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Sec. 4.

Sec. 5.

R. S., 4487.

The Board of Supervising Inspectors of the United States shall have authority to establish such regulations to be observed by all steam vessels in passing each other, not inconsistent with the provisions of this Act, as they shall from time to time deem necessary; and all regulations adopted by the said Board of Supervising Inspectors under the authority of this Act, when approved by the Secretary of the Treasury, shall have the force of law. Two printed copies of any such regulations for passing, signed by them, shall be furnished to each steam vessel, and shall at all times be kept posted up in conspicuous places on board.

All laws or parts of laws, so far as applicable to the navigation of the Great Lakes and their connecting and tributary waters as far east as Montreal, inconsistent with the foregoing rules are hereby repealed."

This Act shall take effect on and after March first, eighteen hundred and ninety-five.

312. River navigation.

On any steamers navigating rivers only, when, from darkness, fog, or other cause, the pilot or watch shall be of opinion that the navigation is unsafe, or, from accident to or derangement of the machinery of the boat, the chief engineer shall be of the opinion that the further navigation of the vessel is unsafe, the vessel shall be brought to anchor, or moored as soon as it can prudently be done: Provided, That if the person in command shall, after being so admonished by either of such officers, elect to pursue such voyage, he may do the same; but in such case both he and the owners of such steamer shall be answerable for all damages which shall arise to the person of any passenger, or his baggage, from such causes in so pursuing the voyage, and no degree of care or diligence shall in such case be held to justify or excuse the person in command, or the owners.

PART XXXII.-AIDS TO NAVIGATION.

313. Assistance by United States vessels.

314. Removal of derelicts.

315. Lights and buoys.

316. Nautical Almanac.

317. Charts and manuals.
318. Storm and weather signals.
319. Meridians.

313. Assistance by United States vessels.

The revenue-cutters on the northern and northwestern R. S., 2759. lakes, when put in commission, shall be specially charged with aiding vessels in distress on the lakes.

The President may, when the necessities of the service R. S., 1536. permit it, cause any suitable number of public vessels adapted to the purpose to cruise upon the coast in the season of severe weather and to afford such aid to distressed navigators as their circumstances may require; and such public vessels shall go to sea fully prepared to render such assistance.

314. Removal of derelicts.

The President of the United States is hereby authorized Oct. 31, 1893. to make with the several governments interested in the navigation of the North Atlantic Ocean an international agreement providing for the reporting, marking, and removal of dangerous wrecks, derelicts, and other menaces to navigation in the North Atlantic Ocean outside the coast waters of the respective countries bordering thereon.

315. Lights and buoys.

The Light-House Board may, when they deem it neces- R. S., 4676. sary, place a light-vessel, or other suitable warning of danger, on or over any wreck on temporary obstruction to the entrance of any harbor, or in the channel or fairway of any bay or sound.

The Light-House Board shall properly mark all pier- R. S., 4677. heads belonging to the United States situated on the northern and northwestern lakes, whenever the board is duly notified by the department charged with the construction or repair of pier-heads that the construction or repair of any such pier-heads has been completed.

All buoys along the coast, or in bays, harbors, sounds, R. S., 4678. or channels, shall be colored and numbered, so that passing up the coast or sound, or entering the bay, harbor, or

Feb. 11, 1880.

R. S., 431.

R. S., 432.

R. S., 4691.

channel, red buoys with even numbers shall be passed on the starboard hand, black buoys with uneven numbers on the port hand, and buoys with red and black stripes on either hand. Buoys in channel-ways shall be colored with alternate white and black perpendicular stripes.

316. Nautical Almanac.

There shall be printed annually at the Government Printing Office fifteen hundred copies of the American Ephemeris and Nautical Almanac and of the papers supplementary thereto, of which one hundred shall be for the use of the Senate, four hundred for the House of Representatives, and one thousand for the public service, to be distributed by the Navy Department. Additional copies of the Ephemeris and of the Nautical Almanac extracted therefrom may be ordered by the Secretary of the Navy for sale.

