R. S., 4435.

R. S., 4436.

R. S., 4437.

R. S., 4490.

therein specified, and the amount of steam pressure that will be permitted to be carried in boilors constructed in accordance with the requirements of this act shall be determined from measurements showing the least thickness of the plates.

The feed-water shall be delivered into the boilers in such manner as to prevent it from contracting the metal, or otherwise injuring the boilers. And when boilers are so arranged on a vessel that there is employed a water-connecting pipe through which the water may pass from one boiler to another, there shall also be provided a similar steam connection, having an area of opening into each boiler of at least one square inch for every two square feet of effective heating-surface contained in any one of the boilers so connected, half the flue and all other fire-surfaces being computed as effective. Adequate provision shall be made on all steam-vessels to prevent sparks or flames from being driven back from the fire-doors into the vessel.

Every boiler shall be provided with a good, well-constructed safety valve or valves, of such number, dimensions, and arrangements as shall be prescribed by the board of supervising inspectors, and shall also be provided with a sufficient number of gauge-cocks and a reliable low-water indicator that will give alarm when the water falls below its prescribed limits; and in addition thereto there shall be inserted, in a suitable manner, in the flues, crown-sheet, or other parts of the boiler most exposed to the heat of the furnace when the water falls below its prescribed limits, a plug of good Banca tin.

130. Loading safety-valve.

Every person who intentionally loads or obstructs, or causes to be loaded or obstructed, in any way or manner, the safety-valve of a boiler, or who employs any other means or device whereby the boiler may be subjected to a greater pressure than the amount allowed by the certificate of the inspectors, or who intentionally deranges or hinders the operation of any machinery or device employed to denote the state of the water or steam in any boiler, or to give warning of approaching danger, or who intentionally permits the water to fall below the prescribed low-water line of the boiler, and every person concerned therein, directly or indirectly, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor, and shall be fined two hundred dollars, and may also be impris oned not exceeding five years.

131. Water-tight bulkheads.

Every sea-going steamer, and every steamer navigating the great northern or northwestern lakes, carrying passengers, the building of which shall be completed after the twenty-eighth day of August, eighteen hundred and seventy-one, shall have not less than three water-tight crossbulk-heads, such bulk-heads to reach to the main-deck in single-decked vessels, otherwise to the deck next below the

main-deck; to be made of iron plates, sustained upon suitable frame-work; and to be properly secured to the hull of the vessel. The position of such bulk-heads and the strength of material of which the same shall be constructed shall be determined by the general rules of the board of supervising inspectors.

Steam-vessels of one hundred tons burden or under, engaged in the coastwise bays and harbors of the United States, may be licensed by the United States local inspectors of steam-vessels to carry passengers or excursions on the ocean or upon the Great Lakes of the North or Northwest, not exceeding fifteen miles from the mouth of such bays or harbors, without being required to have the three water-tight cross-bulkheads provided by section forty-four hundred and ninety of the Revised Statutes for other passenger steamers: Provided, That in the judgment of the local inspector such steamers shall be safe and suitable for such navigation without danger to human life, and that they shall have one water-tight collision bulkhead not less than five feet abaft the stem of said steamer.

132. Life boats, lines, and preservers.

Every steam-vessel navigating rivers only, except ferryboats, freight-boats, canal-boats, and towing-boats, of less than fifty tons, shall have at least one good substantial boat with lines attached, and properly supplied with oars, and kept in good condition at all times, and ready for immediate use; and in addition thereto, every such vessel carrying passengers shall have one or more metallic lifeboats, fireproof, and in all respects good and substantial boats, of such dimensions and arrangements as the board of supervising inspectors by their regulations shall prescribe, which boats shall be carried in the most convenient manner to be brought into immediate use in case of accident. But where the character of the navigation is such that, in the opinion of the supervising inspector, the metallic life-boats can be dispensed with, he may exempt any such vessel from carrying the same; or may require a substitute therefor, at his discretion.

