THIRTIETH CONGRESS—FIRST SESSION.
H. R. 608.
(No Report.)
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES.
July 19, 1848.
Read twice, and committed to the Committee of the Whole House on the
state of the Union.
Mr. Schenck, from the Committee on Naval Affairs, reported
the following bill:
A BILL
To indemnify the officers and crews of vessels of war of the
United States navy for losses by shipwreck, fire, and otherwise.
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Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Repre-
sentatives of the United States of America in Congress
assembled
, That the sum of fifty thousand dollars be, and
hereby is, appropriated for indemnification for losses of
necessary clothing, uniform, bed and table furniture, books
and instruments, to the officers and crews of the sloop
“Peacock,” which was wrecked and lost at the mouth of
the Columbia river, on the eighteenth day of July, eighteen
hundred and forty-one; of the steam frigate “Missouri,”
burnt at Gibraltar in eighteen hundred and forty-three; the

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schooner “Grampus,” lost at sea; the schooner “Shark,”
wrecked and lost at the mouth of the Columbia river, Sep-
tember tenth, eighteen hundred and forty-six; and the brig
“Somers,” lost in the Gulf of Mexico: Provided, That
the amount of such losses in the case of each claimant
shall be establish, by affidavit or proof, to the satisfac-
tion of the Secretary of the Navy, and shall be paid only
to the applicant himself, or his authorized agent, or in
case of his death to his widow, or if there be no widow,
then to his surviving children, or if there be neither widow,
nor children, then to his brother and sisters now living
and who are minors, or were minors at the time the loss
occurred: And provided, further, That no more than the
actual amount of loss shall be paid in any case, nor shall
the entire allowance on account of any individual in the
respective grades exceed the following sums: viz, to a
captain, eight hundred dollars; to a commander, six hun-
dred dollars; to a lieutenant, master, surgeon, assistant
surgeon, purser, chaplain, professor, captain of marines, and
chief engineer, four hundred and fifty dollars; to a passed
midshipman, first assistant engineer, or first lieutenant of
marines, three hundred dollars; to a midshipman, second
or third assistant engineer, second lieutenant of marines,
secretary, clerk, or master’s mate, two hundred dollars;
to a boatswain, gunner, carpenter, sailmaker, one hundred

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dollars; to a petty officer, or sergeant, or corporal of ma-
rines, fifty dollars; to a seaman, ordinary seaman, marine
or musician, forty dollars; to a landsman, boy, or fireman,
thirty dollars.
Sec. 2. And be it further enacted, That in like man-
ner, and upon like proof, the Secretary of the Navy shall
ascertain, and shall cause to be paid to Titian R. Peale, a
naturalist, who was in the employ of the government of
the United States, attached to the late exploring expedi-
tion, the amount of his actual losses of books, instruments,
clothing, bed and table furniture, sustained by the wreck
and loss of the sloop “Peacock.”
Sec. 3. And be it further enacted, That in every
other case of the loss of any vessel of war in commission
belonging to the navy of the United States, which has,
heretofore within ten years past, occurred, or which may
hereafter occur, by wreck, fire, foundering, capsizing, or other
unavoidable disaster at sea, or by being captured or de-
stroyed by an enemy, upon like affidavit and satisfactory
proof made, as provided in the first section of this act,
there shall be paid to the officers and crew of such
vessel, or to their proper representatives, in the order pre-
scribed in said first section, the actual amount of their
respective losses, under the same limitations and restric-
tions, and according to the same ratio of apportionment,

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as is provided, in said section: Provided , however,That
in no case shall any such payment be made, in consequence
of the loss of a vessel of war, until there shall have been
a court of inquiry regularly constituted to ascertain and
report the causes and circumstances attending said loss;
and it shall be the duty of such court of inquiry, in every
case, to find and report the name or names of any officer
or officers, or of any of the crew, who may, in their
opinion, appear to be guilty or responsible, by reason of
any misconduct, neglect, or incapacity, for the loss of such
vessel: and no allowance or payment for any loss of pro-
perty shall be made, as hereinbefore provided, to any
officer, or other person, so charged by a court of inquiry,
unless he shall afterwards be tried and acquitted of any
such guilt or responsibility by the judgment of a court
martial.
Sec. 4. And be it further enacted, That it shall
be the duty of the Secretary of the Navy, immediately
after the passage of this act, to prescribe such further gen-
eral rules as may be proper and needful to regulate the
form of proof to be furnished to establish the loss of pro-
perty, by any person claiming under the provisions of this
act.

Printed Document, 4 page(s), Box Y543-41, 2, RG 287, Entry 116: Records of the Superintendent of Documents, Publications of the United States Government, Bills and Resolutions, House and Senate, Thirtieth Congress, 1847-1849, NACP ,