317. Charts and manuals,

There shall be a Hydrographic office attached to the Bureau of Navigation in the Navy Department, for the improvement of the means for navigating safely the vessels of the Navy and of the mercantile marine, by providing, under the authority of the Secretary of the Navy, accurate and cheap nautical charts, sailing directions, navigators, and manuals of instructions for the use of all vessels of the United States, and for the benefit and use of navigators generally.

The Secretary of the Navy is authorized to cause to be prepared, at the Hydrographic Office attached to the Bureau of Navigation in the Navy Department, maps, charts, and nautical books relating to and required in navigation, and to publish and furnish them to navigators at the cost of printing and paper, and to purchase the plates and copyrights of such existing maps, charts, navigators, sailing directions and instructions, as he may consider necessary, and when he may consider it expedient to do so, and under such regulations and instructions as he may prescribe.

The charts published by the Coast Survey shall be sold June 20, 1878. at the office at Washington at the price of the printing and paper thereof, and elsewhere at the same price with the average cost of delivery added thereto; and hereafter there shall be no free distribution of such charts except to the departments of the United States and to the several States and officers of the United States requiring them for public

Mar. 3, 1879.

use.

Senators, Representatives and Delegates to the House of Representatives shall each be entitled to not more than ten charts published by the Coast Survey for each regular session of Congress.

318. Storm and weather signals.

The Chief of the Weather Bureau, under the direction of the Secretary of Agriculture, on and after July first, eighteen hundred and ninety-one, shall have charge of the forecasting of weather, the issue of storm warnings, the display of weather and flood signals for the benefit of agriculture, commerce, and navigation, the gauging and reporting of rivers, the maintenance and operation of seacoast telegraph lines and the collection and transmission of marine intelligence for the benefit of commerce and navigation, the reporting of temperature and rain-fall conditions for the cotton interests, the display of frost and cold-wave signals, the distribution of meteorological information in the interests of agriculture and commerce, and the taking of such meteorological observations as may be necessary to establish and record the climatic conditions of the United States, or as are essential for the proper execution of the foregoing duties.

319. Meridians.

Oct. 1, 1890.

Sec. 3.

The meridian of the Observatory at Washington shall be R. S., 435. adopted and used as the American meridian for all astronomical purposes, and the meridian of Greenwich shall be adopted for all nautical purposes.

PART XXXIII. OBSTRUCTIONS TO NAVIGATION.

320. Sunken wrecks.

321. Bridge piers and abutments. 322. Dumping in navigable waters.

323. Wharves, piers, bulkheads, etc. 324. General obstructions.

June 14, 1880.
Sec. 4.

Aug. 2, 1882.

June 14, 1880.
Sec. 4.

320. Sunken wrecks.

Whenever hereafter the navigation of any river, lake, harbor, or bay, or other navigable water of the United States, shall be obstructed or endangered by any sunken vessel or water-craft, it shall be the duty of the Secretary of War, upon satisfactory information thereof, to cause reasonable notice, of not less than thirty days, to be given, personally or by publication, at least once a week in the newspaper published nearest the locality of such sunken vessel or craft, to all persons interested in such vessel or craft, or in the cargo thereof, of the purpose of said Secretary, unless such vessel or craft shall be removed as soon thereafter as practicable by the parties interested therein, to cause the same to be removed. If such sunken vessel or craft and cargo shall not be removed by the parties interested therein as soon as practicable after the date of the giving of such notice by publication, or after such personal service of notice, as the case may be, such sunken vessel or craft shall be treated as abandoned and derelict, and the Secretary of War shall proceed to remove the same. Such sunken vessel or craft and cargo and all property therein when so removed shall, after reasonable notice of the time and place of sale, be sold to the highest bidder or bidders for cash, and the proceeds of such sales shall be deposited in the Treasury of the United States to the credit of a fund for the removal of such obstructions to navigation, under the direction of the Secretary of War, and to be paid out for that purpose on his requisition therefor. The provisions of this act shall apply to all such wrecks whether removed under this act or under any other act of Congress. The Secretary of War may, in his discretion, sell and dispose of any such sunken craft, vessel, or cargo, or property therein, before the raising or removal thereof, according to the same regulations that are in the said act prescribed for the sale of the same after the removal thereof; and all laws and parts of laws inconsistent herewith are hereby repealed.

Such sum of money as may be necessary to execute this section of this act is hereby appropriated, out of any money

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