REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF NAVIGATION. TREASURY DEPARTMENT, BUREAU OF NAVIGATION, Washington, D. C., November 17, 1885. SIR: In accordance with the provisions of the act of July 5, 1884, establishing a Bureau of Navigation in the Treasury Department, Í have the honor to submit my second annual report relative to the condition of the mercantile navy and the merchant seamen of the country, together with comments and recommendations respecting the operations of the laws relative to navigation and such particulars as in my judg ment require attention with reference to future improvement. The Bureau of Navigation, which was created by the act cited above, went into operation soon after its adoption over a year ago, the requisite number of clerks having been detailed from other offices for the performance of the various branches of work devolved upon it. At the beginning of the present fiscal year (July 1, 1885), these clerks were regularly transferred by order of the Secretary of the Treasury, and the Bureau was permanently organized, according to the provisions of the act making appropriations for the expenses of the Government for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1886. Under the act establishing the office, the Commissioner of Navigation has the general superintendence of the commercial marine and merchant seamen of the country. His duties and powers are more specifically stated by the Secretary of the Treasury in the circular issued July 18, 1884. The work of the Bureau may be divided into three distinct classes: First. The superintendence of the issue and surrender of all marine documents and the assignment of official numbers and signal letters to vessels, their admeasurement or change of name, and the annual compilation of a list of vessels belonging to the commercial marine of the United States required by law, and the preparation of statistical infor mation relating to these matters. The second annual list of vessels, with additions required by the new law, has recently been prepared by this Bureau, it being the seventeenth issue of the work since its commencement in the year 1868. Before the Congressional enactment creating the Bureau of Navigation, the records of marine documents were kept by the Register of the Treasury, while the annual list of vessels was prepared by the Bureau of Statistics. Since both parts of the work have been brought together into one office, there have been opportunities for comparison which did not exist before, and errors of former lists of vessels have been corrected. 3 These errors, which could not have been discovered without referring to the marine documents of the vessels, have been adjusted in the present annual list (seventeenth) by eliminating the names of vessels abandoned at sea or sold abroad. Some falling off in the apparent tonnage this year is thereby accounted for. Second. The general superintendence of the commercial marine of the United States and merchant seamen, so far as they are not specially subject to the supervision of any other officer of the Government. The administration of the laws in respect to the collection of tonnage duties. The clearance and entrance and other movements of vessels, and the decisions of questions arising under the shipping act of June 26, 1884, and the other laws relating to navigation and the ownership of vessels. Third. The supervision of the action of the shipping commissioners as devolved upon the Treasury Department by the tenth section of said act, and the regulation of the mode of shipment of seamen and such other duties pertaining to their care as devolve upon the Secretary of the Treasury by virtue of the provisions of said shipping act or of Title LIII of the Revised Statutes. The execution of these duties had previously been performed in several distinct offices and by the United States circuit courts. It is found that the business of these various branches so closely allied can be more economically and much better done under the present consolidation than under the old system, which divided it among several Bureaus and numerous courts, and in certain cases caused a duplication of the work as well as some lack of harmony. THE SHIPPING ACT OF JUNE 26, 1884. The various provisions of the shipping act which went into operation July 1, 1884. were enumerated in the last year's report. The bill was embraced in twenty-nine sections, touching, to a greater or less extent, almost every branch of the older shipping statutes. But although the changes in the laws relating to ships and seamen have been considerable and some of them radical, there has been no trouble in carrying them into effect, and if we except section 14, which prohibits the payment of wages in advance to seamen, the provisions of the bill have met with general satisfaction among all interested parties. The relief afforded by the act applies chiefly to sailing ships, in removing numerous trifling burdens to which they were subject in navigation, and which in the aggregate were of considerable importance. THE UNITED STATES SHIPPING COMMISSIONERS. One of the provisions of the act of June 26, 1884, was to change the control of the shipping commissioners from the United States circuit courts to the Treasury Department. The management of the shipping offices and of the business connected with seamen was assigned to this Bureau, and the shipping offices at the different ports have been reorganized upon a uniform basis. They are now divided into three different classes, according to the amount of business done, and the compensation has been fixed proportionately. Monthly accounts are rendered by them, and adjusted in the mode and manner provided for expenditures in the collection of customs. The reports of the Shipping Commissioners, giving a detailed account of the work performed at the different shipping offices, may be found in |