# United States Statutes at Large/Volume 2/7th Congress/2nd Session/Chapter 18

Chap. XVIII.—An Act in addition to the act, intituled “An act concerning the registering and recording of ships and vessels of the United States,” and to the act, intituled “An act to regulate the collection of duties on imports and tonnage.”
Act of July 31, 1789, ch. 5. Act of December 31, 1792, ch. 1. Act of March 2, 1799, ch. 22. Penalty on forging sea letters, passports, &c. or using such. Officers disqualified thereby.Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That if any person shall knowingly make, utter, or publish any false sea letter, Mediterranean passport, or certificate of registry, or shall knowingly avail himself of any such Mediterranean passport, sea letter, or certificate of registry, he shall forfeit and pay a sum not exceeding five thousand dollars, to be recovered by action of debt, in the name of the United States, in any court of competent jurisdiction; and if an officer of the United States, he shall for ever thereafter be rendered incapable of holding any office of trust or profit, under the authority of the United States.
​Comptroller of the treasury to cause blank certificates of registry to be provided with secret marks. Which are to be exchanged [gratis] for old certificates of registry after the 31st December, eighteen hundred and three.Sec. 2. And be it further enacted, That it shall be the duty of the comptroller of the treasury, to cause to be provided, blank certificates of registry, with such water and other secret marks as he may direct, which marks shall be made known only to the collectors and their deputies, and to the consuls or commercial agents of the United States; and from and after the thirty-first day of December next, no certificate of registry shall be issued, except such as shall have been provided and marked as aforesaid; and the ships or vessels of the United States, which shall have been duly registered as such, shall be entitled to new certificates of registry (gratis) in exchange for their old certificates of registry: and it shall be the duty of the respective collectors on the departure of any such ship or vessel, after the said thirty-first day of December, from the district to which such ship or vessel shall belong, to issue a new certificate accordingly, and to retain and deface the former certificate.
A duly registered vessel sold out of the United States to a citizen, to have the benefit of a vessel of the U. States under certain provisions.Sec. 3. And be it further enacted, That when any ship or vessel, which has been, or which shall be registered pursuant to any law of the United States, shall, whilst such ship or vessel is without the limits of the United States, be sold or transferred in whole or in part to a citizen or citizens of the said States, such ship or vessel, on her first arrival in the United States thereafter, shall be entitled to all the privileges and benefits of a ship or vessel of the United States: Provided, that all the requisites of law, in order to the registry of ships or vessels, shall be complied with, and a new certificate of registry obtained for such ship or vessel, within three days from the time at which the master or other person having the charge or command of such ship or vessel, is required to make his final report upon her first arrival afterwards as aforesaid, agreeably to the thirtieth section of the act, passed on the second day of March, one thousand seven hundred and ninety-nine, intituled “An act to regulate the collection of duties on imports and tonnage.” And it shall be lawful to pay to the collector of the district within which such ship or vessel may arrive as aforesaid, the duties imposed by law on the tonnage of such ship or vessel, at any time within three days from the time at which the master or other person having the charge or command of such ship or vessel, is required to make his final report as aforesaid, any thing to the contrary in any former law notwithstanding: Provided always, that nothing herein contained shall be construed to repeal, or in any wise change the provisions, restrictions or limitations of any former act or acts, excepting so far as the same shall be repugnant to the provisions of this act.
Power of the Secretary of the Treasury to remove disabilities, extended.Sec. 4. And be it further enacted, That the power vested in the Secretary of the Treasury, to remove disabilities incurred under the act to which this is a supplement, and under the act, intituled “An act for enrolling and licensing ships or vessels, to be employed in the coasting trade and fisheries, and for regulating the same,” shall extend to the remission of any foreign duties, which shall have been or shall be incurred by reason of such disabilities.
Approved, March 2, 1803.