The amendment is as follows:

"ART. 12, paragraph a. A steam-ship under way shall make with her whistle or siren, at intervals of not more than two minutes, a prolonged blast of from four to six seconds' duration."

Mr. HALL (Great Britain). Mr. President, I will point out that that should read "a steam-vessel" and not a steam-ship.

The PRESIDENT. The question now is upon the amendment of the delegate from Great Britain to Article 12, paragraph a.

The question was put to the Conference upon the amendment to Article 12, paragraph a, and it was adopted.

The PRESIDENT. The delegate from Great Britain now has an amendment to paragraph b, Article 12. Section b, as amended, will be read again for the information of the Conference.

Article 12, paragraph b, is as follows:

"(b) A steam-vessel not at anchor, but stopped and having no way upon her, shall sound, at intervals of not more than two minutes, two such prolonged blasts with an interval of about one second between them."

The PRESIDENT. Is the Conference ready for the question?

The question was put to the Conference upon the adoption of paragraph b, Article 12, and it was carried.

The PRESIDENT. The next subject for consideration is section c. Admiral NARES (Great Britain). There is no change in section c. The SECRETARY. When the Report was submitted you stated that the word "short" should be inserted before the word "blast" and "blasts."

Mr. HALL (Great Britain). Mr. President, we propose to deal with that at the end of the article in a general definition as we have done in Article 19, and to provide that the term "short blast" in this article shall mean a blast of about one second's duration. It is only in order to make it appear that the blast should be made as short as possible.

Admiral NARES (Great Britain). Mr. President, the committee, as I informed the Conference the other day, had left out that proposal. The committee has already decided that the signal for the starboard and port tack ought to be made compulsory, and therefore we have proposed that, as these signals will now be incorporated under Article 12, they should be worded so as to include the short blast and so that there will be no mistake about it. I think that if the Secretary will read what we have proposed the Conference will understand it.

The PRESIDENT. The Secretary will please read section c.
Section c, Article 12, is as follows:

"(c) A sailing ship under way shall make with her fog-horn at intervals of not more than two minutes when on the starboard tack one short blast, when on the port tack two short blasts in succession, and when the wind is abaft the beam, three short blasts in succession."

Admiral NARES (Great Britain). Mr. President, there is a chance of the fog-horn being mistaken for the whistle, and we have thought it better to define it as a short blast, to make it quite distinct. The foghorn may be mistaken for the fog-siren or fog-whistle of a steamer, which is the reason we propose to put in "short."

The PRESIDENT. Is the Conference ready for the question upon section c, which has just been read?

Captain MENSING (Germany). Mr. President, I believe that it is not necessary to insert the word "short." I have been told that there are some of these instruments, devised for use on board of sailing vessels, which are more in conformity with the siren than the fog-horn. I would like to know whether the word "fog-horn," as used here, would cover all these instruments?

Admiral NARES (Great Britain). Mr President, if it is necessary to put in the word "mechanical" we can do so. Still, the words "her fog-horn" would include a mechanical fog-horn. We report to you that the fog-horns which are coming rapidly into use will be capable of producing long sounds and short sounds. Up to the present time they have been making only short sounds, and therefore the well known signals to be used for the starboard and port tack and for running free have been short blasts. We think now, when they will be able to give long sounds, that it will be just as well for us to prevent them from doing so, and to state definitely what the signal is to be. They will be able to make long ones, but it will be better on the whole to make them short to agree with the other signals.

The PRESIDENT. The question is upon section c. The Secretary will please read it again for the information of the Conference. Section c is as follows:

"(c) A sailing ship under way shall make with her fog-horn, at intervals of not more than two minutes when on the starboard tack, one short blast, when on the port tack two short blasts in succession, and when the wind is abaft the beam three short blasts in succession."

Captain SHACKFORD (United States.) Mr. President, I do not think this question of a short blast on a fog-horn has come up here before the Conference or before the Committee on Fog-Signals, and I would like to know if they propose to fix the short blast at only one second. It seems to me that a blast of one second is quite insufficient with a foghorn used by sailing vessels.

Mr. HALL (Great Britain). Mr. President, This is referred to in the report of the committee, on page 2, where they say, "One, two, or three sound blasts on a fog-horn are already in use by sailing vessels under way." It is not laid down what the length of these blasts should be, but by the construction of the fog-horn used in the past they are necessarily short blasts of equal duration; we submit that they should be so regulated and termed short blasts; so that the committee has considered the matter very carefully and is only carrying out the suggestion of the Conference that these words are put in.

Captain SHACKFORD (United States). Mr. President, I think that

there was no length proposed for this blast in the committee and no length has been decided upon by the Conference.

Mr. HALL (Great Britain). Mr. President, as the Conference has adopted one second as the time of a short blast, under Article 19, we thought it was desirable to adopt the same length in this article if we could.

Captain SHACKFORD (United States). Mr. President, I submit that one second is quite insufficient for short blasts on a fog-horn. It may possibly be a sufficient blast on a steam-whistle, but it is not long enough for a blast on a fog-horn, whether a mechanical horn or a mouth-horu.

Mr. HALL (Great Britain). Mr. President, then possibly the best way of getting over it is merely to insert the word "short," as the report of the committee suggests, and give no duration or no definition as to the meaning of the word "short" in the article. The great thing is to prevent vessels with some of the new mechanical fog-horns, which can be kept sounding for a long time, from giving signals which might be mistaken for a steamer's whistle, or the siren of a steamer.

Captain SHACKFORD (United States). Mr. President, the term "short blast on a steam-whistle" has been defined as one second. I submit that this might be understood as also to mean the length of a blast on a fog-horn unless we limit it or extend it to some definite length. I think that a blast of two or three seconds, certainly not less than two seconds, should be required of the fog-horn.

Admiral NARES (Great Britain). Mr. President, the fog-horns, up to the present time, as we explained, until within the last two or three years, when the Norwegian fog-horn came up, were incapable of making a long blast. They were incapable of blowing more than about a second. It was impossible for any man's lungs to continue blowing this trumpet for more than a second at a time. We were informed by the fisherman who came to see us that out of all his crew he could only get two or three men who could blow it at all; that it depended upon the man's lungs, and that it was quite out of the question to talk of blowing it continuously for half an hour; and that, in fact, they only blew it when the vessels were coming near them. The words "of about one second" will include more than one second. If you leave out the word "short" and leave it as it stands, it is not a very material matter; but fog-horns are now coming into use which are capable of making long blasts and short blasts and we thought it would be best to prevent them from making a long or a prolonged blast. I think, however, the Conference will be able to decide this question. I have tried to put it as clearly as possible. We adopt one second as "short" on a steam-whistle. If that same limit will not do for a fog-horn, then we had better leave out the word "short" altogether.

Captain NORCROSS (United States). Mr. President, I think it is better to define that as “not to exceed three seconds."

The PRESIDENT. Do you mean that as an amendment to section cl

Captain NORCROSS (United States). I propose that as an amendment to Mr. Hall's amendment.

The PRESIDENT. The delegate from the United States proposes to define the term "short blast" in the amendment of the delegate from Great Britain as "not to exceed three seconds."

Admiral NARES (Great Britain). Mr. President, I am quite certain that if you are going to give one limit for a steam-whistle and another limit for a fog-horn, then you must provide that there must be a long or a prolonged blast on the whistle of from four to six seconds, and if the Signal Committee are going also to define that long blast on the fog-horn as being only three seconds, then we shall get into a very serious scrape. On behalf of the Sound-Signal Committee, I will say that we would sooner leave out the word "short" altogether if you are going to define two different shorts.

Captain MENSING (Germany). Mr. President, I think it would be desirable to strike out the word "short." If that is done, then there is really no difficulty, and there can be no mistake made. So far as I know there are only made on the fog-horn two or three blasts, and it matters little whether they are long or short. I think it would be advisable to strike out the word "short" altogether, and leave the rule as it is at present.

The PRESIDENT. Does the delegate from the United States consent to that?

Captain NORCROSS (United States). I accept that, sir.

The PRESIDENT. The question then is upon the proposition of the delegate from Germany to strike out the word "short."

Mr. GOODRICH (United States). Mr. President, it is not in yet. There is no necessity for that motion which has been made by the gallant delegate from Germany. We are voting upon the proposition of the committee to insert the word "short," and if the Conference do not like the word then they will vote the proposition of the committee down. Admiral NARES (Great Britain). Mr. President, I think the committee will withdraw the proposition altogether and leave out the word "short" in section c, and let that section stand as it is at present.

The PRESIDENT. The question now before the Conference is upon the adoption of section e, which will be read by the Secretary.

Section e, Article 12, is as follows:

"(e) A steam-vessel, when her engines are going full speed astern, shall sound on her whistle three short blasts."

Admiral NARES (Great Britain). Mr. President, I may say that the word "short" is more important here. We have introduced here three decided short blasts, so as to make the signal unmistakable.

Captain RICHARD (France). Mr. President, I am surprised to find this clause placed in Article 12, instead of being placed in Article 19 only, which is its proper place. You now not only render these soundsignals obligatory in ordinary weather, instead of optional, as they for- merly were in Article 19, but you also make them compulsory in fog, mist, falling snow, etc. Formerly you admitted that in order to make these signals it was necessary that the two vessels should see each other; now they are to indicate their manœuvre without seeing each other. I do not think that this is right. Will it not add to the confusion when a signal is repeated and the direction of the sound is not known? I understood the old rule which governed a vessel's conduct in the matter of sound-signals, but now you set aside this rule. We have been told here that in order to avoid confusion at sea in a fog, when vessels do not see each other, that only long blasts will be used; short blasts to be used, only when vessels are in sight of each other, the sailing vessels to be distinguishable from steam-vessels in a fog by the character of the blast. This rule was rational and clear. Why has it not been followed ?

In my opinion, the committee has gone too far, in that it has mixed the long and the short blast. What is the use of departing from a wise rule for a vessel going full speed astern at sea? In the first place, I do not think that this manœuvre is a common one, but it may happen. Then I would like to know what advantage can be derived from the signal that the vessel is going astern when it is impossible to find out where she is? If you enter upon that path you will have to give notice of many other interesting facts; but this you can not do, for then your signals will lose their simple character, which makes them valuable. Consequently I ask the Conference to confine itself to what is prescribed by Article 19, viz, when a vessel goes full speed astern in sight of another vessel, and that the paragraph which we are discussing be stricken from Article 12.

Captain MENSING (Germany). Mr. President, I would simply like state that the German delegation agree with the gentleman who has spoken before me.

Captain MALMBERG (Sweden). Mr. President, I also do not see the necessity for introducing that signal in a fog when you do not see a vessel. If you do see a vessel, Article 19 will cover the case.

Mr. VERBRUGGHE (Belgium). Mr. President, I am of the same opinion.

The PRESIDENT. Is the Conference ready for the question? Section e will be read.

Section e of Article 12 is as follows:

"A steam-vessel, when her engines are going full speed astern, shall sound on her whistle three short blasts."

Admiral BOWDEN-SMITH (Great Britain). Mr. President, before this is put to a vote, might we be quite certain whether it is only to apply in a fog when vessels are in sight of each other?

Mr. GOODRICH (United States). Mr. President, if the gallant Ad miral will read the second subdivision of Article 12 as we have passed it, he will see that this subdivision e is part of the paragraph which