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THE MARINE RECORD. _ TREASURY DECISIONS RELATING TO VESSELS. MeabsE rere : 417783.) : ‘Relating to mates’ licenses, western river steamboats. eae - Treasury Department, February 11, 1897. Sir: Your letter of the 18th ultimo, requesting to be in- formed whether, in view of the Department’s decision that mates On river steamers are not required, under the steam- boat laws, to take out licenses, such mates who have here- tofore taken out licenses and paid therefor have a claim against the government for a refund of such fees, was duly referred to the Solicitor of the Treasury for his opinion. That officer, in an opinion rendered the oth instant, de- cided “that mates on river steamers having voluntarily applied for license, and having had the benefit of the use of the same for the time for which they were issued, have no claim to be reimbursed for such expenditure. I think the principle stated in Elliott vs. Swartwout (10 Pet., 137), that in case of voluntary payment by mere mistakes of law, no action will lie to recover back the money, will apply to protect the government in a case like the one presented.” ‘This opinion is concurred in by this Department, and your attention is called, in connection therewith, to the fact that no fees for mates’ licenses have been paid to the government since June 10, 1886. g S. WIKE, * Very respectfully, ae Acting Secretary. H. F. BURNSIDE, Esq., _ ~ Steamer E. A. Andrews, Point Pleasant, W. Va. (17794.) Ferryboats exempt from laws restricting number of pas- sengers carried. Treasury Department, February 18, 1897. Sir: This Department is in receipt of your letter of the 15th instant, in which you complain of the overcrowding of the ferryboats of the Staten Island Rapid Transit Co., particularly of the steamers Westfield, Northfield, and Middletown, and that the life-saving appliances on those ferryboats will not suffice for one-half the number of per- sons they often carry. You also complain of the refusal of Mr. T. H. Barrett, local inspector at New York, to give you certain information in regard to the ferry steamers re- ferred to, he claiming in such refusal to be acting under the regulations of the Department in so refusing. ~ In conclusion, you ask to have mailed to you an order on the United States local inspectors at New York to. fur- nish you such information as may be desired, that is of record, as refers to the steamers named in your letter. In reply, you are informed, first, that the United States inspection laws, section 4464, Revised Statutes of the United States, specially exempt ferryboats from the re- strictions imposed on other steam vessels in the matter of limitations of passengers, therefore rendering officers of the inspection service powerless to remedy the evil of overcrowding the passengers on ferryboats. The life-saving equipments for such steamers are regu- lated by a rule of the Board of Supervising Inspectors, un- der the provisions of section 4420, Revised Statutes; said rule, section 3, Rule VII, reading as follows: i “All ferryboats carrying passengers shall be equipped as passenger steamers to such an extent as in the opinion of the inspectors shall, in each case, be deemed just and proper, in accordance with the average number of pas- srs carried per trip.” . ir Go cued by the Department that the equipments you complain of are provided in accordance with this rule, and that the kind and number thereof are fully set forth in the certificate of inspection of the steamers, two copies of which are required to be is under glass, on such r, for the information of passengers. Sane are less equipments on board the steamers than the number called for in the certificates of the steamers, such steamers are liable to the penalty of $500, provided for in section 4499 and 4500, Revised Statutes. Any oy plaints in that respect should be made to the collector o customs at New York, whose duty it would be to enforce ich penalty. az oe ake certifidates” of inspection on board the steamer, which are accessible to all passengers, embody all the record information concerning the equipment of such steamers, the Department must respectfully decline to fur- nish you the letter to the inspectors authorizing you to examine the office records. ; ‘In conclusion, you are informed that this Department récogfiizes the abuses that have grown up because of the - lack of law to restrict the number of passengers on ferry- boats, The Supervising Inspector-General, in his annual report to the Secretary of the Treasury, in 1888, recom- mended legislation on the subject, which report was trans- mitted to Congress with the approval of this Department; which recommendations would, if they had been approved by Congress, have ‘mitigated, if not entirely removed, all just cause of complaint: apt Respectfully yours, W. E. CURTIS, brig § Acting Secretary. DAN. S. ROBERTSON, Esq. _. P. O. Box, 1135, New York, MN Sar NOTICE TO MARINERS. Col. Lydecker, Corps of Engineers, U. S. A,, states that -Yessels’ bound up and down hug the Canadian side of the. deep-channel out of the foot of Lake Huron