built, any ship, or issuing or delivering any commission for any ship, or equipping, despatching, or causing or allowing to be despatched, any ship with intent or knowledge, or having reasonable cause to believe, that it shall or will be employed in the military or naval service (f) of any foreign state at war with any friendly state. The breach of any of these provisions renders the offender liable to fine and imprisonment, and the ship and her equipment to forfeiture (g). If, however, a person building or equipping a ship in any of the above cases, in pursuance of a contract made before the commencement of war, forthwith upon a proclamation of neutrality gives notice to the Secretary of State, and furnishes such particulars of the contract, and matters relating to or done under it, as may be required, and also gives such security, and takes and permits to be taken such other measures, if any, that the Secretary of State may prescribe for ensuring that the ship shall not be despatched, delivered or removed without license from the Queen until the termination of the war, he will not be liable to the penalties imposed (). Penalties are also created against aiding in the equipment for war of any ship within the Queen's dominions, in the military or naval service of any foreign state at war with a friendly state (i); also against the preparing or fitting out any naval or military expedition to proceed against the dominions of any friendly state (). If, during the continuance of a war in which the Queen is A (f) The act is printed in the Supplementary Appendix, p. 152. ship employed to lay a telegraphic cable merely intended to assist military operations, is within this provision. The International, L. R., 3 A. & E. 321. (g) The Foreign Enlistment Act, 1870, s. 8. For what amounts to a breach of this section by sending a tug to tow a prize, see The Gauntlet, L. R., 3 A. & E. 381; 4 P. C. 184. As to jurisdiction and legal procedure under this act, see sects. 16 to 20 and 27; as to the authority of the officers of customs and of Queen's ships to seize offending ships, and of the secretary of state and others to detain offending ships, and to grant search warrants, see sects. 21 to 26; see also the interpretation clause, sect. 30. (h) Ib. s. 8. Sect. 9 provides that where any ship is built by order of or on behalf of any foreign state when () Ib. s. 11. Ships and their equipments, and arms and munitions of war used in or forming part of such expeditions, are forfeited. Forfeiture under neutral, any ship, goods or merchandise captured as prize within the territorial jurisdiction of the Queen, in violation of the neutrality of this realm, or captured by any ship which may have been built, equipped, commissioned or despatched, or the force of which may have been augmented contrary to the provisions of the act, are brought within the Queen's dominions by the captor or his agent, or by any person having come into possession thereof with knowledge that the same was prize of war so captured, the original owner or his agent, or any person authorised by the government of the foreign state to which the owner belongs, may apply to the Court of Admiralty for seizure and detention of such prize, and the Court, on due proof of the facts, must order it to be restored (1). The act provides also for the punishment by fine and imprisonment of the master or owner, and for the detention of their ship, if they take or engage to take or have on board within the Queen's dominions any British subject who, within or without the Queen's dominions, has without her licence accepted or agreed to accept any commission or engagement, or who is about to quit the Queen's dominions with intent to accept a commission or engagement, in the military or naval service of any foreign state at war with a friendly state (m). Ships infringing the Customs Acts (n) and the Slave Trade Customs and Acts (0) are liable to forfeiture. Slave Trade (1) Ib. s. 14. An order made under (n) The Customs Laws Consolidation (0) The 36 & 37 Vict. c. 88. The Laura, 2 Moo. P. C. C., N. S. 181; The Newport, Swa. 317. Where a vessel has been seized as a slaver without cause, damages may be recovered against the captor; The Levin Lank, Swa. 45; The Ricardo Schmidt, L. R., 1 P. C. 268. As to the forfeiture of ships unlawfully carrying natives of the Pacific Islands, see the 35 & 36 Vict. c. 19, and the 38 & 39 Vict. c. 51. HAVING described the various modes of acquiring and perfecting a title to ships, we will now consider the evidence of ownership, and the duties and liabilities of owners, as between themselves and as regards others. Possession is, as we have seen, primâ facie evidence of owner- PROOF of ship (a). Under the earlier statutes relating to the registration OWNERSHIP. (a) Robertson v. French, 4 East, 130; Sheriff v. Cadell, 2 Esp. 616, ante, p. 42, note (m). Register. of ships, which