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24 S.C.L. 152

State v. Cordes

Court of Appeals of South Carolina

Decided February 15, 1839

Court of Appeals of South Carolina · decided 1839-02-15

<p>Indictment under the act of 1836, (Acts, p. 60,) for harboring one F. C. Lenderman, a deserted seaman. By the shipping articles of the Bremen barque Elizabeth, Lenderman bound himself “'to go in her as a seaman, from Bremen to Baltimore, and from Baltimore back again to Bremen, or any other place where our destiny may be, or the further voyages may goand that “ he would not leave the ship out of the country (from home), nor demand his discharge, nor his wages that have not been received from a foreign tribunal.” Held, that by the articles, the vessel, after reaching her port of destination, might proceed to other ports before her return to Bremen; and that her coming from Baltimore to Charleston did not constitute such an unreasonable lengthening, either of the principal voyage contemplated, or its duration, as to render the contract void, or. entitle the seamen to be discharged from the vessel.— The seaman, Lenderman, being still bound to the vessel, and the defendant having been found guilty of harboring him while he deserted from the ship, the court refused to grant a new trial; two juries having found the defendant guilty on the evidence.</p>

Decided 1839-02-15

Curia, per Evans, J.

¶1I think it very clear the articles contemplated, that the vessel after reaching her port of destination might proceed to other ports before her return to Bremen, and there is nothing in the law regulating those contracts, which prohibits such *157agreements. Sailors are in general ignorant, and easily beguiled and defrauded; and hence, in order to prevent the impositions too often practised upon their ignorance and defenceless condition, the laws, both of England and the United States; have gone very far to relieve them from these contracts, where any unreasonable construction is attempted to be put on general terms used in the articles. If the captain of the Elizabeth, after reaching Baltimore, instead of returning to Bremen, had taken in a new freight for the South Sea Islands, for China, or Archangel, or any other distant port obviously not within the contemplation of the parties when the articles were signed, it would have been a breach of the contract by the captain, which would have discharged the sailors, and in such case Lenderman would not have been a deserter. But I apprehend the coming from Baltimore to Charleston, is not such an unreasonable lengthening either of the voyage itself or its duration, as will authorise this court to pronounce the contract void for this reason. As to the second ground, whether the testimony was sufficient to convict the defendant of harboring, I have no remark to make, except that two juries have successively found the defendant guilty on the evidence, and we are not disposed to interfere by granting a new trial.

Thompson for the motion. Attorney General, contra.

¶2The motion is therefore dismissed.

O’Neall and Betlek, Justices, concurred. Eaexe, J. absent at the hearing, but concurred in the judgment.
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