2. Motor vessels subject to all inspection laws: (a) Seagoing motor vessels over 300 gross tons except those engaged in fishery, kelp, or sponge industry. (b) Motor tankers. 3. Motor vessels subject to some of the inspection laws: (a) Inland motor vessels over 15 gross tons carrying freight or passengers for hire. (b) Seagoing motor vessels above 15 gross tons and less than 300 gross tons carrying freight or passengers for hire. 4. Miscellaneous vessels subject to some of the inspection laws: (a) Sailing vessels over 700 gross tons carrying passengers for hire. (c) Barges less than 100 gross tons carrying passengers while in tow of steamers. (d) Seagoing barges over 100 gross tons. (e) Non-self-propelled tankers (subject to all inspection laws). (f) Foreign passenger vessels carrying passengers from ports of the United States and belonging to countries which have reciprocal inspection treaties with the United States. (g) Foreign steam freight vessels carrying less than 17 persons in addition to the crew. 5. Vessels not subject to any inspection laws: (a) Inland motor vessels not carrying passengers or freight for hire. (b) Inland and seagoing motor vessels below 15 gross tons. (c) Seagoing motor vessels below 300 gross tons not carrying freight or passengers for hire. (d) Motor vessels engaged in fishing, oystering, clamming, crabbing, or other branch of the fish, kelp, or sponge industry. (e) Steam vessels under 65 feet in length except tugboats and towboats. (f) Sail vessels not carrying passengers for hire. (g) Sail vessels less than 700 gross tons carrying passengers for hire. (i) Barges of less than 100 gross tons. (j) All merchant-type public vessels of the United States. VESSELS REQUIRING LICENSED PERSONNEL BY LAW 1. Steam vessels: (a) Steam tugboats and towboats: licensed officers as required by certificate of inspection. (b) Steam tankers: licensed officers as required by certificate of inspection. (c) Steam vessels above 65 feet in length: licensed officers as required by certificate of inspection. (d) Inland steam vessels below 65 feet in length carrying passengers for hire: licensed operator. 2. Sail vessels: (a) Sail vessels over 700 gross tons carrying passengers for hire: licensed officers as required by certificate of inspection. (b) Uninspected seagoing sail vessels over 200 gross tons: masters and mates in charge of watch must be licensed. 3. Motor vessels: (a) Seagoing motor vessels over 300 gross tons: licensed officers as required by certificate of inspection. (b) Uninspected seagoing motor vessels over 200 gross tons; masters, mates, and engineers in charge of a watch must be licensed. (c) Motor tankers: licensed officers as required by certificates of inspection. (d) Inland motor vessels less than 15 gross tons carrying passengers for hire: licensed operator. (e) Inland motor vessels above 15 gross tons and less than 65 feet in length carrying passengers or freight for hire: licensed operator. (f) Inland motor vessels above 15 gross tons and above 65 feet in length, carrying passengers or freight for hire: licensed officers as required by certificate of inspection. (g) Seagoing motor vessels above 15 gross tons carrying passengers or freight for hire: licensed officers as required by certificate of inspection. 4. Exemptions: VESSELS NOT REQUIRING LICENSED PERSONNEL (a) Inland motor vessels not carrying passengers or freight for hire. (b) Seagoing motor vessels below 200 gross tons not carrying freight or passengers for hire. (c) Seagoing motor vessels below 15 gross tons. (d) Steam vessels under 65 feet in length not carrying passengers for hire except tugboats and towboats. (e) Seagoing steam vessels under 65 feet in length except tugboats and towboats. (f) Inland sail vessels under 700 gross tons. (g) Inland sail vessels over 700 gross tons not carrying passengers for hire. (h) Seagoing sail vessels below 200 gross tons. (1) Non-self-propelled vessels except tankers. Merchant-type public vessels of the United States. Commander SAVONIS. 3. Motor vessels above 15 gross tons and 65 feet in length or less, carrying passengers for hire, are subject to statutory inspection and certification. The basic safety statutes applicable to such vessels, as stated by the Attorney General of the United States (38 Op. Atty. Gen. 441, 1936) are "in a state of uncertainty." Despite this uncertainty, the Coast Guard in its administration of inspection and certification requirements has been successful in requiring an adequate standard of safety with respect to such vessels. In view of the term "carry passengers for hire," however, which is the statutory basis for the application of the inspection and certification requirements to such vessels, many devices have been and are resorted to for the circumvention and evasion of statutory safety requirements. The casualty record of motor vessels above 15 gross tons and 65 feet and less in length carrying passengers for hire inspected and certificated by the Coast Guard is excellent. 4. Unlike motor passenger vessels of over 15 gross tons and 65 feet in length and less, motor vessels of 15 gross tons and less and 65 feet in length and less are subject to no inspection or certification requirements for safety purposes, regardless of the number of passengers carried or the waters on which operated. The Coast Guard has no legal authority to conduct seaworthy inspection of such vessels or to require them to comply with any standard of safety compatible with the services in which they are operated. Such vessels of 15 gross tons or less carrying any numbers of passengers for hire on the navigable waters of the United States are subject only to the requirements of the Motorboat Act of April 25, 1940, relating to navigation lights, whistles, bells, life preservers, fire extinguishers, backfire flame arresters, ventilation, and licensed operator. Such vessels carrying any number of passengers operating more than 3 miles offshore are subject to no legal safety requirements, not even 1 life preserver for the passengers. 