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Subject Area: Law
Topic: The American Revolution and Constitution

§ 179.: Regulation of ships and shipping.— - Christopher G. Tiedeman, A Treatise on State and Federal Control of Persons and Property in the United States considered from both a Civil and Criminal Standpoint, vol. 2 [1900]

Edition used:

A Treatise on State and Federal Control of Persons and Property in the United States considered from both a Civil and Criminal Standpoint (St. Louis: The F.H. Thomas Law Book Co., 1900). Vol. 2.

Part of: A Treatise on State and Federal Control of Persons and Property in the United States considered from both a Civil and Criminal Standpoint, 2 vols.

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§ 179.

Regulation of ships and shipping.—

In consequence of the exposure to the dangers of the sea, there would be more or less danger of accident and damage to others in the use of ships, if there were not some legal regulation of their construction and management. All police regulations are therefore lawful, which are designed and tend to diminish the dangers of sea voyaging. They are not subject to any constitutional objections.

In the first place, it is lawful to prohibit the use of unseaworthy vessels, and to provide for the inspection of all vessels and the condemnation of those that are defective.1 The United States government, under the Federal statutes, have appointed officers, whose duty it is to perform this service to the traveling public. It is also common to limit by law the number of passengers and the amount of freight which a vessel may be permitted to carry;2 and it is not unreasonable to require the master or purser of a vessel to furnish to some public officer a statement of the amount of freight or the number of passengers he may have on board.3 The overloading of a boat with freight or passengers may be considered an actual trespass upon the right of personal security of all those who may be on board of the vessel.

The skill or ignorance of the master or captain, and other officers in charge of the vessel, is of the utmost importance to those who entrust their person or property to their care; and it is consequently permissible to require all those who are applicants for such positions to submit to examinations into their qualifications, and receive a certificate of qualification, without which they cannot assume the duties of such a post. This is so common and reasonable a regulation that it has never been questioned.1

The navigation of a vessel also requires some regulation by law to remove doubt and uncertainty, and to insure uniformity in the rules. The principal legal rules of navigation are those relating to the use of colored lights at night, the regulation of fog signals, and the rules for steering when two or more vessels come into close neighborhood. These regulations are designed to prevent collision, and a detailed discussion of them may be found in any work on shipping and admiralty. It is not necessary to mention them here. We are only concerned with a consideration of the constitutionality of such laws in general. This regulation by law of the rules of navigation consists chiefly in adopting as legal and binding rules those which had met with the approval of the best part of the marine world, and the object of the interference of the government is to secure fixity and uniformity. The constitutionality of these police regulations has never been questioned.

The navigation of a vessel in mid-ocean involves no special difficulty to any one who is at all skilled in navigation. But the entrance into a harbor does require a peculiar knowledge of the coast and of the currents in and out of the bay or river. It would, therefore, be reasonable to require all vessels, on entering a harbor, to be placed in charge of a licensed pilot, and, inasmuch as the law makes it obligatory upon the pilot to beat up and down the coast in search of vessels, which are bound for the port, it is held to be reasonable to compel the master or captain to accept the services of the first pilot who offers.2

CHAPTER XII.

STATE REGULATION OF THE RELATION OF HUSBAND AND WIFE.

SECTION180.Marriage, a natural status, subject to police regulation.
181.Constitutional limitations upon the police control of marriages.
182.Distinction between natural capacity and legal capacity.
183.Insanity as a legal incapacity.
184.The disability of infancy in respect to marriage.
185.Consanguinity and affinity.
186.Constitutional diseases.
187.Financial condition—Poverty.
188.Differences in race—Miscegenation.
189.Polygamy prohibited—Marriage confined to monogamy.
190.Marriage indissoluble—Divorce.
191.Regulation of the marriage ceremony.
192.Wife in legal subjection to the husband—Its justification.
193.Husband’s control of wife’s property.
194.Legal disabilities of married women.

[1]Thus, it was held to be a reasonable regulation, which provided for the inspection of boilers of vessels. Bradley v. Northern, etc., Co., 15 Ohio St. 553.

[2]St. Louis v. McCoy, 18 Mo. 238; St. Louis v. Boffinger, 19 Mo. 13.

[3]Canal Commissioners v. Willamette Transp. Co., 6 Ore. 219.

[1]See ante, § 87, in respect to the police regulation of skilled trades and learned professions.

[2]Thompson v. Spraigue, 69 Ga. 409 (47 Am. Rep. 760). See Sherlock v. Alling, 93 U. S. 99. As to whether the United States or the States have the power to regulate the matter of pilotage, see post, 224.