United States Statutes at Large/Volume 5/26th Congress/1st Session/Chapter 6
Chap. VI.—An Act to cancel the bonds given to secure duties upon vessels and their cargoes, employed in the Whale Fishery, and to make registers, lawful papers for such vessels.[1]
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,Registers sufficient papers for vessels engaged in the whale fishery. That all vessels which have cleared, or hereafter may clear, with registers for the purpose of engaging in the Whale fishery, shall be deemed to have lawful and sufficient papers for such voyages, securing the privileges and rights of registered vessels, and the privileges and exemptions of vessels enrolled and licensed for the fisheries; and all vessels which have been enrolled and licensed for like voyages shall have the same privileges and measure of protection as if they had sailed with registers if such voyages are completed or until they are completed.
Provisions of the 1st section of the act of 28th Feb. 1803, ch. 9, extended.Sec. 2. And be it further enacted, That all the provisions of the first section of the act entitled “An act supplementary to the act concerning consuls and vice-consuls, and for the further protection of American seamen,” passed on the twenty-eighth day of February, Anno Domini eighteen hundred and three, shall hereafter apply and be in full force as to vessels engaged in the Whale fishery in the same manner and to the same extent as the same is now in force and applies to vessels bound on a foreign voyage.
Forfeitures remitted.Sec. 3. And be it further enacted, That all forfeitures, fees, duties and charges of every description required of the crews of such vessels, or assessed upon the vessels or cargoes, being the produce of such fishery, because of a supposed insufficiency of a register to exempt them from such claims, are hereby remitted; and all bonds given for such cause are hereby cancelled, and the Secretary of the Treasury is hereby required to refund all such moneys as have been, or which may be, paid into the Treasury, to the rightful claimants, out of the revenues in his hands.
Approved, April 4, 1840.