Customs laboratories.

§ 1.8 Hours of business.

(a) Except as specified in paragraphs (b)-(g) of this section, each customs office shall be open for the transaction of general customs business between the hours of 8:30 a.m. and 5 p.m. on all days of the year except Saturdays, Sundays, and national holidays."

(b) Different but equivalent hours shall be observed if a difference is required for the maintenance of adequate service because of local conditions, is approved by the Commissioner of Customs, and a notice of the hours of business is prominently displayed at the principal entrance and in each public room of the customs office.

(c) At each port or station where there is no full-time customs employee, the hours during which the customs office will be open for the transaction of general customs business shall be fixed by the collector of customs concerned with

the approval of the Commissioner of Customs, and notice thereof shall be displayed prominently at the principal entrance of the office.

(d) Each customs office shall be open for the transaction of general customs business on all state and local holidays occurring on days other than Saturdays, Sundays, and national holidays. If a state or local holiday interferes with the performance of work in a customs office by any customs employee or employees, the principal field officer may request approval of the Commissioner of Customs to excuse such employees from duty without charge to leave.

(e) Customs services required to be performed outside a customs office shall be furnished between the hours of 8 a. m. and 5 p. m. (or between the corresponding hours at ports where different but equivalent hours are required for the maintenance of adequate service and are approved by the Commissioner of Customs) on all days when the customs office is open for the transaction of general customs business. In accordance with such instructions as the Commissioner of Customs shall have issued from time to time and upon reasonable advance notice to the principal local officer concerned, such services may be fur

nished between the same hours on Saturdays.

(f) Where there is a regularly recurring need for customs services outside the above prescribed hours, and the volume and duration of the required services are uniformly such as to require, of themselves or in immediately consecutive combination with other essential customs activities of the port, the full time of one or more customs employees, the necessary number of regular tours of duty to furnish such services on all days of the year except Sundays and national holidays may be established with the approval of the Commissioner of Customs.

(g) Customs services shall be furnished private interests otherwise than as specified in this section only in accordance with the provisions of § 24.16 of this chapter. § 1.9

Customs seal.

(a) The customs seal of the United States, consisting of the national arms within a circle according to the design furnished by the Treasury Department, shall be impressed upon all official documents requiring the impress of a seal.

(b) The impress of the seal is not necessary on documents passing within the Customs Service. The seal shall be impressed on marine documents, and on landing certificates, certificates of weight, gauge, or measure, and similar classes of documents for outside interests.

(c) The official seal shall not be used in the manner of a notary seal to indicate authority to administer oaths.

PART 2-MEASUREMENT OF VESSELS

2.57

2.58

2.56 Rule for measuring engine room.

Engine room in small boats.
Deduction for propelling power.

2.59 Light and air spaces.

2.60 Verification of calculations, diagram of areas, and certification of results. 2.60a Marking net tonnage and official number on vessel.

Appendix to certificate of registry.
Measurement of Government vessels.

2.63 Foreign vessels.

2.64 Adjustment and correction of tonnage.

Conversion tables.

tonnage depth is 16 feet or less.

nage depth exceeds 16 feet.

Definitions of enclosures on or above the upper deck.

Table A of common intervals when

Table B of common intervals when ton

Sec.

2.70

2.71

2.72

Definitions of items of deduction. Definitions of structural terms, etc. Suez and Panama Canal certificates. AUTHORITY: §§ 2.0 to 2.72 issued under R. S. 161, 4153, as amended, secs. 2, 3, 23 Stat. 118, as amended, 119, as amended, sec. 4, 28 Stat. 743, as amended; 5 U. S. C. 22, 46 U. S. C. 2, 3, 77, 79.

SOURCE: 2.0 to 2.72 appear at 25 F.R. 13333, Dec. 22, 1960.

The regulations in this part are not retroactive, i.e., they do not apply to vessels the keels of which were laid prior to the date the rules in this part become effective. The regulations in this part become effective March 1, 1940. § 2.1

Authority of Commissioner.

(a) The Commissioner of Customs is charged with the supervision of the laws relating to the admeasurement of vessels, and on all questions of interpretation growing out of the execution of the laws relating to this subject his decision is final.

(b) The Commissioner of Customs shall, in the following sections, be referred to as the Commissioner.

(c) Doubts arising in the minds of the admeasurers concerning decks to the hull, enclosures on or above the upper deck, shelter decks, method of procedure, etc., shall be submitted to the Commissioner for his decision, and shall be accompanied by blueprints or sketches of the spaces in question giving all the facts bearing on same.

§ 2.2 Officials authorized to admeasure vessels.

(a) Before any vessel shall be registered, enrolled, or licensed she shall be measured by an officer of the customs at the port or place where she may be.

(b) A vessel is not to be measured unless she is required by law to be registered, enrolled or licensed, or otherwise specially provided for.

§ 2.3 Purpose for which measurements are taken.

(a) Tonnage measurements are taken for the purpose of ascertaining the internal capacity of measurable spaces.

