Vessel

A ship, brig, sloop, or other craft used in navigation.

1 Boulay-Paty, tit. 1, p. 100.

The term is rarely applied to any watercraft without' a deck; U. S. v. Open Boat, 5 Mas. 120, Fed. Cas. No. 15967; but has been used to include everything capable oC being used as a means of transportation by water; Chaffee v. Ludeling, 27 La. Ann. 607. By U. S. R. S. S 3, “the word ‘vessel’ includes every description of water craft or on water/’ See The Annie S. Cooper, 48 Fed. 703. A floating elevator towed from place to place, and used to transfer grain, is a vessel; The Hezekiah Baldwin, 8 Bened. 556, Fed. Cas. No. 6,449. So of a scow adapted only for use in port in carrying ballast to and from vessels, having neither steam power nor sails nor rudder, and moving by steam tugs; Endner v. Greco, 3 Fed. 411; so of canal boats; id. contra, Farmers’ Delight v. Lawrence, 5 Wend. [N. Y.] 564); so of a scow built for carrying a steam shovel worked by the steam engine of the scow; The Pioneer, 30 Fed. 206; and a barge having no sails, masts, or rudders and used only for the transportation of bricks, suitable only to be towed by a tug; Disbrow v. Walsh Bros., 36 Fed. 607; so of a floating scow fitted with steam appliances for deepening channels; Aitcheson v. Chain Dredge, 40 Fed. 253; a steam dredge; The Atlantic, 53 Fed. 607; The International, 83 Fed. 840; a barge and scow; The Starbuek, 61 Fed. 502; Saylor v. Taylor, 77 Fed. 476, 23 C. C. A. 343. The means of propulsion makes no difference; The Devonshire, 13 Fed. 39, 8 Sawy. 209. Vessel includes every description of water craft or other artificial contrivance used or capable of being used as a means of transportation on water; U. S. v. Holmes, 104 Fed. 884; a barge with a pile driver thereon and moved from place to place by tugs; In re P. Sanford Ross, Inc., 196 Fed. 921; a structure intended for the transportation of a permanent cargo as a scow, carrying a pile driver and engine, which has to be towed in order to navigate; The Raithinoor, 186 Fed. 849; a derrick hoist; The Sallie, 167 Fed. 880, and a pump-boat, which consists of a floating structure equipped with engines and pumps for pumping out coal barges, moved by poles or ropes, or towed; Charles Barnes Co. v. One Dredge Boat, 169 Fed. 895. Rafts are included in the general term of vessels; The Mary, 123 Fed. 609; but, quccre, The Annie S. Cooper, 48 Fed. 703. Vessel is broad enough to include a vessel’s tackle, apparel, furniture, chronometer and appurtenances; The Frolic, 148 Fed. 921. A vessel, although wrecked and abandoned by owners and underwriters and her register closed, but which still retains her hull, though damaged, and her machinery, remains a vessel in a maritime sense, and is subject to dry dock charges while undergoing repairs after she has been raised, and to a maritime lien for such charges; The George W. Elder, 196 Fed. 137; so of a “foreign-built” yacht which burned and sunk and was repaired, but remained a “foreign-built” yacht; U. 8. v. Blair, 190 Fed. 372. A steamer which has been taken on shore by her owners for the purpose of being dismantled, and from which the masts and engines had been removed, so pable of being navigated as a tow or otherwise, continues to be a vessel; The O. H. Northam, 181 Fed. 983. That a vessel is not enrolled or licensed does not affect the question of jurisdiction to enforce a maritime lien against her, nor does it make any difference whether she is unfit for sea when a contract is made on her behalf; if the object and effect of it be to enable her to pursue her business upon the sea, it is in its nature maritime; The George W. Elder, 196 Fed. 138. An open boat is not a vessel; U. S. v. Open Boat, 5 Mas. 120, Fed. Cas. No. 15,967; nor a raft; Moores v. Underwriters, 14 Fed. 236. An open clinker-built gasoline launch about 18 feet long, arriving at Seattle from a port of British Columbia and not shown to be a foreign vessel or to contain merchandise, is not required to report to the customs officer of the port; U. S. v. One Gasoline Launch, 133 Fed. 42, 66 C. C. A. 148. A vessel is built to navigate the seas and not to stay in a port, and does not acquire a situs in one port rather than another by reason of frequently visiting it; Southern Pac. Co. v. Kentucky, 222 U. S. 63, 32 Sup. Ct. 13, 56 L. Ed. 96. An American vessel, outside the jurisdiction of a foreign power, is, for some