(ACT of April 23d, 1800.)

ers, in any case where the same shall have been, before the recapture thereof, condemned as prize by competent authority, nor in any case where, by the law or usage of the prince, government, or state, within whose territory such former owner or owners shall be resident as aforesaid, the vessel or goods of a citizen of the United States, under like circumstances of recapture, would not be restored to such citizen of the United States: Provided also, That nothing herein shall be construed to contravene, or alter, the terms of restoration in cases of recapture, which are, or shall be, agreed on in any treaty between the United States and any foreign prince, government, or state.

SEC. IV. All sums of money which may be paid for salvage, as aforesaid, when accruing to any public armed vessel, shall be divided to and among the commanders, officers, and crew, thereof, in such proportions as are or may be provided by law, respecting the distribution of prize money; And when accruing to any private armed vessel, shall be distributed to and among the owners and company concerned in such recapture, according to their agreements, if any such there be; and in case there be no such agreement, then to and among such persons, and in such proportions, as the court having jurisdiction thereof shall appoint.

ACT of April 23, 1800. 3 Bioren, 351.

An act for the better government of the navy of the United States.

10. SEC. 1. From and after the first day of June next, the following rules and regulations shall be adopted and put in force, for the government of the navy of the United States.

ART. 1. The commanders of all ships and vessels of war, belonging to the navy, are strictly enjoined and required to show, in themselves, a good example of virtue, honor, patriotism, and subordination; and be vigilant in inspecting the conduct of all such as are placed under their command, and to guard against, and suppress, all dissolute and immoral practices, and to correct all such as are guilty of them according to the usage of the sea service.

ART. 2. The commanders of all ships and vessels in the navy, having chaplains on board, shall take care that divine service be performed in a solemn, orderly, and reverent manner, twice a day, and a sermon preached on Sunday, unless bad weather, or other extraordinary accidents, prevent it: and that they cause all, or as many, of the ship's company as can be spared from duty, to attend at every performance of the worship of Almighty God.

ART. 3. Any officer, or other person, in the navy, who shall be guilty of oppression, cruelty, fraud, profane swearing, drunkenness, or any other scandalous conduct, tending to the destruction of good morals, shall, if an officer, be cashiered, or suffer such other punishment as a court martial shall adjudge: if a pri

(ACT of April 23d, 1800.)

vate, shall be put in irons, or flogged, at the discretion of the captain, not exceeding twelve lashes; but if the offence require severer punishment, he shall be tried by a court martial, and suffer such punishment as said court shall inflict.

ART. 4. Every commander, or other officer, who shall, upon signal for battle, or on the probability of an engagement, neglect to clear his ship for action, or shall not use his utmost exertions to bring his ship to battle, or shall fail to encourage, in his own person, his inferior officers and men to fight courageously, such offender shall suffer death, or such other punishment as a court martial shall adjudge; or any officer neglecting, on sight of any vessel or vessels of an enemy to clear his ship for action, shall suffer such punishment as a court martial shall adjudge: And if any person in the navy shall treacherously yield, or pusillanimously cry for quarters he shall suffer death, on conviction thereof by a general court martial.

ART. 5. Every officer or private who shall not properly observe the orders of his commanding officer, or shall not use his utmost exertions to carry them into execution, when ordered to prepare for, join in, or when actually engaged in, battle; or shall, at such time, basely desert his duty or station, either then or while in sight of an enemy, or shall induce others to do so, every person so offending shall, on conviction thereof by a general court martial, suffer death, or such other punishment as the said court shall adjudge.

ART. 6. Every officer or private who shall, through cowardice, negligence, or disaffection, in time of action, withdraw from, or keep out of, battle, or shall not do his utmost to take or destroy every vessel which it is his duty to encounter, or shall not do his utmost endeavour to afford relief to ships belonging to the United States, every such offender shall, on conviction thereof by a general court martial, suffer death, or such other punishment as the said court shall adjudge.

