+He is responsible for the safety of the lives of passengers and crew.+
+He is responsible for the safe stowage, carriage, and unlading of the cargo.+
+The vessel is his direct responsibility. If the Pilot is in charge, this does not relieve the Master of his full responsibility.+
+The Master is responsible to the owners.+
+He is also responsible to the insurance underwriters.+
+He is also responsible to the Government of the United States, under which he receives his license as a Master Mariner.+
The Master Mariner who is well qualified to bear the great responsibilities of his station; to have the keeping of many lives in his charge; to be the sole judge of what is right and proper in times of emergency; such a man is not made in a year, nor is he the product of any short-cut system of training. His sea lore must be learned at sea. His duty to ship and cargo must be truly come by through close and thorough contact with the great vessels he is called upon to command.
The Master Mariner must be a student of the laws governing his business upon the sea, and of the laws defining his duties and responsibilities to ship, passengers, crew, and cargo.
Briefly, he is charged with the following specific duties and responsibilities:
+2. The general management and care of his vessel.+
+3. The proper coaling—provisioning—supplying of water—etc.+
+4. That she be fully found—anchors—cables—warps—hawsers—boats—rafts— life-saving equipment—fire-fighting equipment, as required by law— compasses—chronometers—charts—sailing directions—sextants—and stores of all kinds needed to safely navigate her.+
+5. The proper signing of the ship's articles.+
+7. The carrying of a properly equipped medicine chest.+
+8. The carrying of a required slop chest, and compliance with the laws regulating the sale of slops.+
+9. He is liable for the wrong delivery of specie and cargo, or for loss or damage to the same due to carelessness or mismanagement on the part of the crew.+
+10. He is responsible for any neglect through which the validity of the insurance to ship or cargo is called into question.+
+11. He must enforce the rule that the vessel is never to be left without an officer in charge, either at sea or in harbor, day or night.+
