or other ignitable 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.

SEC. 4471. 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 stopcocks 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 seventyone, 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 pump, of at least one-half the vessel in length, kept at all times in perfect order, and shipped up and ready for immediate use. On every steamer not exceeding two hundred tons, one of such pumps may be dispensed with. Each fire pump thus prescribed 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 sufficient strength and suitably arranged to test the boilers thereof.

*SEC. 4472. No loose hay, loose cotton, or loose hemp, camphene, nitroglycerine, naphtha, benzine, benzole, coal oil, crude or refined petroleum, or other like explosive burning fluids, or like dangerous articles, shall be carried as freight or used as stores on any steamer carrying passengers; nor shall baled cotton or hemp be carried on such steamers unless the bales are compactly pressed and thoroughly covered with bagging of similar fabric, and secured with good rope or iron bands; nor shall gunpowder be

*See sections 4278-4280 and 5353-5355, pages 49, 50, 63, and 64

carried on any such vessel, except under special license; nor shall oil of vitriol, nitric or other chemical acids be carried on steamers except on the decks or guards thereof, or in such other safe part of the vessel as shall be prescribed by the inspectors. Refined petroleum which will not ignite at a temperature less than one hundred and ten degrees of Fahrenheit thermometer, may be carried on board such steamers upon routes where there is no other practicable mode of transporting it, and under such regulations as shall be prescribed by the board of supervising inspectors with the approval of the Secretary of the Treasury; and oil or spirits of turpentine may be carried on such steamers when put up in good metallic vessels, or casks, or barrels well and securely bound with iron and stowed in a secure part of the vessel; and friction matches may be carried on such steamers when securely packed in strong tight chests or boxes, the covers of which shall be well secured by locks, screws, or other reliable fastenings, and stowed in a safe part of the vessel at a secure distance from any fire or heat. All such other provisions shall be made on every steamer carrying passengers or freight, to guard against and extinguish fire, as shall be prescribed by the board of supervising inspectors, and approved by the Secretary of the Treasury.

SEC. 4473. Every bale of cotton or hemp that shall be shipped or carried on any passenger steamer, without conforming to the provisions of the preceding section, shall be subject to a penalty of five dollars, and shall be liable to seizure and sale to secure the payment of such penalty.

SEC. 4474. The Secretary of the Treasury may grant permission to the owner of any steam vessel to use any invention or process for the utilization of petroleum or other mineral oils or substances in the production of motive power, and may make and enforce regulations concerning the application and the use of the same for such purpose. But no such permission shall be granted, unless upon the certificate of the supervising inspector of steamboats for the district wherein such vessel is registered, and other satisfactory proof that the use of the same is safe and efficient; and upon such proof, and the approval of such certificate by the Secretary of the Treasury, a special license for the use of such process or invention shall issue under the seal of the Treasury Department.*

Provided, however, That the Secretary of the Treasury may permit the use of petroleum as fuel on steamers not carrying passengers, without the certificate of the supervising inspector of the district where the vessel is to be used, subject to such conditions and safeguards as the Secretary of the Treasury in his judgment shall provide. For a violation of any of the conditions imposed by the Secretary of the Treasury a penalty of five hun

*Amended, act approved October 18, 1888.

dred dollars shall be imposed, which penalty shall be a lien upon the vessel, but a bond may, as provided in other cases, be given to secure the satisfaction of the judgment.

SEC. 4475. All gunpowder, nitroglycerine, camphene, naphtha, benzine, benzole, coal oil, crude or refined petroleum, oil of vitriol, nitric or other chemical acids, oil or spirits of turpentine, friction matches, and all other articles of like character, when packed or put up for shipment shall be securely packed and put up separately from each other and from all other articles; and the package, box, cask, or other vessel containing the same shall be distinctly marked on the outside, with the name or description of the article contained therein.

*SEC. 4476. Every person who packs or puts up, or causes to be packed or put up for shipment, any gunpowder, nitroglycerine, camphene, naphtha, benzine, benzole, coal oil, crude or refined petroleum, oil of vitriol, nitric or other chemical acids, oil or spirits of turpentine, friction matches, or other articles of like character otherwise than as directed by the preceding section, or who knowingly ships or attemps to ship the same, or delivers the same to any such vessel as stores, unless duly packed and marked, shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and punished by a fine not exceeding two thousand dollars, or imprisonment not exceeding eighteen months, or both; one-half of the fine to go to the informer, and the articles to be liable to seizure and forfeiture.

SEC. 4477. Every steamer carrying passengers during the nighttime 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.

SEC. 4478. 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.

SEC. 4479. 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.

SEC. 4480. Every steamer carrying passengers shall be provided 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 pilot house, or other arrangement to

* See note to section 4472.

repeat back the signal. But on any such vessel navigated by the mariner's 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.

SEC. 4481. 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, fire proof, 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 lifeboats can be dispensed with, he may exempt any such vessel from carrying the same, or may require a substitute therefor, at his discretion. SEC. 4482. Every such steam vessel carrying passengers shall also 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 and floats shall be kept in convenient and accessible places on such vessel in readiness for immediate use in case of accident.

SEC. 4483. 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 water barrels, 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 arrangement, or buckets in sufficient number, may be substituted for barrels.

SEC. 4484. 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.

SEC. 4485. The captain or mate of every such steam vessel carrying passengers upon the main deck shall assign to all deck passengers, 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 stored about the boilers or machinery, in such manner as to obstruct or prevent the engineer from readily attending to his duties.

SEC. 4486. 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.

SEC. 4487. 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 be prudently 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.

SEC. 4488. Every steamer navigating the ocean, or any lake, bay or sound of the United States, shall be provided with such numbers of lifeboats, floats, rafts, life-preservers [line-carrying projectiles and the means of propelling them],* and drags as will best secure the safety of all persons on board such vessel in case of disaster; and every seagoing vessel carrying passengers, and every such vessel navigating any of the Northern or Northwestern lakes, shall have the lifeboats required by law, provided with suitable boat-disengaging apparatus, so arranged as to allow such boats to be safely launched while such vessels are under speed or otherwise, 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 lowered to the water. And the board of supervising inspectors shall fix and determine, by their rules and regulations, the kind of lifeboats, floats, rafts, life-preservers [line-carrying projectiles and the means of propelling them],* and drags that shall be used on such

*Act amending, approved March 2, 1889, to take effect February 1, 1890 (see p.48), and act repealing use of, on LAKES, BAYS, and SOUNDS, approved April 11, 1892 (see p.69).

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