International Naval Conference

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The International Marine Conference , also maritime conference in Washington was an international conference , the October-December 1889, Washington, DC on the held and on the Safety in the Sea, in particular a uniform international lights leadership , was advised to accidents to prevent.

Historical development

The oldest known law that contained maritime traffic regulations is the Rhodian Sea Law , which was passed around the year 740 by the Byzantine emperor Leo Isaurus or his son Constantinus . It contained the first historically verifiable rules of a "sea road law" by stipulating a white light to mark ships at anchor at night.

The “Statutes of Riga” from 1270 prescribed the setting up of a burning lantern on moving ships at night, similar to the law of the Danish King Christian V of 1693.

Subsequently, individual coastal states each issued their own regulations for shipping traffic on their coastal waters and rivers.

In 1852, France, Austria-Hungary, the German states of Hamburg, Bremen, Lübeck, Oldenburg, Prussia, Hanover and Mecklenburg-Schwerin introduced a “uniform lighting system” for the first time.

In 1863, England, in collaboration with the French government, took the initiative for an international settlement and submitted a bill for universal maritime law. This was adopted by France, Prussia, Hamburg, Lübeck, Hanover, Oldenburg, Mecklenburg-Schwerin, Austria-Hungary, Denmark, Russia, Sweden, Norway, the Netherlands, Belgium, Italy, Spain, Portugal and the USA.

When sailing was increasingly displaced by the much faster steamship and global shipping increased significantly, in the course of the 1880s there were still some shortcomings and loopholes in the international regulation, which the Washington Conference of 1889, attended by 27 maritime states, set itself the task of eliminating . Adolf Mensing , for example, was a delegate of the German Navy . The result was an improved order of the sea that was adopted by all interested states. Germany put it into effect as an ordinance to prevent ships from colliding at sea of May 9, 1897 and as an ordinance on lights and signaling of fishing vessels and pilot steamers of May 10, 1897.

In 1929 the first international convention for the protection of human life at sea (ship safety treaty ) came about,

The “International Rules for Preventing Collisions at Sea” ( Collision Prevention Rules) have existed since 1972 .

Section 3 of the German Maritime Road Regulations of May 6, 1952 (SeeSchStrO) contains basic rules for behavior on German maritime waterways, while Section 37 SeeSchStrO regulates behavior in the event of ship accidents and the loss of objects.

literature

  • Alfred Hiebel: Sea marks, fire and sound signals of the Atlantic Ocean in their context and their significance for economy and culture. Univ.-Diss. Leipzig 1907. Digitalisat archive.org, accessed on May 31, 2020.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ documents relating to the maritime conference Washington in 1889 and on the advisory and technical Commission of Transport and Transit of the League. Archives of the Foreign Office of the Federal Republic of Germany, Bonn
  2. ↑ Documents on Intern. Marine Conference, Washington, October to December 1889. Archives of the Direction du Service des Phares et Balises, Paris
  3. ^ Law of the Sea Meyers Großes Konversations-Lexikon, Volume 18. Leipzig 1909, pp. 268–269. zeno.org, accessed on May 31, 2020.
  4. ↑ Alfred Lübke: The historical development of the light guidance in sea road traffic The Seewart. Nautical magazine for German shipping 1957, pp. 95-105.