United States Statutes at Large/Volume 1/5th Congress/1st Session/Chapter 5
[Expired.]
Chap. Ⅴ.—An Act in addition to an act, entitled “An act concerning the registering and recording of Ships and Vessels.”
Act of Dec. 31, 1792, ch. 1.
Vessels of U. States captured and condemned under any foreign power, or sold to a foreigner, shall not receive a new register.
Proviso.Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That no ship or vessel which has been, or shall be registered, pursuant to any law of the United States, and which hereafter shall be seized, or captured and condemned under the authority of any foreign power, or that shall by sale become the property of a foreigner or foreigners, shall, after the passing of this act, be entitled to, or capable of receiving, a new register, notwithstanding such ship or vessel should afterwards become American property; but that all such ships and vessels shall be taken and considered, to all intents and purposes, as foreign vessels: Provided, that nothing in this act contained, shall extend to, or be construed to affect the person or persons owning any ship or vessel, at the time of the seizure, or capture of the same, or shall prevent such owner, in case he regain a property in such ship or vessel, so condemned, by purchase or otherwise, from claiming and receiving a new register for the same, as he might or could have done, if this act had not been passed.
Approved, June 27, 1797.