CONVEYANCE OF VESSELS

CONVEYANCE OF VESSELS. The act of congress, approved the 29th July, 1850,  
entitled an act to provide for recording the conveyances of vessels and for 
other purposes, enacts that no bill of sale, mortgage, hypothecation or 
conveyance of any vessel, or part of any vessel of the United States, shall 
be valid against any person, other than the grantor or mortgagor, his heirs 
and devisees, and persons having actual notice thereof, unless such, bill of 
sale, mortgage, hypothecation or conveyance be recorded in the office of the 
collector of the customs, where such vessel is registered or enrolled. 
Provided, that the lien by bottomry on any vessel, created during her 
voyage, by a loan of money or materials necessary to repair or enable such 
vessel to prosecute a voyage, shall not lose its priority or be in any way 
affected by the provisions of the act. See. 2 enacts, that the collectors of 
the customs shall record all such bills of sale, mortgages, hypothecations 
or conveyances, and also all certificates for discharging and cancelling any 
such conveyances, in a book or books to be kept for that purpose, in the 
order of their reception; noting in said book or books, and also on the bill 
of sale, mortgage, hypothecation or conveyance, the time when the same was 
received; and shall certify on the bill of sale, mortgage, hypothecation or 
conveyance, or certificate of discharge or cancellation, the number of the 
book and page where recorded and shall receive, for so recording such 
instrument of conveyance or certificate of discharge, fifty cents. Sec. 3 
enacts, that the collectors of the customs shall keep an index of such 
records, inserting alphabetically the names of the vendor or mortgagor, and 
of the vendee or mortgagee, and shall permit said index and books of 
'records to be inspected during office hours, under such reasonable 
regulations as they may establish and shall, when required, furnish to any 
person a certificate setting forth the names of the owners of any vessel 
registered or enrolled, the parts or proportions owned by each, if inserted 
in the register or enrollment, and also the material facts of any existing 
bill of sale, mortgage, hypothecation, or other incumbrance upon such 
vessel, recorded since the issuing of the last register or enrollment; viz. 
the date, amount of such incumbrance, and from and to whom or in whose favor 
made. The collector shall receive for each such certificate one dollar. Sec. 
4. By this section it is enacted, that the collectors of the customs shall 
furnish certified copies of such records, on the receipt of fifty cents for 
each bill of sale, mortgage, or other conveyance. Sect. 5. This section 
provides that the owner or agent of the owner of any vessel of the United 
States, applying to a collector of the customs for a register or enrollment 
of a vessel, shall, in addition to the oath now prescribed by law, set 
forth, in the oath of ownership, the part or proportion of such vessel 
belonging to each owner, and the same shall be inserted in the register of 
enrollment; and that all bills of sale of vessels registered or enrolled 
shall set forth the part of the vessel owned by each person selling, and the 
part conveyed to each person purchasing.