Chap. 353.—An ACT for the protection of aids to navigation, estab-
lished by the authority of the U. S. Light-house Board within the
State of Virginia.

Approved May 21, 1887.

1. Be it enacted by the general assembly of Virginia, That
any person or persons who shall moor any vessel or vessels
of any kind or name whatsoever, or any raft or any part of
a raft to any buoy, beacon, or day mark placed in the waters
of Virginia by the authority of the United States light-house
board, or shall in any manner hang on with any vessel or
raft, or any part of a raft, to any such buoy, beacon, or day
mark, or shall willfully remove, damage, or destroy any such
buoy, beacon, or day mark, or shall cut down, remove, dam-
age, or destroy any beacon or beacons erected on land in this
State by the authority of the said United States light-house
board, or through unavoidable accident, run down, drag from
its position, or in any way injure any buoy, beacon, or day
mark as aforesaid, and shall fail to give notice as soon as
practicable of having done so to the light-house inspector of
the district in which said buoy, beacon, or day mark may be
located, or to the collector of the port, or if in charge of a
pilot, to the collector of the port from which he comes, shall
for every such offence be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor,
and upon conviction thereof before any court of competent
jurisdiction, shall be punished by a fine not to exceed two
hundred dollars, or by imprisonment not to exceed three
months, or both, at the discretion of the court; one-third of
the fine in each case shall be paid to the informer, and two-
thirds thereof to the light-house board to be used in repair-
ing the said buoys and beacons.

2. That it shall be unlawful for any vesscl to anchor on
the range of any rangle lights established by the United
States light-house board, unless such anchorage is unavoida-
ble, and the master of any vessel so anchoring shall be deemed
guilty of a misdemeanor, and upon conviction thereof before
any court of competent jurisdiction, shall be punished by a
fine not to exceed fifty dollars; one-half of the fine in each
case to be paid to the informer, and one-half to the State.

3. That the cost of repairing or replacing any such buoy,
beacon, or day mark which may have been misplaced, dam-
aged, or destroyed by any vessel or raft whatsoever having
been made fast to any such buoy, beacon, or day mark, shal
when the same shall be legally ascertained, be a lien upon
such vessel or raft, and may be recovered against said vessel
or raft, and the owner or owners thereof in an action of debt
in any court of competent jurisdiction in this State.

4. Any person having charge of any raft passing any buoy,
beacon, or day mark which shall not exercise due diligence
in keeping clear of it, or if unavoidably fouling it, shall not
exercise due diligence in clearing itself without dragging
from it such buoy, beacon, or. day mark, shall be guilty of a
misdemeanor, and upon conviction shall be punished by fine
not to exceed fifty dollars.

5. That this act shall be in force from and after its passage.