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MARCH 13, 1902. SECTIONS OF REVISED STATUTES OF THE UNITED STATES RELATING TO LICENSED OFFICERS OF STEAMBOATS. TREASURY DEPARTMENT’, STEAMBOAT-INSPECTION SERVICE, OFFICE OF SUPERVISING INSPECTOR-GENERAL, Washington, D. C., January 10, 10902. To Licensed Officers of Steamboats: The following sections of the Revised Statutes and ex- tracts from the Revised Rules and Regulations of the Board of Supervising Inspectors are published herewith for the in- formation of licensed officers, and their special attention is invited to the penalties to which they render themselves lia- ble by noncompliance with the provisions thereof: Section 17, Rule V, Rules and Regulations: ‘Whenever a steamer meets with an accident involving loss of life or damage to property, it shall be the duty of the licensed offi- cers of any such steamer to report the same in writing and in person, without delay, to the nearest local Board: ° Pro- vided, When from distance it may be inconvenient to report in person, it may be done in writing only, and the report sworn to before an authorized magistrate.” Section 4413, Revised Statutes: “Every pilot, engineer, mate, or master of any steam vessel who neglects or will- fully refuses to observe the regulations established in pur- suance of the preceding section (4412) shall be liable to a penalty of fifty dollars, and for all damages sustained by any passenger, in his person or baggage, by stich neglect or refusal.” (For Western rivers only.) Section 3, act of Congress approved June 7, 1897: “That every pilot, engineer, mate, or master of any steam vessel, and every master or mate of any barge or canal boat, who neglects or refuses to observe the provisions of this Act, or the regulations established in pursuance of the preceding section (2), shall be liable to a penalty of fifty dollars, and for all damages sustained by any passenger in his person or baggage by such neglect or refusal: Provided, nothing herein shall relieve any vessel, owner, or corpora- tion from any liability incurred by reason of such neglect or refusal.” (For Atlantic and Pacific coast inland waters, ) Section 2, act of Congress approved February 8, 1805: That a fine, not exceeding two hundred dollars, may be im- posed for the violation of any of the provisions of this act. The vessel shal be liable for the said penalty, and may be seized and proceeded against, by way of libel, in the dis- trict court of the United States for any district within which such vessel may be found.” their connecting tributary waters as far east as Montreal.) Section 4445, Revised Statutes: “Every master, chief mate, engineer, and pilot who receives a license shall, be- fore entering upon his duties, make oath before one of the inspectors herein provided for, to be recorded with the cer- tificate, that he will faithfully and honestly, according to his best skill and judgment, without concealment .or reser- vation, pedform allthe duties required of him by law. “Every applicant for license as either master, mate, pilot, or engineer under the provisions of this title shall make and subscribe to an oath or affirmation, before one of the inspec- tors referred to in this title, to the truth of all the state- ments set forth in his application for such licenses. “Any person who shall make or subscribe to any oath or affirmation authorized in this title and knowing the same to be false shall be deemed guilty of perjury. “Every licensed master, mate, pilot, or engineer who shall change, by addition, interpolation, or erasure of any kind, any certificate or license issued by any inspector or inspéc- tors referred to in this title shall, for every. such offense, upon conviction, be punished by a fine of not more than five hundred dollars or by imprisonment at hard labor for a term not exceeding three years.” Section 4446, Revised Statutes: “Every mate, engineer, and pilot who shail receive a license shall, when employed upon any vessel, place his certificate of license, which shall be framed under glass, in some conspicuous place in such vessel, where it can be seen by passengers and others at all times; and’ for every neglect tc comply with this provision by any such master, mate, engineer, or pilot, he shall be sub- ject to a fine of one hundred dollars, or to the revocation of his license. Section 4465, Revised Statutes: “It shall not be lawful to take on board of anv steamer a greater number of passen- gers than is stated in the certificate of inspection; and for every violation of this provision the master or owner shall be liable, to any person suing for the same, to forfeit the amount of passage money and ten dollars for each passen- ger beyond the number allowed.” Section 4:67, Revised Statutes: ‘The master of every passenger steamer shall keep a correct list of all the passen- gers received and delivered from day to day, noting the places where received and where landed, which record shall be open to the inspection of the inspectors and officers of the custom at all times; and the aggregate number of passengers shall be furnished to inspectors as often as called for, but on routes not exceeding one hundred’ miles the number of passengers, if kept, shall be sufficient.” Section 4468, Revised Statutes: “Every master of any passenger steamer who fails, through negligence or design, to keep a list of passengers, as required by the preceding section, shall be liable to a penalty of one hundred dollars.” Section 4441, Revised Statutes: * * * ‘Whenever complaint is made against any engineer holding a license authorizing him to take charge of the boiler and machinery That. (For the Great Lakes and* THE MARINE RECORD. of any steamer that he has, through negligence or want of skill, permitted the boilers in his charge to burn or other- wise become in bad condition, or that he has not kept his engine and machinery in good working order, it shall be the duty of the inspectors, upon satisfactory proof of such negligence or want of skill, to revoke the license of such engineer and assign him to a lower grade or class of en- gineers, if they find him fitted therefor.” 