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ony J A SHIP’S LOG—ITS VALUE AS EVIDENCE. COMMUNICATED. In these times, when so much is heard of other sentiments than unreserved admiration of the Navy Department, it is a refreshing change to review its General Courtmartial-Order 18 of 1897, issued in the closing days of Secretary Herbert’s administration, in which is a healthy ruling concerning ship’s logs, recently approved by the Court of Claims. This G. C. M. O. 18, dated February 23, 1897, recites that Sail- maker Jones, U. S. N., was charged with ‘“‘drunkenness,’’ i. e. violating Art. 8, Sec. 1624 R. S., and sentenced on that charge to lose pay for a certain period, by general court- martial at Montevideo, Uruguay, December 16, 1896. It states that this court was properly convened under Art. 38, Sec. 1624 R. S. by the ‘commander of squadron,” that its sentence was duly approved by the latter, was “carried into execution’’ as provided by Art. 53, Sec. 1624 R. S., was thus no longer reversible for mere error on appeal, and could only be set aside as void. It was decided to be void because it was the second judgment for the same offense, there being no act of Congress authorizing two successive punishments by two distinct naval tribunals or magistrates for the same offense. The fact of second punishment was held to be established by the ship’s log, and the weight to be given that impartial record as against partial prosecutors or judge-advocates, and mistaken subordinates, is well stated in this G. C. M. O. 18, which reads: “Article 24 of the Articles for the Government of the Navy provides as follows: ‘No commander of a vessel shall inflict upon a commissioned or warrant officer any other punishment than private reprimand, suspension from duty, arrest, or confinement, and such suspension, arrest, or con- finement, shall.not continue longer than ten days, unless a further period is necessary to bring the offender to trial by a courtmartial. * * No other punishment shall be per- mitted on board of vessels belonging to the Navy, except by sentence of a general or summary courtmartial. All punish- ments inflicted by the commander, or by his order, except reprimands, shall be fully enforced upon the ship’s log.’’ ‘The order then showed how Jones, having in view Art. 1036 of the Navy Reg. of 1896, (requiring a ship’s captain to determine in ten days if an arrested subordinate is arrested for trial and not merely for the ten-day punishment per- mitted to be inflicted summarily by the ship’s | magistrate), and. Art. 1052, (forbidding a longer delay than 24 hours in making this determination), pleaded in bar that the log- book Dec. 7, 1896, recorded this judgment against him: “By order of commanding officer placed sailmaker Jones under suspension for being drunk on duty;” and further pleaded that ‘‘it was not until six days later that any inti- mation reached him that his trial by a general court-martial was being. considered.’’ The plea further added that on December : 12, 1896, the log-book recited the beginning of the process for a second judgment for the same offense, the entry being, ‘‘delivered charges and specifications for trial by general court-martial to sailmaker C. H. Jones, U.S. N., and. he was placed under arrest.”’ . G. C. M. O. 18 then continues: “This second plea in bar amounts, therefore, to the asser- tion that the accused had already suffered one punishment for the offense committed before he was brought to trial; that such punishment wasa legal one, duly imposed by competent authority, and that its character is established by the entry made in the log in pursuance of the last paragraph of Art. 24, reciting that the accused was ‘by order of the commanding officer’ placed under suspension ‘for being drunk on duty.’ : “Tt is dificult to see upon what ground any of these sev- eral points upon which the validity of this plea rests can be assailed, unless it can be claimed that the suspension en- tered in the log was nota punishment. The language of the entry reciting that suspension, fairly interpreted, seems necessarily to mean that the suspention it records wasa punishment for the offense specified. All entries made in the log are, under the Regulations, (Article 414) submitted to the captain for his examination, daily, and if the language used in this case did not express correctly the purpose and intent of his order, it should have been corrected. It would have been easy and obviously proper to make the entry in the log show that the suspension ordered was ‘to await trial by court-martial,’ as is customary when such is the purpose of the suspension; or, ‘to await action,’ etc. The latter form of entry would have been particularly appropriate in this instance, if such was the purpose of the order, in