or ceasing to be the certificate of registry as required by this section (6) he shall, for each offence, be liable to a fine not exceeding one hundred pounds (p). Delivery 21.—(1.) In the event of a registered ship (q) being either up of certificate of actually or constructively (r) lost, taken by the enemy, ship lost burnt, or broken up, or ceasing by reason of a transfer to persons not qualified to be owners of British ships (s), or British- otherwise (t), to be a British ship (q), every owner (u) of 1854, s. 53, the ship or any share in the ship shall, immediately on obtaining knowledge of the event, if no notice thereof has already been given to the registrar, give notice thereof to the registrar at her port of registry (x), and that registrar shall make an entry thereof in the register book. owned. Provi (2.) In any such case, except where the ship's certificate of registry (y) is lost or destroyed (z), the master (a) of the ship shall, if the event occurs in port immediately, but if it occurs elsewhere then within ten days after his arrival in port, deliver the certificate to the registrar, or, if there is none, to the British consular officer (b) there, and the registrar, if he is not himself the registrar of her port of registry (x), or the British consular officer (b), shall forthwith forward the certificate delivered to him to the registrar of her port of registry (x). (3.) If any such owner (u) or master (a) fails (c), without reasonable cause, to comply with this section, he shall for each offence be liable to a fine not exceeding one hundred pounds (p). 22.-(1.) If at a port (a) not within Her Majesty's domisional cer- nions and not being a port of registry established by Order tificate for in Council under this Act (d), a ship becomes the property ships be coming of persons qualified to own a British ship (e), the British Britishconsular officer (ƒ) there may grant to her master, on his owned application, a provisional certificate (g), stating : (a.) the name of the ship; abroad. 1854, s. 54. 35 & 36 Vict. c. 73, (b.) the time and place of her purchase, and the names of s. 4. her purchasers; (c.) the name (h) of her master (h); and (d.) the best particulars respecting her tonnage, build, and description which he is able to obtain; and shall forward a copy of the certificate at the first convenient opportunity to the Registrar-General of Shipping and Seamen (i). (2.) Such a provisional certificate shall have the effect of a certificate of registry (k) until the expiration of six months from its date, or until the ship's arrival at a port (h) where there is a registrar (1) (whichever first happens), and on either of those events happening shall cease to have effect. passes in tificates of 23. Where it appears to the Commissioners of Customs, Tempoor to the governor (m) of a British possession (n), that by rary reason of special circumstances it would be desirable that lieu of cerpermission should be granted to any British ship (0) to registry. pass, without being previously registered, from any port (h) 1854, s. 98. in Her Majesty's dominions to any other port (h) within Her Majesty's dominions, the Commissioners or the governor (m) may grant a pass accordingly, and that pass shall, for the time and within the limits therein mentioned, have the same effect as a certificate of registry (k). Transfers and Transmissions (p). Transfers and Transmissions. Transfer of ships or 24.-(1.) A registered (q) ship or a share therein (when shares. 1854, s. 55. disposed of to a person qualified to own a British ship (r)) shall (s) be transferred by bill of sale (t). (2.) The bill of sale shall contain such description of the ship as is contained in the surveyor's certificate (u), or some other description sufficient to identify the ship to the satisfaction of the registrar (x), and shall be in the form 899, where a ship under fifteen tons had been registered, transfer by bill of sale was held unnecessary. It follows that there are craft, such as the dumb barge in Gapp v. Bond (1887), 19 Q. B. D. 200, and the ship built in England for a foreigner in Union Bank v. Lenanton (1878), 3 C. P. D. 243, which do not need registration, and need not be transferred by bill of sale under this Act, as not being ships needing registration, and yet being "vessels," are exempted from the Bills of Sale Acts. But in Coombes v. Mansfield (1855), 3 Drew., 193, Kindersley, V.C., treated registration as conclusive that the vessel registered was a ship. (r) § 1. When disposed of by any one unqualified, see procedure in §§ 28, 29. (8) Under the Acts before 1852 the courts declined to recognize any interest in a ship unless acquired in the manner prescribed by those Acts. See Follet v. Delany (1848), 2 De G. & Sm.235; Hughes v. Morris (1852), 2 De G. M. & G. 349; McCalmont v. Rankin (1852), ibid. p. 403; Duncan v. Tindall (1853), 13 C. B. 258; Coombes v. Mansfield (1855), 3 Drew., 193. Under the Act of 1854 Page Wood, V.C., in