VICE ADMIRAL MERLIN O'NEILL, USCG REAR ADMIRAL H. C. SHEPHEARD, USCG The Merchant Marine Council will hold a public hearing and special ses- sion on January 30, 1951, commencing at 9:30 a. m. in room 4120, Coast Guard Headquarters, Washington, D. C., to consider proposed regulations The proposed regulations are in- tended to apply to public nautical school ships, which are vessels used as nautical school ships by any State or political subdivision thereof, or schools operated by the United States Maritime Administration, but shall not include vessels of the Navy or Coast Guard. It is the intent of the proposed regulations to provide mini- mum standards for vessels used as school ships in accordance with the various inspection statutes and to ob- tain their correct and uniform ap- plication. These regulations are not applicable to civilian nautical school ships. The regulations will contain requirements for the design, construc- tion, inspection, lifesaving equipment, fire-fighting and fire-prevention re- quirements, special operating re- quirements, and number of persons required to be carried on nautical school ships. With respect to articles of equipment or materials used in the equipment or the construction of their approved equivalent may be ac- cepted. The establishment of these regulations will provide a complete set of regulations applicable only to public nautical school ships, and it is intended that such vessels will no longer be subject to the various Gen- eral Rules and Regulations for Vessel Inspection published in other sub- chapters of title 46 of the Code of Copies of the proposed regulations have been mailed to all persons and organizations who have expressed an active interest in the subject under discussion. Copies of the proposed regulations may be obtained from the Headquarters, Washington 25, D. C., so long as they are available. How- ever, it is necessary that written com- ments on the proposed regulations should be submitted prior to January 30, 1951, in order to insure considera- tion before recommendations are made to the Commandant concerning the proposed regulations. All inter- ested persons are invited to attend a public hearing and submit written SECURITY OF VESSELS AND WATER- The Commandant approved the and waterfront facilities, which were considered by the Merchant Marine Council at a public hearing held November 27 and 28, 1950. These regulations were published in the Federal Register on December 28, 1950. Be cause of the urgency of the present situation the regulations were made effective on the date of publication in the Federal Register. However, it is necessary that interim appeal boards be established pending the establish ment of qualified people to act on the appeal boards provided by the Executive order and the regulations. The text of the regulations has been reprinted in the appendix on page 16. THE HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT OF THE MARINE ENGINEERING REGULATIONS By Lt. Comdr. George C. Steinman, USCG The administration of laws and the promulgation and enforcement of regulations for the promotion of safety of life at sea and on the waters subject to the jurisdiction of the United States are presently the direct responsibility of the United States Coast Guard. Those rules and regulations as pertain to the design, construction, and inspection of boilers, unfired pressure vessels, and appurtenances thereof appear in title 46 of the Code of Federal Regulations, Subchapter F-Marine Engineering, parts 50 to 58, inclusive, and are published in a booklet entitled "Marine Engineering Regulations and Material Specifications." The current publication is dated November 1, 1949, and has been amended by changes promulgated in the Federal Register of May 20, 1950. Under the organizational plan of the Coast Guard, the Merchant Marine Council is charged with the general responsibility of advising the Commandant as to the policy with and affecting the safety of the merchant marine. Thus any proposed changes in the Marine Engineering Regulations must be considered by the Merchant Marine Council. For the sake of comparison with stationary practice, the Merchant Marine Council may be considered the counterpart of the Boiler Code Committee of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers. The Merchant Marine Council meets twice a year in March and September, at which time proposed changes to the regulations are considered at public hearings. The amendments to the regulations considered acceptable to the Council are then transmitted to the Commandant. Based upon his approval, they are then published in the Federal Register and usually become effective 90 days thereafter. The new regulations thus promulgated, are usually printed in the Council's monthly publication "Proceedings of the Merchant Marine Council." In order that the latest regulations may be made available to the merchant-marine industry and interested parties, every effort is made (depend ent upon the availability of funds) to reprint the "Marine Engineering Regulations" annually, so that the pamphlet will include all the new regulations promulgated in the Federal Register which have not heretofore been published in the pamphlet. A study of the present "Marine Engineering Regulations" promulgated by the Coast Guard would not be complete without a historical review of the early development of the Rules and Regulations of the Steamboat Inspection Service. Herein is presented, in chronological order, the development of the laws enacted by Congress which provided the statutory basis for the promulgation of the "Marine Engineering Regulations" and its forerunner, the "General Rules and Regulations" of the Steamboat Inspection Service. Establishment and Early History of the Steamboat Inspection Service to 1871 The "Steamboat Act" of August 30, 1852, may be said to have originated the Steamboat Inspection Service. It provided for the appointment of nine supervising inspectors, by the President, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, who were required to meet once a year for joint consultation and to establish rules and regulations for the uniform administration of the steamboat inspection laws. The supervising inspectors were charged with supervision of the work of the local inspectors and to report cases of neglect, carelessness, and inefficiency among the local inspectors to the Secretary of the Treasury, who was given the power of removal. It is of interest to note that the first law enacted by Congress relating to steamboats was that of March 12, 1812, which provided, in part, that steamboats belonging to aliens should be enrolled and licensed. The act of February 18, 1793, chapter 8, required similar licensing of American owned vessels, of all types. There followed two laws preceding the "Steamboat Act" of 1852, which effected the licensing and inspection of steamboats. The law of March 3, 1825, authorized the register or en rollment and license of steamboats owned by an incorporated company to be issued in the name of the president and secretary of the company. The act of July 7, 1838, entitled "An Act to Provide for the Better Security of the Lives of Passengers on Board of Vessels Propelled in Whole or in Part by Steam," was the original statute of which the "Steamboat Act" of 1852 was an amendment. The act of 1838 was noticeable in that it first established the local inspectors of hull and boilers. It appears that the name of the Steamboat Inspection Service may have stemmed from this act. The inspectors were appointed by the Federal judge in whose district the applicant for enrollment of the steamboat resided. Boilers were required to be examined once in every 6 months, and, under the provisions of this act, the inspectors were required to issue a certificate as to the soundness of the boiler. It was also required that each vessel should carry a competent number of experienced and skillful engineers; and that the safety valve should be opened when the vessel stopped. A few important changes were made in this act by the acts of March 3, 1843, and March 3, 1849. The latter act provided for the establishment of lighthouses, lifeboats, buoys, etc. The act of March 3, 1843, authorized the Secretary of the Navy to appoint a board of examiners consisting of three persons, whose duty it was to make experimental trials of such inventions and plans designed to prevent the explosion of steam boilers and the collapsing of flues. It was also the duty of the board of examiners to investigate the "relative strength of copper and iron boilers of equal thickness," and "whether hydrostatic pressure, or what other plan, is best for testing the strength of boilers under the inspection laws, and what limitations as to the force or pressure of steam to the square inch, in proportion to the ascertained capacity of a boiler to resist, it would be proper to establish by law for the more certain prevention of explosions." The latter appears to be the first attempt to establish requirements for boiler design based upon a minimum factor of safety. |