658

LAWS OF MARYLAND.

and under no circumstances shall said steamer be put in com-
mission except during the dredging season, and only then in
such emergency as the Board of Public Works may judge
is necessary that both steamers are required to enforce the
provisions of this Article; and the Board of Public Works shall
appoint a deputy commander at a salary of eighty -three dollars
thirty-three and one-third cents per month, who shall in such
cases take command of said steamer and ship a crew, and as
soon as the emergency is passed the said deputy commander
shall discharge said crew and place said steamer out of commis-

Shall appoint
watchman.

sion again, only one man to be retained to act as watchman,
who shall receive not more than thirty dollars per month
while so employed; and for the purpose of still further reduc-
ing expenses, the said Board of Public Works is authorized,
in its discretion, to sell one of the steamers, and to turn the
funds arising from such sale over to the Comptroller, to be
placed to the credit of the oyster fund; the Board of Public
Works is further authorized and required to reduce the num-
ber of employes on the said boats from the fifteenth day of
March until the first day of November of each year to three,
viz: captain, mate and cook, excepting the schooners Nellie,
Jackson, Folly and Baughman, which shall consist of the
three above-named crew and a seaman, being four men to each
of the above-named boats, and the Board of Public Works is

Authority to
contract for
sloops or
vessels to
guard line.

hereby authorized to contract for sloops or vessels to guard
the line from the fifteenth day of November to the fifteenth
day of March, between the tongers and dredgers from the
long wharf at Cambridge to Bowdle's house in Talbot County,
and to rent or hire suitable boats to guard the waters of Her-
ring Bay, Manokin River, Holland Straits, Honga River,
Hooper's Straits and Pocomoke River and Sound, the price
to be paid for the use of such boats not to exceed thirty
dollars per month during the period of employment, and the
crews of the boats so employed, not exceeding three for each
boat, shall be paid for their services not exceeding fifty dol-
lars per month for the captain or master, and thirty dollars
each per mouth for their several assistants; provided, further,
that the Board of Public Works is hereby authorized to con-
tract for a guard-boat to protect St. Mary's and St. George's
Rivers and Smith's Creek during the whole year at a cost not
exceeding seven hundred and twenty dollars for the boat,
captain and two men, and three hundred dollars for a boat
captain and one man during the closed season.

40. The salary of the commander of the State fishery force
shall be fifteen hundred dollars per annum, and he shall have