Concessionaires and their employees aboard a vessel ordinarily do
not perform their services subject to the authority, direction, and
control of the master of the vessel, except incidentally, and their
services are ordinarily not rendered primarily as an aid in the
operation of the vessel as a means of transportation. As a rule,
therefore, they are not employed as seamen for purposes of the Act.
Also, other employees working aboard vessels, whose service is not
rendered primarily as an aid to the operation of the vessel as a means
of transportation are not employed as seamen (Knudson v. Lee & Simmons,
Inc., 163 F. 2d 95; Walling v. Haden, 153 F. 2d 196, certiorari denied
32 U.S. 866). Thus, employees on floating equipment who are engaged in
the construction of docks, levees, revetments or other structures, and
employees engaged in dredging operations or in the digging or processing
of sand, gravel, or other materials are not employed as seamen within
the meaning of the Act but are engaged in performing essentially
industrial or excavation work (Sternberg Dredging Co. v. Walling, 158 F.
2d 678; Walling v. Haden, supra; Walling v. Bay State Dredging &
Contracting Co., 149 F. 2d 346; Walling v. Great Lakes Dredge & Dock
Co., 149 F. 2d 9, certiorari denied 327 U.S. 722). Thus, ``captains''
and ``deck hands'' of launches whose dominant work was industrial
activity performed as an integrated part of harbor dredging operations
and not in furtherance of transportation have been held not to be
employed as seamen within the meaning of the Act (Cuascut v. Standard
Dredging Corp. 94 F. Supp. 197).