did not provide that the certificate of registry should be evidence of the matters recited in it, the certificate alone was not even primâ facie evidence of ownership. It was necessary to show that the party sought to be charged had either assented to, or adopted the entry (b). The later statutes have, however, made a difference with respect to the effect of the certificate of registry as evidence of ownership. The Registry Act of 1845, the 8 & 9 Vict. c. 89 (now repealed), contained provisions making copies of the registers evidence without the production of the originals (c). By the Merchant Shipping Act, 1855, s. 15, the copy or transcript of the register of any British ship which is kept by the chief registrar of shipping at the custom house in London, or by the registrar-general of seamen (d), under the direction of her Majesty's Commissioners of Customs or of the Board of Trade, shall have the same effect to all intents and purposes as the original register of which the same is a copy or transcript. And by the Merchant Shipping Act, 1854, sect. 107, every register of, or declaration made in pursuance of the second part of that act in respect of, any British ship may be proved either by the production of the original, or by an examined copy, or by a copy purporting to be certified under the hand of the registrar or other person having the charge of the original, and shall be received as primâ facie proof of all the matters contained or recited in such registers or copies thereof, and of all the matters contained in or indorsed on such certificates of registry and purporting to be authenticated by the signature of a registrar (e). The form of certificate of registry now in use mentions the names of the persons who are owners at the time of registration, and the proportions in which they are interested (ƒ). By sect. 45, all subsequent changes of ownership must be indorsed on the certificate of registry. The usual and proper mode of proving ownership is by the (b) Pirie v. Anderson, 4 Taunt. 652; Fraser v. Hopkins, 2 ib. 5; Tinkler v. Walpole, 14 East, 226. In two cases at Nisi Prius the rule was laid down without this qualification. See Stokes v. Carne, 2 Camp. 339; Cox v. Reid, R. & M. 199. (c) See also the Law of Evidence Amendment Act (14 & 15 Vict. c. 99), s. 12, now repealed by the Statute Law Revision Act, 1875 (38 & 39 Vict. c. 66). (d) Now called the Registrar-General of Shipping and Seamen. See M. S. Act, 1872, s. 4. (e) See The Princess Charlotte, Br. & L. 75. (f) See Appendix, "Forms," No. 9. production of the register or an examined or certified copy thereof (g), and by evidence of acts of ownership done by the alleged owner; such, for instance, as directions and interference with respect to the employment and concerns of the ship. But it will be useful to bear in mind, that the person appearing on the register as owner is not always liable to be fixed with the responsibilities of owner, whilst it frequently happens that the beneficial and not the legal owner is liable on contracts made with respect to the ship (). OWNERS. The first duty of the owners of a ship employed in the car- DUTIES OF riage of goods is to see that at the commencement of the voyage she is in a proper condition to perform it, and fit for the employment for which she is offered to the public or to the charterer. Whether the charter-party expressly require it or not, she must be tight, staunch and strong, and properly furnished for the voyage (i). Sufficient stores must be on board, and the anchors As to seaand chain-cables must be of a proper description, and fit for worthiness of ship. service; nor is it any excuse for the unseaworthiness of the (9) The M. S. Act, 1854, s. 107; Hibbs v. Ross, L. R., 1 Q. B. 534, where the question was, who was liable for the negligence of those on board. But see Meyer v. Willis, 18 C. B. 886. The register is prima facie evidence of nationality, but this may be rebutted by circumstantial evidence; The Princess Charlotte, Br. & L. 75. In a criminal prosecution, evidence that a vessel was a British ship and sailed under the British flag was held to be admissible, although no evidence was given that she had a British register; Reg. v. Seberg, L. R., 1 C. C. R. 264. The M. S. Act, 1876, s. 36, requires that the name and address of the managing owner of every British ship be registered at the custom house of the ship's port of registry. As to the effect of a similar clause in the repealed act, the 38 & 39 Vict. c. 88 (M. S. Act, 1875), see Steel v. Lester, 3 C. P. D. 121, at page 125. (h) See post, p. 87 et seq. And see Miller v. Potter Wilson, 3 Sess. Cases (4th series), 105. But as to the liabilities for penalties imposed by statute, see ante, p. 21. (i) Lyon v. Mells, 5 East, 428; Wedderburn v. Bell, 1 Camp. 1; Dale v. Hall, 1 Wilson, 281; Stanton v. Richardson, See L. R., 7 C. P. 421; 9 ib. 390; Kopitoff |