+Importance of Watch Duty.+ For a long time a slipshod method of keeping watch prevailed in certain steamers, the outgrowth of second-rate sailing-ship practice, where thrifty, but ill-informed, masters, insisted on their watch officers keeping "busy" during the day. It was thought advisable by these gentlemen to have the officer on the bridge "with nothing to do" attend to a bit of sewing on canvas, or help out with the painting, and what not. Of course such masters were doomed to the scrap heap where they belong. A few miles added to the coal bill, through slovenly daytime steering, with kinks in the course as well as in the seams sewed by the misused officer, soon brought about reform. Added to this a certain danger, such as running down submerged hulls, and the like—with the thing happening once or twice, helped to wake up owners. Also, the bumping of two of these "economical" (and lubberly) craft, may have helped too. FROM NAVIGATION LAWS OF THE UNITED STATES The board of local inspectors shall make an entry in the certificate of inspection of every ocean and coastwise seagoing merchant vessel of the United States propelled by machinery, and every ocean-going vessel carrying passengers, the minimum number of licensed deck officers required for her safe navigation according to the following scale: That no such vessel shall be navigated unless she shall have on board and in her service one duly licensed master. (Mar. 3, 1913; sec. 2.) Three watches. That every such vessel of one thousand gross tons and over, propelled by machinery, shall have in her service and on board three licensed mates, who shall stand in three watches while such vessel is being navigated, unless such vessel is engaged in a run of less than four hundred miles from the port of departure to the port of final destination, then such vessel shall have two licensed mates; and every vessel of two hundred gross tons and less than one thousand gross tons, propelled by machinery, shall have two licensed mates. That every such vessel of one hundred gross tons and under two hundred gross tons, propelled by machinery, shall have on board and in her service one licensed mate; but if such vessel is engaged in a trade in which the time required to make the passage from the port of departure to the port of destination exceeds twenty-four hours, then such vessel shall have two licensed mates. That nothing in this section shall be so construed as to prevent local inspectors from increasing the number of licensed officers on any vessel subject to the inspection laws of the United States if, in their judgment, such vessel is not sufficiently manned for her safe navigation: _Provided_, That this section shall not apply to fishing or whaling vessels, yachts, or motor boats as defined in the Act of June ninth, nineteen hundred and ten. Rest before going on watch.