REPORT OF COMMITTEE ON LIGHTS FOR SMALL CRAFT.

RESOLUTION.

Resolved, That a committee of nine be appointed to consider and report on the lights to be carried or shown on small vessels, pilot-vessels, and fishing vessels.

To Rear-Admiral S. R. FRANKLIN, U. S. Navy,

President of the International Marine Conference, etc. :

SIR: The Committee on Lights for Small Craft, pursuant to the res olution adopted by the Marine Conference instructing the said committee to consider and report as to rules for the lights to be carried or shown on small vessels, pilot-vessels, and fishing vessels, have agreed upon a report, which, having adopted unanimously, or by a majority of votes, they respectfully submit, in the form of proposed amendments. to the present international regulations.

The committee are unanimously of opinion that the part of the present Article 10, which precedes subsection (a), applying to fishing vessels and boats when in the sea off the coast of Europe, lying north

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of Cape Finisterre, should be omitted. The amendments submitted are therefore proposed as applicable to all waters without distinction.

THOMAS GRAY, Chairman.

Delegate for Great Britain. THO. VERBRUGGHE,

Delegate for Belgium.

A. M. BISBEE,

Delegate for China.

AUG. SCHNEIDER,

Delegate for Denmark.

HENRI LANNELUC,

Delegate for France.

CHR. DONNER,

Delegate for Germany.

R. BABA,

Delegate for Japan.

D. HUBERT,

Delegate for The Netherlands.

JAS. W. NORcross, Delegate for the United States.

ART. 7. Whenever, as in the case of small vessels under way during bad weather, the green and red side lights can not be fixed, these lights shall be kept at hand, ready for use; and shall, on the approach of or to other vessels, be exhibited on their respective sides in sufficient time to prevent collision, in such manner as to make them most visible, and so that the green light shall not be seen on the port side nor the red light on the starboard side, nor if practicable more than two points abaft the beam on their respective sides.

To make the use of these portable lights more certain and easy, the lanterns containing them shall each be painted outside with the color of the light they respectively contain, and shall be provided with proper

screens.

ART. 8. No alteration.

ART. 9. (a) A pilot-vessel, whether under sail or steam, when engaged on her station on pilotage duty, shall not show the lights required for other vessels, but shall carry a white light at the masthead, visible all round the horizon, and shall also exhibit a flare-up light or flare-up lights at short intervals, which shall never exceed fifteen minutes.

When approaching a vessel to put a pilot on board, or where there is risk of collision with another vessel, such pilot-vessel shall have at hand two lights, which may be the side lights, one red and one green, so constructed that they can be flashed instantaneously, which shall be kept either in their places, screened, or at hand, always ready for use, and shall flash one of them (in order to show the direction in which she is heading) in sufficient time to prevent collision, so that the red light shall only be shown on the port side and the green light only on the starboard side.

(b) A pilot-vessel of such a class as to be obliged to go alongside of a vessel to put a pilot on board may show a white light instead of carrying a white light at the masthead.

Such vessels shall also not be obliged to carry the side lights proposed for larger pilot vessels, but in this case they shall have ready at hand a lantern with a green glass on the one side and a red glass on the other side, and on approaching a vessel to put a pilot on board, or on approaching to or being approached by a vessel, such lantern shall be exhibited in sufficient time to prevent collision, so that the green light shall not be seen on the port side nor the red light on the starboard side.

(c) A pilot-vessel, whether under sail or steam, when not engaged on her station on pilotage duty, shall carry lights similiar to those of other vessels.

Article 10. Paragraph (a) of this article applies only to boats and vessels propelled by sails or oars of less than 20 tons gross tonnage, and only to such boats and vessels when they are under way. It therefore applies also to fishing-vessels of less than 20 tons gross tonnage when they are not actually engaged in fishing, but are under way.

(a) Boats and vessels of less than 20 tons gross tonnage shall not be obliged to carry the colored side lights; but every such boat and vessel shall, if she do not carry such colored side lights, have ready at hand a lantern with a green glass on the one side and a red glass on the other side, and on approaching to or being approached by another vessel such lantern shall be exhibited in sufficient time to prevent collision, so that the green light shall not be seen on the port side nor the red light on the starboard side.

NOTE.-Paragraph (b) of this article applies only to vessels under steam of less than 40 tons gross tonnage, and only to such vessels when they are under way. It therefore applies also to fishing vessels under steam of less than 40 tons gross tonnage when they are not actually engaged in fishing, but are under way.

(b) A vessel of less than 40 tons gross tonnage when under steam shall not be obliged to carry the lights prescribed for other vessels under steam, but if she does not carry such lights she shall carry on or in front of her foremast or on or in front of her funnel or somewhere in the fore part of the vessel where it can best be seen, and at a height above the gunwale of not less than 9 feet, a bright white light visible for at least 2 miles, so constructed as to show over an arcof the horizon of twenty points of the compass, so fixed as to throw the light ten points on each side of the vessel, namely, from right ahead to two points abaft the beam on either side; and such vessel shall further carry either (1) side lights visible for at least 1 mile or (2) a lantern with a green glass on the one side and a red glass on the other, so constructed that it will show an unbroken green light over an arc of the horizon of ten points of the compass from right ahead to two points abaft the beam on the starboard side, and an unbroken red light over an arc of the horizon of ten points of the compass from right ahead to two points abaft the beam on the