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shall, in such case, deliver the license to the owner or master of the vessel.

This regulation is not to be construed to change existing R. S., 4328. forms except in so far as to enable owners to procure enrolment or license, or renewal thereof, without returning their vessels to their home ports.

ART. 44. Yachts used and employed exclusively as pleasure vessels, otherwise entitled to be documented, may' be licensed to proceed from port to port within the United States without entering or clearing and to foreign ports without clearing at the custom-house. Such license will

be in form Cat. No. 544.

Licenses will be issued to yachts built in the United States and owned by American citizens; yachts or pleasure vessels of greater burden than 5 tons, sailing without documents, become subject to disabilities.

R. S, 4214; T.D.

5615.

T. D. 9431.

Act Jan. 16,

Yachts of 20 tons and upwards must also be enrolled. ART. 45. No bond shall be required on the licensing of yachts; no licensed yacht shall engage in any trade, nor 1895. in any way violate the revenue laws of the United States; and every such yacht shall comply with the laws in all respects.

T.D.2727

T.D 5616.

ART. 46. Licensed yachts are required by law to use the RS. 4215. signal prescribed by the Secretary of the Navy as follows: "The American ensign, substituting in the field a white foul anchor, surrounded by thirteen white stars in a circle, in lieu of a star for each State." This ensign shall not be carried by yachts of foreign ownership or build. Any vessel owned by a citizen of the United States can carry the United States flag. The Union Jack of yachts should be T.D.9426. made up of horizontal rows of stars. Documented yachts T.D.5615. are required to have their names and ports placed on some conspicuous part of their hulls. Yachts duly licensed shall T.D.5615. not transport merchandise nor carry passengers for pay.

For any violation of the provisions of the law under which they are licensed yachts are liable to seizure and forfeiture.

Masters, or other persons in command of yachts, must exhibit their marine documents on demand of any officer of customs, and submit to such examination as he shall see fit to make for the due protection of the public rev

enue.

Copies of licenses issued to yachts must be duly transmitted to the Commissioner of Navigation.

T. D. 10292.

Commissions may be issued by the Secretary of the T. D. 5615, Treasury to licensed yachts belonging to regularly organ

Cir. Feb. 10, 1897.

R. S., 4169,4170, 4174.

R S., 4160,4162, 4323.

ized and incorporated yacht clubs to identify them and their owners during foreign voyages.

Such commissions will be regarded as conclusive evidence of nationality. On the return of such vessels to the United States they are required to make entry at the custom-house and surrender their commission.

Yachts belonging to a regularly organized yacht club of any foreign nation which shall extend like privileges to the yachts of the United States shall have the privilege of entering or leaving any port of the United States without entering or clearing at the custom-house thereof or paying tonnage tax, but the privileges of this article shall not extend to any yacht built outside of the United States and owned, chartered, or used by a citizen of the United States, unless such ownership or charter was acquired prior to February 5, 1897. Such yachts acquired after the date specified are subject to tonnage tax in the United States in the same manner as vessels engaged in trade.

Section 11 of the act entitled "An act to abolish certain fees for official services to American vessels, and to amend the laws relating to shipping commissioners, seamen and owners of vessels, and for other purposes," approved June nineteenth, eighteen hundred and eighty-six, so far as the same exempts any yacht built outside of the United States and owned, chartered, or used by a citizen of the United States from the payment of tonnage taxes, has been repealed.

§ 2. SURRENDER AND EXCHANGE OF DOCUMENTS. ART. 47. Certificates of permanent registry are to be surrendered when a vessel is sold in whole or in part; when a vessel has been lost or taken by an enemy, or burnt, or broken up, or otherwise prevented from returning to the port to which she belongs; in case a vessel is altered in form or burden by being lengthened or built upon, or from one denomination to another, by the mode or method of rigging or fitting; and in case of the issue of enrollment and license, or license, for the coasting trade or fisheries.

ART. 48. Certificates of temporary registry are to be surrendered to the collector of the district where the vessel belongs within ten days after her arrival; and in all cases in which the surrender of permanent certificates is required.

By the term "arrival" is to be understood the volun

tary arrival of the vessel within her home district to which she was destined in the regular course of her employment. If, for instance, the vessel is forced by stress of weather into her home district while on her voyage for another port of destination, or stops there on such voyage to take in provisions or water, or take on board passengers or baggage, such not being her usual employment, it is not an "arrival" within the meaning of the law, and the master is not obliged, in consequence thereof, to surrender his certificate of temporary registry and take out. a certificate of permanent registry.

ART. 49. On the sale or transfer, in whole or in part, of R.S., 4172. a registered vessel to a subject of a foreign country, even if only in trust or confidence, the certificate of registry must, if the vessel be within a district of the United States, be delivered to the collector within seven days after such purchase or transfer. But if such sale or transfer happen while the vessel is in a foreign port or place, or at sea, the master shall deliver the certificate of registry, within eight days after his arrival within any district of the United States, to the collector. And if such sale or transfer shall not be so made known, the vessel, together with her tackle, apparel, and furniture, will be subject to forfeiture; this forfeiture, however, does not attach to any share of such vessel owned by a citizen of the United States who was ignorant of the sale or transfer.