ART. 7. The commanding officer of every ship or vessel in the navy, who shall capture, or seize upon, any vessel as a prize, shall carefully preserve all the papers and writings found on board, and transmit the whole of the originals, unmutilated, to the judge of the district to which such prize is ordered to proceed, and shall transmit to the navy department; and to the agent appointed to pay the prize money, complete lists of the officers and men entitled to a share of the capture, inserting therein the quality of every person rating, on pain of forfeiting his whole share of the prize money resulting from such capture, and suffering such further punishment as a court martial shall adjudge.

ART. 8. No person in the navy shall take out of a prize, or vessel seized as prize, any money, plate, goods, or any part of her rigging, unless it be for the better preservation thereof, or absolutely necessary for the use of any of the vessels of the

(ACT of April 23d, 1800.)

United States, before the same shall be adjudged lawful prize by a competent court; but the whole, without fraud, concealment, or embezzlement, shall be brought in, and judgment passed thereon, upon pain that every person offending herein shall forfeit his share of the capture, and suffers such further punishment as a court martial, or the court of admiralty in which the prize is adjudged, shall impose.

ART. 9. No person in the navy shall strip of their clothes, or pillage, or in any manner maltreat, persons taken on board a prize, on pain of such punishment as a court martial shall adjudge.

ART. 10. No person in the navy shall give, hold, or entertain, any intercourse or intelligence to or with any enemy or rebel, without leave from the president of the United States, the secretary of the navy, the commander in chief of the fleet, or the commander of a squadron; or in case of a vessel acting singly, from his commanding officer, on pain of death, or such other punishment as a court martial shall adjudge.

ART. 11. If any letter or message, from an enemy or rebel, be conveyed to any officer or private of the navy, and he shall not, within twelve hours, make the same known, having opportunity so to do, to his superior or commanding officer; or if any officer commanding a ship or vessel, being acquainted therewith, shall not, with all convenient speed, reveal the same to the commander in chief of the fleet, commander of a squadron, or other proper officer whose duty it may be to take cognizance thereof, every such offender shall suffer death, or such other punishment as a court martial shall adjudge.

ART. 12. Spies, and all persons who shall come or be found in the capacity of spies, or who shall bring or deliver any seducing letter or message from an enemy or rebel, or endeavour to corrupt any person in the navy to betray his trust, shall suffer death, or such other punishment as a court martial shall adjudge.

ART. 13. If any person in the navy shall make or attempt to make any mutinous assembly, he shall, on conviction thereof by a court martial, suffer death; and if any person as aforesaid shall utter any seditious or mutinous words, or shall conceal or connive at any mutinous or seditious practices, or shall treat with contempt his superior, being in the execution of his office; or, being witness to any mutiny or sedition, shall not do his utmost to suppress it, he shall be punished at the discretion of a court martial.

ART. 14. No officer or private in the navy shall disobey the lawful orders of his superior officer, or strike him, or draw, or offer to draw, or raise any weapon against him, while in the execution of the duties of his office, on pain of death, or such other punishment as a court martial shall inflict.

ART. 15. No person in the navy shall quarrel with any other person in the navy, nor use provoking or reproachful words, ges

(ACT of April 23d, 1800.)

tures, or menaces, on pain of such punishment as a court martial shall adjudge.

ART. 16. If any person in the navy shall desert to an enemy or rebel, he shall suffer death.

ART. 17. If any person in the navy shall desert or shall entice others to desert, he shall suffer death, or such other punishment as a court martial shall adjudge; and if any officer, or other person belonging to the navy, shall receive or entertain any deserter from any other vessel of the navy, knowing him to be such, and shall not, with all convenient speed, give notice of such deserter to the commander of the vessel to which he belongs, or to the commander in chief, or to the commander of the squadron, he shall, on conviction thereof, be cashiered, or be punished at the discretion of a court martial. All offences committed by persons belonging to the navy, while on shore, shall be punished in the same manner as if they had been committed at sea.

