Section 97. Miscellaneous provisions

1. All actions and proceedings by the
  board of commissioners to enforce any liability or to recover any fines,
  penalties or forfeitures given by law to such officers, or to the  board
  of  commissioners, may be brought and prosecuted by such officers in the
  name of the board. Whenever, by law, any notice is required to be  given
  by  such  officers,  or  board,  a notice signed by the president of the
  board for the time being, and containing a copy of the provisions  under
  or  pursuant  to  which  such  notice  is  given,  shall be a sufficient
  compliance with the requirements of the law in respect to the giving  of
  such  notice,  provided the commissioners ratify and adopt the same by a
  majority vote, within twenty days after the giving of such notice.  This
  subdivision  shall  not  apply to any notice required to be given in the
  progress of any action or special legal proceedings.
    2. It shall be the duty of the commissioners, out of any  funds  which
  they  may  obtain  to  provide rewards to encourage the prompt relief of
  disabled vessels and the speedy report of the  same,  and  generally  to
  encourage  not  only  the  performance  of  duty, but efforts to relieve
  vessels and passengers from distress or suffering.
    3. The master of every vessel boarded by a pilot shall give such pilot
  on boarding, an account of the draught of such vessel.  If  the  draught
  given  is less than the actual draught, the master shall forfeit the sum
  of twenty-five dollars, which may be sued for and recovered in an action
  commenced in the name of the board of commissioners.
    4. It shall be the duty of every branch and deputy pilot belonging  to
  the  port  to  use  his  utmost endeavors to hail and to interrogate the
  master of every vessel he shall discover entering the port in  reference
  to  all matters necessary to enable such pilot to determine whether such
  vessel is subject to quarantine.
    5. If from the answers obtained from such inquiries  it  shall  appear
  that  such  vessel  came  from  a  port  where any quarantinable disease
  existed at the time of her departure, or that any case of  such  disease
  shall  have  occurred  on  board  during  the  passage,  the pilot shall
  immediately direct the master of the vessel to proceed to and anchor  at
  the   quarantine   anchorage.  In  other  cases  of  vessels  liable  to
  quarantine, he shall direct the masters thereof to proceed and anchor at
  such point as shall be assigned by the  federal  health  officer  as  an
  anchorage for such vessels.
    6.  The  fees  for the piloting of vessels over intermediate distances
  within the waters subject to pilotage regulations under this article and
  the amounts to be paid for detention of said pilots shall be established
  by the board of commissioners.
    7. A pilot who is carried to sea  on  a  vessel  by  reason  of  heavy
  weather  or  any  other  cause shall receive compensation of two hundred
  dollars a day, his expenses shall be paid, and he shall be provided with
  first class return transportation at the  earliest  possible  time.  The
  compensation  and  costs shall be paid by the vessel, its owner, master,
  charterer or agent.
    8. The master, owner, or consignee of any ship, or vessel, to whom any
  pilot shall have rendered, upon the master's request any  extra  service
  for  the preservation of such ship or vessel while in distress shall pay
  such pilot, in addition to the pilotage fees provided by  this  article,
  such  amount  for  extra  services  as  the board of commissioners shall
  determine to be a reasonable reward.
    9. Pilotage fees as provided in this article shall be payable  by  the
  master,  owner,  consignee,  or agent entering or clearing the vessel at
  the port of  New  York,  who  shall  be  jointly  and  severally  liable
  therefor.