376 TIT. II. Registration. CHAPTER VIII. SHIIPOWNERS AND CHARTERERS (a). PART III. WITH the exception of certain small coasting CAP. VIII. Vessels, ships must be registered, in order to have the privileges of British ships, i.e., the right to assume the national flag and character, and the right to the protection that it affords. (Sm. Merc. Law, 182-3, 189; 2 Ste. Com. 249; 17 & 18 Vict. c. 104, ss. 19, 102; 31 & 32 Vict. c. 129.) 899. Shares in a ship, and The property of every British vessel is to number of be considered as divided into sixty-four registered shareholders. equal parts or shares; and no person can be registered as owner in respect of a fractional part of a share or any proportion not being a sixty-fourth part. 900. No more than thirty-two individuals are entitled to register at the same time as legal (a) The statute which consolidated the Acts relating to Merchant Shipping is the 17 & 18 Vict. c. 104. This was amended by the statute 18 & 19 Vict. c. 91; 25 & 26 Vict. c. 63; 30 & 31 Vict. c. 124; 31 & 32 Vict. c. 129; 32 & 33 Vict. c. 11; 34 & 35 Vict. c. 110; 35 & 36 Vict. c. 73; and 36 & 37 Vict. c. 85. TIT. II. owners in severalty of distinct shares of a PART III. ship. But any number of persons, not ex- CAP. VIII. ceeding five, may register as joint owners of the ship, or any share in her; and these joint owners, whether entitled by purchase or transmission, are to be considered as constituting one person in reckoning the number of persons entitled to be registered, and they cannot dispose in severalty of their respective proportions of their joint property. 901. Still, these rules do not affect the equitable or beneficial title of persons represented by or claiming through any registered owner; but no notice of a trust can be entered on the register. (Sm. Merc. Law, 191-2; 3 Ste. Com. 250; Mau. & Pol. 7, 8, 32; Ad. Con. 140-1; 17 & 18 Vict. c. 104, ss. 37, 43.) 902. A certificate of registry embodying the Certificate registered particulars of the vessel, with an indorsement of the names of the owners and their shares, is the evidence of the ownership of a registered vessel. (Ad. Con. 141.) 903. of registry. transfer. A registered ship or shares therein can Mode of only be transferred by bill of sale, in a prescribed form, under seal, executed in the presence of and attested by at least one PART III. witness, and registered. The name of the TIT. II. CAP. VIII. transferee, as owner, must be registered, and the date and hour of the entry must be indorsed on the bill of sale. (Sm. Merc. Law, 193-6; Mau. & Pol. 20-22; Ad. Con. 141; 17 & 18 Vict. c. 104, ss. 55-57.) 904. Certificate of sale. Mortgages. The registrar may grant to the owners of a ship a certificate of sale, authorising persons specified in it to dispose of it by sale out of the United Kingdom. (Sm. Merc. Law, 194; Mau. & Pol. 26; 17 & 18 Vict. c. 104, ss. 76-83.) 905. A mortgage or transfer of a mortgage of a British ship or any share in her must be in a specified form, under seal, and attested and registered; and the date and hour of its entry must be indorsed upon it. 906. By the statute 25 & 26 Vict. c. 63, s. 3, "Equities may be enforced against owners and mortgagees of ships in respect of their interest therein, in the same manner as equities may be enforced against them in respect of any other personal property." 907. In case more than one mortgage of the same ship or share is registered, the mortgagees, notwithstanding any notice, have priority according to the date of registra TIT. II. tion. Every registered mortgagee may dis- PART III. pose of the ship or share mortgaged; but no CAP. VIII. subsequent mortgagee may do this without the concurrence of every prior registered mortgagee, except under the order of some competent Court. (Sm. Merc. Law, 195; Mau. & Pol. 33-5; 17 & 18 Vict. c. 104, ss. 66, 69, 71.) 908. of mortgage. A certificate of mortgage may be granted Certificate by the registrar to the owners of a ship, allowing a mortgage out of the country where the ship is registered. And the mortgage, when made, is to be indorsed by a registrar or British consular officer, on the certificate of mortgage. (Sm. Merc. Law, 196; Mau. & Pol. 36; 17 & 18 Vict. c. 104, ss. 76-80.) 909. sion of The transmission of a mortgage, by death, Transmisbankruptcy, marriage, &c., must be registered. mortgage. (Sm. Merc. Law, 196; Mau. & Pol. 35; 17 & 18 Vict. c. 104, ss. 73-75.) 910. mortgage. When a mortgage is discharged, satisfac- Discharge tion is to be entered on the registry. (Sm. Merc. Law, 196; Mau. & Pol. 37; 17 & 18 Vict. c. 104, s. 68.) 911. party. A charter-party is a contract by which an Charterentire ship or principal part thereof is let to a merchant for the conveyance of goods therein by the shipowner, in consideration PART III. of the payment of a sum of money. It is TIT. II. CAP. VIII. often, but not necessarily, a deed, and is executed by the owner of the ship, or the master, or some other agent of the owner. (Sm. Merc. Law, 299, 300; 2 Ste. Com. 137S; Mau. & Pol. 204.) 912. Meaning of freight. Shipper, charterer, freighter, owner. Contract of affreight ment. The sum paid for the hire of the ship is calculated at so much per ton or per month, and is called the freight; but that term is also used to denote the cargo. (2 Ste. Com. 137; Maclachlan, 381.) 913. The merchant who ships the goods is called the shipper, charterer, or freighter, and the ship is said to be freighted by him. 914. The owner usually signifies the shipowner, not the owner of the goods. (Sm. Merc. Law, 326-7; 2 Ste. Com. 137.) 915. The charterer must offer a reasonable cargo of the kind specified in the charter; and the shipowner must provide a ship reasonably fit to carry out such a reasonable cargo. (Stanton v. Richardson, L. R. 7 C. P. 421, 435; 9 C. P. (Ex. Ch.) 390.) 916. Where the contract of affreightment does not provide otherwise, as between the parties to the contract, in respect of sea damage and its incidents, the law of the country to which the ship belongs must be taken to be the law |