1. Section 7 of “An Act for Registering and Clearing Vessels, Regulating the Coasting Trade, and for other purposes” reads as follows: “Provided always, and be it further enacted, That whenever the owner or owners of such ship or vessel, usually resides or reside out of the district within which such ship or vessel may be at the time of granting the certificate of registry, that such owner, or where there are two or more owners, any one of them may take and subscribe the said oath or affirmation, before the collector of the district within which he usually resides, omitting in the said oath or affirmation the description of such ship or vessel, as expressed in the certificate of the surveyor, and inserting in lieu thereof, the name of the port and district within which such ship or vessel may then be; and the collector before whom such oath or affirmation may be taken and subscribed, shall transmit the same to the collector of the district where such ship or vessel may be, upon the receipt whereof the said collector shall proceed to register such ship or vessel, in like manner as though the usual and regular oath or affirmation had been taken and subscribed before him” (1 Stat. description begins The Public Statutes at Large of the United States of America (Boston, 1845). description ends 56–57 [September 1, 1789]).