Proclamation 4028—National Safe Boating Week, 1971

More Americans each year are choosing boating as the ideal way to relax with their families and friends. All too often, however, what starts out as a pleasant cruise ends in tragedy because boatmen fail to teach their families to swim, fail to properly equip their craft with life preservers and other protective devices, or fail to instruct their passengers on the use of such devices prior to a boating cruise.

Every year, about 1,300 lives are lost in boating accidents. These fatalities can be reduced and boating made more pleasurable if those who engage in it will emphasize boating safety rules.

Recognizing the need for that emphasis, the Congress, by a joint resolution approved June 4, 1958 (72 Stat. 179), has requested the President to proclaim annually the week which includes July 4 as National Safe Boating Week.

Now, Therefore, I, Richard Nixon, President of the United States of America, do hereby designate the week beginning July 4, 1971, as National Safe Boating Week.

I urge all who use our waterways to acquire those skills essential to their own safety and that of others and to apply them carefully.

I also invite the Governors of the States and the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico to provide for the observance of this week.

In Witness Whereof, I have hereunto set my hand this 28th day of January, in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred and seventy-one, and of the Independence of the United States of America the one hundred and ninety-fifth.

RICHARD NIXON