76 : OCEAN MAIL SERVICE.

notice by advertising once a week for three months in such daily
papers as he shall select in each of the cities of Boston, New York,
hiladelphia, Baltimore, New Orleans, Saint Louis, Charleston,
Norfolk, Savannah, Galveston, and Mobile, and when the proposed
service is to be on the Pacific Ocean, then in San Francisco, Tacoma,
and Portland. Such notice shall describe the route, the time when
such contract will be made, the duration of same, the size of the
steamers to be used, the number of trips a year, the times of sailing,
and the time when the service shall commence, which shall not be
more than three years after the contract shall be let. The details of
the mode of advertising and letting such contracts shall be conducted
 in the manner prescribed in chapter eight of title forty-six
of the Revised Statutes for the letting of inland mail contracts, so far
as the same shall be applicable to the ocean mail service.
Sec. 3. That the vessels employed in the mail service under the
provisions of this act shall be American-built steamships, owned and
officered by American citizens, in conformity with existing laws, or so
owned and oflicered and registered according to law, and upon each
departure from the United States the following proportion of the
crew shall be citizens of the United States, to wit: During the first
two years of such contract for carrying the mails, one-fourth thereof;
during the next three succeeding years, one-third thereof, and during
the remaining time of the continuance of such contract at least onehalf
 thereof; and shall be constructed after the latest and most
approved types, with all the modern improvements and appliances
for ocean steamers. They shall be divided into four classes. The
first class shall be iron or steel screw steamships, capable of maintaining
 a speed of twenty knots an hour at sea in ordinary weather,
and of a gross registered tonnage of not less than eight thousand tons.
No vessel except of said first-class shall be accepted for said mail
service under the provisions of this act between the United States
and Great Britain.” The second class shall be iron or steel steamships
capable of maintaining a speed of sixteen knots an hour at sea in
ordinary weather, and of a gross registered tonnage of not less than
five thousand tons. The third class shall be iron or steel steamships
capable of maintaining a speed of fourteen knots an hour at sea in
ordinary weather, and of a gross registered tonnage of not less than
two thousand five hundred tons. The fourth class shall be iron or
steel or wooden steamships capable of maintaining a speed of twelve
knots an hour at sea in ordinary weather, and of a gross registered
tonnage of not less than fifteen hundred tons. It shall be stipulated
in the contract or contracts to be entered into for the said mail service
that the said vessels may carry passengers with their baggage in
addition to said mails and may do all ordinary business done by
steamships.
Sec. 4. That all steamships of the first, second, and third classes
employed as above and hereafter built shall be constructed with particular
 reference to prompt and economical conversion into auxiliary
naval cruisers, and according to plans and specifications to be agreed
upon by and between the owners and the Secretary of the Navy, and
they shall be of sufficient strength and stability to carry and sustain
the working and operation of at least four effective rifled cannon of a
caliber of not less than six inches, and shall be of the highest rating
known to maritime commerce. And all vessels of said three classes
heretofore built and so employed shall, before thev are accepted for