"_Be it enacted_, &c., That, in case of wreck or loss of any ship or vessel of the United States, every seaman belonging thereto shall be entitled to his wages up to the period of such wreck or loss, whether such ship or vessel shall or shall not have previously earned freight, provided such seaman shall have exerted himself to the utmost to save the ship, cargo, and stores; and in any trial of the question of services, the master, although a party to the suit, shall be a competent witness on this question. "SEC. 2. _And be it further enacted_, That every stipulation, by which any seaman shall consent to abandon his wages, in case of wreck or loss of the ship or vessel, or in case of the failure to earn freight, shall be wholly void." On this bill Mr. Sumner spoke as follows. Mr. President,--In introducing this bill, I desire to make a brief explanation, which shall, at least, be a record of my views with regard to it. The bill proposes an amelioration of the existing Maritime Law in respect to the wages of merchant seamen, which, so far as England is concerned, has been made already by Act of Parliament, and in our country can be accomplished only by Act of Congress. By existing Maritime Law, the seaman's wages depend upon a technical rule, which sometimes occasions hardship. Freight is compendiously said to be the mother of wages. In conformity with this fanciful idea, wages are made to depend upon the earning of freight, unless the freight is waived by agreement of the owner, or the voyage or freight is lost by negligence, fraud, or misconduct of the owner or master, or voluntarily abandoned. In case of wreck, the sailor has simply the chance of something under the name of salvage, if the fragments saved happen to be of any value; but if the loss be total, then he is without remedy. In wrecks, which occur with melancholy frequency, on our churlish winter coast, this hardship adds even to the sorrows of disaster. Thus, as in a case which has actually arisen, a crew may commence service at Calcutta, may navigate the Indian Ocean, double the Cape of Good Hope, and bring their ship safely within sight of land, and then, by total loss of ship and cargo, from acknowledged perils of the sea, they may lose everything, even their right to wages, and may find themselves in a strange port, the prey of poverty. Nor can any merit, either throughout the protracted voyage or in the hour of peril and shipwreck, prevent the operation of this technical rule. There is also another circumstance which constrains the poor sailor. The owner may insure his ship, and also his freight, so that he may lose nothing but the premium he pays; but the sailor is not allowed to protect himself by insurance from loss of wages: his loss is literally total.