such obligation exists unless it rests upon the owner of the ship. Moreover, his ability to distribute the loss over the industry is not lessened by the fact that the men who do the work are employed and furnished by another. Historically the work of loading and unloading is the work of the ship's service, performed until recent times by members of the crew. Florez v. The Scotia, 35 F. 916; The Gilbert Knapp, 37 F. 209, 210; The Seguranca, 58 F. 908, 909. That the owner seeks to have it done with the advantages of more modern divisions of labor does not minimize the worker's hazard and should not nullify his protection.

Every consideration, therefore, giving rise to the liability and shaping its character bespeaks inclusion of men intermediately employed to do this work, save only that which is relevant to consent as a basis for responsibility. We do not think this is the ultimate basis of the liability where the seaman hired by the vessel does the work. It is only the source of the relation which furnishes the occasion for the liability, attached by law to performance of the service, to come into play. Not the owner's consent to liability, but his consent to performance of the service defines its boundary. That this is given by contract with the worker's employer rather than with the worker himself does not defeat the responsibility.

working place, for the hazards secured against by the shipowner's obligation of seaworthiness. It holds only that the stevedoring company is liable for its own negligence.

It has frequently been said that a shipowner owes to stevedores the duty of providing a safe place to work, see, e. g., The Joseph B. Thomas, 86 F. 658, 660; The No. 34, 25 F. 2d 602, 604, but cf. Willis v. Lykes Bros. S. S. Co., 23 F. 2d 488, 489, although the duty has at times been qualified by statements that it does not extend to latent defects that "a reasonable inspection by the shipowner or his agents would not show." Wholey v. British & Foreign S. S. Co., 158 F. 379, 380, affirmed, 171 F. 399.

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Accordingly we think the Court of Appeals correctly held that the liability arises as an incident, not merely of the seaman's contract, but of performing the ship's service with the owner's consent. For this view, in addition to the stated considerations of principle, the court rightly found support in the trend and policy of this Court's decisions, especially in International Stevedoring Co. v. Haverty, 272 U. S. 50; Atlantic Transport Co. v. Imbrovek, 234 U. S. 52; and Uravic v. Jarka Co., 282 U. S. 234.

The Haverty case is of special importance. The Court of Appeals said, with reference to its bearing and that of the Imbrovek decision: "And so an injury to a stevedore comes within the classification of a marine tort. Atlantic Transport Co. v. Imbrovek, 234 U. S. 52. It seems, therefore, that when a man is performing a function essential to maritime service on board a ship the fortuitous circumstances of his employment by the shipowner or a stevedoring contractor should not determine the measure of his rights. This is the very basis on which the Jones Act 13 was held applicable to give redress to an injured stevedore in International Stevedoring Co. v. Haverty. . . ." 149 F.2d 98, 101.

The conclusions are sound, notwithstanding the cases are distinguishable in their specific rulings. From that fact it does not follow that either those rulings or the grounds upon which they went are irrelevant or without force for our problem. It is true that negligence was the basis of recovery in both cases and that in each the stevedoring contractor was held responsible. But it was of the gist of the jurisdictional question presented by the libel

13 Merchant Marine Act of 1920, 41 Stat. 1007, 46 U. S. C. § 688, extending to "seamen" the benefits of the Federal Employers' Liability Act, 45 U. S. C. § 51 et seq.

in Imbrovek 14 that stevedores injured while working aboard the ship, though not employed by its owner, are within the traditional protections afforded to seamen by admiralty and that "the fortuitous circumstance" of their employment by one other than the owner to do the ship's work not only did not remove them from those protections, but brought their employers within the protection of the liability to supply them.15

The same underlying considerations were controlling in the Haverty decision, although the liability asserted arose under an Act of Congress and the Court cast its ruling in terms of legislative intent. The only fulcrum for its action was the statute's undefined use of the term "seamen" in conferring the right of recovery under the Federal Employers' Liability Act for the employer's negligence. 41 Stat. 988, 1007. Recognizing that for most purposes "stevedores are not 'seamen,' " 16 and relying upon Imbro

14 It was argued that the wrong, although taking place aboard ship in navigable waters, was not of maritime character and hence not within the admiralty jurisdiction of the District Court.

