By section 3 of an act approved December 31, 1792, 1 Stat. 287, 288, it was provided as follows:

"SEC. 3. And be it further enacted, That every ship or vessel, hereafter to be registered (except as hereinafter provided), shall be registered by the collector of the district in which shall be comprehended the port to which such ship or vessel shall belong, at the time of her registry, which port shall be deemed to be that, at or nearest to which, the owner, if there be but one, or if more than one, the husband or acting and managing owner of such ship or vessel, usually resides. And the name of the said ship or vessel, and of the port to which she shall so belong, shall be painted on her stern, on a black ground, in white letters, of not less than three inches in length. And if any ship or vessel of the United States, shall be found, without having her name, and the name of the port, to which she belongs, painted in the manner aforesaid, the owner or owners shall forfeit fifty dollars; one-half to the person giving the information thereof; the other half to the use of the United States."

On June 23, 1874, 18 Stat. 252, the foregoing provision was amended so as to allow the name of the vessel to be painted upon her stern in yellow or gold letters. In the Revised Statutes the requirement in question was separated into two sections (sections 4141, 4178), reading as follows:

"SEC. 4141. Every vessel, except as is hereinafter provided, shall be registered by the collector of that collection district which includes the port to which such vessel shall belong at the time of her registry; which port shall be deemed to be that at or nearest to which the owner, if there be but one, or, if more than one, the husband or acting and managing owner of such vessel, usually resides."

"SEC. 4178. The name of every registered vessel, and of the port to which she shall belong, shall be painted on her stern, on a black ground, in white letters of not less than three inches in length. If any vessel of the United States shall be

found without having her name and the name of the port to which she belongs so painted, the owner or owners shall be liable to a penalty of fifty dollars; recoverable one-half to the person giving the information thereof; the other half to the use of the United States."

By section 2 of the act of February 18, 1793, 1 Stat. 305, "for enrolling and licensing ships or vessels to be employed in the coasting trade," etc., the same requirements were made essential for enrollment as for registering, and by section 11 licensed vessels were specifically obliged to have the name and port painted on the stern. As incorporated into the Revised Statutes the latter provision reads as follows:

"SEC. 4334. Every licensed vessel shall have her name and the port to which she belongs, painted on her stern, in the manner prescribed for registered vessels; and if any licensed vessel be found without such painting, the owner thereof shall be liable to a penalty of twenty dollars."

By section 21 of an act approved June 26, 1884, 23 Stat. 53, 58, it was provided as follows:

"SEC. 21. That the word 'port,' as used in sections forty-one hundred and seventy-eight and forty-three hundred and thirty-four of the Revised Statutes, in reference to painting the name and port of every registered or licensed vessel on the stern of such vessel, shall be construed to mean either the port where the vessel is registered or enrolled, or the place in the same district where the vessel was built or where one or more of the owners reside."

Again, by acts approved February 21, 1891, c. 250, sec. 1, 26 Stat. 765, and January 20, 1897, c. 67, sec. 1, 29 Stat. 491, section 4178, Rev. Stat., was amended so that it now reads as follows:

"SEC. 4178. The name of every documented vessel of the United States shall be marked upon each bow and upon the stern, and the home port shall also be marked upon the stern. These names shall be painted or gilded, or consist of cut or carved or cast roman letters in light color on a dark ground,

or in a dark color on a light ground, secured in place, and to be distinctly visible. The smallest letters used shall not be less in size than four inches. If any such vessel shall be found without these names being so marked the owner or owners shall be liable to a penalty of ten dollars for each name omitted: Provided, however, That the names on each bow may be marked within the year eighteen hundred and ninetyseven."

Was the ruling below justified by these statutes? We think not.

The general rule has long been settled as to vessels plying between the ports of different States, engaged in the coastwise trade, that the domicil of the owner is the situs of a vessel for the purpose of taxation, wholly irrespective of the place of enrollment, subject, however, to the exception that where a vessel engaged in interstate commerce has acquired an actual situs in a State other than the place of the domicil of the owner, it may there be taxed because within the jurisdiction of the taxing authority.

