The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

VOL. 39. CLEVELAND, FEBRUARY 11, 1909. NEW YORK No. 6 PROPOSED REQUIREMENTS FOR SAILING VESSELS. On Jan. 21 the house committee on merchant marine and fisheries gave a hearing to the advocates of the bill now before the committee which pro- vides that sailing vessels shall be in charge of two licensed officers, just as is required in the case of steam ves- sels. "Ihe labor organizations are in favor of the passage of the measure and their representatives were permit- ted to argue in its favor on that date. In two weeks the representatives of the sh#$ping interests concerned, who are antagonistic to the 'bill, are to be given a hearing. The representatives of the labor unions argued on behalf of the meas- ure that the law now requires on all steam vessels over 100 tons that the watch officers, consisting of master, chief mates and second or third mates. shall be licgnsed officers, and that sail vessels ought to be always in charge of licensed officers for the same rea sons which prevail in the case of steamers. Under present conditions, it was asserted, sail vessels up to 700 tons are navigated by men who arz not required by law to be licensed. While the licensed officers in steam vessels would be held responsible and would have to stand examination and investigation upon a collision, the mas- ter of a sailing vessel or the officer in charge, whether mate or second mate, would not be-liable to any one. It was urged that inasmuch as an act had been passed in 1898 requiring licensed officers on vessels of over 700 tons, it would be more consistent and satisfactory to extend the requirement to the smaller craft. 'A vessel large enough to be out over night or to have a destination far enough off to require her to navigate at night as well as during the day, should be placed in the same class with the larg- er vessels of 700 tons or more, said the speaker. There was no reason why a vessel of as much as 300 tons should be favored in this matter, as such a vessel might be a large schooner, able to do the same class of work as vessels of 500 or 600 tons, and staying out over night, running along the coast, on the same lines of travel as the larger sailing vessels. A feeling was, however, evident among the committee that the limit of 300 tons was too low. Five thundred tons was suggested as a limit more likely to receive the assent of congress and of the president. An effort to change the law was made in 1906. but failed because the bill did not receive the president's signature. As to the question whether the pro. posed legislation would make it neces- sary for owners to pay more to the men engaged in navigating vessels be- cause of their possession of licenses, it was argued on the basis of the com- missioner of navigation's report that for the year 1900 there were 1,024 li- censed masters and 491 licensed mates; making a 'total of (1,515. There had been licensed about 200 each year sub- sequently, so that in the year 1905 there were 2.365 licensed masters and 1,203 licensed mates. The same statistics showed that there were in 1906 550 sail vessels coming under the provisions of section 4438 of the revised statutes, namely, sail vessels over 700 gross tons. There-~ fore, the ratio of licensed masters to these vessels was 4 1/3 to 1, and the ratio of licensed mates was 2% to 1. Inasmuch as a master's license covers a first mate's license, it was claimed that the supply exceeds the presen. demand in the ratio of perhaps 3% to I. : Some stress was laid on the need of making the proposed requirement ap ply to barges in New York harbor. MORE WIRELESS SAFEGUARDS. Apropos of the subj-ct of wireless telegraphy and the graphic demon- stration of its efficiency with which the marine world has recently been startled, the question cf keeping this communication up af.er' the ship's machinery stop, appears to have been especially well providel for by the installations aboard the liners of the North German Lloyd Steamship Co. In this connect'on it will be recalled that the Republic's wireless apparatus was operated by storage batteries, after the flooding cf her engine room, and. that they finally gave out, al- though not untl her operator had succeeded in transmitting the neces- sary messages, The North German Lloyd steam- ships have a forr-fold guarantee of the working of the wireless at all times, the currcnt for its operation being supplied from one or the other of the two dynamos in the engine room which provide the current for the lighting of the steamer. Each -of these dynamos is in a separate water- tight compartment with 'the engine which runs it, they being so placed that one m'ght be disabled without interfering with the working of the other. The lighting dynamos might, during an emergercy, become disa- bled. Accordingly, two additional dyna- mos have been installed in the Mar- coni house on the boat deck directly connected with the two electric light- ing dynamos in the engine room, also auxiliary eng ne located several decks higher than the engine room. Every Marconi house is equipped with two complete sets of storage batter- ies, each capable of working continu-