view THE MARINE RECORD. of the fact that on the date the entry was made the com- manding officer telegraphed to the department asking au- thority to convene courts-martial. An explicit statement entered in the log to the effect that the accused was placed under suspension to await trial by court-martial, or to await action, would have relieved this case of serious embarass- ment. “Finally, in considering the probable meaning of this en- try, it is borne in mind that, even if it be conceded that its language is susceptible of more than one construction, the accused is legally entitled to have every reasonable doubt that may exist resolved in his favor.” Citing other naval precedents against a second punishment forthe same offense, the Secretary concluded, that for the foregoing reasons ‘‘the trial, conviction, and judgment are set aside.’’ Many cases can be imagined where, in a hearing before boards, commissioners, or courts, established by statutes governing navigation and commerce the question of juris- diction depends upon some entry ina ship’s log. The Navy Department’s decision is to the effect that the jurisdiction depends upon that fact and not upon the erroneous view which the tribunal may take of it, a decision supported by many U. S. Supreme Court decisions. It is a ruling more- over that an entry in the log-book by an impartial witness (in this case the officer-of-the-deck) contemporaneous with the event referred to, hasa higher value as evidence than the possible partial entries of the prosecuting judge-advocate of the court-martial at a later date and which may depend upon mingled hearsay and mistake. Ina future chapter it will be shown how this ruling has been sustained by the Court of Claims in a decision at its present term, not yet published. Concerning the invalidity of a judgment unauthorized or prohibited by statute the U. S. Supreme Court say, in Murphy v. Mass. 177 U.S. 160, that it is ‘‘a fundamental principle that no man can be twice punished by judicial judgments for the same offense.’’ Thus the court affirms.that the Navy Department was right in maintaining the possible jurisdictional force and effect of a ship’s log. GEORGE F. ORMSBY. Washington, D.C. ——$—— $$ ra a" STATEMENT OF THE VISIBLE SUPPLY OF GRAIN. As compiled by George F. Stone, Secretary Chicago Board of Trade, September 14th, Igor. a OG Se ae ee a CITIES WHERE WHEAT.| CORN. Oats. RYE. BARLEY STORED, Bushels. | Bushels. | Bushels. | Bushels. | Bushels. Buffalo... I,II5,000] 1,258 000 238,000 37,000 199,000 Chicago... 4,856 000] 7,029,000] 1,747,000 255,000 21,000 Detroit ... ..| 345 006 61,000} 147,000] 181,000 11,000 Duluth.........-...-: 2,584,900] 633,000 477,000 432,000 241,000 Fort William, Ont.. 475. 000].. 2.00 yee aa line ani aie Aecoatal casera Milwaukee.......... III 000] 342,000] 486,000 37,000) 37,000 ‘Port Arthur, Ont.... ABOOO| esa ae vie tallies) Sie de Gel PARR eae We, wier eater goed Toledo... ..-..0-+0++ 769,000! 636,000! 1,147,000] 353,006 5,000 Toronto...... Ba TOCOO | euadeet el tee tate ue face cameras © 2,000 On Canals.... 531,00¢ 533.070 GEE MOO) oa eine Bains 60,000 On Lakes.... ..| 2,351,000} 469,00c} 481,000) 52,000) 295,000 On Miss. River..:... [secs cece Poe ee eee Pine et ee te] cee eeee ee] ce nee e ee Grand Total.....| 30 872,0c0] 12,502,00c} 8,475.000 1,618,000] 1,125,000 Corresponding Date, 1900, .eeesseeeereee 53,927,0.C] 5,602,0c0] 10,347,000] 794,000] 653,000 Increase for week..| 2,432,00c] ......... T,097,000]........ 462,000 Decrease ‘‘ Co a lea can OZTO0C nce es 275000). ee ii ae A ee eee While the stock of grain at lake ports only is here given, the total shows the figures for the entire country except the Pacific Slope. a THE’ White Pass & Yukon Ry. is experimenting with petroleum from Bakersfield, Cal., as fuel on its Yukon steamers, plying between White Horse and Dawson. The fuel agent estimates that the use of oil will effect a saving of at least 50 per cent. over the present cost of wood at $5 to $8 per cord. The oil will cost only 30 cents per barrel at Bakersfield, making the chief cost its transportation, nearly 3,000 miles to Dawson. If the experiment proves to be a success, supply tanks will be built at several points along the Yukon between White Horse and Dawson. oo oo ovo Shipping—Cargo- Damage—Unseaworthiness Due to Im- proper Loading—Harter Act—Neither section 1 nor 3 of the Harter act relieves a shipowner from responsibility for the unseaworthy condition of the ship, due to her improper loading, which renders her topheavy and unstable to such an extent as to make her unfit to encounter the ordinary perils of navigation which should reasonably have been anticipated during the voyage. The Oneida, 108 Fed. Rep. (U. S.) 886. SEPTEMBER 19, I90I. ~ i THE TOPOPHONE. The United States