4 Section 14, Rule IX, Rules and Regulations: ‘When it is known or comes to the knowledge of the local inspectors that any steam vessel.is or has been carrying an excess of steam beyond that which is allowed by her certificate of in- spection, the local inspectors in whose district said steamer is being navigated, in addition to reportng the fact to the United States district attorney for prosecution, under sec- tion 4437, Revised Statutes, shall require the owner or own- ers of said steamer to place on the boiler of said steamer a lock-up safety valve that will prevent the carrying of an excess of steam and shall be under the control of said local inspectors. . “On the placing of a lock-up safety valve upon any boiler, it shall be the duty of the engineer in charge of same to blow or cause the said valve to blow off steam at least once in each watch of six hours or less, to determine whether the valve is in working order, and it shall be his duty to report to the local inspectors any fallure of such valve to operate. “In case no such report is made, and a safety valve is found that has been tampered with or out of order, the licensé of the engineer having such boiler in charge shall be revoked. “Tt shall be the duty of the local inspectors to send a copy of this.rule to every steamer in their district, when said copies are furnished by the Department.” Section 4448, Revised Statutes: “All officers licensed under-the provisions of this title shall assist the inspectors in their examination of any vessel to which such licensed officers belong, and shall point out all defects and imperfec- tions known to them in the hull, equipments, boilers or ma- chinery of such vessel, and also shall make known to the inspectors, at the earliest opportunity, all accidents or occur- rences producing serious injury to the vessel, her boilers, or machinery; and in default thereof the license of any such officer so.neglecting or refusing shall be revoked.” Section 5344,- Revised Statutes: “Every captain, en- gineer, pilot, or other person employed on any steamboat or vessel, by whose misconduct, negligence, or inattention to his duties on such, vessel the life of any person is destroyed, and every owner, , inspector, or other public officer, through whose fraud, connivance, misconduct, or violation of law the life of any person is destroyed, shall be deemed guilty of manslaughter, and, upon conviction thereof before any cir- cuit court.of the United States, shall be sentenced to con- finement at hard, labor for a period of not more than ten years. ; The attention of masters of steam vessels is particularly directed to the following rule of the Board of Supervising Inspectors in relation to station bills: Section 15, Rule V, Rules and Regulation: “It shall be the duty of the master of every inspected steamer of 30 net tons and over, carrying passengers on the ocean, lakes, gulf(s), or bays, when such steamer is under way, to cause to be prepared a station bill for his own department, and one, also, for the engineer’s department, in which shall be assigned a post or station of duty for every person em- ployed on board such steamer in case of fire or other dis- aster; which.station bills shall be placed in the most con- spicuous. place on board for the observaticn of the crew. And it shall be the duty of such master, or of the mate or officer next in command, once at least in each week, to call all hands to quarters and exercise them in the discipline, and in the unlashing and swinging out of the lifeboats, weather permitting, and in the use of the fire pumps and all other apparatus for the safety of life on board of such ves- sel, and to see that all the equpments required by law are in compiete working order for immediate use; and the fact of the exercise of the crew, as herein contemplated, shall be entered upon the steamer’s log book, stating the day of the month and hour when so exercised, and any neglect or omission on the part of the officer in command of such steamer ‘to strictly'enforce said rule shall be deemed cause for the revocation of the license of such officer. Upon navigable rivers the captains of all passenger steamers of 30 net tons and over shall be required to maintain a strict discipline and organize the officers and permanent crew so as to act with promptness in case of fire or other disaster ; and the captain shall cause to be prepared at least two sta- tion bills, assigning the officers and permanent crew to definite places. Said station bills shall be conspicuously placed, under glass, near the inspection certificate.” Licensed officers are notified that in case of the loss of their license through any cause, they can obtain a certificate of such loss (Form 2162) to take the place of the lost license, which certificate will hold good until date of ex- piration of the lost or destroyed ‘license, or grade of license is raised, in which case the certificate may be surrendered and new license issued indicating the new grade. The attenton of officers named therein is particularly directed to the following resolution of the Board of Super- vising Inspectors, adopted at the meeting of January and February, 1900: “Resolved, That masters, mates, and pilots of all vessels be required to exercise due caution in the use of their searchlights so as not to throw the rays of the light into A willful violation of the above requirement will subject pilot houses of passing staemers.” the offender to a suspension or revocation of license. . . Local inspectors are hereby instructed to furnish a copy of this circular (which supersedes No. 13, dated February 7 1900) with every master’s, mate’s, pilot’s an ginee license ‘rssuéd..a+ ee TAN Soe. | Copies will be furnished by the Department on requisi- — tion. ioe Jes Jas. .A.-Dumon’, . . Supervising Inspector-General. Approved L. J. Gack, Secretary of the Treasury. © ee ames (COLLABORATED ‘SPECIALLY FOR THE MARINE RECORD!) ° Tug and Tow—Loss ‘of Tow—Negligent Navigation by — Tug.—A tug undertook to tow two barges laden with coal — across ‘New York bay from a safe anchorage at Consta- ble Hook at a time when the wind. was blowing at a. rate between fifty and sixty miles an hour and had’ been in- — creasing: for several hours, and one of the barges swamped — and. was lost, with her cargo. Held, that, the tug was in fault for negligently attempting to cross under such ‘cir- cumstances, and liable ‘for the loss, and that, the move- ment being controlled by the master of tug, the barge was not guilty of contributory fault because her master failed to object to the attempted passage. The Ashbourne, 112 Fed. Rep. (U. S.) 687. ~ Foreign Navy—Desertion—A member of the Russian naval service sent to the United States as one of the force ordered to take possession and serve as the crew of a protected cruiser built for the Imperial Russian government, who deserts before the crew is organized as such and without ever setting foot upon the vessel, is, nevertheless, a deserter from a Russian ship of war, within the meaning — of the treaty of 1832 with Russia, authorizing the arrest and surrender of deserters from ships of war of that coun- try, although such cruiser had not yet been commissioned as a member of the Russian navy. Tucker vs Alexandroff, 22 Sup Ct., Rep. (U. S.) ros, re belek aise Admiralty—Appeal.—Failure to Secure proper Trans- cript of Record—An admiralty suit will not be remanded for a new trial by an appellate court, or to take new tes- timony, on the ground that the record: is incomplete, where ~ such fact results from the failure of appellant to exercise due diligence. The McDonald, 112 Fed. Rep, (U. S.) 681. Distribution . of - Award—Crew ‘of Disabled Tug —One — of the tugs originally sent out by the tugboat company, after reaching the open sea, which'was very rough,’ be- came disabled, and was obliged to return, and another tug subsequently took her place in the service. Held, that, inasmuch as her owner effected the salvage of the ship, _ the officers and crew of such tug’were entitled to share in the award.’ ‘The Flottbek, 112 Fed. Rep. (U. S.) 682. Towage.—Construction of Contract for General Towage Servicés.—A tugboat company contracted to perform tow- age service for all the ships of the second party “that may be in the waters of the Straits of Juan de Fuca, Puget ‘Sound, and British Columbia, or vicinity, whéther inside or outside of Cape Flattery, and that may require any towage service,” for a compensation fixed by a sched- ule of ‘rates contained in the contract. Held, that, whether an incoming snip’ was within the “vicinity” of Cape Flat- tery, so as to be entitled to demand towage service undér the contract, must be determined, in the absence’ of more Specific provision, by the usage and practice of tugboats, in towing vessels in from the sea, as to the distance outside the cape they’ were accustomed to go in search of such vessels, and from which they usually took charge of them; that, in’ the absence of evidence showing such usage,’a claim that a ship which had been driven near the ‘shore, and had anchored in a dangerous position among the rocks and reefs sixteen miles south of the cape, was in’ the vicinity of the cape, within the meaning of the’ contract, ke be ‘sustained. The Flottbek, rr2 Fed. ‘Rep. (U. ; Be x Salvage—Rescue of Ship Anchored in Storm Near Reefs.—Risht to Compensation—Owing to the absence of. a light-ship from her station, the German ship Flottbek sailed into dangerous proximity to the rocks and reefs along shore sixteen miles south of Cape Flattery, in the night, and, being becalmed, was obliged to anchor. Dur- ing the night a gale arose with heavy seas, which con- tinued for two days, and rendered her position one: of great danger, from which she was unable to escape. On the following morning a large steamship going up the coast came to her relief in response to her signals of dis- tress, and spent several hours in getting a towline on board, during which time she was herself in considerable danger, and her men, who manned a boat and took a line to the Flottbek, especially exposed to risk. ‘The towline parted and the steamer, having lost her anchor, proceeded to Tacoma, and at once, by request of the master of the Flottbek, notified a tugboat company at Seattle, which sent tugs, and they, on the third morning rescued the ship. The wind had then abated, but the sea was still high, and the ship was unable to extricate herself, unaided. It had been: decided the night before to abandon her, and half the crew had sone ashore in a boat. Held, that both the steamship and the tugs performed salvage services of such an order of merit as entitled them and their crews to liberal compensation. The Flottbek, 112 Fed.. Rep. (U. S.) 682.