Produced by Chris Curnow, Chris Pinfield and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive) Transcriber's Note: Apparent typographical errors have been corrected. Small capitals have been converted to full capitals. Italic font is indicated by _underscores_ and bold font (other than headings) by +plus signs+. A line in blackletter font in the dedication has been bolded. The use of hyphens has been rationalised. Sub-paragraphs and lists have been indented. An advertisement for another book by the same author has been shifted to the back of the book. Chapter XVIII describes the Rules of the Road as they apply to the High Seas and to U.S. Inland Waters. In the original work corresponding passages are set out on opposite pages. In this version the Rules applying to the High Seas are followed by those applying to Inland Waters. U.S. Inland Waters are defined in Chapter XIX. THE MEN ON DECK Master, Mates and Crew Their Duties and Responsibilities _A MANUAL for The American Merchant Service_ BY FELIX RIESENBERG, C.E. MASTER MARINER (SAIL AND STEAM) Superintendent, New York State Nautical School, Commanding Schoolship "Newport" Author of "Under Sail" [Illustration: Publisher's Mark] NEW YORK D. VAN NOSTRAND COMPANY 25 PARK PLACE 1918 COPYRIGHT, 1918 BY D. VAN NOSTRAND COMPANY DEDICATED TO +Captain Reginald Fay+ OF THE PORT OF NEW YORK IN RECOGNITION OF HIS UNTIRING EFFORTS FOR THE BETTERMENT OF THE AMERICAN MERCHANT MARINE Preface In the days of sail, the duties of masters, mates, and crews, were well defined. Sea practice, in the various rigs, had become standard with the authority of an ancient calling. The art of sailing, and of rigging ships, was a precise matter. Gear remained standard for a century. The main to'bowline of a Black Ball Liner, tearing to windward in a North Atlantic hummer, was rove and led in much the same fashion as the main to'bowline of the ships of Nelson and Van Tromp. And the old time seamen, in their usage and habits, followed the regularity of the ships upon which they sailed. The gradual transition from sail to steam carried with it, for a time, the old system of sailing ship routine. But to-day the sailing ship sailor is a thing of the past; the works of steam and steel are upon the waters—we are in the age of engines and the engineer. Great problems of mechanical propulsion, and of construction, are constantly presenting themselves, and the successors of the ancient mariner, the modern master, mates, and crew; the "deck department," if you will, of the present day steamer, find themselves afloat with different gear and under different conditions every time they change vessels.