In Hays v. Pacific Mail S. S. Co., 17 How. 596, vessels were registered in New York, where the owner resided. The vessels were employed in commerce on the Pacific Ocean between San Francisco and Panama, and the question was whether the vessels were subject to taxation in California. It was decided that they were not, as they had not become incorporated into the property of California so as to have an actual situs in that State, and it was declared that the vessels were properly taxable at the domicil of their owner.

In St. Louis v. Ferry Co., 11 Wall. 423, the boats of the company, an Illinois corporation, were enrolled at St. Louis and plied between that city and the city of East St. Louis, in the State of Illinois. The company had an office in St. Louis, where its president and other principal officers lived and where the ordinary business meetings of the directors were held and the corporate seal was kept. A tax was paid upon the boats in Illinois, the residence of the owner. The city of St. Louis

taxed the ferry boats as personal property "within the city." It was, however, held that the boats did not so abide within the city as to become incorporated with and form part of its personal property, citing Hays v. Pacific Mail S. S. Co., 17 How. 559. In the course of the opinion the court said (italics mine):

"The boats were enrolled at the city of St. Louis, but that throws no light upon the subject of our inquiry. The act of 1789, sec. 2, 1 Stat. at L. 55, and the act of 1792, sec. 3, 1 Stat. at L. 287, require every vessel to be registered in the district to which she belongs, and the fourth section of the former act and the third section of the latter, declares that her home port shall be that at or near which her owner resides. The solution of the question, where her home port is, when it arises, depends wholly upon the locality of her owner's residence, and not upon the place of her enrollment. 3 Kent. Com. 133, 170; Hill v. The Golden Gate, Newberry, 308; The Superior, Newberry, 181; Jordan v. Young, 37 Maine, 27, 29."

In Morgan v. Parham, 16 Wall. 471, a vessel originally registered in New York had been engaged for years in the coast wise trade between Mobile and New Orleans and was enrolled at Mobile. It was decided that the boat could not be taxed in Alabama.

In Transportation Co. v. Wheeling, 99 U. S. 273, vessels engaged in commerce between ports of different States were held taxable at the domicil of the owner.

Quite recently, in Old Dominion S. S. Co. v. Virginia, 198 U. S. 299, the foregoing authorities were approvingly cited, and were in effect reaffirmed. In that case the vessels were enrolled in New York, the domicil of the owner, but, although engaged in interstate commerce, the vessels were navigated wholly within the limits of the State of Virigina, it was held that they came within the exception to the general rule which we have previously stated, and were properly taxable in Virginia.

As in the case at bar, the owner of the vessels was domiciled in Illinois and the vessels were not employed exclusively in commerce between points in the State of Kentucky, but were engaged in traffic between that State and the ports of other States, including Illinois, it seems obvious that, as a question of fact they had no permanent situs in the State of Kentucky within the rule announced in the Old Dominion Steamship case. The right then of the State of Kentucky to tax the vessels must solely depend upon the fact that they were enrolled at the port of Paducah in that State. But, if enrollment at that place was within the statutes, it is wholly immaterial, since the previous decisions to which we have referred decisively establish that enrollment is irrelevant to the question of taxation, because the power of taxation of vessels depends either upon the actual domicil of the owner or the permanent situs of the property within the taxing jurisdiction. The court below, however, did not apparently decline to apply the previous decisions of this court, but treated them as inapposite, under the assumption that they were rendered before the act of 1884, and that the necessary effect of that statute was to change the general law so as to cause vessels to be subject to taxation within a State where they were enrolled, although that State was neither the residence of the owner nor the place of the actual situs of the property. As the ruling below was made before the decision of this court in the Old Dominion Steamship Company case, rendered since the act of 1884, we might well leave the demonstration of the error into which the court fell to result from the decision of that case, since the ruling below is wholly inconsistent with that decision. This clearly follows, since in the Old Dominion Steamship case the right of the State of Virginia to tax was based upon the permanent situs of the vessels in Virginia, although they were enrolled in another State. But in view of the general importance of the subject we shall briefly point out the mistaken construction given by the court below to the act of 1884.

After referring to the act of 1884, and quoting the provisions