Navigation Acts

“ Where vessels approaching are yet so distant from each other, or where the lines of approach, though parallel, are so far apart as not to involve risk of collision, that rule of navigation has no application to the case. ”

“ These rules, which are the results of the practical experience and wisdom of navigators, cannot be too strongly impressed upon the observance of those engaged in the management of vessels on our rivers, or other waters where the course of business and trade naturally confines the navigation to a particular tract or route; and it is the obvious duty of the courts to apply them strictly in all cases of collision, unless where a clear exception is established by the party seeking to excuse himself for a departure. ”

“ I speak now of the free and unobstructed navigation of the river, and according to this general or public law, the right of navigation exists over every party of it. No principle is better settled or more generally admitted. ”

“ But when a vessel is tied to the bank of a river, not in a port or harbor, or at a place of landing, out of the line of customary navigation, there is no occasion for her to show a light, nor has it ever been required that she should do so. ”

“ Rules of navigation, such as have been mentioned, are obligatory upon vessels approaching each other, from the time the necessity for precaution begins, and continue to be applicable as the vessels advance, so long as the means and opportunity to avoid the danger remain. ”

“ Rules of navigation are ordained, and required to be observed, to save life and property employed in marine pursuits, and not to promote collisions, or to justify the wrong-doer where such a disaster has occurred. ”

“ Upon the actual meaning, therefore, of the word 'inland,' so used, it must be determined that the words 'inland navigation,' in the statute, signify only a navigation carried on within the body of the country; and doubtless, (particularly when considered, as the question must be, and is hereinafter, under the powers of Congress over commerce,) when applied to lake navigation, a navigation conducted beneath the jurisprudence of a single State. It means a navigation which, when carried on on the lakes, is not the coasting trade. ”

“ All persons engaged in navigating vessels upon navigable waters, whether upon the seas or in rivers or harbors, are bound to observe the rules of navigation recognized and approved by the courts in the management of their vessels on approaching a point where there is danger of collision. ”

“ It was simply to serve as an aid to navigation, and while it had not yet been finished and accepted, it was being erected under the constant supervision of a government inspector acting under the authority of the United States in the improvement and protection of navigation. ”

“ There can be no sound reason why they should be placed upon a ground of comparative disadvantage with reference to others. Why should there be placed under a species of judicial ban a mean of navigation and intercourse which, in regard to commerce, science, literature, art, wealth, comfort, and civilization, has, in a few years, advanced the world by more than a thousand years, perhaps, beyond the point at which the previous and ordinary modes of navigation would possibly have attained? ”

“ Their speed is quite as great, and the navigation is no less exposed to the dangers arising from the prevalence of mist and fog, or from the ordinary darkness of the night; and the owners of vessels navigating on those waters are under the same obligations to provide for the safety and security of life and property as attaches to those who are engaged in navigating the seas. ”

“ The same court also suggests that the navigation of the lakes is not to be deemed inland navigation because of the maritime character of its commerce. This reasoning applies with as great force to the large rivers as it does to the lakes, and by that fact turns all its force. ”

“ Under such circumstances, a competent lookout, stationed upon a quarter of the vessel affording the best opportunity to see at a distance those meeting her, is indispensable to safe navigation, and the neglect is chargeable as a fault in the navigation. ”

“ In proportion, therefore, as the pursuits of the navigator are considered essential to the wealth of the community, every effort to Assist him, in his course through the pathless ocean, must be regarded both as the call of interest and humanity. The most prominent causes of the perfection to which coasting-navigation has been brought, may be ascribed to the accuracy of our charts, and an increase of land-marks, by which the mariner, after braving the dangers of the seas, is enabled to guide his ship with safety into her intended port. ”

“ To crown the whole, where can a country be pointed out which possesses such an extent of internal navigation? A chain of river navigation and navigable inland seas, which, with the canals recently constructed, gives to the countries bordering on them all the advantages of an extended sea-coast, with a greatly diminished risk of loss from shipwreck! ”

“ As defence, however, is of much more value than opulence, the Act of Navigation is perhaps the wisest of all the commercial regulations of England." [8] Before these pages issue from the press, this, undoubtedly the wisest of all the commercial regulations of Great Britain, and under which the maritime strength and colonial empire of England have risen to a pitch of grandeur unknown in any other age or country, will be numbered among the things which have been. The House of Commons, by a majority, have voted for the repeal of the Navigation Laws. ”

“ It might be a light-house erected on a submerged sand-bank, or a jetty pushed out into the stream to narrow the water-way, and increase the depth of water and the direction and the force of the current, or the pier of a bridge standing where vessels now pass, and where they can pass only at very high water. The impediments to navigation caused by such structures are, it is true, in one sense, obstructions to navigation; but, so far as they tend to facilitate commerce, it is not claimed that they are unlawful. ”

“ Support to that proposition, of the most persuasive and convincing character, is found in the act of Congress entitled 'An Act to provide for the better security of life on board of vessels propelled in whole or in part by steam, and for other purposes,' the forty-first section of which provides that all steamers navigating the lakes, bays, inlets, sounds, rivers, harbors, or other navigable waters of the United States, when such waters are common highways of commerce or open to general or competitive navigation, shall be subject to the provisions of that act. ”

