Public Law 65–103

That the Secretary of Commerce

Aids to navigation.

is hereby authorized to establish, provide, or improve the following aids to navigation and other works in the Lighthouse Service, under the Department of Commerce, in accordance with the respective limits of cost hereinafter respectively set forth, which shall in no case be exceeded:

general service. Constructing or purchasing and equipping lighthouse tenders and light vessels, to replace vessels worn out in service, in the third, fifth, and eighth lighthouse districts, or for use in the Lighthouse Service generally, $760,000.

second lighthouse district. The sum of $15,000 appropriated in “An Act making appropriations to supply urgent deficiencies in appropriations for the fiscal year ending June thirtieth, nineteen hundred and eighteen, and prior fiscal years, on account of war expenses, and for other purposes,” approved March twenty-eighth, nineteen hundred and eighteen, for the installation of an electrically operated fog-signal whistle on the east breakwater, Nantucket Harbor, Massachusetts, is hereby made available for the operation of an electrically operated fog bell at said point.

third lighthouse district. Improving the lighting in Ambrose Channel, New York, $26,000. Extending and enlarging the machine shop at the general lighthouse depot, Tompkinsville, Staten Island, New York, $30,000. Improving and extending the wharves at the general lighthouse depot, Tompkinsville, Staten Island, New York, $65,000.

fourth lighthouse district. Establishing gas buoys and improving aids to navigation in the vicinity of Joe Flogger Shoal, Delaware, $40,000.

fifth lighthouse district. Enlarging and improving the lighthouse depot at Portsmouth, Virginia, in the fifth lighthouse district, or establishing a new depot, $275,000. Purchase of additional gas buoys for the improvement of aids to navigation in the fifth lighthouse district, $125,000. Improving the aids to navigation and installing new aids in the Potomac River, Maryland and Virginia, $95,000.

eighth lighthouse district. Improving Sand Island Light Station, Alabama, $45,000. Constructing and equipping a lighthouse depot for the eighth lighthouse district at New Orleans, Louisiana, or vicinity, $88,500.

ninth lighthouse district. Establishing and improving aids to navigation in the Virgin Islands of the United States and adjacent waters, West Indies, $50,000.

eleventh lighthouse district. Improving Spectacle Reef Light Station, Michigan, $28,000. Improving, repairing, establishing, and moving aids to navigation in Saint Marys River, Michigan, and vicinity, $80,000.

Sec. 2.

That hereafter the appropriation, “General expenses, Lighthouse Service,” shall be available, under regulations prescribed by the Secretary of Commerce, for the payment of traveling and subsistence expenses of teachers while actually employed by States or private persons to instruct the children of keepers of lighthouses.

Sec. 3.

That hereafter every lighthouse keeper and assistant lighthouse keeper in the Lighthouse Service of the United States shall be entitled to receive one ration per day, or, in the discretion of the Commissioner of Lighthouses, commutation therefor at the rate of 45 cents per ration.

Sec. 4.

That hereafter the Secretary of Commerce is authorized to provide, under regulations to be prescribed by him, for the sale of publications of the Bureau of Lighthouses and the Lighthouse Service, including the allowance of a commission for such sales.

Sec. 5.

That hereafter post lantern lights and other aids to navigation may be established and maintained, in the discretion of the commissioner of Lighthouses, out of the annual appropriations for the Lighthouse Service, on Lakes Union and Washington, in the State of Washington.

Sec. 6.

That hereafter all officers and employees engaged in the field service or on vessels of the Lighthouse Service, except persons continuously employed in district offices or shops, who shall have reached the age of sixty-five years, after having been thirty years in the active service of the Government, may at their option be retired from further performance of duty; and all such officers and employees who shall have reached the age of seventy years shall be compulsorily

Provisos.

Basis of computing pay.

retired from further performance of duty: Provided, That the annual compensation of persons so retired shall be a sum equal to one-fortieth of the average annual pay received for the last live years of service for each year of active service in the Lighthouse Service or in a department or branch of the Government having a retirement system, not to exceed in any case thirty-fortieths of such average

Allowances not included.

annual pay received: Provided further, That such retirement pay shall not include any amount on account of subsistence or other allowance.

Sec. 7.

That hereafter a superintendent of lighthouses shall be assigned in charge of each lighthouse district at an annual salary of not exceeding $3,000 each, except that the salary of the third lighthouse district shall remain at $3,600, as now fixed by law: Provided, That officers now designated as lighthouse inspectors shall

Provisos.

Inspectors transferred to new offices.

be transferred to the positions of superintendent of lighthouses herein authorized in lieu of lighthouse inspectors: Provided further, That in the districts which include the Mississippi River and its

Mississippi River, etc., districts under Army engineers.

tributaries the President may designate Army engineers to perform the duties of and act as superintendent of lighthouses without additional compensation.

Sec. 8.

That section forty-six hundred and seventy-three of the Revised Statutes of the United States be amended to read as follows:

“Sec. 4673.

The Secretary of Commerce is authorized to regulate

Keepers.

Pay increased.

R. S., sec. 4673, p. 908, amended.

the salaries of the respective keepers of lighthouses in such manner as he deems just and proper, but the whole sum allowed for such salaries shall not exceed an average of $840 per annum for each

Restriction not applicable.

Vol. 37, p. 790.

keeper; and the authority herein granted to regulate the salaries of keepers of lighthouses shall not be abridged or limited by the provisions of section seven of the general deficiency appropriation Act approved August twenty-sixth, nineteen hundred and twelve, as amended by section four of the legislative, executive, and judicial appropriation Act approved March fourth, nineteen hundred and thirteen.” (United States Statutes at Large, volume thirty-seven, page seven hundred and ninety.)

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