Kirk

This appeal is from tho decree of the District Court for the southern district of California, by which decree the American Gas Screw V- — 293 was ordered condemned and forfeited to the United States.

On application of the owner of said vessel, the Deputy Collector of Customs of the port of San Diego, Cal., on October 14, .1931, allotted and assigned to that vessel the number V — 293. The vessel was of less than five net tons. Section 288 of title 46, US CA, 40 Stat. 602 , provides that: “Every undocumented vessel, operated in whole or in part by machinery, owned in the United States and found on the navigable waters thereof, * *' * shall be numbered. * x * The said numbers * * ~ shall be awarded by the collector of customs of the district in which the vessel is owned and a record there¡o£ kept in the customhouse of the district in which the owner or managing owner resides.”

Appellee contends that tho number allotted to the respondent vessel, pursuant to 46 USCA § 288, was granted in lieu of a lieense and should be considered as a lieense within the meaning of R. S. § 4377 (46 USCA § 325), subjecting a vessel to forfeiture for violating its license. In the application for a…