By the President of the United States of America
A PROCLAMATION.
I, Woodrow Wilson, President of the United States of America, by virtue of the power and authority vested in me by the Act of Congress, approved August twenty-fourth, nineteen hundred and twelve, to provide for the opening, maintenance, protection and operation of the Panama Canal and the sanitation and government of the Canal Zone, do hereby prescribe and proclaim the "Rules for the Measurement of Vessels for the Panama Canal," which are annexed hereto and made a part of this proclamation.
In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed.
Done at the city of Washington this twenty-first day of November in the year of our Lord one thousand nine hundred and thirteen and of the independence of the United States the one hundred and thirty-eighth.
By the President:
Article I. All vessels, American and foreign, except warships, including vessels of commerce and Army and Navy transports, colliers, supply ships, and hospital ships, applying for passage through the Panama Canal shall present a duly authenticated certificate stating the vessel's gross and net tonnage as determined by these rules. Vessels of commerce, Army and Navy transports, colliers, supply ships, and hospital ships, without such certificate shall before passing through the canal, or before being allowed to clear therefrom, be measured, and shall have their gross and net tonnage determined in accordance with these rules.
All warships, American and foreign, other than transports, colliers, supply and hospital ships, shall present duly authenticated displacement scale and curves stating accurately the tonnage of displacement at each possible mean draft.
It is to be understood that "supply ships" shall include Army and Navy ammunition ships, refrigerator ships, distilling ships, repair ships submarine tenders, and destroyer tenders, as well as Army and Navy vessels used to transport general Army and Navy supplies; and that "colliers" shall include Army and Navy vessels used to transport coal or fuel oil.
Art. II. Gross tonnage as determined by these rules shall express the total capacity of vessels, i. e., the exact cubical contents of all spaces below the upper deck and of all permanently covered and closed-in spaces on or above that deck, excepting such spaces as may be hereinafter permitted as exemptions from measurement. Gross tonnage shall include not only all permanently covered and closed-in spaces which are or may be used for stowing cargo and stores or for providing shelter and other comfort for passengers or crew, but also such spaces as are used, or are intended to be used, in navigating and serving the vessel.
Only such spaces as are specifically mentioned in Article IV, below, shall be exempted from measurement. All other spaces shall be considered as closed-in and shall be included in gross tonnage.
Art. III. By permanently covered and closed-in spaces on or above the upper deck are to be understood all those which are separated off by decks or coverings, or fixed partitions, and which, therefore, represent an increase of capacity that is or may be used for the stowage of cargo, or for the berthing and accommodation of the passengers, the officers, or the crew. No break in a deck, nor any opening or openings in a deck or the covering of a space or in the partitions or walls of a space, nor the absence of a partition shall prevent a space from being measured and comprised in gross tonnage if the opening or openings in the deck, partition, or side wall can be closed in, or if the absent partition can be put in place, after admeasurement and the spaces thus closed in be thereby better fitted for the transport of goods or passengers.
In the case of a vessel having a trunk or "turret", the deck forming the covering of the trunk or turret shall be considered the upper deck, and all spaces below that deck within the trunk or turret shall be considered as covered and closed-in. The space within the turret or trunk shall be measured as are other between-deck spaces.
Spaces considered as "permanently closed-in" and spaces permitted to be exempted from measurement shall be determined solely by the provisions contained in these rules, and not by any definitions or provisions contained in the measurement rules or regulations of any country.
Art. IV. The following spaces shall be exempted from measurement and shall not be included in the gross tonnage, and no other spaces shall be exempted: