1st Session. No. 4. IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES. DECEMBER 17, 1851. MR. HAMLIN made the following REPORT: [To accompany bill S. No. 66.] The Committee on Commerce, to whom was referred a bill for the relief of William P. Greene have had the same under consideration, and report: That the facts contained in the memorial of said Greene are truly and correctly set forth. He faithfully discharged the duties of surveyor of the port of Providence, and measurer of salt, at the same time. The two offices are by law not compatible with each other, and the department are not authorized to allow said Greene his fees as measurer. But said Greene having been duly appointed as surveyor, and the Secretary of the Treasury having subsequently confirmed his appointment as measurer, without fault on the part of said Greene, and without knowledge on the part of said Greene that the offices were not compatible with each other, and having discharged the duties of measurer in good faith, your committee are of opinion that the petitioner is entitled to relief, and therefore recommend the passage of the bill. Hamilton, prini. 1st Session. No. 5. IN SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES. DECEMBER 17, 1851. Mr. HAMLIN made the following REPORT: [To accompany bill S. No. 67.] The Committee on Commerce, to whom was referred the petition of John A. McGaw, of New York, for relief, report : It appears from the memorial of the petitioner, and the evidence in the case, that he chartered the ship Charlotte, at Boston, on the 13th day of October, A. D. 1847, to the United States, to take a cargo of pressed hay from Boston to Vera Cruz, Mexico. The charter-party was in the form used by the merchants in Boston and New York, and specified the sum which said McGaw should have for the voyage-that there should be eight lay-days, in which the vessel should be discharged after her arrival at Vera Cruz, and that for every day which the vessel should be detained after the said eight days, the said McGaw should receive at the rate of one hundred dollars per day for demurrage, provided such detention shall happen by the default of the United States or their agent. The vessel arrived safely with her cargo at Vera Cruz, on the 17th day of November, and was not unloaded until the 8th day of December. She was detained fourteen days beyond the time specified in the charter-party,, within which it was stipulated she should be unloaded, and after which demurrage was to be paid at the rate of one hundred dollars per day. For that sum, $1,400, the petitioner asks an appropriation. There is some evidence in the case tending to show that, from the bad state of the weather, or northers, so called, the vessel could not be unloaded within the number of lay-days specified in the charter-party; and other evidence on the part of the petitioner, tending to prove that the vessel could have been unloaded within that time, had suflicient facilities been furnished by the United States. There is some conflict of evidence on this point, but the weight of the evidence tends to show that the vessel might have been unloaded within the lay-days named. But, as your committee believe the petitioner entitled to relief on other grounds, it does not become necessary to determine it on this point. It appears from the affidavits and certificates of a large number of the most respectable and intelligent merchants of Boston and New York, that where a certain number of lay-days is named in a charter-party for unlading a vessel, the charterer is entitled to demurrage for detention after that time, when such detention is in consequence of bad weather. The lay-days in a charter-party usually, as they did in this case, exceed the number Hamilton, Print. necessary to unload. Where it is understood that the lay-days are designed to be good weather, there is usually a provision that the day's named should be specified as "working days." In the merchant service, then, the petitioner would be entitled to demurrage, if the delay was occasioned by bad weather. And as the same rule should apply here which would between merchants, your committee believe the petitioner entitled to relief; and report a bill, herewith submitted. 1st Session. No. 6. IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES. DECEMBER 18, 1851. Mr. Gwis made the following REPORT: [To accompany bill S. No. 70.] The Committee on Naval Affairs, to whom was referred the memorial of Eliza C. Bache, widow of Lieutenant George M. Bache, of the navy, report: That the calamity by which his family was bereaved of their husband and father, and his country was deprived of the services of an intelligent, gallant and meritorious officer, is well known from the public notoriety which the event acquired by the affecting statements published on the subject shortly after its occurrence, in which the sympathies of the whole community were called into action. It appears that this young officer perished while nobly performing his duty in saving the vessel under his command, (the U.S. brig Washington,) and the lives of her crew-that his last act was that of giving the order which ensured the safety of this vessel and incidentally caused his own death, of which fact, it appears the records of the Navy Department afford proof. He breasted the storm and exposed himself to its fury, and in the execution of his last perilous duty which saved the vessel, himself and several of her crew were swept overboard and perished, together with the poop-cabin of the vessel containing all his effects, including his private funds. This last act, so noble and daring, and so strikingly illustrative of the professional fidelity by which he was animated, resulted, as it appears, in all human probability, in the saving of the vessel and a number of valuable lives to his country, while the sad fate of himself and those who perished with him, has left their widows and families in mourning and desolation. Although there may be some slight difference between this case and that of the widows and orphans of those officers and others lost in the brig Somers, the principle is essentially the same, and the committee believing that it is a wise and humane policy, and one promotive of the best interest of our navy, to encourage such patriotic and self-sacrificing fidelity to duty by providing aid and assistance to the destitute widows and orphans of those who, in proving themselves so faithful, lose their lives, they recommend that similar provision be made for the widows and relatives of those officers and seamen of the navy attached to the United States brig Washington, who were lost overboard on the 7th September, 1846, as was made for the widows and orphans of the officers, seamen and mariners of the brig Somers, by the act of Congress approved the 14th of August, 1848, and accordingly report a bill for their relief. Hamilton, print. |