Immigrant Ships
Transcribers Guild

An Act Regulating
Passenger Ships and Vessels
March 2, 1819

BE IT ENACTED,&c. That if the master or other person on board any ship, or vessel owned in the whole or in part by a citizen or citizens, subject or subjects, of any foreign country, shall, after the first day of January next, take on board of such ship or vessel, at any foreign port or place; or shall bring or convey into the United States, or the territories therof,from any foreign port or place; or shall carry convey or transport from the United States or the territories therof, to any foreign port or place, a greater number of passengers than two for every five tons of such ship or vessel, according to the custom house measurement, every such master, or person so offending, and the owener or owners of such ship or vessel, shall sererally forfeit and pay to the United States, the sum of one hundred and fifty dollars for each and every passenger so taken on board of such ship or vessel, over and above the aforesaid number of two for every five tons of such ship or vessel, to be recovered by suit in any circuit or district court of the United States, where the said vessel may arrive or where the owner or owners aforesaid may reside; PROVIDED, NEVERLESS,that nothing in this act shall be taken to apply to the complement of men usually and ordinarily employed in navigating of such ship or vessel. SEC 2. That if the number of passengers so taken on board of any ship or vessel as aforesaid or conveyed or brought into the United States, or transported therefrom as aforesaid, shall exceed the said proportion fo two to every five tons of such ship or vessel by the number of twenty passengers, in the whole, every ship or vessel shall be deemed and taken to be forfiet to the United States, and shall be prosecuted and distributed in the same manner in which forfeitures and penalties are recovered and distributed under the provisions, of the act entitled "An act to regulate the collection of duties on imports and tonnage." SEC 3. That every ship or vessel bound on a voyage from the United States to any port on the continent of Europe, at the time of leaving the last port whence such ship or vessel shall sail, shall have onboard, well secrued under deck, at least sixty gallons of water, one hundred pounds of salted provisions, one gallon of vinegar, and one hundred pounds of whoesome ship bread for each and every passenger on board such ship or vessel, over and above such provisions, stores and live stock, as may be put on board by such master or passenger for their use, or that of the crew of such ship or vessel, and in like proportion for a shorter or longer voyage and if the passsengers on board such ship or vessel, in which the proportions of provisions herein directed shall not have been provided, shall at any time be put on short allowance in water, flesh, vinegar or bread, during any voyage aforesaid the master and the owner of such ship or vessel shall severallly pay to each and every passenger who shall have been put on short allowance as aforesaid, thesum of three dollars for each and every day they may have been on such short allowance to be recovered in the same manner as seaman's wages are or may be recovered. SEC 4. That the captain or master of any ship or vessel arriving in the United States, or any territories thereof from any foreign place whatever, at the same time that he delivers a manifest of the cargo, and, if there be no cargo, then at the time of making report or entry of the ship or vessel, pursuant to the existing laws of the United States, shall also deliver and report to the collector of the district in which such ship or vessel shall arrive, a list or of all the passengers taken on board of the said ship or vessel at any foreign port or place; in which list or manifest it shall be the duty of the said master to designate, particularly the AGE, SEX and OCCUPATION of the said passengers, respectively; the country to which they severally belong, and that of which it is their intentionto become inhabitants; and shall further set forth whether any and what number have died on the voyage; which report and manifest shallbe sworn to by the said master, in the same manner as is directed by the existing laws of the United States, in relation to the manifest of the cargo; and that the refusal or neglect of the master aforesaid,to comply with the provisions of this section, shall incur the same penalties, disabilities, and forefeitures, as are at present providedfor a refusal or neglect to report and deliver a manifest of the cargo aforesaid. SEC 5. That each and every collector of the customs, to whom such manifest of list of passengers as aforesaid, shall be delivered, shall,quarter yearly, return copies thereof to the Secretary of State of the United States, by whom statements of the same shall be laid before Congress at each and every session.

				  March 2, 1819 - Approved,

					    JAMES MONROE

National Archives and Records Administration, Film M237, Reel 48
This was attached to the manifest copy of the Ship Ashburton
arriving from Liverpool, England, April 20, 1842 to New York