Pensions.

There are in the Revenue Cutter Service about 900 enlisted men of all grades. These men are enlisted for a term of three years, and in the same way that men are enlisted for the Army and Navy. Under the provisions of section 4714, Revised Statutes, the officers and seamen of the Revenue Cutter Service, who may be wounded or disabled in the discharge of their duty, "while cooperating with the Navy, by order of the President," may be placed upon the Navy pension list. The ordinary duties devolved upon the Revenue Cutter Service are fraught with greater risk of life and limb than that incurred by the Army or Navy in time of peace, while in time of war they are at least equal, and every argument that applies as a justification for extending this bounty to the enlisted men of those services has equal force on behalf of the enlisted men of the Revenue Cutter Service. I therefore recommend that the law, section 4741, Revised Statutes (act of April 18, 1814), be amended to read as follows:

"The enlisted men of the Revenue Cutter Service of the United States, who have been, or may be, wounded or disabled while in the actual discharge of their duties, shall be entitled to be placed upon a pension list, under the same regulations and restrictions as are provided by law for enlisted men of the Navy."

LIGHT-HOUSE SERVICE.

Attention is invited to the pressing necessity for more liberal appropriations to maintain the Light-House Establishment. Congress makes appropriations at each session for increasing the number of light stations, but it does not increase, in like ratio, the appropriations for supplying these stations with oil, wicks, chimneys, cleaning material, and the like; for paying the wages of the additional keepers required, for keeping the light stations in proper repair, and for keeping up the buoyage of the coasts. The estimates made for these purposes are based on the actual present necessities of the Service, as set forth in itemized requisitions made by the light-house district officers, and the appropriations asked for will, if provided, make it possible to keep the Service up to a high standard of efficiency.

The appropriation made for salaries of keepers last year was sufficient to pay those already in the Service, but nothing was left with which to pay those whose services were needed to care for the new light houses which went into operation during the current fiscal year. The LightHouse Board has, therefore, been compelled to ask that an appropriation be made in the urgent deficiency bill to enable it to keep these stations lighted.

Although the number of fog signals has been constantly increasing, the annual appropriation for the maintenance of these signals has, for a number of years past, been quite inadequate. There will be for years to

come a demand for additional lights as well as fog signals in waters where the full commercial development is yet to be reached, but where aids to navigation are approaching completion the improvement nov. most needed is more effective fog signals. In most localities the larger portion of the accidents to vessels takes place during thick weather, when lights can not be distinguished and when audible signals alone are effective. The conditions are now such that it is impossible to properly maintain the service and to replace obsolete apparatus and make other urgently needed improvements at existing stations without increased appropriations.

Some of the improvements which are greatly needed, and which could now be made, are more efficient quick-steaming boilers for stations using steam signals, to facilitate starting the signal when needed, and to give greater economy while in operation; compressed air apparatus, operated by oil engines, for stations where the water supply is deficient; and an improved striking apparatus, to render fog bells more effective. The estimate for expenses of fog signals made by the Light-House Board is considered, under the circumstances, quite conservative, and it is commended to the favorable attention of Congress.

The appropriation made for the expenses of buoyage, while sufficient to maintain the buoys already in place, proved insufficient to enable the Light-House Board to meet even the most urgent additional needs of commerce, and especially to place and maintain the new anchorage buoys required by recent statute. The Board has, therefore, been compelled to ask that a deficiency appropriation be made to enable it to meet the added expenses and maintain this increased buoyage during this fiscal year. These requests are commended to favorable consid

eration.

The work of establishing the various new light and fog-signal stations for which Congress has provided has been prosecuted as rapidly as practicable during the year. In several cases protracted delays have resulted from the legal proceedings necessary to obtain titles to the land on which the new stations are to be erected.

The plans for the new light vessels to be stationed off Fire Island, New York; Diamond Shoal, North Carolina, and San Francisco Harbor, California, have been prepared, and arrangements are being made for their construction. The contractor for building the light vessel which is to be placed off Umatilla Reef, Oregon, having failed to finish it within the time agreed on, and there being no probability that he will be able to finish it at all, the contract has been annulled and other arrangements are being made for its completion.

Estimates are submitted for building six light vessels, three first-class vessels for outside ocean service, and three small, inexpensive vessels for use on the Great Lakes. One of the first-class light vessels is to take the place of regular vessels brought in for repair. The Light-House

Board has submitted estimates for the building of a new steam tender to take the place of one about worn out, and which will be unseaworthy by the time the new one can be made ready to take its place. These steamers are of exceeding value to the Light-House Establishment, enabling it to quickly replace buoys or light ships when they go adrift, to promptly repair light stations, to furnish light houses with supplies needed to meet an emergency, to make frequent inspections of light houses and light-ships, and to keep in constant force the discipline of the Service. The vessel it is proposed to replace is now so deteriorated from age and severe service that it can not keep the sea in heavy weather, but is forced to seek refuge in harbor at the very times when it is most needed.

LIFE-SAVING SERVICE.

The Life-Saving Establishment, at the close of the fiscal year, comprised 256 stations, of which 186 were located on the Atlantic and Gulf coasts, 55 on the coasts of the Great Lakes, 14 on the Pacific coast, and 1 at the Falls of the Ohio, Louisville, Ky. The number of disasters to documented vessels within the field of the operations of these stations during the year was 437. On board these vessels were 4,608 persons, of whom 4,595 were saved and 13 lost. The estimated value of the vessels involved was $8,880,140, and that of their cargoes $3,846,380, making the total value of property imperiled $12,726,520. amount, $11,293,770 was saved and $1,432,750 lost. The number of vessels totally lost was 67.

