OPERATING PROBLEMS OF THE AMERICAN SHIPOWNER. 29 
bers. What redress have we? Apparently, none whatever. Through one excuse or another, 
on this or that technicality, offenders get away with it. 
One thing has been said, I think, in the paper that I have read here this evening for 
Captain O’Donnell, and that is the necessity which exists for captains to be better instructed, 
better informed with regard to their duties, their obligations, their rights, their privileges, 
etc., in the overseas trade. Up to within recent times you know that our merchant marine 
has been very largely in the coastwise trade; in such they have not the problems that men 
in the overseas trade have. The captain of an ordinary coastwise ship is given his cargo at 
the port of departure, and when he reaches the port of destination he simply turns the ship 
over to a terminal superintendent and his job for the time being is finished. 
But the captain of a vessel in the overseas trade has a great deal more to do than that. 
He has to be familiar with the laws of the country that he is visiting, he must be well in- 
formed as to insurance matters, questions of general average, for instance, and numberless 
other matters that cannot be detailed here. There are many, many things that a master 
should know, and I for one deplore the fact that there are so many captains who are not suffi- 
ciently informed to enable them to do the right thing, not only for the owners but for the un- 
derwriters and others interested as well; in a word, for all concerned. To that end efforts 
have recently been made to prepare textbooks that can be handed to the captains so that, if 
they are industrious and care to read and improve themselves, they may be of value to them. 
In that respect I think the captains of steamers belonging to foreign countries are better in- 
formed by training and experience than our own masters, and I suppose it is a question of 
time when our masters will profit too as our merchant marine develops. 
Another thing that has been said in this paper relates to one of the recommendations 
made by the committee of which I had the honor to be a member, the Committee on the 
Revision of the Navigation Laws, requiring duly qualified engineers on board ships to be 
experienced in making repairs; in other words, that they should have had some training in 
shops before.they go aboard. I think that is generally the practice with British engineers. 
They have an engineer in fact, a man who knows not only the practice but also the theory 
of engines, and he has a number of assistants who are very experienced mechanics; so that 
if anything happens on board the ship while at sea, they can quickly perform the necessary 
repairs and she can go about her business. That is another thing that must be developed, in 
our judgment, and I hope that it will come to pass in due course. 
THE PRESIDENT :—I am sure we are all very grateful to Mr. Smith for his discussion. 
He is a man who speaks from practical experience as a manager of a very large line of 
steamers. 
There is another gentleman here who knows this subject through and through; he has 
given as much attention to it probably as anybody else. I will ask Mr. Winthrop L. Marvin 
if he will say a few words to us. 
Mr. WintHrop L. Marvin, Associate:—Mr. President, my friends of the Society of 
Naval Architects and Marine Engineers, [ can testify that the paper which President Smith 
has read to you this evening, the paper prepared by Captain Eugene O’Donnell, of Boston, 
who regrets very keenly that he cannot be here in person this evening, sets forth with great 
accuracy the sentiment of the practical shipowners and operators of the American Steam- 
ship Owners’ Association, of which Captain O’Donnell is one of the most active members, 
through his service on the Governing Board and for a long time as chairman of our impor- 
