relating to Naval Courts, 1878, Appendix, page 367. (e) 17 & 18 Vict., c. 104, s. 46. See ante, pages 160 and 171, as to contents. will be found in the Appendix, page 582. Form of Report (*) Instructions relating to Naval Courts, 1878, Appendix, page 367. "(a) A statement or copy of the complaint or other matter which may have caused the summoning of the Court: "(b) The steps taken thereupon by the officer, naval or consular: "(c) A copy of the notice given to any person against whom any charge is made : 66 (d) The names and descriptions of the persons composing the Court: "(e) The depositions and other evidence taken before the Court, signed when practicable by the witnesses: "(f) The order made by the Court: "(g) If any seaman or apprentice is discharged, an account of his wages: "(h) When a ship has been wrecked, lost, or abandoned, a narrative of the material facts which the Court considered proved, with any necessary references to, or extracts from, the evidence, the opinion of the Court as to the precise cause or causes of the casualty, a negation of any suggestion as to the cause of loss not supported by the evidence, the opinion of the Court as to whether any person has been guilty of any negligence or default, and whether such negligence or default occasioned or contributed to the loss of the ship, and finally, a statement of any special precautions which the case shows should be taken in future, together with any remarks on the conduct of the master and crew, or other circumstances connected with the case, which the Court may think fit to make. The report must be signed by the President of the Court with his official title, and if he be a consul, his consular seal should be attached. The depositions and all the documents contained or referred to in it must be originals, and not copies, unless they are documents which it is absolutely necessary to keep for some other purpose; in which case the copies must be certified by the President to be correct. The utmost attention should be paid in observing these formalities, as without them the proceedings of the Court may be rendered nugatory. The report must be then sent home by the first opportunity to the (") See ante, page 160. Particulars to be set forth in the report partly statutory (a) and partly for ad. ministrative purposes. N Further directions for the Court. Board of Trade, with a covering letter from the "When a certificate has been cancelled or suspended guidance of the by order of a Naval Court, it should be forwarded to the Board of Trade with the report of the Court, if it has been granted in the United Kingdom, but if in a Colony, to the Governor or Administrator of the Colony in which it was granted" ("). 66 The only exception to this rule is when delay is likely to occur before the certificate is returned beyond the date to which the certificate is suspended. For instance, if a certificate is suspended for three months by a Naval Court held at Batavia, and the master's residence is at Singapore, the Court should send the certificate to the Governor of the Straits Settlement to be returned on the expiration of the sentence." "In such cases the report sent to the Board of Trade should carefully explain how the certificate has been disposed of" (c). "In all cases where gross misconduct or incompetency is shown, the Board of Trade have expressed an opinion that it will be better not to suspend the certificate for a certain time, but to cancel it with a recommendation to the Board of Trade to return it at a stated time on being satisfied, by certificates of good conduct, or by examination, that the officer is again fit to be in possession of it " (a). "As it is not advisable, as a rule, that officers should be entirely precluded from following their calling, the Court when cancelling or suspending a certificate should take into consideration whether the officer may fairly be entrusted with a certificate of a lower grade than that which has been cancelled or suspended, and make a recommendation accordingly that a certificate for such a grade should be issued to him" (*). (*) Instructions relating to Naval Courts, 1878, Appendix, page 368. "All Orders of a Naval Court should be entered in the log-book of the ship in connection with which the Court has been held, and should be signed by the President of the Court" ("). "The Orders should be framed with great care, fully, and distinctly, and in the strictest accordance with the provisions of the Merchant Shipping Acts, so that their authority may not be questioned in any particular when produced in any subsequent legal proceedings " (b). "The Court should point out to any one who wilfully and without due cause prevents and obstructs the summoning or the conduct of any case or Investigation by any Naval Court, that he thereby incurs a penalty of fifty pounds, or imprisonment with hard labour for twelve weeks, and that they will report the names and addresses of any person doing so, and will, if necessary, make use of any assistance that local authorities may be willing to render to prevent such obstructions, but the Court has no power under the Act to enforce the penalty." ("). Instructions relating to Naval Courts, 1878, Appendix, page 369. 180 No right of appeal existed until the passing of the Shipping Casualties Investigations Act, 1879. No general feeling on the subject. CHAPTER X. RE-HEARING AND APPEAL. No right of appeal existed until the passing of the Shipping Casualties Investigations Act, 1879. While the Board of Trade retained the power (") to cancel or suspend certificates under the Merchant Shipping Act, 1854, they exercised it or not according to the view which they took of the facts and circumstances of the case reported to them by the Court which had held the Inquiry, and of the opinion of the Court thereon. There was no power of obtaining anywhere a review of the finding of the investigating tribunal, although the Board of necessity deliberated upon the case, when the report was adverse to a certificated officer, before dealing with his certificate. Upon the transference of the cancelling and suspending power to the investigating tribunal, authority was given to the Board to return a cancelled certificate, or issue a new one, or shorten the time of suspension, and for that purpose they had still to exercise to some extent the right to review. Except however, as thus controlled, the decision of the Court upon the merits was final, and the discretion of the Board itself was never open to question. The only method of procedure available to an aggrieved officer was by way of memorial to the Board of Trade to reconsider the matter. No general feeling, however, appears to have arisen in favour of a right of appeal, until a recent period. The evidence laid before the Select Committee of 1860 was not specially directed to that point, and the only witnesses who expressly advocated such a right before the Royal Commission of 1873 were not shipowners, or shipmasters, but lawyers (†). (a) 17 & 18 Vict., c. 104, s. 242. See ante, pages 56, 149, 161. (b) Mr. A. T. Squarey, of Liverpool, expressed his opinion that there should be an appeal to some tribunal altogether independent of the Board of Trade. This he considered would go very far indeed to remedy what had been complained of in reference to the |