Papers Relating to the Foreign Relations of the United States, Transmitted to Congress, With the Annual Message of the President, December 6, 1880

No. 356.
Mr. Evarts to Mr. Drummond.

Department of State,
Washington, September 6, 1880.

Sir: Referring to previous correspondence on the subject of the revised international regulations for the prevention of collisions at sea, I have now the honor to inclose for your information two printed copies of General Order N6. 253, on this subject, emanating from the Navy Department.

In communicating this order, the Acting Secretary of the Navy states that in his opinion the issue of a general order, making it obligatory for all United States naval vessels to navigate the high seas in conformity with the law of the sea, is a proceeding fully within the authority of the Secretary of the Navy, and that it is necessary to issue such an order for the protection of commerce.

While treating upon this subject, I have to inform you that I have just received a letter from the Treasury Department, in reply to the questions raised by you in your note of the 24th ultimo, to the effect that that department has carefully considered the subject of your communication, and has come to the conclusion that it has no power to formally authorize the adoption, by the commercial marine of the United States, of the new international rules of the road for preventing collisions at sea, so long as the provisions of section 4233 of the Revise Statutes remain unchanged by the action of Congress. That department has, however, in order to harmonize matters so far as it can, and still be consistent with the law governing the subject, given notice to the press of the embarrassments to which American vessels will be liable in cases of collision with the vessels of other nationalities by not conforming to the new regulations, and has suggested that a compliance by vessels of the United States with these regulations while navigating foreign waters will not entail any penalties upon them on their return to this country. That department is further constrained to say that before it can take any further step in recognition of the new regulations, it will be necessary to await the action of Congress.

I have, &c.,

WM. M. EVARTS.

[Inclosure in Mr. Evarts’ note of Sept. 6, 1880.]

Regulation for preventing collisions at sea.

Navy Department,
Washington, D. C., July 16, 1880.

General Order No. 253.]

A revised code of “Regulations for preventing collisions at sea” having been approved by nearly all the maritime nations of the world, and adopted by them, to go into effect on the 1st September, 1880, thus becoming an integral part of the law of the sea, it is hereby adopted for the naval service of the United States, to go into effect on the above-mentioned date, in so far as the navigation of naval vessels outside of United States territorial waters is concerned. Within the waters of the United States, naval vessels will be guided by the regulations for preventing collisions as specified in section 4233 of the United States Revised Statutes.

Navy Department General Order No. 34, dated May 4, 1864, and forming Appendix No. 2 of the United States Naval Regulations, is hereby rescinded j and the precepts of the revised regulations and of the United States statutes, hereto appended,^* will be strictly complied with in accordance with the above specifications.

A careful examination and comparison of the appended codes is enjoined upon all officers of the Navy, especially of those parts of the revised regulations which are printed in italics, as it is in them that the modifications from the old rules exist.

WM. N. JEFFERS,
Acting Secretary of the Navy.

1. The appendices above referred to consist of section 4233 of the Revised Statutes of the United States and the Revised International Regulations, arranged in parallel columns. For the text of the latter vide Mr. Hoppin’s No. 95, of November 4, 1879 pages 468–472, supra.