A mortgage of a docu- T. D. 4887.

mented vessel to an alien is not prohibited by law.

ART. 50. Forfeiture of vessel and cargo is imposed by R.S., 4337. law in case a vessel enrolled or licensed for coasting trade by sea proceeds on a foreign voyage without first surrendering her enrolment and license and taking out a register.

A license must be surrendered to the collector of a dis- R. S., 4325, 4326. trict within three days after its expiration, or if the vessel

be at sea at that time within three days from her first arrival within a district; or if she be sold out of the district within three days after the arrival of the master within any district.

If the master neglect or refuse to surrender the license as above required, he shall forfeit $50.

When a license is surrendered by reason of expiration, and a new license taken out, the enrolment need not be surrendered except as required in article 53.

ART. 51. Whenever the master or owner of a vessel shall surrender the certificate of registry, enrolment, or license of such vessel, the collector shall thereupon cancel

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any bond given at the time of the granting of such document. If the document be delivered to the collector of any other district, he shall give the master or owner a receipt therefor in the form required.

ART. 52. All marine documents surrendered to collectors will be transmitted by mail for cancellation directly to the Commissioner of Navigation, and if the document be delivered to the collector of a district other than that in which it was granted, the Commissioner will cause due notice to be given to the collector by whom it was issued.

ART. 53. When a vessel, once registered, enrolled, or licensed, in pursuance of law, shall, in whole or in part, be sold or transferred to a citizen, such vessel must be documented anew; otherwise she ceases to be a vessel of the United States. In every such sale or transfer there must be an instrument in writing, in the nature of a bill of sale, which shall recite at length her marine document existing at the time of the execution of the bill of sale, or her latest document, and also set forth the part of the vessel owned by each person selling, and the part conveyed to each person purchasing.

A proper bill of sale being produced to the collector, the former document surrendered, and the regulations governing the issue of marine documents complied with in other respects, a new document may issue, which must, in all cases, cite the former document by number, date, and port of issue, and quote from it the description and tonnage of the vessel.

At the time application is made for the new document, the former document of the vessel must be surrendered to the collector to whom the application for such new document is made. If on the sale or transfer the former document be not delivered up, the owners shall forfeit $500, to be recovered with costs of suit, unless they testify on oath to its loss or destruction.

ART. 54. A registered vessel which shall have been sold or transferred, in whole or in part, to a citizen while such vessel is without the limits of the United States, shall, on her first arrival thereafter, be entitled to all the privileges of an American vessel if a new document be obtained within three days after the entry of the vessel in a port of the United States.

ART. 55. A bill of sale, mortgage, hypothecation, or conveyance of any vessel, in whole or in part, is not valid against any person other than the grantor or mortgagor, unless recorded in the office of the collector of customs

4479, 5122, 5785

T. D. 1195, 4278,

1, 9182.

where the vessel is documented, and collectors are required to record all such papers and all evidences of the satisfaction of liens, and to keep an index of such records, alphabetically arranged, and to furnish certificates setting forth the material facts of any existing bill of sale or other such paper. All such records will be open to public inspection. Before being recorded a bill of sale, mortgage, hypothecation, conveyance, or satisfaction of mortgage, or other incumbrance upon any vessel, must have been duly acknowledged before a notary public or other officer authorized to take acknowledgments of deeds. ART. 56. Any enrolled and licensed vessel may be regis- R.S., 4322, 4323 tered, and any registered vessel enrolled and licensed or licensed upon the surrender of her documents to the collector of any district; but enrolment and license must not be granted to any vessel having on board merchandise brought from a foreign port until it be wholly unladen. and the duties paid or secured.

When the vessel shall be in any other district than the one to which she belongs, the collector of such district shall make the exchange on the application of the master, and upon his making oath that the property remains as expressed in her documents. The collector to whom the document is thus surrendered must transmit the same to the Commissioner of Navigation and the document granted in lieu thereof must, within 10 days after the arrival of the vessel within the district to which she belongs, be delivered to the collector thereof for cancellation, under the penalty of $100 for nondelivery.

T. D. 3267.

ART. 57. On proof that any vessel has been sold and R.S., 4164, 4329. transferred by process of law, and that her marine documents are retained by the former owners, the collector of the district to which the vessel belongs may, with the approval of the Commissioner of Navigation, grant new documents, but the new owners shall not be required to produce and surrender the canceled documents. The issue of the new document does not remove the liability of the holders for failure to surrender the former one. ART. 58. Whenever the certificate of registry, enrol- R.S., 4325, 4326. ment, or license of any vessel shall be lost, destroyed, or mislaid, and the master or other person having charge or command thereof shall make oath (Cat. No. 548) to such fact before the collector of the district where such vessel shall first arrive after such loss, he shall issue a new document in lieu thereof, reciting that it was issued in place of the one lost or destroyed, as the case may be.

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