“ These may justify a rate deemed prudent navigation at one time, that would be wholly unjustifiable at another. But we feel no difficulty in saying, that, in a case circumstanced as the present one, a fog so dense that the most vigilant look-out would be unable to discern a vessel at a distance of more than sixty or one hundred yards navigation, at the time, waters frequented with sailing vessels-a rate of sixteen or seventeen miles the hour is altogether inadmissible as prudent or reasonably safe navigation. ”

“ But with the vast increase of inland navigation consequent upon the use of steamboats, and the development of wealth on the borders of the rivers, which thus became the great water highways of an immense commerce, the necessity for an admiralty court, and the value of admiralty principles in settling controversies growing out of this system of transportation, began to be felt. ”

“ The character of our coast, remarkable in considerable parts of it for admitting no vessels of size to pass the shores, would entitle us in reason to as broad a margin of protected navigation as any nation whatever. Not proposing, however, at this time, and without a respectful and friendly communication with the powers interested in this navigation, to fix on the distance to which we may ultimately insist on the right of protection, the President gives instructions to the officers acting under his authority, to consider those heretofore given them as restrained, for the present, to the distance of one sea league, or three geographical miles, from the sea-shore. ”

“ He must furnish motive power not only, but he must direct her location, whether on the part or the starboard side, whether she shall be the inside boat or the outside one, when and how she shall be lashed to other boats, with what fastenings she shall be secured as she is dragged through the water, whether she shall go fast or slow, when, if at all, she shall drop astern, when she shall go to harbor, how long remain there, and what shall be her course of navigation. ”

“ While the navigation laws of the United States are in many respects the most advanced and progressive of any in the world, the form in which they exist is far from satisfactory and is a serious handicap on their usefulness. ”

“ The second class of navigation laws includes those which deal with the navigation of any waters over which a state has any control, and embraces all that is necessary for the due use of such waters, as rules of the road, management of harbours and lighthouses, and licensing and control of pilots. ”

“ Another circumstance which claims attention as directly affecting the very source of our navigation is the defect or the evasion of the law providing for the return of sea men, and particularly of those belonging to vessels sold abroad. ”

“ While there is not complete accord on the definition of historic inland waters, [28] it is universally agreed that the reasonable regulation of navigation is not alone a sufficient exercise of dominion to constitute a claim to historic inland waters. On the contrary, control of navigation has long been recognized as an incident of the coastal nation's jurisdiction over the territorial sea. ”

“ The Origin of Inland Navigation, like most other useful discoveries, is involved in great obscurity, and any attempt to ascertain the precise period of the invention or the name of him, who first pointed out the utility of these important adjuncts to the convenience and profit of commercial nations, would be merely to speculate on a subject, which has hitherto bid defiance to conjecture, and which will, in all human probability, for ever remain without satisfactory elucidation. ”

“ Several alterations of an unimportant character were made, bearing upon these points; but, in the consolidation of 1825, the proviso was introduced into the Navigation Act, and still retained in 1847, “that the country of every ship shall be deemed to include all places which are under the same dominion as the place to which such ship belongs.” ”

“ But our voyages will benefit the world, not only by discouraging future unprofitable searches, but also by lessening the dangers and distresses formerly experienced in those seas, which are within the line of commerce and navigation, now actually subsisting. In how many instances have the mistakes of former navigators, in fixing the true situations of important places, been rectified? What accession to the variation chart? ”

“ II. Theory of the claimants is that inasmuch as their vessel had come round on to the starboard tack, it was the duty of the vessel of the libellant to give way and pass to her right. General rule of navigation undoubtedly is that a vessel on the starboard tack, if closehauled, has a right to keep her course, and that one on the larboard tack, although she is also closehauled, must give way or be answerable for the consequences. ”

“ Whenever the tug is under the charge of her own master and crew, and in the usual and ordinary course of her employment undertakes to transport another vessel, which for the time being has neither her master nor crew on board, from one point to another, over waters where such accessory motive power is necessary, or usually employed, she is legally responsible for the navigation of both vessels. ”

“ A navigation Act or the power to regulate Commerce in the Hands of the National Government by which American Ships and Seamen may be fully employed is the desirable weight that is thrown into the Northern Scale. ”

“ To trace the origin of navigation, and to detail the numerous steps by which the merchant vessels of the great trading nations of the world have reached their present state of perfection; to record those discoveries in science and art connected with navigation, which enable the mariner to cross the ocean without fear and with unerring certainty; to dilate upon those triumphs of man’s genius and skill whereby he can bid defiance to the elements ”

“ He then compares that position with his voyage plan, his operational commitments, and his predetermined “dead reckoning” position. A good navigator anticipates dangerous situations well before they arise, and always stays “ahead of the vessel.” He is ready for navigational emergencies at any time. He is increasingly a manager of a variety of resources--electronic, mechanical, and human. Navigation methods and techniques vary with the type of vessel, the conditions, and the navigator’s experience. ”