CHAPTER VI
MISCELLANEOUS LAWS
Rescuing shipwrecked American seamen.
Expenses which may be incurred in the acknowledgment of the services of masters and crews of foreign vessels in rescuing American seamen or citizens from shipwreck, four thousand five hundred dollars. (June 30, 1914.)
School ships.
The Secretary of the Navy, to promote nautical education, is hereby authorized and empowered to furnish, upon the application in writing of the governor of a State, a suitable vessel of the navy, with all her apparel, charts, books, and instruments of navigation, provided the same can be spared without detriment to the naval service, to be used for the benefit of any nautical school, or school or college having a nautical branch, established at each of the following ports of the United States: Boston, Philadelphia, New York, Seattle, San Francisco, Baltimore, Detroit, Saginaw, Michigan, Norfolk, and Corpus Christi, upon the condition that there shall be maintained at such port a school or branch of a school for the instruction of youths in navigation, steamship-marine engineering, and all matters pertaining to the proper construction, equipment, and sailing of vessels or any particular branch thereof. (Sec. 1.)
A sum not exceeding the amount annually appropriated by any State or municipality for the purpose of maintaining such a marine school or schools or the nautical branch thereof is hereby authorized to be appropriated for the purpose of aiding in the maintenance and support of such school or schools: Provided, however, That appropriations shall be made for one school in any port heretofore named in section one and that the appropriation for any one year shall not exceed twenty-five thousand dollars for any one school. (Sec. 2.)
The President of the United States is hereby authorized, when in his opinion the same can be done without detriment to the public service, to detail proper officers of the navy as superintendents of or instructors in such schools: Provided, That if any such school shall be discontinued, or the good of the naval service shall require, such vessel shall be immediately restored to the Secretary of the Navy and the officers so detailed recalled: And provided further, That no person shall be sentenced to or received at such schools as a punishment or commutation of punishment for crime. (June 20, 1874; Mar. 3, 1881; Mar. 4, 1911; sec. 3.)
Navy ration.
The navy rations shall consist of the following daily allowance of provisions to each person: One pound and a quarter of salt or smoked meat, with three ounces of dried or six ounces of canned or preserved fruit, and three gills of beans or peas, or twelve ounces of flour; or one pound of preserved meat, with three ounces of dried or six ounces of canned or preserved fruit and eight ounces of rice or twelve ounces of canned vegetables, or six ounces of desiccated vegetables; together with one pound of biscuit, two ounces of butter, four ounces of sugar, two ounces of coffee or cocoa, or one-half ounce of tea and one ounce of condensed milk or evaporated cream; and a weekly allowance of one-quarter pound of macaroni, four ounces of cheese, four ounces of tomatoes, one-half pint of vinegar or sauce, one-quarter pint of pickles, one-quarter pint of molasses, four ounces of salt, one-half ounce of pepper, one-eighth ounce of spices, and one-half ounce of dry mustard. Seven pounds of lard, or a suitable substitute, shall be allowed for every hundred pounds of flour issued as bread, and such quantities of yeast and flavoring extracts as may be necessary. (R. S., 1580; July 1, 1902; June 29, 1906.)
The following substitution for the components of the ration may be made when deemed necessary by the senior officer present in command: "For one and one-quarter pounds of salt or smoked meat or one pound of preserved meat, one and three-quarter pounds of fresh meat or fresh fish, or eight eggs; in lieu of the articles usually issued with salt, smoked or preserved meat, one and three-quarter pounds of fresh vegetables; for one pound of biscuit, one and one-quarter pounds of soft bread or eighteen ounces of flour; for three gills of beans and peas, twelve ounces of flour or eight ounces of rice or other starch food, or twelve ounces of canned vegetables; for one pound of condensed milk or evaporated cream, one quart of fresh milk; for three ounces of dried or six ounces of canned or preserved fruit, nine ounces of fresh fruit; and for twelve ounces of flour or eight ounces of rice or other starch food, or twelve ounces of canned vegetables, three gills of beans or peas; in lieu of the weekly allowance of one-quarter pound of macaroni, four ounces of cheese, one-half pint of vinegar or sauce, one-quarter pint of pickles, one-quarter pint of molasses, and one-eighth ounce of spices, three pounds of sugar, or one and a half pounds of condensed milk, or one pound of coffee, or one and a half pounds of canned fruit, or four pounds of fresh vegetables, or four pounds of flour.