|
|
Notice to be given by the commissioners of the revenue that vessels belonging to his Majesty’s subjects be registered as herein.
|
XXXI. And whereas many foreign built ships and vessels belonging to, or pretended to belong to his Majesty’s subjects, have by fraudulent contrivances, and under false pretences obtained registers, by virtue of which such ships and vessels are at present used and employed contrary to the laws now in force, in the trade to and from the colonies, plantations, islands, or territories in Asia, Africa, and America to Great Britain belonging, and it is therefore expedient and necessary for detecting the frauds at present committed, and for preventing the same in future, that all registers heretofore granted, should be called in and delivered up to the proper officer to be cancelled, and that new registers of the form herein described, should be granted in lieu thereof in the manner herein directed, to all such ships or vessels as shall appear to be legally entitled to the same: And whereas it is expedient to specify and direct at what time and in what manner all other ships and vessels which are not now by law required to be registered, should hereafter be registered according to the intent and meaning of this act, and should receive certificates according to the form, and in the manner herein directed; be it therefore, enacted, That the commissioners of the revenue be, and they are hereby authorized and required to give publick notice by all such ways and means as they shall judge most proper and effectual, that within a certain reasonable time or times as may be best adapted to the distance of the parts to which the ships and vessels owned by his Majesty’s subjects shall respectively belong, to be by them specified and published, certificates of registry according to the form herein described, will be ready to be granted in manner herein directed to all such ships and vessels as shall be legally entitled thereunto, and that the owner or owners of every such ship or vessel not heretofore required to be registered, shall on the first arrival of every such ship or vessel, at the port or place to which the belongs, within the time assigned in the notice herein directed, cause such ship or vessel to be registered, and shall obtain a certificate thereof, in manner herein directed, and that the owner or owners of any ship or vessel which shall have been heretofore registered, shall in like manner upon the first arrival of such ship or vessel at the port or place to which she belongs, within the time assigned in the notice herein directed, cause such ship or vessel to be again registered, and obtain a certificate thereof, according to the form, and in the manner herein described, and shall then deliver up the register before granted, if the same be not lost or mislaid, and if the same shall have been lost or mislaid, shall make oath before the proper officer appointed to register, and grant certificates of registry, who is hereby authorized and required to administer the same, that such register has been lost or mislaid, and shall give security in manner herein directed in the case of registers and certificates de novo.
|