Every such steam-vessel carrying passengers shall also R.S., 4482. be provided with a good life-preserver, made of suitable material, for every cabin passenger for which she will have accommodation, and also a good life-preserver or float for each deck or other class passenger which the inspector's certificate shall allow her to carry, including the officers and crew; which life-preservers or floats shall be kept in convenient and accessible places on such vessel in readiness for immediate use in case of accident.

Mar. 2, 1889.

Every steamer navigating the ocean, or any lake, bay, R.S., 4488. or sound of the United States, shall be provided with such numbers of life-boats, floats, rafts, life-preservers, linecarrying projectiles and the means of propelling them, and drags, as will best secure the safety of all persons on board

Apr. 11, 1892.

R. S., 4489.
Mar. 2, 1889.

Feb. 14, 1903.
Sec. 10.

R. S., 4484.

R. S., 4485.

R. S., 4486.

such vessel in case of disaster; and every sea-going vessel
carrying passengers, and every such vessel navigating any
of the northern or northwestern lakes, shall have the life-
boats required by law, provided with suitable boat-disen-
gaging apparatus, so arranged as to allow such boats to be
safely launched while such vessels are under speed or other-
wise, and so as to allow such disengaging-apparatus to be
operated by one person, disengaging both ends of the boat
simultaneously from the tackles by which it may be low-
ered to the water. And the board of supervising inspectors
shall fix and determine, by their rules and regulations, the
kind of life-boats, floats, rafts, life-preservers, line-carry-
ing projectiles and the means of propelling them, and drags
that shall be used on such vessels, and also the kind and
capacity of pumps or other appliances for freeing the
steamer from water in case of heavy leakage, the capacity
of such pumps or appliances being suited to the navigation
in which the steamer is employed.

* * *

approved March

* * *

are

The provisions of an act
second, eighteen hundred and eighty-nine,
hereby repealed so far as they relate to the carrying of line-
carrying projectiles and the means of propelling them on
steamers plying exclusively upon any of the lakes, bays,
or sounds of the United States.

The owner of any such steamer who neglects or refuses
to provide such life-boats, floats, rafts, life-preservers, line-
carrying projectiles and the means of propelling them,
drags, pumps, or appliances, as are, under the provisions
of the preceding section, required by the board of super-
vising inspectors, and approved by the Secretary of Com-
merce and Labor, shall be fined one thousand dollars.

133. Stairways and deck room.

Every such steam-vessel carrying passengers on the main-deck shall be provided with permanent stairways and other sufficient means, convenient to the passengers, for their escape to the upper deck, in case of the vessel sinking or of other accident endangering life; and in the stowage of freight upon such deck, where passengers are carried, gangways or passages, sufficiently large to allow persons to pass freely through them, shall be left open both fore and aft of the vessel, and also to and along the guards on each side.

The captain or mate of every such steam-vessel carrying passengers upon the main-deck shall assign to all deckpassengers, when taking passage, the space on deck they may occupy during the voyage, and such space shall not thereafter be occupied by freight, nor overcrowded by other persons, nor shall freight be stowed about the boilers or machinery, in such a manner as to obstruct or prevent the engineer from readily attending to his duties.

For every violation of the provisions of the two preceding sections the owners of the vessel shall be punished by a fine of three hundred dollars.

1

134. Wire tiller ropes.

Every steamer carrying passengers shall be provided R.S., 4480. with wire tiller-ropes, or iron rods or chains, for the purpose of steering and navigating the vessel, and shall employ wire bell-pulls for signalizing the engineer from the pilot-house, together with tubes of proper size so arranged as to return the sound of the engine-bells to the pilothouse, or other arrangement to repeat back the signal. But on any such vessel navigated by the mariners' compass, so much of such wire rope or chain may be dispensed with and disused as shall influence or disturb the working of the compass.

135. Protection against fire.

Every steamer carrying passengers or freight shall be R.S., 4470. provided with suitable pipes and valves attached to the boiler, to convey steam into the hold and the different compartments thereof, to extinguish fire; and every stove used on board of any such vessel shall be well and securely fas tened, so as to prevent it from being moved or overthrown, and all wood-work or other ignitible substances about the boilers, chimneys, cook-houses, and stove-pipes exposed to ignition, shall be thoroughly shielded by some incombustible material, in such a manner as to leave the air to circulate freely between such material and wood-work or other ignitible substance; and before granting a certificate of inspection, the inspector shall require all other necessary provisions to be made throughout such vessel to guard against loss or danger from fire.

