Steamboat Inspection Service
Sculptured relief on the facade of the United States Department of Commerce Building in Washington, D.C.
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| Agency overview | |
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| Formed | 1871 |
| Dissolved | 1932 |
| Superseding agency | |
| Jurisdiction | Federal government of the United States |
| Headquarters | Washington, D.C. |
| Parent agency |
United States Department of the Treasury (1871-1903) United States Department of Commerce and Labor (1903-1913) United States Department of Commerce (1913-1946) |
| Footnotes | |
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The Steamboat Inspection Service was a United States agency created in 1871 to safeguard lives and property at sea. It merged with the Bureau of Navigation in 1932 to form the Bureau of Navigation and Steamboat Inspection which, in 1936, was reorganized into the Bureau of Marine Inspection and Navigation, which in turn came under the control of the United States Coast Guard in 1942 and was abolished, with its functions transferred to the Coast Guard, in 1946.
The safety inspection of merchant vessels documented under the flag of the United States has been authorized in varying degrees by Congress and required by law since 1838. In the early days, the United States Congress hesitated to pass adequate safety laws for fear of interfering with the growing and economically important steamboat industry.
The beginning and development of a federal maritime safety program arose from disasters that caused much death, injury and property loss; experience showed the greatest casualties were caused by boiler explosions and by fire aboard ship. As the steamboat industry grew, so did the general public's awareness of the need for marine safety laws. The public's growing concern over these maritime accidents prompted Congress to begin to act to protect the public, beginning with passing a law on July 7, 1838, to "provide better security of the lives of passengers on board of vessels propelled in whole or in part by steam" (5 Stat. L., 304). The law was enforced by the United States Department of Justice.
Captain Edward Tripp, who had introduced steamboating to Baltimore, Maryland, in 1813 with the building of the steamboat Chesapeake, was the first Baltimore hull inspector and was appointed by a federal district judge to perform the safety inspection on the few vessels in Baltimore. Captain Tripp performed these duties between 1838 and 1852. At that time, the law provided a US$5.00 fee for each inspection to be paid by the vessel's owner.
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