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 authority of the United States 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, damage or destroy any beacon or beacons erected on land in this Commonwealth by the authority of the United States 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 harbor master or other legal manager of the port or to the United States Coast Guard within the district in which such buoy, beacon or day mark may be located, shall for every such offense be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and upon conviction thereof, shall be punished by a fine not to exceed $200 or by imprisonment not to exceed three months or both; one-third of the fine in each case shall be paid to the informer and two-thirds thereof to the lighthouse board to be used in repairing the buoys and beacons.

Any person having charge of any raft passing any buoy, beacon or day mark who shall not exercise due diligence in keeping clear of it, or if unavoidably fouling it shall not exercise due diligence in clearing it 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.

Code 1950, § 62-175; 1968, c. 659.