No. 1., February 22, 1876

Copy of the report of the committee appointed by the admiralty, the board of trade, and the Trinity House, to consider the regulations for preventing collisions at sea, (rule of the road at sea,) and of the amendments proposed by them, together with a copy of the letter addressed by the board of trade to the foreign office upon the subject, (in continuation of parliamentary paper No. 353, of session 1874.)

No. 1.

(M. 10,272.)

Report of committee appointed by the admiralty, the board of trade, and the Trinity House, to consider the regulations for preventing collisions at sea.

We have carefully considered the various suggestions which are contained in the documents published in parliamentary paper No. 353, of 1874, and especially alterations in the existing rules proposed by the French government, and we have also through the board of trade obtained information from the masters of transatlantic steamers concerning a system of sound-signals used by steamers on the coasts and in the rivers of the United States. We have unanimously agreed to recommend the accompanying amended draft regulations in lieu of those now in force. The consent of other nations will, of course, be necessary.

It will be observed that our amendments do not involve any serious or fundamental alteration of the existing rules. We consider it of great importance that these rules which are now well understood should continue unaltered in substance; but there are some points in which they require elucidation, and there are other points on which our own experience and the suggestions above referred to have shown that additions are necessary, and it is for these that we have endeavored to provide.

The principal amendments are the following:

• Art. 3, par. (a), provision is made for placing the white light of steamers not only at the mast-head but at any proper place before the mast. This is rendered necessary by legal opinions as to the meaning of the present regulations.
• Art. 5, which provides signals for ships laying telegraph cables or otherwise not under command.
• Art. 9, which removes a doubt as to the lights to be carried by pilot vessels.
• Art. 10, which provides signal-lights for drift-net fishers and trawlers, and puts an end to the conflict between the existing regulations and those annexed to the sea-fisheries act, 1868.
• Art. 11, which makes it clearly lawful for overtaken vessels to show a light astern. This article is suggested in consequence of doubts as to the legality of so doing having been expressed in cases recently heard by the high court of admiralty and the court of appeal.
• Art. 12, which, besides defining sound-signals more distinctly, and shortening the intervals at which they are to be made, requires a sailing-ship in fog to denote her tack by her fog-horn.
• Art. 14, which is rewritten so as to make the meaning more distinct.
• Art. 15, in which, in order to meet the practice of other nations, words are added to make it clear that the English term “port helm” is equivalent to altering the course of the ship to starboard, and vice versa.
• Art. 19, by which, following a practice successfully adopted in the United States, steamers are enabled to indicate to an approaching ship the direction they are about to take.
• Art. 21, which adopts the general statutory rule that existed before 1862 for steamships navigating narrow channels, viz, that each ship shall keep to the starboard side of the mid-channel.
• Art. 25, which reserves special and local rules lawfully made by harbor authorities.

The remainder of the alterations are verbal merely.

We annex to our report copies—

• Of the rules as we propose to amend them.
• Of the present rules unaltered.
• Of the information we have received concerning sound-signals in the United States.