15 In answer to the contention that the service was not maritime and hence the independently employed stevedore's claim was not within the admiralty jurisdiction, the Court said: "Upon its proper performance depend in large measure the safe carrying of the cargo and the safety of the ship itself; and it is a service absolutely necessary to enable the ship to discharge its maritime duty. Formerly the work was done by the ship's crew; but, owing to the exigencies of increasing commerce and the demand for rapidity and special skill, it has become a specialized service devolving upon a class 'as clearly identified with maritime affairs as are the mariners'." 234 U. S. 52, 61-62.

16 The Court of Appeals in this case likewise carefully limited is ruling in recognition of the fact that stevedores are not entitled to all the protections a seaman may claim.

It is in relation to liability for personal injury or death arising in the course of his employment aboard the ship that the policy of our law has been most favorable to the stevedore's claims. Whether or not that policy has been influenced by the vicissitudes experienced in

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vek, the Court again stressed that "the work upon which the plaintiff was engaged was a maritime service formerly rendered by the ship's crew," and that the statute's policy was to afford compensation for injuries "as properly part of the cost of the business," that is, of the maritime service rendered, rather than by the capricious circumstance of employment "by a stevedore rather than by the ship." And the Uravic decision rejected an equally capricious discrimination based upon the nationality of the vessel's flag.

Running through all of these cases, therefore, to sustain the stevedore's recovery is a common core of policy which has been controlling, although the specific issue has varied from a question of admiralty jurisdiction to one of coverage under statutory liability within the admiralty field. It is that for injuries incurred while working on board the ship in navigable waters the stevedore is entitled to the seaman's traditional and statutory protections, regardless of the fact that he is employed immediately by another than the owner." For these purposes he is, in short, a seaman because he is doing a seaman's work and incurring a seaman's hazards. Moreover, to make the policy effective, his employer is brought within the liability which is peculiar to the employment relation to the extent that and because he also undertakes the service of the ship.

finding protection for him as a result of the Jensen decision, 244 U. S. 205; Davis v. Department of Labor, 317 U. S. 249, 252-253, the reasons underlying the policy are perhaps more nearly identical in this application, as between seamen and longshoremen, than those supporting other rights of the seaman, such as that to maintenance and cure.

17 In this case we are not concerned with the question whether the same policy extends to injuries incurred ashore by a stevedore engaged in the same work, a matter which is relevant however in Swanson v. Marra Brothers, Inc., ante, p. 1. Cf. O'Donnell v. Great Lakes Co., 318 U. S. 36.

It would be anomalous if such a policy, effective to control such issues, were less effective when the question is simply whether the stevedore is entitled to the traditional securities afforded by the law of the sea to men who do the ship's work. Nor does it follow from the fact that the stevedore gains protections against his employer appropriate to the employment relation as such, that he loses or never acquires against the shipowner the protections, not peculiar to that relation, which the law imposes as incidental to the performance of that service. Among these is the obligation of seaworthiness. It is peculiarly and exclusively the obligation of the owner. It is one he cannot delegate.18 By the same token it is one he cannot contract away as to any workman within the scope of its policy. As we have said, he is at liberty to conduct his business by securing the advantages of specialization in labor and skill brought about by modern divisions of labor. He is not at liberty by doing this to discard his traditional responsibilities. That the law permits him to substitute others for responsibilities peculiar to the employment relation does not mean that he can thus escape the duty it imposes of more general scope. To allow this would be, in substantial effect, to convert the ancient liability for maritime tort into a purely contractual responsibility. This we are not free to do.

It remains to consider one other argument, namely, that the Haverty decision has been overruled, in effect, by the enactment of the Longshoremen's and Harbor Workers' Compensation Act of March 4, 1927, 44 Stat. 1424, 33 U.S. C. § 901 ff., and therefore the effect of that decision as furnishing any support for including longshoremen within the owner's obligation of seaworthiness has been

18 See note 11.