Besides the foregoing, there were 243 casualties to small undocumented craft-sailboats, rowboats, etc.-during the year. On board of these there were 594 persons, of whom 587 were saved and 7 lost. The value of property involved in these casualties is estimated at $119,265, of which $114,915 was saved and $4,350 lost.

The number of disasters within the scope of the Service and the results therefrom aggregate as follows:

Total number of persons lost.......

Total number of shipwrecked persons succored at stations.....

Total number of days' succor afforded.......

Number of vessels totally lost........

20

613

1, 436

67

In addition to the number of persons saved from vessels, 82 others were rescued by the station crews under such circumstances of peril that most or all of them would have been lost but for the timely assist: ance rendered.

The life-saving crews saved and assisted to save during the year 472

vessels, valued with their cargoes at $4,853,110. Of these vessels they saved without outside assistance 318, valued with their cargoes at $977,495, with a loss or damage of only $11,712. In the remaining 154 instances they united with other agencies-wrecking vessels, tugs, revenue cutters, etc.-in saving property valued at $3,599,775, out of property imperiled of an estimated value of $3,875,615.

The crews also rendered assistance of minor importance to 167 other vessels in distress. They also warned from danger by night signals of the patrolmen 210 vessels, and by day signals 19; in all, 229 vessels. The loss of life and property averted by such assistance and warnings can not, of course, be even approximately estimated, but that many disasters were prevented by the warnings is evident from the circumstances under which they were given.

The number of disasters during the year has exceeded that of any previous year in the history of the Service, but as regards the saving of both life and property, the foregoing data furnish the most satisfactory record the Service has yet exhibited. The best previous record was that of the year 1895, when it was shown that in only one prior year the loss of life had been smaller in proportion to the number of persons exposed, and the loss of property less in proportion to the amount involved. For the past year the loss of both life and property is relatively much less than ever before. The average annual loss of life since 1877, when the Service was generally extended to the sea and lake coasts, has been 1 out of 112 persons on board vessels involved in disaster and 21 per cent of the value of property imperiled. In the year 1895 it was 1 out of 224 such persons and 14 per cent of such property, while last year the loss was only 1 out of 260 such persons and 11 per cent of such property.

The total net expenditure for the maintenance of the Service during the year was $1,401,805.97.

The four new stations located, respectively, at Core Bank, North Carolina, Baileys Harbor, and Plum Island, Wisconsin, on Lake Michigan, and at Yaquina Bay, coast of Oregon, mentioned in the last annual report as approaching completion, have been finished and put into operation. The floating station referred to in that report as in contemplation for location near City Point, Boston Harbor, for the prevention of loss of life incident to the numerous accidents by the capsizing of yachts and sailboats in that neighborhood, has also been completed and put in commission.

Two new stations, one at Wood End on Cape Cod, near the harbor of Provincetown, Mass., and one at Rocky Point on Long Island, near East Marion, N. Y., have also been built, and are receiving their equipments. Titles have been obtained for location of the stations authorized to be established at Damariscove Island, Maine, and Petersons Point, Washington, and the plans and specifications for the buildings are

nearly completed, so that proposals for their construction will soon be invited.

New stations to replace old and inadequate ones have been built at Little Beach, Absecon, below Atlantic City, and Cape May, N. J., and one also at Cape Disappointment, Washington, and extensive repairs and improvements have been made to stations in the Third district, coast of Long Island, Eleventh district, coast of Lake Michigan, and in the Twelfth district, on the Pacific coast.

Attention was called in the report of last year to the inadequacy of the salaries of the superintendents of the life-saving districts. These officials are charged with a general supervision of the affairs of their respective districts, to which is added a heavy financial responsibility. The bonds which they are required to give are all large, several having a penalty as high as $50,000. It is therefore recommended that the pay of these officers be fixed at $2,000 per annum, which in my opinion would not be even a full compensation for the services rendered.

Attention was also called to the difference in the rates of wages paid to surfmen, and to the discontent which the discrimination engendered. The trouble arising from that source has not diminished, but has rather increased during the year, and the recommendation made last year that the monthly rate of $65, established by the act of July 22, 1892, be restored, is again made.

SEAL FISHERIES.

An adequate patrol of the fur-seal fisheries during the past year has been maintained by the Revenue Cutter Service, as will appear under that title. The returns of the catch for the past season indicate a total of about 43,000 seals taken at sea by British and American sealing vessels from the so-called American herd. Of this total, about 29,000 were taken in Bering Sea during August and September, and the balance in the North Pacific Ocean between January and May. The catch on the Pribilof Islands for the past season was 30,000, of which 23,842 were taken on St. Paul Island, and 6,158 on St. George Island. It was found, upon investigation, that the rapid decline in the female seals on the islands had left a large surplus of male seals, which could be killed without disturbing the proper proportions of the sexes on the islands. I determined to permit, therefore, not exceeding 30,000 seals to be taken, and this quota was fully taken. This number does not indicate that the fur seals have increased on the islands. On the contrary, there has been a most perceptible decrease during this last season. The rapid destruction of the females at sea, however, has left, as above stated, an undue proportion of males, and it was for this reason deemed advisable to take the number above stated.

During the past season the British Government, with the consent of our Government, sent Prof. D'Arcy Wentworth Thompson, of University College, Dundee, and Mr. James M. Macoun, of the Geological Museum,