too ’ closely. ‘There is.no necessity for this, The channel is 2,400 feet wide its entire length, and the colonel ‘says that all loose boulders in it have been located and raised, and that its entire completion may be announced. Colonel Lydecker talks of conferring with the Lake Carriers’ executive committee and the Canadian goyern- ment to see if some arrangement cannot be made by which lights may be placed on the shore off Point Edward. Now that the channel is completed it is in order for the lighthouse board and the hydrographic office to give noti- fication of the fact and announce bearings. and distances for using it, -All this uncertainty comes of the premature use of the channel, which was desired by all owners, ‘as ae many rocks and shoals had been encountered in the other. would be; it would seem, entirely their own fault. Treasury Department, . Office of the Light-House Board, Washingon, D. C., May 1, 1897: MILWAUKEE LIGHT STATION. i Notice is hereby given that, on or about May 12, 1807, the light at this station, near the extreme north point of Milwaukee Bay, will be changed from fixed white varied by a white flash every 45 seconds, to fixed white varied by a white flash every 30 seconds. No other change will be made. By order. of the Light-House Board. : We SSC EUEEY. Captain, U. S. Navy, Chairman. re or or MARITIME LAW. WELLMAN et al. vs. MORSE et al. (Circuit Court of Appeals, First Circuit. Sept. 15, 1896.) No. 151. 1. General Average—Personal Liability. The owners of a cargo are liable on an implied promise for general average. 2. Same. Where a master, in order to preserve his cargo, takes measures stich as a wise and prudent man would think most conducive to the benefit of all concerned, he has a lien on the cargo for the expenses so incurred. _ 3. Same—Lien. The lien for general average is one recognized by the admiralty law, and stands on the same footing as a mari- time lien on cargo for the price of its transportation. ; 4. Same. ; i _The lien may be preserved by a qualified or conditional discharge of the cargo. 5. Same. Though. strictly, the right to payment of general aver- age does not, perhaps, always await a discharge of the cargo, yet no admiralty court will enforce payment prior to an opportunity for an inspection of the cargo by its owner for the purpose of determining its contributory value, so that, practically, a prior discharge of the cargo is necessary to enable the owner of the vessel to collect the amount due for general average. 6. Same. The owner of a vessel cannot ordinarily retain the cargo aboard for non-payment of freight, and thereupon charge demurrage arising from such detention. 7. Same—Bond. An average bond should be conditioned in the simplest terms to pay the obligor’s share of general average, and it is improper to demand a bond requiring more than this, or which would in any way prejudice the owner of the cargo in denying liability, or in questioning the amount of it, or which would close any of the methods which the law gives for determining the existence or extent of lia- bility. 8. Same. The cargo owner cannot insist that the bond shall pro- vide for a’ postponement of any suit against the sureties until the end of litigation with the consignees. . Appeal from the District Court of the United States for the District of Massachusetts. Before Colt and Putnan, Circuit Judges, and Webb, Dis- trict Judge. See ———<——<uuenn a PINTSCH GAS BUOYS. The Pintsch gas buoys used in the St. Lawrence River last year have given such excellent satisfaction that an ad- ditional appropriation has been secured from congress for several more buoys to be placed the’ coming season. Canadian papers are strongly advocating an appropriation for the purchase of the buoys for Canadian waters. The Pintsch buoy is a compact wrought iron vessel filled with compressed Pintsch gas, and carrying at its top a patent storm-proof lantern supported by a strong iron framework. The flow of gas from the reservoir into the lantern is con- trolled by the Pintsch regulator, by means of which a clear light is maintained, no matter what may be the position of the buoy or how much it may toss in heavy seas. The storm-proof lantern is so constructed that while the nec- essary air is admitted to feed the flame, not a particle of water can enter. The buoys are of various sizes and burn continuously and reliably night and day for from three months to one year, depending on their size. The refilling of a buoy- is done from a tender by passing compressed Pintsch gas through a flexible tube into the buoy. This gas is the same as is now used in railroad arc lighting. “ That the masters hug the east side too closely: HOLLAND SUBMARINE TORPEDO BOAT. The Holland submarine boat is rapidly nearing com- pletion in the Crescent ship yards at Elizabethport, N. J. The construction was begun about six months ago, but the difficulties attending a new venture of such magni- — tude have greatly delayed it. 3 % Mr. Holland, the inventor, has..been in constant. at- tendance at the ship yards since the work was. started. The curious looking craft is 50 feet long and 10 feet 3 inches