NAMES OF SHIPS

The act of congress of December 31, 1792, concerning the registering and recording of ships or vessels, provides, Section 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, Section 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.