Naval Courts
The Cyclopedic Law Dictionary · Walter A. Shumaker and George Foster Longsdorf; ed. James C. Cahill · 1922
The Cyclopedic Law Dictionary
Courts held abroad in certain cases to inquire into complaints by the master or seamen of a British ship, or as to the wreck or abandonment of a British ship. A naval court consists of three, four, or five members, being officers in her majesty's navy, consular officers, masters of British merchant ships, or British merchants. It has power to supersede the master of the ship with reference to which the inquiry is held, to discharge any of the seamen, to decide questions as to wages, send home offenders for trial (Merch. Ship. Act 1854, § 260), or try certain offenses in a summary manner (Merch. Ship. Act 1855, § 28).