3°& 4° GULIELMI IV. Cap.55.
Registry and Certificate made and granted in any Port or Place to which any such Ship or Vessel does not properly belong shall be utterly null and void to all Intents and Purposes, unless the Officers aforesaid shall be specially authorized and empowered to make such Registry and grant such Certificate in any other Port by an Order in Writing under the Hands of the Commissioners of His Majesty's Customs, which Order the said Commissioners are hereby authorized and empowered to issue if they shall see fit; and at every Port where Registry shall be made in pursuance of this Act a Book shall be kept by the Collector and Controller, in which all the Particulars contained in the Form of the Certificate of the Registry herein-before directed to be used shall be duly entered ; and every Registry shall be numbered in progression, beginning such progressive Numeration at the Commencement of each and every Year ; and such Collector and Controller shall forthwith, or within One Month at the farthest, transmit to the Commissioners of His Majesty's Customs a true and exact Copy, together with the Number, of every Certificate which shall be by them so granted.
XI. And be it further enacted, That every Ship or Vessel shall be deemed to belong to some Port at or near to which some or one of the Owners, who shall make and subscribe the Declaration required by this Act before Registry be made, shall reside; and whenever such Owner or Owners shall have transferred all his or their Share or Shares in such Ship or Vessel, the same shall be registered de novo before such Ship or Vessel shall sail or depart from the Port to which she shall then belong, or from any other Port which shall be in the same Part of the United Kingdom, or the same Colony, Plantation, Island, or Territory as the said Port shall be in : Provided always, that if the Owner or Owners of such Ship or Vessel cannot in sufficient Time comply with the Requisites of this Act, so that Registry may be made before it shall be necessary for such Ship or Vessel to sail or depart upon another Voyage, it shall be lawful for the Collector and Controller of the Port where such Ship or Vessel may then be to certify upon the Back of the existing Certificate of Registry of such Ship or Vessel, that the same is to remain in force for the Voyage upon which the said Ship or Vessel is then about to sail or depart: Provided also, that if any Ship or Vessel shall be built in any of the Colonies, Plantations, Islands, or Territories in Asia, Africa, or America, to His Majesty belonging, for Owners residing in the United Kingdom, and the Master of such Ship or Vessel, or the Agent for the Owner or Owners thereof, shall have produced to the Collector and Controller of the Port at or near to which such Ship or Vessel was built, the Certificate of the Builder required by this Act, and shall have made and subscribed a Declaration before such Collector and Controller of the Names and Descriptions of the principal Owners of such Ship or Vessel, and that she is the identical Ship or Vessel mentioned in such Certificate of the Builder, and that no Foreigner, to the best of his Knowledge and Belief, has any Interest therein ; the Collector and Controller of such Port shall cause such Ship or Vessel to be surveyed and measured in like Manner as is directed for the Purpose of registering any Ship or Vessel, and shall give the Master of such Ship or Vessel a Certificate under their Hands and
