6. Vessels of the United States Shipping Board sold to a citizen of the United States.

7. Steamboats employed in a river and bay of the United States and owned wholly or in part by an alien resident within the United States. 8. Yachts owned by citizens and employed exclusively for pleasure. These, although foreign built, may be licensed to proceed from one domestic port to another so long as they do not trade or carry passengers.

7. Incidents of Enrollment or Registration.- The law provides that vessels registered pursuant to law and no others (except those qualified according to law for carrying on the coasting or fishing trade) shall be deemed vessels of the United States and entitled to the benefits and privileges pertaining to such vessels. When a vessel ceases to be wholly owned by citizens of the United States or a corporation created under the laws of the United States, control of which is held by citizens, or ceases to be commanded by a citizen of the United States, she forfeits her rights, benefits and privileges of a vessel of the United States. Pilots and officers having charge of a watch must be citizens of the United States.

A capital distinction to be borne in mind is that between vessels entitled to engage in coastwise trade and those not so entitled. No vessel of foreign registry may engage in that trade. No foreign-built vessel of American registry, with certain exceptions,2 may engage in that trade under penalty of a fine, although it is within the power of the Secretary of Commerce to waive the imposition of such fine, and this has sometimes been done where an emergency arising out of exceptional circumstances has made it necessary for an unauthorized vessel to trade between ports of the United States. Vessels entitled to engage in the coastwise trade are those which, being built within and owned by citizens of the United States, are enrolled for that trade. Vessels owned by corporations may not engage in the coasting trade unless 75 per cent. of the interest therein is owned by citizens.

The coasting trade consists of trade between continental ports of the United States, either directly or by way of a foreign port; that is to say, if you depart from New York with merchandise

2 The exceptions are foreign-built vessels purchased from the United States Shipping Board and foreign-built wrecks repaired in the United States as indicated in § 6, supra, this chapter. Also all foreign-built vessels admitted to American Registry, owned on February 1, 1920, by citizens so long as they continue to be so owned.

for Miami, you are trading between American ports, even though you may touch at Bermuda en route. The test is whether you trade between ports of the United States as part of a single voyage, irrespective of nationality of the ship. The character of the voyage, whether foreign or domestic, is determined by its terminus (Tabor v. U. S., 1 Story 1). Thus a vessel bound from New York to Yokohama, via San Francisco, would be upon a foreign voyage. Such a vessel, flying a foreign flag, could not discharge any of her passengers or cargo at San Francisco.

Trade between the east and west coasts via the Panama Canal or Cape Horn is coastwise. Trade between ports of the United States and those of Hawaii, Porto Rico and Alaska is coasting trade, though the Shipping Board may issue permits to foreign vessels to carry passengers between Hawaii and the Pacific coast until February 1, 1922. Trade between ports of the United States and those of the Philippine Islands is by statute not coasting until February 1, 1922. Thereafter it is governed by Sec. 21 of the Merchant Marine Act, which will be found in the Appendix. Trade between ports of the United States and those of the Panama Canal Zone is not coasting.

By the coasting trade is not meant the mere putting in of a vessel at a port of the United States after leaving another port for bunkers or supplies (which is not forbidden) but trading between such ports, e. g., the carriage of cargo and passengers from one such port and their discharge at another.

8. How Obtained. This registration or enrollment is obtained by proof of the collector that the vessel was built within the United States, or otherwise meets conditions mentioned; and that no foreigner is interested in her (Rev. St. §4142); her size, characteristics and other points of identification are shown by certificates of the master carpenter under whose direction she was built, and surveyors appointed for the purpose, in accordance with R. S. 4147-4153; security is given that the certificate obtained shall be solely used for the ship, and thereupon the collector issues in statutory form his certificate of registration or enrollment, as the case may be (Rev. St. §§4155, 4319).

The title to the ship may vest in one or more individuals or a corporation. In either case the residence or domicile of the owner is important. The law considers that for purposes of jurisdiction

the ship is a part of the territory of the state or country in which the owner resides, and she continues for many purposes to be subject to its laws wherever she sails (Crapo v. Kelly, 16 Wall. 610; The Hamilton, 207 U. S. 398). In the case of Crapo v. Kelly, just cited, the ship Arctic, registered at Fairhaven, Massachusetts, belonged to a firm of owners, residing and doing business in that state, who had become insolvent. The insolvent court of Massachusetts undertook to include the vessel among the assets of the owners within its jurisdiction, for the benefit of creditors. The vessel arrived at New York and was attached by a creditor of the owners residing there. Upon extended consideration, the Supreme Court held:

This vessel, the Arctic, was upon the high seas at the time of the assignment (for the benefit of creditors). The status at that time decides the question of jurisdiction. . . . We hold that she was subject to the disposition made by the laws of Massachusetts and that for the purpose and to the extent that title passed to the assignees, the vessel remained a portion of the territory of that state.