in diameter’ at the center, shaped like a cigar, sharp at . both ends»: She has three tubes for throwing torpedoes under water. The motive power under water will be elec- - tricity, furnished by a storage dynamo, and on the surface an oil engine will be the means of propulsion. Speed un- der water will be’ eight knots an hour and on the surface ten knots. During this week the boat will be placed in the water and there finished. © She is constructed of the finest steel plate, capable of sustaining an immense pressure, so that a descent can be made to almost any depth. The supply ‘ of air will be two-fold—a storage of compressed air emit-. ted, gradually during a descent, and a supply produced by chemical action. : OO Oe “NOTES. The two gas buoys to be placed by the Dominion Light House Board in Point ‘Pelee passage are to be supplied with gas by the United States Light-House tender patrol- ing the: district. ; te : Mr. Chas. W. Whitney, agent for Purves’ ribbed steel — boiler furnace flues and Serve ribbed tubes has removed his offices from the Manhattan Life building to Bowling Green building, 5 to 11 Broadway, New York. The hydrographic office announces the publication of a book, No, 112, entitled ‘Illustrative Cloud Forms for the Guidance of Observers in the Classification of Clouds.” This book contains sixteen plates showing the different cloud forms, with descriptive matter; also a chart, No. 1600, entitled ‘‘Classification of Clouds for the Weather Observers of the Hydrographic Office.” This chart con- tains twelve of the sixteen plates shown in the book; there is no descriptive matter on the charts, but the types of clouds are stated. The _hydrographer has been en- gaged in the preparation of this series of cloud pictures during the past three years. The nomen- clature of the cloud committee of the interna- tional marine conference has been adopted, but the plates are lithographed from original paintings made for the hydrographic office by Rudolf Cronau. In every stage of the work—artistic, technical and scientific—experts have criticised his progress. The plates, therefore, may be con- fidently accepted as representing accurately the new de- scription given in the book publication, No. 112. These publications may be obtained from the sales agents of the hydrographic office. Col. Lydecker, who succeeded Gen. Poe in charge of the work, at St. Mary’s Falls Canal, says that while the ma- chinery for the new lock has given some slight trouble, the newspaper reports have been greatly exaggerated. The ma- chinery was designed by a competent mechanical engineer as peculiarly fitted to work the gates. It is of the most complicated: description, Naturally the force that works it needs education on that score alone, as it is totally un- like anything ever before used. Besides this it is new, and like all machinery that has been little used, is subject tu disarrangement. Nevertheless the force has aone weil with it and the delays have been caused by the breaking of only minor parts not exactly adapted for their work. The delays, however, have been very short each time, as the parts to replace them were right at hand. Col. Ly- decker says that the machinery has not been given a fair trial, and that if, after a long trial, it is proved to be in- adequate for the demand upon it, he will have it replaced. But he is entirely confident that it will ultimately give every satisfaction. If we can credit the European dispatches in the daily press, there is a possibility of the steam turbine for marine purposes being given a trial on a large scale. Those dis- patches state that it has been freely rumored at. Newcastle- on-Tyne that the Cunard company’s engineers are think- ing of trying the new marine turbine system on their next steamer. The system was referred to in these columns. Further trials have recently taken place with the little steamer Turbinia, with the result that she showed a mean speed on a measured mile, at the mouth of the Tyne, of 32% knots an hour, withremarkably low coal consumption. The experts have reported that, although heavy seas were encountered, “there was no racing of screws and the ma- chinery worked with perfect smoothness and complete absence of vibration.’ The Turbinia is only 1oo feet long and 9 feet beam, with a maximum displacement of 42 tons.. Cassier’s Magazine of Illustrated Engravings has in its May number the following articles: “Electric Power from High Water Heads,” by John E. Bennett; “The McKenna Process for Renewing Steel Rails,’ by Robert W. Hunt; “British Express Locomotives. with Single Driving Wheels,” by George Frederick Bird; “Anhydrous Am- monia for Ice Machines,” illustrated, by Henry Faurot; “Andrew Carnegie,” a biographical sketch, with a portrait, and several other. illustrations, by John D. Champlin; “Roller Bearings for Machinery,’ by H. A. Richmond, Among “Current Topics” are: “ ‘Central’ Condensers,” “Engineering in Warfare,” “Machinery in Big Buildings, “European and American River Boat Methods, ‘Line Shafting,” “Producer Gas for Boiler Firing,’ and “The Storage of Natural Forces.” Ss TESA C ya e Re a e Toe ater rteg