"Said vessels shall take, as cadets or apprentices, one American-born boy, under twenty-one years of age for each one thousand tons gross register, and one for each majority fraction thereof, who shall be educated in the duties of seamanship, rank as petty officers, and receive such pay for their services as may be reasonable." The system of carrying cadets is sound in principle, but in many instances the law has been carried out according to a peculiar interpretation of the phrase "+Shall be educated in the duties of seamanship+." Education is a term of wide meaning, but "seamanship" or the "Duties of Seamanship" is at least fairly definite. The whole cadet system should be put upon a definite basis of regular instruction, or else be done away with. Many of us can remember a scouting party hurrying across West Street to pick up a "cadet" or two, so the good ship could go to sea in full compliance with the law. CHAPTER XV LAWS DEFINING OFFICERS OF MERCHANT VESSELS Citizenship of officers. All the officers of vessels of the United States who shall have charge of a watch, including pilots, shall in all cases be citizens of the United States. [Metlakahtla Indians excepted by act, March 4, 1907.] (R. S., 4131.) The word "officers" shall include the chief engineer and each assistant engineer in charge of a watch on vessels propelled wholly or in part by steam; and after the first day of January, eighteen hundred and ninety-seven, no person shall be qualified to hold a license as a commander or watch officer of a merchant vessel of the United States who is not a native-born citizen, or whose naturalization as a citizen shall not have been fully completed. (May 28, 1896; sec. 1.) In cases where on a foreign voyage, or on a voyage from an Atlantic to a Pacific port of the United States, any such vessel is for any reason deprived of the services of an officer below the grade of master, his place, or a vacancy caused by the promotion of another officer to such place, may be supplied by a person not a citizen of the United States until the first return of such vessel to its home port; and such vessel shall not be liable to any penalty or penal tax for such employment of an alien officer. (June 26, 1884; sec. 1; May 28, 1896; sec. 3.) The President of the United States is hereby authorized, whenever in his discretion the needs of foreign commerce may require, to suspend by order, so far and for such length of time as he may deem desirable, the provisions of law prescribing that all the watch officers of vessels of the United States registered for foreign trade shall be citizens of the United States. (Aug. 18, 1914; sec. 2.) * * * * *