owner, agent, or master, stating the name and official number (if any) of the vessel, the port to which she belongs, the place where she was, the nature and probable occasion of the casualty, the number and names of those lost, and the estimated amount of loss or damage to the vessel's cargo; and shall furnish, upon the request of either of such collectors of customs, such other information concerning the vessel, her cargo, and the casualty as may be called for; and if he neglect or refuse to comply with the foregoing requirements after a reasonable time, he shall incur a penalty of one hundred dollars. SEC. 12. That it shall be the duty of the collectors of customs to immediately transmit to the Secretary of the Treasury such reports and information as they may receive under the provisions of the two preceding sections, and they shall also report to the Secretary of the Treasury any neglects or refusal on the part of the managing owner, agent, or master of any vessel of the United States to comply with the requirements thereof. AN ACT Making appropriations for sundry civil expenses for the fiscal year ending June thirtieth, eighteen hundred and seventy-seven, and for other purposes. [Approved July 31, 1876. (19 Stat., 107.)] * * * And the person in immediate charge of the Life-Saving Service, under the direction of the Secretary of the Treasury, shall make a report annually to the Secretary of the Treasury showing the manner in which all moneys appropriated for the maintenance of said service shall have been expended, and setting forth specifically the operations of said service during the year; and said report shall be transmitted to Congress with the papers accompanying the annual finance report. AN ACT To organize the Life-Saving Service. [June 18, 1878. (20 Stat., 163.)] SEC. 3. That all moneys received from the sale of old stations and equipments and other material condemned by a board of survey as unserviceable may be expended in rebuilding or improving and equipping stations. SEC. 6. That the President of the United States may, by and with the consent of the Senate, appoint a suitable person, who shall be familiar with the various means employed in the Life-Saving Service for the saving of life and property from shipwrecked vessels, as General Superintendent of the Life-Saving Service, who shall, under the immediate direction of the Secretary of the Treasury, have general charge of the service and of all administrative matters connected therewith, and whose compensation shall be at the rate of four thousand dollars per annum; and the Secretary of the Treasury is authorized to appoint an assistant to the general superintendent, whose compensation shall be two thousand five hundred dollars. SEC. 7. That it shall be the duty of the general superintendent to supervise the organization and government of the employees of the service; to prepare and revise regulations therefor as may be necessary; to fix the number and compensation of surfmen to be employed at the several stations within the provisions of law; to supervise the expenditures of all appropriations made for the support and maintenance of the Life-Saving Service; to examine the accounts of disbursements of the district superintendents and to certify the same to the accounting officers of the Treasury Department; to examine the property returns of the keepers of the several stations, and see that all public property thereto belonging is properly accounted for; to acquaint himself, as far as practicable, with all means employed in foreign countries which may seem to advantageously affect the interest of the service and to cause to be properly investigated all plans, devices, and inventions for the improvement of life-saving apparatus for use at the stations, which may appear to be meritorious and available; to exercise supervision over the selection of sites for new stations the establishment of which may be authorized by law, or for old ones the removal of which may be made necessary by the encroachment of the sea or by other causes; to prepare and submit to the Secretary of the Treasury estimates for the support of the service; to collect and compile the statistics of marine disasters contemplated by the act of June twentieth, eighteen hundred and seventy-four; and to submit to the Secretary of the Treasury, for transmission to Congress, an annual report of the expenditure of the moneys appropriated for the maintenance of the Life-Saving Service, and of the operations of said service during the year. SEC. 8. That the Secretary of the Treasury may detail such officer or officers of the Revenue-Marine Service, as may be necessary, to act as inspector and assistant inspectors of stations, who shall perform such duties in connection with the conduct of the service as may be required of them by the general superintendent. SEC. 9. That upon the occurrence of any shipwreck within the scope of the operations of the Life-Saving Service, attended with loss of life, the general superintendent shall cause an investigation of all the circumstances connected with said disaster and loss of life to be made, with a view of ascertaining the cause of the disaster; and whether any of the officers or employees of the service have been guilty of neglect or misconduct in the premises; and any officer or clerk in the employment of the Treasury Department who may bẹ detailed to conduct such investigation, or to examine into any alleged incompetency or misconduct of any of the officers or employees of the Life-Saving Service, shall have authority to administer an oath to any witness attending to testify or depose in the course of such investigation. SEC. 12. That the Secretary of the Treasury is hereby authorized to bestow the life-saving medal of the second class upon persons making such signal exertions in rescuing and succoring the shipwrecked, and saving persons from drowning, as, in his opinion, shall merit such recognition. AN ACT To promote the efficiency of the Life-Saving Service, and to encourage the saving of life from shipwreck. [Approved May 4, 1882. (22 Stat., 55.)] SEC. 4. That hereafter all district superintendents of life-saving stations shall be disbursing officers and paymasters for their respective districts, and shall give such bonds as the Secretary of the Treasury may require, and shall have the powers and perform the duties of inspectors of customs; and the compensation of the superintendents in the districts herein named shall be as follows: * * * SEC. 7. That if any keeper or member of a crew of a life-saving or lifeboat station shall be so disabled by reason