names of ships

NAMES OF SHIPS. The act of congress of December 31, 1792, concerning the 
registering and recording of ships or vessels, provides, 
     Sec. 3. That every ship or vessel, hereafter to be registered, (except 
as is hereinafter provided,) shall be registered by the collector of the 
district in which shall be comprehended the port to which such ship or 
vessel shall belong at the time of her registry, which port shall be deemed 
to be that at or nearest to which the owner, if there be but one, or, if 
more than one, the husband, or acting and managing owner of such ship or 
vessel, usually resides. And the name of the said ship or vessel, and of the 
port to which she shall so belong, shall be painted on her stern, on a black 
ground, in white letters, of not less than three inches in length. And if 
any ship or vessel of the United States shall be found without having her 
name, and the name of the port to which she belongs, painted in manner 
aforesaid, the owner or owners shall forfeit fifty dollars; one half to the 
person, giving the information thereof, the other half to the use of the 
United States. 1 Story's L. U. S. 269. 
     2. And by the act of February 18, 1793, it is directed, 
     Sec. 11. That every licensed ship or vessel shall have her name, and 
the port to which she belongs, painted on her stern, in the manner as is 
provided for registered ships or vessels; and if any licensed ship or vessel 
be found without such painting, the owner or owners thereof shall pay twenty 
dollars. 1 Story's L. U. S. 290. 
     3. By a resolution of congress, approved, March. 3, 1819, it is 
resolved, that all the ships of the navy of the United States, now building, 
or hereafter to be built, shall be named by the secretary of the navy, under 
the direction of the president of the United States, according to the 
following rule, to wit: Those of the first class, shall be called after the 
states of this Union those of the second class, after the rivers and those 
of the third class, after the principal cities and towns; taking care that 
no two vessels in the navy shall bear the same name. 3 Story's L. U. S. 
1757. 
     4. When a ship is pledged, as in the contract of bottomry, it is 
indispensable that its name should be properly stated; when it is merely the 
place in which the pledge is to be found, as in respondentia, it should also 
be stated, but a mistake in this case would not be fatal. 2 Bouv. Inst. n. 
1255.