Chapter 250. To amend an Act entitled “An Act to require apparatus and operators for radio communication on certain ocean steamers,” approved June twenty-fourth, nineteen hundred and ten
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CHAP. 250.— An Act To amend an Act entitled “An Act to require apparatus and operators for radio communication on certain ocean steamers,” approved June twenty-fourth, nineteen hundred and ten.July 23, 1912.[[S. 8815](/us/bill/62/s/8815).][[Public, No. 238](/us/pl/62/238).] *Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled*,Radio communication.Vol. 36. p. 629. amended. That section one of an Act entitled “An Act to require apparatus and operators for radio communication on certain ocean steamers,” approved June twenty-fourth, nineteen hundred and ten, be amended so that it will read as follows:
" “Section 1. That from and after October first, nineteen hundredApparatus required on ocean or Great Lakes steamers. and twelve, it shall be unlawful for any steamer of the United States or of any foreign country navigating the ocean or the Great Lakes and licensed to carry, or carrying, fifty or more persons, including passengers or crew or both, to leave or attempt to leave any port of the United States unless such steamer shall be equipped with an efficient apparatus for radio communication, in good working order, 200 capable of transmitting and receiving messages over a distance of at least one hundred miles, day or night.
An auxiliary power supply,Auxiliary power supply, etc. independent of the vessel’s main electric power plant, must be provided which will enable the sending set for at least four hours to send messages over a distance of at least one hundred miles, day or night, and efficient communication between the operator in the radio room and the bridge shall be maintained at all times. “The radio equipment must be in charge of two or more personsOperators on duty. skilled in the use of such apparatus, one or the other of whom shall be on duty at all times while the vessel is being navigated.
Such equipment,Control of master. operators, the regulation of their watches, and the transmission and receipt of messages, except as may be regulated by law or international agreement, shall be under the control of the master, in the case of a vessel of the United States; and every willful failure on thePenalty for non-enforcement. part of the master to enforce at sea the provisions of this paragraph as to equipment, operators, and watches shall subject him to a penalty of one hundred dollars.
“That the provisions of this section shall not apply to steamersSteamers excepted. plying between ports, or places, less than two hundred miles apart.” " Sec. 2. That this Act, so far as it relates to the Great Lakes, shallIn effect, on Great Lakes. take effect on and after April first, nineteen hundred and thirteen, and so far as it relates to ocean cargo steamers shall take effect onCargo steamers. and after July first, nineteen hundred and thirteen: *Provided*, That*Proviso*.Substitute for second operator on cargo steamers. on cargo steamers, in lieu of the second operator provided for in this Act, there may be substituted a member of the crew or other person who shall be duly certified and entered in the ship’s log as competent to receive and understand distress calls or other usual calls indicating danger, and to aid in maintaining a constant wireless watch so far as required for the safety of life.
Approved, July 23, 1912.