of any wound or injury received or disease contracted in the Life-Saving Service in the line of duty as to unfit him for the performance of duty, such disability to be determined in such manner as shall be prescribed in the regulations of the service, he shall be continued upon the rolls of the service, and entitled to receive his full pay during the continuance of such disability, not to exceed the period of one year, unless the general superintendent shall recommend, upon a statement of facts, the extension of the period through a portion or the whole of another year, and said recommendation receive the approval of the Secretary of the Treasury as just and reasonable; but in no case shall said disabled keeper or member of a crew be continued upon the rolls or receive pay for a longer period than two years. SEC. 9. That the life-saving medals of the first and second class authorized by the provisions of the seventh section of the act of July twentieth, eighteen hundred and seventy-four, shall be hereafter designated as the gold and silver life-saving medals respectively, and any person who has received or may hereafter receive either of said medals under the provisions of said section, or the twelfth section of the act of June eighteenth, eighteen hundred and seventyeight, and who shall again perform an act which would entitle him to a medal of the same class under said provisions, shall receive, and the Secretary of the Treasury is hereby authorized to award, in lieu of a second medal, a bar, suitably inscribed, of the same metal to which said person would be entitled, to be attached to a ribbon of such description as the Secretary of the Treasury may prescribe, which may be fastened to the medal already bestowed upon said person; and for every such additional act an additional bar may be added. And the Secretary of the Treasury is hereby authorized, in his discretion, whenever any person becomes entitled to a bar representing a gold medal, to award him, in addition to said bar, such token as it is customary to award in acknowledgment of the services of masters and crews of foreign vessels in rescuing American citizens from shipwreck. SEC. 10. That the appointment of district superintendents, inspectors, and keepers and crews of life-saving stations shall be made solely with reference to their fitness, and without reference to their political or party affiliations. * * * And nothing in section four of the act shall be construed to prevent the Secretary of the Treasury from detailing one officer of the Revenue-Marine Service for duty in the office of the Life-Saving Service * * *. [Approved August 5, 1882. (22 Stat., 229.)] * * * And hereafter nothing in section four of the act approved August fifth, eighteen hundred and eighty-two, entitled "An act making appropriations for the legislative, executive, and judicial expenses of the Government for the fiscal year ending June thirtieth, eighteen hundred and eighty-three, and for other purposes," shall be construed to prevent the Secretary of the Treasury from detailing not exceeding two officers of the Revenue-Marine Service for duty in the office of the Life-Saving Service. [Approved February 26, 1889. (25 Stat., 719.)] AN ACT To amend section five of the act approved June eighteenth, eighteen hundred and seventy-eight, entitled, "An act to organize the Life-Saving Service." [Approved Aug. 3, 1894. (28 Stat., 225.)] SEC. 5. That hereafter the life-saving stations upon the Atlantic and Gulf coasts at which crews are employed shall be manned and the stations opened for active service on the first day of August in each year, and so continued until the first day of June succeeding, and upon the Lake coasts from the opening to the close of navigation, except such stations as in the discretion of the Secretary of the Treasury are not necessary to be manned during the full period specified; and the crews shall reside at the stations during said periods: Provided, That all such surfmen as serve more than eight months shall receive sixty dollars per month during their entire service. AN ACT To fix the compensation of district superintendents in the Life-Saving Service. [Approved June 28, 1902. (32 Stat., 484.)] * * * Provided, however, That in case the Secretary of the Treasury deems it necessary for any superintendent to employ a clerk, he may allow a sum not exceeding five hundred dollars per annum for the compensation of such clerk in addition to the salary paid to the superintendent. AN ACT To increase the efficiency of the personnel of the Life-Saving Service of the United States. [Approved Mar. 26, 1908. (35 Stat., 46.)] SEC. 3. That section eight of the act of May fourth, eighteen hundred and eighty-two, entitled "An act to promote the efficiency of the Life-Saving Service and to encourage the saving of life from shipwreck," is hereby amended to read as follows: "SEC. 8. That if any keeper or member of a crew of a life-saving station shall hereafter die by reason of perilous service or any wound or injury received or disease contracted in the Life-Saving Service in the line of duty, leaving a widow, or a child or children under sixteen years of age, or a dependent mother, such widow and child or children and dependent mother shall be entitled to receive, in equal portions, during a period of two years, under such regulations as the Secretary of the Treasury may prescribe, the same amount, payable quarterly as far as practicable, that the husband or father or son would be entitled to receive as pay if he were alive and continued in the service: Provided, That if the widow shall remarry at any time during the said two years her portion of said amount shall cease to be paid to her from date of her remarriage, but shall be added to the amount to be paid to the remaining beneficiaries under the provisions of this section, if there be any; and if any child shall arrive at the age of sixteen years during the said two years, the portion of such child shall cease to be paid to such child from the date on which such age shall be attained, but shall be added to the amount to be paid to the remaining beneficiaries, if there be any." REGULATIONS OF THE SERVICE. The regulations of the service are published in a volume entitled "Revised Regulations for the Government of the Life-Saving Service of the United States and the Laws upon which They are Based, 1884." These regulations have been amended from time to time, but apparently not to a sufficient extent to necessitate the printing of a new edition. As these documents are readily available in printed form they are not reproduced here. |