Government has established 393 -fog- signals, 120 bell buoys, 73 whistling buoys, and 44 light- vessels with fog-signals on or near the shores of its navigable © waters. Other nations have similarly guarded their coasts. Every vessel that floats is required by law to carry some kind of a fog-signal. In addition, there are other sounds, such as echoes, breakers, etc., whose direction the mariner needs to know to prevent accident. The topophone has been devised to accomplish just this thing, and»also to hear sounds at greater distances than is possible with the un- assisted ear. With its use the mariner can determine the direction of any sound before it can be heard without the « instrument. The topophone is simple in construction, light ; in weight, portable, can be used in any part of the vessel, © and any one with normal hearing can soon become proficient. - in its use. ze It consists of two acoustic receivers or trumpets, pointing» in opposite directions and supported on a vertical shaft. . From the lower erds of the trumpets extend rubber tubes connected with the ears by specially constructed ear pieces, The observer holds the shaft so that the instrument is above - his head; if a sound is heard in either ear—the right ear for example—it shows at once that the sound must be some- where on the right-hand side. If he then turns to the right until the sound is heard in the left ear, it shows that he has passed the direction of the sound. If he then oscillates the trumpets so that the sound is heard alternately in each ear, the sound will be in a direction inside the angle of oscilla- tion; this angle generally is about one point of the compas. The whole operation is simple, and the above operations take but a few seconds. ; ‘ one. As soon as the direction of the sound is ascertained, the observer can keep the topophone pointed in its direction, and, knowing the speed of the vessel and its course, the location of the souud can be quickly plotted accurately enough for all practical purposes. The topophone is the in- vention of Lieutenant-Colonel D. P. Heap, engineer of the — Third Light-House District, Tompkinsville, N. Y. Prof. Mayer, of the Institute of Technology, Hoboken, N.. J., invented an instrument to determine the direction of sound to which he also gave the name ‘‘topophone.”” The following is the description of it, taken from the Scientific American Supplement of July 4, 1885 : “Briefly described, the topophone consists of two reson- ators (or any other sound receivers) attached toa connecting . bar or shoulder rest. The sound receivers are joined by flexible tubes, which unite for part of their length, and from which ear tubes proceed. One tube, it will be observed, carries a telescopic device by which its length can be varied. When the two resonators face the direction whence a sound comes, so as to receive simultaneously the same sonorous impulse, and are joined by tubes of equal length, the sound waves received from them will necessarily reinforce each other, and the sound will be augmented. If, on the con- trary, the resonators being in the same position: as regards the source of sound, the resonator tubes differ in length by half the wave length of the sound, the impulse from the one neutralizes that from the other, and the sound is obliterated. ‘“‘Accordingly, in determining the direction of the source — of any sound within this instrument, the observer, guided by the varying intensity of the sound transmitted by the reson- ators, turns until their openings touch the same sound waves simultaneously, which position he recognizes either by the great augmentation of the sound (when the tube lengths are equal) or by the cessation of sound, when the tubes vary so that the interference of the sound waves is per- fect. In either case the determination of the direction of the source of the sound is almost instantaneous, and the two methods may be successively employed as checks upon each other’s report.’’ Prof. Henry Morton, of the same Institute, experimenting with this instrument, says: If the surface of asound wave were alwaystruly spherical, this instrument might locate its direction with a fair degree of accuracy, but this surface is frequently deformed,.some- times to the extent of being a curve of double curvature, and in such a case the instrument would be fatally misleading. In addition, it is necessary that all fog-signals should be tuned to one note to made this instrument effective, as it will not locate any sound not tuned in unison with it. ——— Oo A contTRACT has been made by Baron Ferzon, Russian naval attache at Washington, with the Lidgerwood-Miller Marine Cableway Co. for the installation of its system for coaling at sea on the battleship Retvizan, now under con- struction at Philadelphia.