No. 532.
Mr. Bayard
to Mr. Phelps.
Washington, July 30, 1888.
Sir: The Congress of the United States has passed an act, which received the President’s approval on the 9th of the present month, providing for an international marine conference, to secure greater safety for life and property at sea. By this act the President is requested to invite the other maritime powers of the world to take part in a conference, the objects of which are, in brief, to revise the present international regulations for preventing collisions at sea, especially with reference to signaling in fog; to revise the existing code of flag-signals; to compare and discuss the various systems employed for the saving of life and property from shipwreck; to devise methods of reporting, marking, and removing dangerous wrecks and obstructions to navigation; and to establish uniform means of conveying to mariners warnings of storms and other information.
The great interest and importance of this subject justifies an extended reference to the principal objects of the proposed conference and to the steps already taken in the same direction.
In 1863 the Government of Great Britain invited the other maritime nations, in the interest of commerce at large, to examine the code of [Page 741] laws adopted by it in 1862 for preventing collisions at sea, and if found suitable to legalize them.
In the course of the next two years thirty-four of the principal maritime nations of the world had approved and adopted these laws.
In 1877, it having been found that the laws so adopted did not fulfill the requirements of marine commerce, the British Government took steps, by the appointment of a commission, to frame a revised set of laws. These, when formulated, were submitted to all the maritime nations, and, after sixteen of these powers had signified their approval, they went into effect on the 1st of September, 1880.
These regulations, however, are believed to be inadequate to the present needs of commerce, in respect especially to the sound-signals, for use in fog, mist, or falling snow. The increasing number and speed of steam-vessels has greatly added to the dangers of collision in thick weather, and the opinion has recently been expressed by the best authorities that the present system of signals for steam-vessels is insufficient.
The present code of flag-signals is also believed to stand in need of careful revision. This system originated in Great Britain in 1856, and experience has shown the necessity of extending the list of names of places and words and phrases, as well as of considering whether greater rapidity and accuracy in signaling can not be attained. With respect to the protection of life and property from shipwreck no general international agreement in regard to on and off shore signaling or as to the modus operandi of the life-saving service of the different nations is known to exist. In spite of the utmost effort of those engaged in the Life-Saving Service of the United States, lives have been lost from foreign vessels stranded on our coasts because of a misunderstanding of our methods, and it is believed that the experience of other countries in this regard is similar to our own.
The destruction, or at least the frequent and accurate reporting, of dangerous derelicts is also a matter of the highest importance; and it is obvious that this work can be thoroughly done only by means of the hearty co-operation of the principal maritime nations. Closely connected with the subject of reported derelicts is that of conveying warnings of storms, and of giving information of recently-discovered dangers to navigation, and changes in lights, buoys, and other day or night marks, which can probably best be undertaken by the adoption of some carefully-considered international system.
Another important topic, although not enumerated in the act of Congress, which gives rise to the present invitation, is that of a uniform system for the loading of vessels. This subject has recently attracted, earnest attention in Great Britain, and a royal commission on the loss of life at sea, appointed in 1884, reported in August, 1887, recommending that Her Majesty’s Government should take steps to invite a conference of maritime states to consider how far it might be possible to agree upon such rules and upon regulations for their enforcement. Additional force would attach to the recommendations of the projected conference were the British view in regard to overloading at sea to be brought up by Her Majesty’s delegates as pertinent to the general objects of the conference rather than as matter for an independent comparison of international views.
This review of the general purposes of the conference indicates the great interest and the active measures which Great Britain has always taken in the subjects to which I have referred.
[Page 742]In view of this, as well as of the importance and extent of British maritime interests the President recognizes the necessity of the adhesion of Her Majesty’s Government to the plan of the proposed conference, and indeed of its active co-operation therein, if the labors of that body are to meet with general acceptance and success.
By direction therefore of the President of the United States, you will tender to the Government of Great Britian a cordial invitation to be represented, by such number of delegates as may seem to it convenient, at an international conference to be convened at the city of Washington on Wednesday, the 17th day of April, 1889, the purposes of such conference being “to revise and amend the rules, regulations, and practice concerning vessels at sea and navigation generally, and the international code of flag and night signals; to adopt a uniform system of marine signals, or other means of plainly indicating the direction in which vessels are moving in fog, mist, falling snow, and thick weather, and at night; to compare and discuss the various systems employed for the saving of life and property from shipwreck; for reporting, marking, and removing dangerous wrecks or obstructions to navigation; for designating vessels; for conveying to mariners and persons interested in shipping warnings of approaching storms; of dangers to navigation; of changes in lights, buoys, and other day and night marks and other important information; and to formulate and submit for ratification to the governments of all maritime nations proper international regulations for the prevention of collisions and other avoidable marine disasters.”
It will be understood by all states taking part in this conference that no questions relating to the regulation of trade and commerce are within the scope of the discussion, and that in the disposition of questions to come before the conference no State shall be entitled to more than one vote, whatever be the number of delegates it may send.
You will make this invitation known by reading this instruction to Lord Salisbury, and by leaving a copy with him should he desire to possess it.
Your own discretion will doubtless suggest to you the most effective manner of making known the great interest taken by the President in the benevolent purposes of the projected conference, and his desire and expectation that in the universal interest of sea-faring humanity Her Majesty’s Government will receive and respond to our invitation in the same spirit in which it is extended.
I am, etc.,