Commanding officers of privateers to keep journals.during the present hostilities between the United States and Great Britain, shall keep a regular journal, containing a true and exact account of his daily transactions and proceedings with such vessel and the crew thereof; the ports and places he shall put into or cast anchor in; the time of his stay there and the cause thereof; the prizes he shall take; the nature and probably value of such prizes; the times and places, when and where taken, and how and in what manner he shall dispose of the same; the ships or vessels he shall fall in with; the times and places, when and where he shall meet with them, and his observations and remarks thereon; also, of whatever else shall occur to him or any of his officers or mariners, or be discovered and found out by examination or conference with any mariners or passengers of, or in any other ships and vessels, or by any other ways or means whatsoever, touching or concerning the fleets, vessels and forces of the enemy, their posts and places of station and destination, strength, numbers, intents and designs: and such commanding officer shall,Journals to be reported to the collectors, &c. immediately on his arrival in any port of the United States or the territories thereof, from or during the continuance of any voyage or cruise, produce his commission for such vessel, and deliver up such journal so kept as aforesaid, signed with his proper name and handwriting, to the collector or other chief officer of the customs, at or nearest to such port; the truth of which journal shall be verified by the oath of the commanding officer for the time being, and such collector or other chief officer of the customs shall, immediately on the arrival of such vessel, order the proper officer of the customs to go on board and take an account of the officers and men, the number and nature of the guns, and whatever else shall occur to him, on examination, material to be known; and no such vessel shall be permitted to sail out of port again, after such arrival, until such journal shall have been delivered up, and a certificate obtained under the hand of such collector or other chief officer of the customs, that she is manned and armed according to her commission; and upon delivery of such certificate, any former certificate of a like nature, which shall have been obtained by the commander of such vessel, shall be delivered up.
Commanding officers of privateers to exhibit their journals, &c. &c. to public vessels of the U. States.Sec. 11. And be it further enacted, That captains and commanders of vessels having letters of marque and reprisal, in case of falling in with any of the vessels of war or revenue of the United States, shall produce to the commanding officer of such vessels their journals, commissions and certificates as aforesaid; and the commanding officers of such ships of war or revenue, shall make, respectively, a memorandum in such journal of the day on which it was so produced to him, and shall subscribe his name to it: and in case such vessel, having letters of marque as aforesaid, shall put into any foreign port where there is an American consul or other public agent of the United States, the commander shall produce his journal, commission and certificate aforesaid, to such consul or agent, who may go on board and number the officers and crew and examine the guns, and if the same shall not correspond with the commission and certificate respectively, such consul or agent shall forthwith communicate the same to the Secretary of the Navy.
Penalties for neglecting to keep journals, or keeping untrue ones.Sec. 12. And be it further enacted, That the commanders of vessels having letters of marque and reprisal as aforesaid, neglecting to keep a journal as aforesaid, or wilfully making fraudulent entries therein, or obliterating any material transactions therein, where the interest of the United States is in any manner concerned, or refusing to produce such journal, commission or certificate, pursuant to the preceding section of this act, then and in such cases, the commissions or letters of marque and reprisal of such vessels, shall be liable to be revoked; and such commanders, respectively shall forfeit for every such offence the sum of one thousand dollars, one moiety thereof to the use of the United States, and the other to the informer.
