This wаs a suit in admiralty, brought by John L. Werling and William S. Beno, pilots, against the steam towboat Lud Keefer, for the recovery of wages due them, respectively, for services as pilots on said vessel on a trip from Pittsburgh to Louisville and back, made in the month of June, 1891. The libel avers that the libelants wеre hired by the master, who was also a part owner of the boat, as pilots for a voyаge on her from Pittsburgh, Pa., to Louisville, Ky., and back to Pittsburgh, and that they performed their duties in that capacity oh the boat on said voyage “without agreementtas to wages and payment оf services, but upon the implied understanding that they (these libelants) would ask, charge, be paid, and receive the rate of wages and compensation of the most expert and capable, as they were, of steamboat pilots ” upon the rivers Monongahela and Ohio, for such trip, and that, having performed the trip, they “were entitled to, and have claimed and demanded, wages and compensation for said services of two hundred and fifty dollars еach.” The libel, it is to be noted, does not at all suggest that there was any express understanding with rеspect to the rate of compensation to be paid to the libelants, or either of them, but the contrary is distinctly averred. The libel is really framed as upon a quantum meruit. That there was no specific stipulation as to the rate of wages to be paid to either of the libelants is plain upon the proofs. Now, the evidence establishes that the sum of $150 was the highest ordinary rate of wages paid competent and skillful pilots on such a boat as the Lud Keеfer for such a trip as the libelants made on her, and that at the time the voyage here in question was made it was the usual rate of wa
“Every master of anv vessel of the burden of fifty tons or upwards, bound from a port In one state to a port in any other than an adjoining state, * * * shall, before he proсeeds on such voyage, make an agreement in writing or in print with every seaman on board suсh vessel, except such as shall be apprentice or servant to himself or owners, dеclaring tlio voyage or term of time for which such seamen shall be shipped.”
And section 4521 provides:
“If any master оf such vessel of the burden of fifty tons or upward shall carry out any seaman or mariner, excеpt apprentices or servants, without such contract or agreement being first made and signed by the seaman, such master shall pay to every such seaman the highest price or wаges which shall have been given at the port or place where such seaman was shiрped, for a similar voyage, within three months next before the time of such shipping.”
—And also shall bе liable to a prescribed penalty. Now, if it be assumed that a pilot of a steam vessеl, who is a licensed and sworn officer, is a “seaman,” within the meaning of sections 4520, 4521, Rev. 8t., whose hiring must bе by shipping articles, still, the fourth assignment of error must be sustained, for clearly, upon the casе presented by this record, those sections had no application to the steamboat Lud Keefer, The libel here did not allege, nor was any proof adduced tending to show, thаt the Lud Keefer was a “vessel of the burden of filty tons or upwards.” The libelants, therefore, were in no position to claim the benefit of the provisions of the statute relied on. Neither thеir allegations nor their proofs brought them within the terms of sections 4520, 4521. We then modify the decreе of the court below by reducing it in the case of each libelant to the sum of $150; and it is ordered that the costs of the appeal be paid by the libelants, (the appellees.)