Office of the Historian

File No. 656.119/887c

The Secretary of State to the Chargé in the Netherlands ( Bliss)

[Telegram]
Washington, November 8, 1918, 5 p.m.

2357. The United States and British authorities have agreed on a further statement regarding indemnification for Dutch vessels lost while under requisition. You are instructed to transmit this statement to the Netherlands Government as soon as the British Minister receives instructions to transmit similar proposals on behalf of his Government.1 The statement is as follows

The United States Shipping Board, which is the branch of my Government charged with making compensation for requisitioned ships, desires to make the following modification of the terms proposed in my note of July 30,2 for the compensation of owners of Dutch vessels lost while under requisition by the United States.

1.
The scale of values to be applied if money compensation is elected, and in computing interest, shall be as follows:
  • For vessels up to 10 years of age, £75 per gross ton, or at the option of the shipowner, £50 per deadweight ton;
  • For vessels up to 30 years of age, £40 per deadweight ton;
  • For vessels over 30 years of age, £52 10s per gross ton, or at the option of the shipowner, £35 per deadweight ton.
For this purpose the age of a ship shall be its age at the date of loss.
2.
If replacement by a new ship is elected, the United States Shipping Board shall have the option of tendering, and the shipowners shall have the option of accepting, an existing steamer with an adjustment of differences in age. If no existing steamer is offered, or if offered is not accepted by the shipowner, a steamer to be built substantially like the vessel lost, with an allowance for age, the allowance for age to be depreciation calculated on the original cost of the lost boat at the rate of 5 per cent per annum; but this allowance for depreciation should not in any case exceed 95 per cent of the original cost. The allowance for depreciation to be paid by the shipowner before delivery of the vessel.
3.
When a vessel is lost, notice of such loss shall be given to the Dutch Shipowners Association through the American Minister at The Hague, and the shipowner shall announce his option for replacement or payment in cash through the same channel.
4.
The dead-weight capacity of steamers shall be the weight of cargo bunkers, stores, and fresh water for domestic purposes and for boilers, exclusive of the weight of water in the boilers.
5.
Replacement: In case of the offer and acceptance of an existing vessel, the boilers of the substituted vessel should conform to the requirements of the Dutch law which states that a water pressure test of 50 per cent above the working steam pressure must be made.
6.
The cost of making the substituted vessel completely seagoing will be borne by the Government, or the expense of doing this allowed for, when the two vessels are compared.
7.
There will be attached no conditions relative to the use of the vessel after the war.
8.
The Dutch owners shall, in case of replacement, be at liberty to arrange reasonable variations with the shipbuilder in the contract made by the United States Government, the cost of such variations to be borne by the owner.
9.
If, while the steamer is under construction, the shipowner desires to sell it, he must obtain the United States Government’s approval of the purchaser before sale is effected.
10.
The obligation to deliver a vessel which is to be built within the specified time must depend upon the prompt delivery of plans and specifications in accordance with which it is desired that she be built.
11.
The 10 per cent interest on ships lost or missing will be payable as from the date at which the hire thereof ceases; in the case of the missing ships the 10 per cent interest will be payable as from the date when she was last heard of, which should be the date of loss, this interest to be paid in dollars without restrictions.

Lansing
  1. Statement transmitted Jan. 27, 1919 (File No. 626.119/988). Reply of Minister of Foreign Affairs, Feb. 7, 1919, reads: “I have not failed to transmit the substance of your note of Jan. 27 to the interested Dutch owners. In reply they request me to inform you that they entirely agree to the propositions contained in your note of July 30, 1918, and modified by your note of Jan. 27 last.” (File No. 656.119/1005.)↩
  2. See telegram No. 1797, July 25, to the Minister in the Netherlands, ante, p. 1516.↩