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ART. 18. If any person in the navy shall knowingly make or sign, or shall aid, abet, direct or procure the making or signing, any false muster, or shall execute, or attempt, or countenance, any fraud against the United States, he shall, on conviction, be cashiered, and rendered forever incapable of any future employment in the service of the United States, and shall forfeit all the pay and subsistence due him, and suffer such other punishment as a court martial shall inflict.

ART. 19. If any officer or other person in the navy shall, through inattention, negligence, or any other fault, suffer any vessel of the navy to be stranded, or run upon rocks or shoals, or hazarded, he shall suffer such punishment as a court martial shall adjudge.

ART. 20. If any person in the navy shall sleep upon his watch, or negligently perform the duty assigned him, or leave his station before regularly relieved, he shall suffer death, or such punishment as a court martial shall adjudge; or, if the offender be a private, he may, at the discretion of the captain, be put in irons, or flogged, not exceeding twelve lashes.

ART. 21. The crime of murder, when committed, by any officer, seaman, or marine, belonging to any public ship or vessel of the United States, without the territorial jurisdiction of the same, may be punished with death, by the sentence of a court martial.

ART. 22. The officers and privates of every ship or vessel, appointed as convoy to merchant or other vessels, shall diligently and faithfully discharge the duties of their appointment, nor shall they demand or exact any compensation for their services, nor maltreat any of the officers or crews of such merchant or other vessels, on pain of making such reparation as a court of admiralty may award, and of suffering such further punishment as a court martial shall adjudge.

ART. 23. If any commander, or other officer, shall receive, or

(ACT of April 23d, 1800.)

permit to be received, on board his vessel, any goods or merchandise, other than for the sole use of his vessel, except gold, silver, or jewels, and except the goods or merchandise of vessels which may be in distress, or shipwrecked, or in imminent danger of being shipwrecked, in order to preserve them for their owner, without orders from the president of the United States or the navy department, he shall, on conviction thereof, be cashiered, and be incapacitated, forever afterwards, for any place or office in the navy.

ART. 24. If any person in the navy shall waste, embezzle, or fraudulently buy, sell, or receive, any ammunition, provisions, or other public stores; or if any officer or other person shall, knowingly, permit, through design, negligence, or inattention, any such waste, embezzlement, sale, or receipt, every such person shall forfeit all the pay and subsistence then due him, and suffer such further punishment as a court martial shall direct.

ART. 25. If any person in the navy shall unlawfully set fire to, or burn, any kind of public property, not then in the possession of an enemy, pirate, or rebel, he shall suffer death: And if any person shall, in any other manner, destroy such property, or shall not use his best exertions to prevent the destruction thereof by others, he shall be punished at the discretion of a court martial.

ART. 26. Any theft, not exceeding twenty dollars, may be punished at the discretion of the captain, and above that sum, as a court martial shall direct.

ART. 27. If any person in the navy shall, when on shore, plunder, abuse, or maltreat, any inhabitant, or injure his property in any way, he shall suffer such punishment as a court martial shall adjudge.

ART. 28. Every person in the navy shall use his utmost exertions to detect, apprehend, and bring to punishment, all offenders, and shall, at all times, aid and assist all persons appointed for this purpose, on pain of such punishment as a court martial shall adjudge.

ART. 29. Each commanding officer shall, whenever a seaman enters on board, cause an accurate entry to be made in the ship's books of his name, time, and term of his service; and, before sailing, transmit to the secretary of the navy a complete list or muster roll of the officers and men under his command, with the date of their entering, time and terms of their service annexed; and shall cause similar lists to be made out on the first day of every second month, to be transmitted to the secretary of the navy, as opportunities shall occur; accounting, in such lists or muster rolls, for any casualties which may have taken place since the last list or muster roll. He shall cause to be accurately minuted on the ship's books the names of, and times at which, any death or desertion may occur; and in case of death, shall take care that the