The ship's registry or enrollment, therefore, fixes her home port and she will be considered as belonging to the state in which such port is located and as foreign to all other states and countries. Ordinarily she is liable to taxation as personal property only in the state in which her home port is situated, but this is subject to the qualification that her situs as personal property is, for purposes of taxation, governed by the same rules applicable to other personal effects. The general rule is that the situs of personal property is the domicile of the owner, and a ship will be liable to taxation in the state where the owner resides, irrespective of the location of her home port as shown on the ship's documents. Thus in So. Pac. Co. v. Ky., 222 'U. S. 63, a corporation organized in Kentucky, owned a number of vessels enrolled at New York. They were held taxable in Kentucky.

The law further requires that every change in the title, com

While a vessel is part of the territory of her home jurisdiction for jurisdictional purposes, the doctrine of her territoriality does not extend to treating her as part of the soil for all purposes. Thus the Supreme Court has held that foreign seamen brought to the United States to work on an American ship engaged in foreign commerce, were not engaged "to perform labor within the United States" within the meaning of the contract labor law. (Scharrenberg v. Dollar S. S. Co., 245 U. S. 122.)

mand or structure of the ship shall be promptly reported and placed for record in the Collector's office, so that at any time her present status, the name of her commander and entire past history may be fully shown upon its books, and the Collector will furnish on request an abstract of the title which his records disclose. This abstract, of course, becomes important whenever the ship is sold or used as security, although it will not show anything in regard to maritime liens upon it since these are, in their nature, secret. Under present practice the owners of a ship usually incorporate. Such corporations take the complete title and are treated as the sole owner in all respects. There is nothing in the admiralty law which differentiates corporations from other owners. It is also popular to incorporate as "single ship companies" and in this way a double protection against liabilities in excess of the amount invested may be obtained.

9. Recording of American-built Foreign Ships.- Vessels of foreign ownership built in the United States may be measured and recorded in the office of the Collector for the district in which they are built and a certificate of record issued. The advantage of having this is in having the official record already made in case the vessel subsequently becomes the property of citizens and entitled to registry. Changes of name and master of recorded vessels must be endorsed on the certificate of record and reported to the Collector at the port of record (Rev. St. §§4180-4184).

10. Name.- A new vessel is registered under the name selected by her owners and must continue to bear that name which is required to be painted upon her bows, stern, pilot house and lifeboats in letters of specified size,- unless permitted to change it. By Act of Congress approved February 19, 1920, changes of name may be made by the Commissioner of Navigation, United States Department of Commerce, "when in his judgment there shall be sufficient cause for so doing." Before authorizing a change of name, the Commissioner requires "such evidence as to age, condition, where built, and pecuniary liability of the vessel as may be deemed necessary to prevent injury to public or private interests," including the interests of the vessel's creditors. The purpose of these requirements is to prevent imposition upon the public by masquerading old, worn-out vessels under new names, and to prevent the loss of a vessel's identity, in fraud of her creditors, by changing her name.

II. Sale. The sale of a ship is usually evidenced by a bill of sale on a government form which will be furnished by the collectors. It is essential that it should include a copy of the last registry or enrollment and licenses, executed in the presence of two witnesses and acknowledged before a notary public. Mortgages may be made upon similar forms and the statute provides that, "No sale, conveyance, or mortgage which, at the time such sale, conveyance, or mortgage is made, includes a vessel of the United States, or any portion thereof, as the whole or any part of the property sold, conveyed, or mortgaged shall be valid, in respect to such vessel, against any person other than the grantor or mortgagor, his heir or devisee, and a person having actual notice thereof, until such bill of sale, conveyance, or mortgage is recorded in the office of the collector of customs of the port of documentation of such vessel." (Ship Mortgage Act, 1920, Subsection C (a). See Appendix, Merchant Marine Act, 1920, §30.) While a prudent man will invariably evidence the sale of a ship by a written instrument, this is not essential to the validity of the sale, if the common law essentials to a sale of personal propertydelivery or payment, in whole or in part, or both,— are present. The requirement of the statute (Rev. St. §4170; Ship Mortgage Act 1920, Subsection H; See Merchant Marine Act 1920, §30) that a bill of sale be given, containing a copy of the registry or enrollment, and recorded in the Collector's Office, is for the purpose of giving notice to the world of the transfer. Without these formalities, the sale is valid as against the grantor and persons having actual notice only; not as against any other persons claiming an interest in the ship. If an American vessel be sold to an alien without obtaining the Shipping Board's approval and without recording the transfer, the vessel is liable for forfeiture.

12. Transfer of Flag and Sales to Foreigners.- The Merchant Marine Act of June 5, 1920 (see Appendix), provides that no American vessel shall be sold or transferred to any one not a citizen or placed under foreign registry without obtaining the approval of the Shipping Board. Any vessel transferred in violation of this provision is subject to forfeiture and fine. An American vessel may not be sold by order of a district court of the United States in a suit in rem in admiralty to any person not an American citizen.