5. Under existing statutes, then, vessels of over 15 gross tons carrying passengers for hire are subject to annual inspection and certification. Many operators of motor vessels carrying passengers for hire operate vessels of 15 gross tons or less from the standpoint of economic considerations and advantages, including the evasion of Federal statutory safety requirements. Many sincere and wellintentioned owners and operators, because of competitive handicaps in complying with Federal safety requirements, have been forced into the operation of motor passenger vessels of 15 gross tons or less, with the result that the larger, better, and safer inspected and certificated motor vessels have been driven out of business becase of the competitive discriminations made possible by Federal statutory safety requirements in favor of smaller and more dangerous passenger motorboats of 15 gross tons or less. 6. S. 2072 is a bill to require the United States Coast Guard to make inspections and certifications of vessels carrying passengers "for hire." 7. The legal relationship that must exist between a carrier and passenger in order to constitute the status of carriage for hire is a technical legal question and depnds upon many fine distinctions in the general law. Conflicts in judicial opinions exist with respect to this relationship. It is unreasonable to base the necessity for safety of life upon technical legal determinations which are made in the determination of issues in private civil litigation. To allow this situation to exist by statute furnishes the basis for evasion and circumvention of safety requirements. The safety-at-sea laws of other maritime nations, International Convention for Safety of Life at Sea, 1948, the United States marine safety statutes, with certain exceptions, the Load Line Acts, the Steerage Passenger Act, and other laws dealing with the safety of passengers are predicated upon the carriage of passengers and not upon the carriage of passengers "for hire. It would appear desirable, therefore, that the term "for hire" be deleted from the enacting clause of S. 2072 and the following substituted: To require the inspection and certification of certain vessels carrying passengers. Senator POTTER. In other words, you feel it doesn't make any difference whether it is for hire or nor, so long as they are carrying passengers? Commander SAVONIS. Yes, sir. 8. Throughout the bill the phrase "United States Coast Guard" and "Commandant of the Coast Guard" should be deleted and in lieu thereof, language should be substituted to place the administrative responsibilities on the "Secretary of the Department in which the Coast Guard is operating." This change in language will reflect the intent of Reorganizaton Plan No. 26, 1950, whereby the duties and functions of all officers in the Treasury Department were placed in the Secretary. The language "in which the Coast Guard is operating" is necessary in order that the functions in the proposed act would be transferred to the Secretary of the Navy when the Coast Guard is operating in that Department. 9. Section 1 (a) of the bill defines the term "United States" as meaning the continental United States, Alaska, Puerto Rico, Hawaiian Islands, and the Virgin Islands of the United States. Existing marine safety statutes and regulations thereunder are applicable to vessels on the navigable waters of the United States and at sea. Under the definition in the bill, motor passenger vessels operating more than 3 miles offshore would be exempt from all safety requirements. The route or areas of navigation of such vessels could not be limited. It is suggested that consideration be given to the deletion of this term. 10. Section 1 (b) states that The term "passenger" means every person carried on board a passenger-carrying vessel other than ***. Administrative experience indicates that by the use of the words "passenger-carrying vessel" as here used, it will be contended to mean that a vessel which is not certificated as a passenger-carrying vessel is not a passenger-carrying vessel and, therefore, may carry any number of passengers without complying with passenger-vessel requirements. For this reason and the desirability of restricting the applicability of the bill to self-propelled vessels, the term "passengercarrying vessel" should be amended to read "mechanically propelled vessel." This amendment would exclude sail vessels but would include steam-propelled vessels as well as vessels propelled by internal combustion engines or by any other form of mechanical or electrical power. While there are no known steam vessels of 65 feet or less in length engaged in the carriage of passengers, it would appear that the bill should be sufficiently broad to cover such vessels in the event that steam in small craft would again be introduced in marine use. 11. Section 1 (b) (1), (2), (3) included many vessels which are apparently not intended to be encompassed. There are on our navigable waters many small craft which carry workers, and where the workers, together with the craft, engage in various activities on the navigable waters as well as at sea. Such craft include shipbuilding and ship-repair yard workboats, workboats used in marine construction and repair work, tugboats and towboats serving vessels and carrying stevedoring maintenance and repair personnel, small craft carrying workers, provisions, and material to offshore oil drilling operations, and others. Since it appears that it is not intended to include such vessels within the scope of the bill, it is suggested that they be excluded by inserting the following language to appear between lines 4 and 5 of page 2: (3) Any employees of the owner or bareboat charterer of the vessel engaged in the business of the owner or bareboat charterer and workers being carried on workboats between shore and their work in local waters and who have contributed no consideration for their carriage. 