Davidson

Mr. Justice Terry concurred.

The Act of Congress of July 29, 1850, “to provide for recording the conveyances of vessels,” enacts “that no bill of sale, mortgage, hypothecation or conveyance of any vessel of the United States shall be valid against any person other than the grantor or mortgagor, his heirs and devisees, and persons having actual notice thereof, unless such bill of sale, mortgage, hypothecation, or conveyance be recorded in the office of the collector of the customs where such vessel is registered or enrolled.”

The term, “vessel of the United States,” is made by the Registry Act of Congress of 1792, a legal technical term, and by that Act and the subsequent amendatory Act of March, 1803, the requisites are expressly laid down, which entitle a vessel to that national designation. The three acts referred to are all in derogation of the common law, and the rule must be applied which requires a strict construction.

By the Registry Act of 1792, those vessels which shall be registered pursuant to the Act, and no others, “shall be denominated and deemed ships or vessels of the United States.”

By the second section of the same Act, no ships or vessels are entitled to…