(b) All measurements are to be taken in feet and fractions of feet, and all fractions of feet shall be expressed in decimals.

§ 2.4 Register ton.

A register ton is a volume of 100 cubic feet.

§ 2.5 Gross register tonnage.

(a) The gross tonnage referred to in the following sections is the gross register tonnage; that is, the gross tonnage exclusive of all permissible exempted

spaces.

(b) The gross register tonnage of a vessel shall consist of the sum of the following items:

(c) The cubical capacity below the tonnage deck, excluding exemptible water ballast spaces within the measureable portion of the vessel;

(d) The cubical capacity of each between deck space above the tonnage deck;

(e) The cubical capacity of the permanent closed-in spaces on the upper deck available for cargo or stores, or for the accommodation of passengers and/ or crew;

(f) All permanent closed-in spaces situated elsewhere available for cargo or stores, or for the accommodation of the crew, or for the charts, except cabins or staterooms for passengers constructed entirely above the first deck which is not a deck to the hull;

(g) The excess of hatchways.

§ 2.6 Net register tonnage.

(a) The tonnage of a vessel remaining after the authorized deductions have been made from the gross register tonnage shall be deemed the net register tonnage.

(b) In ascertaining the net tonnage no space may be deducted unless it has previously been included in the gross tonnage and certified, showing the purpose for which used.

§ 2.7

The marine document.

The marine document of every vessel shall show the date and place of build; the register length, breadth, depth, and, in vessels of more than two decks, the height of the upper deck to the hull above the tonnage deck; the number of decks and masts; build as to her stem and stern; capacity under the tonnage deck, that of the between decks, and also separately, permanently enclosed spaces on or above the upper deck to the hull available for cargo or stores or for the accom

modation of passengers (provisionally) or crew, and the omitted spaces, whether open or closed in, on, above, or below the upper deck; the gross tonnage; items of deduction; and net tonnage.

§ 2.8 Application for measurement.

The builder of a new vessel required to be admeasured, or the person having supervision of changes and/or alterations affecting a vessel's register tonnage, is obliged to make application for admeasurement or tonnage adjustment as the case may be, in writing, to the collector of customs of the district in which the vessel is located. Such application shall be made before cargo or ballast is taken on, and in case of a new vessel, before boilers or engine is installed or compartments partitioned off.

§ 2.9 Drawings.

(a) Plans to be filed. In order to facilitate admeasurement, there shall be furnished by the vessel's builder or owner to the collector of customs for the district in which the vessel will be admeasured, either with the application for admeasurement or a reasonable period before admeasurement is scheduled to commence, blueprints or drawings of the following:

(1) A drawing of the cross section in which is shown the construction of the double bottom, if there be one;

(2) An inboard view of the longitudinal section, showing the double bottom, its use or uses, if existing, otherwise the floors, the compartments for water ballast, other than the double bottom, the decks, the superstructures, hatchways, etc.;

(3) Deck plans showing the arrangement and uses of different compartments and deductible spaces;

(4) Drawings showing the arrangement of the engine, boiler, and fuel compartments; and

(5) A tonnage plan showing half breadths of the sections at the points of division of the tonnage length of the vessel into a certain number of equal parts in accordance with the rules for the measurement of spaces under the tonnage deck. The scale or scales of these drawings are to be indicated thereon.

The collector of customs is to be advised of any subsequent changes in the vessel and furnished copies of the cor

rected plans, or a statement of such changes.

If there are no blueprints or drawings available and if the collector is satisfied that it is impracticable to require such plans to be prepared and made available, considering the size and nature of the vessel as well as the cost and time involved, the vessel shall be measured without requiring their production.

(b) Sketches. When blueprints or drawings are not produced, necessary rough sketches may be made during the course of admeasurement showing the inboard profile, the midship cross-section, the hull and deck arrangements, and related matters, recording any necessary dimensions and showing details of important features such as the depth of side and bottom frames or floor timbers; the dimensions, location, and use of structures and hull spaces; and the thickness of the inner and outer skin. Such rough sketches shall be retained and filed with the other admeasurement papers. The rough sketches made shall not be redrawn to scale unless the admeasurer is satisfied that such action is necessary to insure that accurate dimensions have been lifted, to avoid the necessity for readmeasurement, or to insure against a claim of error which may reasonably be expected to be made in a particular case by the owner or agent. § 2.10 Measurements to be taken at an early stage.

Admeasurement should begin as soon as the vessel is sufficiently advanced in construction to permit its being done, usually when the decks are laid, the hold cleared of encumbrances to admit the required depths and breadths being properly taken; before the engine and boilers are installed and accommodations are partitioned off.

§ 2.11 Uniform system required.

(a) The following directions are given showing the progressive steps to be followed in the process of admeasurement. It is important not only that the rules be followed, but that required measurements be taken and calculations made in a uniform and correct manner that one general system may prevail throughout the service respecting this subject.

(b) Measurements taken aboard are to be recorded in the "Memorandum of Dimensions" known as Form 1413.