12. Section 1 (b) (3) contains the term "contributed any valuable consideration, directly or indirectly, for his transportation or passage." Since section 1 (b) (2) and proposed section 1 (b) (3) contained the term "who have contributed no consideration for their carriage," and all of the terms are intended to mean the same thing, that is, carriage without payment, it would appear that the terms should be uniform, and accordingly section 1 (b) (3) could be amended to read as follows: (4) Any guest on board a vessel which is being used exclusively for pleasure purposes who has not contributed any consideration, directly or indirectly, for his carriage. 13. Section 1 (c) defines the term "passenger-carrying vessel" as meaning any vessel, domestic or foreign, used for carrying passengers for hire, and (1) which is propelled, in whole or in part, by steam, or by any form of mechanical or electrical power, and which is not more than 65 feet in length measured from end to end, over the deck excluding sheer; or (2) which is propelled by sails and weighs 700 tons or less. 14. For the reasons above stated with respect to the enacting clause and to be consistent therewith, it would appear desirable to delete the term "for hire" appearing in this section. 15. The extension of inspection and certification requirements to sail vessels as proposed in this section would require an expansion in Coast Guard personnel which at present does not appear to be warranted by any problems created in the field of sailing vessels without auxiliary power engaged in the carriage of passengers. It would appear desirable, therefore, that such vessels not be brought within the scope of the proposed bill and that for this purpose the words in said section "(2) which is propelled by sails and weigh 700 tons or less" be deleted. 17. The term "passenger-carrying vessel" appearing in section 1 (c) for the reasons indicated above should be changed to the term "mechanically propelled vessel." The term "motor vessel" and "mechanically propelled vessel" have an accepted universal meaning and include vessels regardless of tonnage or size. To avoid misunderstanding that the United States by statute considers "motor propelled" and "mechanically propelled" vessels to be vessels under 65 feet in length, clarification that such is not the intent in the bill is desirable. 18. An anomaly in existing marine safety statutes permits vessels of 15 gross tons and less and over 65 feet in length to engage in the carriage of large numbers of passengers on any waters without any inspection or certification for seaworthy purposes. Such vessels may be in charge of an operator who must by law be issued a license without examination. Vessels in this category carrying large numbers of passengers in offshore waters are in operation. In the interest of safety to life, such vessels should be brought under inspection and certification within the terms of this bill and the anomaly which permits their operation without inspection and certification created by the act of June 18, 1897 (46 U. S. C. 520) should be repealed and the requirements of Revised Statutes 4426 (46 U. S. C. 404) clarified. 10. Attention is called to two classes of vessels which, although not intended, would in all probability be included within the scope of the bill. The first class consists of small public vessels, such as man-of-war Liberty boats, small craft at military installations, and other small craft operated by the Federal Government for public purposes. The second class consists of ships' motor-propelled lifeboats which are designed, constructed, equipped, and maintained in conformity with statutory requirements and regulations thereunder. It is believed that motor-propelled lifeboats when they form a part of a ship's lifesaving equipment should be exempted from the provisions of this bill, even though temporarily operated in the transportation of passengers between ship and shore and manned by assigned ships' personnel. 20. Section 1 (c) makes every mechanically propelled vessel not more than 65 feet in length used for carrying any number of passengers for hire subject to all of the provisions of the bill and the regulations to be promulgated thereunder. If the above suggestions pertaining to the elimination of "for hire" as a criterion for the application of safety requirements be adopted, this section in effect would require the inspection and certification of mechanically propelled vessels of not more than 65 feet in length owned in the United States, conceivably some 300,000 in number, excluding outboard motorboats. To make small pleasure craft, when they are operated on a share-the-expense is with 1 or 2 guests, subject to inspection and certification and ire the inspection and certification of other small craft operated 1 |