Law as written, continued;
41. Every person in the navy who shall unlawfully burn or set fire to any kind of public property, not then appertaining to an enemy, pirate or rebel, being convicted of any such offence by the sentence of a court martial, shall suffer death.
42. Care shall be taken in steering and conducting every ship belonging to the United States, so that through wilfulness, negligence, or other defaults, no ship be stranded or hazarded, upon pain that such as shall be found guilty therein, be punished as the offence, by a court martial, shall be judged to deserve.
43. Every officer or other person in the ,navy, who shall knowingly make or sign a false muster, or procure the making or signing thereof, or shall aid or abet in the same, shall be cashiered and rendered incapable of further employment in the navy service of the United States, and shall forfeit all the pay and subsistence money due to him.
44. Every person guilty of mutiny, desertion or disobedience to his superior officer on shore, acting in the proper line of his duty, shall be tried by a court martial, and suffer the like punishment for every such offence, as if the same had been committed at sea, on board any ship or vessel of war in the service of the United States.
45. If any person belonging to any ship or vessel of war in the service of the United States, shall, when on shore, on duty, or otherwise, plunder, abuse, or maltreat any inhabitant, or injure his property in any way, such person shall be punished as a court martial shall direct.
46. All faults, disorders and misdemeanors which shall be committed on board any ship belonging to the United States, and which are not herein mentioned, shall be punished according to the laws and customs in such cases at sea.
47. No court martial, to be held or appointed by virtue of this act, shall consist of more than thirteen, nor less than five persons, to be composed of such commanders of squadrons, captains and sea lieuteants, as are then and there present, and as are next in seniority to the officer who presides; but no lieutenant shall sit on a court martial, held on a captain, or a junior lieutenant on that of a senior.
48. Every member of a court martial shall take the following oath: "I, A. B. do swear, that I will well and truly try and impartially determine the cause of the prisoner now to be tried, according to the rules of the navy of the United States. So help me God." Which oath shall be administered by the president to the other members, and the president himself shall be sworn by the officer next in rank; and as soon as the above oath shall have been administered, the president of the court is required to administer to the judge advocate, or person officiating as such, an oath in the following words: "I, A. B. do swear, that I will not, upon any account, at any time whatsoever, disclose or discover the vote or opinion of any particular member of this court martial, unless thereto required by an act of Congress. So help me God." And all the witnesses, before they be admitted to give evidence, shall take the following oath: "I, A. B. do swear, that the evidence I shall give in the cause now in hearing, shall be the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. So help me God."
49. The sentence of a court martial for any capital offence shall not be put in execution, until it be confirmed by the commander in chief of the fleet. And it shall be the duty of the president of every court martial, to transmit to the commander in chief of the fleet, and to the head of the Navy department, every sentence which shall be given, with a summary of the evidence and proceedings thereon, as soon as may be.
50. The commander in chief of the fleet, for the time being, shall have power to pardon and remit any sentence of death, in consequence of any of the aforementioned articles.
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