Every steamer permitted by her certificate of inspection to carry as many as fifty passengers, or upward, and every steamer carrying passengers, which also carries cotton, hay, or hemp, shall be provided with a good double-acting steam fire-pump, or other equivalent apparatus for throwing water. Such pump or other apparatus for throwing water shall be kept at all times and at all seasons of the year in good order and ready for immediate use, having at least two pipes of suitable dimensions, one on each side of the vessel, to convey the water to the upper decks, to which pipes there shall be attached, by means of stop-cocks or valves, both between decks and on the upper deck, good and suitable hose of sufficient strength to stand a pressure of not less than one hundred pounds to the square inch, long enough to reach to all parts of the vessel and properly provided with nozzles, and kept in good order and ready for immediate service. Every steamer exceeding two hundred tons burden and carrying passengers shall be provided with two good double-acting fire-pumps, to be worked by hand; each chamber of such pumps, except pumps upon steamers in service on the twenty-eighth day of February, eighteen hundred and seventy-one, shall be of sufficient capacity to contain not less than one hundred cubic inches of water; and such pumps shall be placed in the most suitable parts of the vessel for efficient service, having suitable well-fitted hose to each

R. S., 4471.

R. S., 4477.

R. S., 4478.

R. S., 4479.

R. S., 4483.

R. S., 4492.

R. S., 4422.

pump, of at least one-half the vessel in length, kept at all
times in perfect order, and shipped up and ready for imme-
diate use.
On every steamer not exceeding two hundred
tons, one of such pumps may be dispensed with. Each fire-
pump thus described shall be supplied with water by means
of a suitable pipe connected therewith, and passing through
the side of the vessel so low as to be at all times under water
when she is afloat; and no fire-pump thus provided for shall
be placed below the lower deck of the vessel. Every steamer
shall also be provided with a pump which shall be of suffi-
cient strength and suitably arranged to test the boilers.
thereof.

Every steamer carrying passengers during the night-time shall keep a suitable number of watchmen in the cabins, and on each deck, to guard against fire or other dangers, and to give alarm in case of accident or disaster.

For any neglect to keep the watchmen required by the preceding section, the license of the officer in charge of the vessel for the time being shall be revoked; and every owner of such vessel who neglects or refuses to furnish the number of men necessary to keep watch as required, shall be fined one thousand dollars.

The board of supervising inspectors may require steamers carrying either passengers or freight to be provided with such number and kind of good and efficient portable fire-extinguishers as, in the judgment of the board, may be necessary to protect them from fire when such steamers are moored or lying at a wharf without steam to work the pumps.

Every such steam-vessel carrying passengers, of two hundred tons burden or less, shall also keep at least eighteen fire-buckets and two water-barrels, and shall have not less than four axes; and every such steamer of over two hundred tons, and [not] less than five hundred tons burden, shall carry not less than twenty-four buckets, four waterbarrels, and six axes; and every such steamer of over five hundred tons shall carry not less than thirty-five buckets, six water-barrels, and eight axes. The buckets and barrels shall be kept in convenient places and filled with water, to be in readiness in case of fire, and the axes shall be kept in good order and ready for immediate use. Tanks of suitable dimensions and arrangements, or buckets in sufficient number, may be substituted for barrels.

Every barge carrying passengers, while in tow of any steamer, shall be subject to the provisions of this title [R. S., 4399-4500] relating to fire-buckets, axes, life-preservers, and yawls, to such extent as shall be prescribed by the board of supervising inspectors; and for any violation of this section the penalty shall be two hundred dollars, recoverable one-half for the use of the informer.

136. Inflammable or explosive cargo.

Upon the application of any master or owner of any steam-vessel employed in the carriage of passengers, for a