purposes at least, a part of the American territory; The Scotia, 14 Wall. (U. S.) 170, 20 L. Ed. 822. Foreign-built vessels registered under the act of August 24, 1912, are not permitted to engage in coastwise trade. Vessels navigated to a port are subject to distinct duties and obligations, and are not dutiable as imported merchandise; The Conqueror, 166 U. S. 110, 17 Sup. Ct. 510, 41 L. Ed. 937. Vessels must have their names marked on them; 2 Supp. R. S. 541. By proclamation of November 21, 1913, the president promulgated certain rules for the measurement of vessels for the Panama Canal, applying to vessels, all commercial, army and navy, supply, and hospital ships, and rules applicable to vessels of war. By act of Aug. 18, 1914, the words “not more than five years old at the time they apply for registry” were stricken from section five of the Panama Canal Act, and the president was authorized to suspend the provision of law that all watch officers of all United States vessels registered for foreign trade shall be citizens of the United States, and those requiring survey, inspection and measurement by officers of the United States qt foreigu-built vessels admitted to registry under the act The Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea, which was signed at London, January 20, 1914, but which the United States Senate has not yet ratified, provides: “At no moment of its voyage may a ship have on board lifeboats and the pontoon life-rafts on board.” The number and arrangement of the boats, and (where they are allowed) of the pontoon rafts, depend upon the total number of persons which the ship is intended to carry; provided the total capacity is greater than that necessary to accommodate all the persons on board. Each boat must be of sufficient strength to enable it to be safely lowered with its full complement of persons and equipment Suitable arrangements shall be made for embarking passengers in the boats. The davits shall be of sufficient strength to lower the boats with their full complement, the ship being assumed to have a list of 15 degrees. The davits must be fitted with a gear of sufficient power to ensure that the boat can be turned out against the maximum list under which the lowering of the boats is possible. A life jacket of an approved type, or other appliance of equal buoyancy and capable of being fitted on the body, shall be carried for every person on board, and in addition a sufficient number of life jackets or equivalent appliances suitable for children. * Each boat or raft is required to have a minimum number of certificated lifeboatmen, by which is meant a member of the crew who holds a certificate of efficiency issued under the authority of the administration concerned, in accordance with the regulations of the Convention. Special duties for emergencies shall be allotted to each member of the crew and the muster list must show these special duties and indicate each man’s station and his duties. The carriage, either as cargo or ballast, of goods which by reason of their nature, quantity, or mode of stowage, are, either singly or collectively, likely to endanger the lives of the passengers or the safety of the ship, is forbidden. Limitation of Liability of Vessel Owners. While the civil as well as the common law made the owner responsible to the whole extent of damage caused by the wrongful act or negligence of the master or crew; Davies 175; 9 East 432; under the maritime law of modern Europe the owner’s liability was merely coextensive with his interest in the vessel and its freight, and ceased by his abandonment and surrender of these to the parties sustaining loss. As said by Brown, J., in The Main v. Williams, 152 U. S. 126, 14 Sup. Ct. 4S6, 38 L. Ed. 381, this rule is stated in the code known as Consolato del Mare, but there is no reference to it in the Laws of Oleron, or of Wisby, or of the Hanse towns, which were the maritime codes followed in Northern Europe (see Code). The earliest legislation in England was in 1734. The whole subject is now covered in Engthe shipowners in the case of loss of life or personal injury to an aggregate amount not exceeding £15 for each ton of the ship’s tonnage, and in respect to loss or damage to vessels, goods, merchandise or other things, to an aggregate amount not exceeding £8 for each ton of the ship’s tonnage.

See Maclaclilan, Merchant Shipping (5th Ed.) p. 129.