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SUBSTITUTE FOR SPIRIT RATIONS AND FOR WHIPPING IN THE NAVY.*

Circulars respecting the Commutation of the Spirit Part of the Navy Rations, Assistance to Vessels in Distress, and Punishments in the Service.

NAVY DEPARTMENT, 15th June, 1831.

ALL persons in the naval service, entitled to rations, who shall voluntarily relinquish the use of that part of them composed of spirits, shall be paid therefor at the rate of six cents per ration, it being the estimated value of that part, as approved by this department, September 17, 1817.

The payments made in pursuance of this regulation are to be charged to the appropriation for "provisions."

LEVI WOODBURY.

NAVY DEPARTMENT, 26th September, 1831.

SIR: In consequence of recent occurrences in the service, your attention is invited to two subjects, where the laws now regulate the rights and power of all concerned, but where there is still vested in officers a discretion, in the exercise of which, it may be desirable to them to know distinctly the wishes of the President and of this depart

ment.

One of those subjects and our wishes upon it are, that when any portion of the navy furnishes relief to American vessels, whether wrecked or otherwise in distress, to yield which relief promptly ought to be, and long has been, one great object of its gallant exertions, no compensation of any kind should either be asked or received.

The other subject and our wishes upon it are, that till Congress deem it proper to alter the existing laws concerning punishments in the navy, and whenever those laws allow a discretion in the choice of punishments, the first resort, in the case of offences by seamen, is recommended to be always had to pecuniary fines, badges of disgrace, and other mild corrections, rather than to the humiliating practice of whipping; and that never on the same day, by punishing, under an officer's own authority, two offences at once, should the stripes limited by law be exceeded in number, or be inflicted otherwise than in the presence and under the sanction of the commanding officer of the vessel or station.

* Report of the Navy Department, allowing a substitute for the spirit part of the ration, and urging the use of other punishments instead of whipping.

And that, in the case of offences by officers, which it is hoped their well-known high sense of duty and honor will prevent from becoming frequent, a system more remedial should be adopted, by sentencing to a reduction of rank and pay, or to suspension from promotion, rather than to suspension from active service; as persons unfortunately guilty of any misbehavior need most the constant discipline of active service, and, when suspended therefrom, are left without employment, under greater temptations and opportunities for injurious indulgences. LEVI WOODBURY.

To all Captains and

Masters Commandant Navy U. States.

BREAKWATER AT THE MOUTH OF DELAWARE BAY.*

THE subject of said memorial is of a character deserving the most full and careful consideration. It interests immediately and deeply almost the whole commerce of three Atlantic States; it is important to much of the coasting trade of the Union; and has a material bearing upon the security of our navy, and upon the great maritime defences of the country. Hence, during five years past, the attention of Congress has, in various ways, been invoked and devoted to the examination of this measure. As early as May 9th, 1822, an act passed, making an appropriation of $22,000 for the erection of wooden piers near Cape Henlopen, at the mouth of Delaware Bay, provided the Secretary of the Treasury, on a survey of that part of the coast, should be satisfied of their utility and expediency. But the survey rendered it apparent, that works more extensive, such as a breakwater, or artificial harbor, and those formed of the most durable materials, would combine advantages more numerous, and in their value be much more than commensurate with the increased expense. Consequently, this appropriation was never carried into effect; but in June, A. D. 1823, pursuing the new light which had been cast upon the subject by the partial survey, and yielding to the suggestions of a

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* A Report made to the Senate of the United States, January 3, 1827, in favor of the Delaware Breakwater.

policy enlarged and liberal, the proper authorities instructed the board of engineers to make an examination into the practicability and usefulness of such works as are now prayed for in the memorial; and if the result should prove satisfactory, to recommend a plan for their erection, and furnish a detailed estimate of their expense. Their report of July 14, 1823, presented a full and favorable exposition of the whole subject.

The message of the President, at the commencement of the ensuing session of Congress, invited the attention of its members to the accomplishment of this object, as one "of great service, both to the navigation of Delaware Bay and the protection of vessels on the adjacent parts of the coast;" and the present memorialists, as well as the Legislatures of Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Delaware, have since urged its importance upon the national councils.

Desirous of obtaining information the most plenary, before a final decision upon a measure of such deep interest, Congress, at its last. session, caused exhibits to be prepared of the revenue and expenditures connected with commerce, from A. D. 1790 to A. D. 1825, in the Delaware Bay, as compared with three other of our great commercial emporiums; and, during the same session, procured letters from the Secretary of the Navy and the chairman of the Naval Board, on the utility of the proposed breakwater to the operations of our navy in war, and its general security both in war and peace.

From these various documents and proceedings, it is manifest to your committee, that there has existed a long, a general, and strong solicitude for the object contemplated in the memorial; and from these same sources, and such general considerations as obviously bear upon all questions of commercial magnitude, your committee have gathered and would present the following specific facts, as having a tendency to aid Congress in forming a judicious opinion upon the prayer of the petitioners.

The dangers to which the navigation of the Delaware Bay is exposed arise principally from two causes. One is the large quantity of ice in winter; and the other, the peculiar influence of the wind upon that ice, upon the tides, and the general navigation of a bay running in such a direction, and with such depths of water. The effects from the ice, the general course of the winds, the form of the bay, the soundings, and the tides, are stated with much particularity in the report of the engineers before mentioned, and need not here be repeated.

On this point it will now suffice to observe, that the mouth of the bay is about sixteen miles wide, the channels intricate, and no harbor of safety on either side, where vessels can lie secure to improve favorable openings in the ice when ascending the river in winter, or to seize, in any season, favorable winds and weather for going to sea, or to shelter themselves from storms, when overtaken by them in that neighborhood.

From the first cause alone, the wonted navigation of the bay is interrupted full two months of the year. It has been estimated, by persons of much observation and experience, that, during such interruption, not over one in ten of the vessels enter and ascend the bay, which otherwise would, if the proposed improvement takes place; and thus that more than one hundred square-rigged vessels are annually forced to seek other ports, at great inconvenience and

expense.

From this and other causes before mentioned, whose influence a breakwater is calculated to obviate, the whole actual commerce of the bay is subjected to an increased premium of insurance, varying from onehalf to one and a half per cent. This burthen, on Philadelphia alone, whose tonnage, in A. D. 1825, exceeded eighty-four thousand tons, and whose imports exceeded fifteen millions, would amount to an annual charge of not less than $170,000. On the commerce of a single port this is a tax at once oppressive and invidious; and of the aggregate capital of the country at large, of its sinews in war and its prosperity in peace, it shows an entire destruction almost to the extent of the increased premiums, as they are calculated to cover not much beyond the actual losses.

Another evidence of the unfavorable influence of these causes is the marked decline in the tonnage of that city, compared with its population in A. D. 1810 and A. D. 1820-the tonnage having sunk from 124,430 to 78,837 tons, while the population increased from 111,210 to 137,097. Some of this great disparity may doubtless be traced to other circumstances. But it is well known that, from the causes before enumerated, many vessels are ordered to other ports in the winter season, many forced away by necessity, much tonnage totally destroyed by shipwreck, and, from expensive delays and insurances, considerable capital in navigation permanently transferred elsewhere.

The books of the insurance offices, and other authentic documents, in Philadelphia alone, show, within the last twenty years, a total or partial loss of more than two hundred vessels, originating in the neighborhood of Delaware Bay. Sundry instances have occurred of ten or more vessels being on shore, at one time, near its mouth. But if there be added to these burdens, these delays, and this entire destruction of such amounts of property, the further injury to the country at large sustained by the loss of many lives in those disastrous shipwrecks, the importance of some efficient preventive will become most. urgent.

Its effect will not be merely the removal of those evils to which the commerce of the bay alone has been exposed; but the proposed breakwater will be adapted to give security to much of the coasting trade of the whole Union. A large portion of it passes near the outlet of the bay, and now, when threatened or assailed with gales and storms, has no safe harbor between Sandy Hook and Cape Charles. Delays,

damage, and total losses, are the frequent consequences, and seem to call for our interposition the more imperatively, as that branch of trade is composed exclusively of American tonnage; as it more nearly concerns every section of the country, being, in a great degree, devoted to the transportation of American produce; and as its rapid increase, within the last twenty years, renders it, in every point of view, dear to American interests and American feelings. For, within twenty years, it has more than doubled, while our tonnage engaged in the foreign trade has declined nearly one-half, and at present but little exceeds the former in amount. Thus, in A. D. 1807, the tonnage in the coasting trade was only 285,990, and that in the foreign trade 1,477,075; while in A. D. 1824, the former was 606,893, and the latter only 845,758.

A further benefit to be derived from a breakwater, or artificial harbor, at the mouth of Delaware Bay, is the like security it would furnish to our navy under the circumstances enumerated in respect to vessels engaged in the coasting trade. But especially during war, on a range of more than two hundred miles of sea-coast now almost closed upon the navy, would it find such a harbor highly advantageous, when pressed by a superior force, or when desirous of some intermediate station from which to attack or annoy a powerful enemy. Concerning the practicability of erecting such a breakwater, the report of the engineers, after a thorough examination, would appear to be decisive.

Though somewhat novel here, similar structures, whether called piers, jetties, or breakwaters, have been made in other countries with the happiest results, and in situations of greater exposure and of greater depth of water. Those near Dublin, Plymouth and Cherbourg, have been so frequently visited and described, and so full is the information possessed on this subject by nautical and scientific men, as to remove all doubt upon the feasibility of the present measure at the place contemplated.

The whole expense of such a breakwater, and the resources of the government to meet it, remain to be considered.

If its size be ample, and its materials the most durable, and only such an one can be deemed expedient, the highest estimate of its expense has been $2,326,627. This estimate was founded on a minute survey of the bay, on the depth and length of the proposed breakwater, the cost of materials, and all considerations, of whatever nature, which science and experience could bring to bear on the inquiry. Other estimates have been made by persons of acknowledged skill, reducing the sum, by an alteration in the position of the breakwater, to $1,380,478. But, adopting the highest as the safest estimate, the means to defray the expense are assuredly within reach of the government, may be obtained near at hand, and their appropriation to this object would not be likely to embarrass our finances, or prove invidious towards other sections of the Union. Half the revenue

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