Orr v. Dickinson (1859), Johnson, 1, while going behind the register on finding that a bill of sale was invalid, thought that the registration of a valid bill of sale would be conclusive, and in Liverpool Bank v. Turner (1860), 2 De G. F. & J. 502, Lord Campbell, L.C., declined to recognize a mortgage not made in the statutory form. In consequence of this, § 3 of the Act of 1862 was passed, reproduced as § 57 of this Act; and under it, in Batthyany v. Bouch (1881), 50 L. J. Q. B. 421, Grove and Lindley, JJ., enforced an unregistered agreement to sell at the suit of the owner. It follows, therefore, that a sale not in the form of a bill of sale will be recognized by the courts, and enforced against the registered vendor. But the registrar is not bound to register, except in cases of transmission, any transfer not made by bill of sale (cf. Chasteauneuf v. Chapeyron (1882), 7 App. C. 127, where the transfer was under a sale in Mauritius, partly judicial, partly by licitation). Therefore an equitable transferee is liable to be defeated by transfer by the registered owner to a bona fide transferee without notice, under § 56. Cf. The Horlock (1877), 2 P. D. 243, where the transferor had got on the register by fraud, but the bona fide transferee was protected. As against a registered owner who has transferred an equitable interest, or as against his trustee in bankruptcy, the equitable transferee will be protected. Stapleton v. Haymen (1864), 2 H. & C. 918. And the courts would compel, even before the Act of 1862, a person registered by his mistake or fraud as owner to transfer to the true owner and account for profits. Holderness v. Lamport (1861), 29 Beav. 129; cf. Orr v. Dickinson (1859), Johnson, 1. An unregistered transferee by bill of sale will be entitled to the benefits of ownership. Cf. The Spirit of the Ocean (1865), 34 L. J. Ad. 74, where such a person was allowed to limit his liability in collision. (t) Form (see sub-s. 2) prescribed in Schedule I. Part I. may be changed by Commissioners of Customs, with consent of Board of Trade; § 65, s. 1. Penalties for forging, &c., §§ 66, 67. marked A in the first part of the First Schedule to this Act, or as near thereto as circumstances permit, and shall be executed by the transferor in the presence of, and be attested by (y), a witness or witnesses. is Declarabe transfer. tion of 25. Where a registered (2) ship or a share therein transferred, the transferee shall not be entitled to registered as owner thereof until he, or, in the case of a 1854, s. 56. corporation, the person authorized by this Act to make declarations on behalf of the corporation (a), has made and signed a declaration (b) (in this Act called a declaration of transfer (c)) referring to the ship, and containing— (a.) (d) a statement of the qualification (e) of the transferee to own a British ship (f), or if the transferee is a corporation, of such circumstances of the constitution and business thereof as prove it to be qualified to own a British ship (e); and (b.) (d) a declaration (b) that, to the best of his knowledge and belief, no unqualified person (e) or body of persons is entitled as owner to any legal or beneficial (g) interest in the ship or any share therein. 1854, s. 57. 26.-(1.) Every bill of sale (h) for the transfer of a Registry of transfer. registered ship (z) or of a share therein, when duly executed (h), shall be produced to the registrar of her port of registry (i), with the declaration of transfer (k), and the registrar shall thereupon enter in the register book (1) the name (m) of the transferee as owner of the ship or share, and shall endorse on the bill of sale (h) the fact of that entry having been made, with the day and hour thereof. Trans (2.) Bills of sale (n) of a ship (0) or of a share therein shall be entered in the register book (p) in the order of their production to the registrar (9). 27. (1.) Where the property in a registered ship (r) or mission of share therein is transmitted to a person qualified (s) to own property death, in ship on a British ship on the marriage, death, or bankruptcy (0) of any registered owner, or by any lawful means (t) other than by a transfer (n) under this Act: bank ruptcy, (a.) That person shall authenticate the transmission (c.) (y) If the transmission is consequent on bank- (p) § 5. (q) There appears to be no pro- (r) See note (q), p. 23. (t) These words were held in sonal intervention was necessary. (u) Form, see § 65, and Schedule I. Part II.; forging, &c., §§ 66, 67. (x) § 25. (y) See note (d), p. 25. (z) Under the Married Woman's Property Act, 1882, marriage no longer vests a woman's property in her husband. This section appears obsolete, except, possibly, as to some marriages of British subjects abroad. (a) The certificate by the Board of Trade of appointment of trustee is by Bank. Act, 1883, § 54, s. 4, an assignment of bankrupt's property to his trustee, and by § 138 is conclusive evidence of his appointment. |