This contract may be whatever the parties to it choose to make it Thus, one who desires to own a ship, may propose to supply the builder with all requisite materials, the builder to do for him all the requisite labor. The ship would then never be the builder's, but would from the beginning belong to him for whom it is built. Ships are not however often built in this way. The builder usually constructs the vessel for one of four purposes. Either to supply an order, or to execute a contract, which may be regarded as substantially the same thing, or to sell it to some purchaser who may desire to buy it, or to own it himself.

One important question has arisen about which the cases are not reconcilable. If a ship be built on a building contract, and the price is to be paid by instalments, does each instalment when paid purchase the fabric as it then exists, passing the property absolutely to the purchaser, subject only to the lien which the builder has for the purposes of finishing the ship?

The cases on this subject were in much conflict. In the earlier English cases much reference is made to provisions in the English statutes and usages as to builders' certificates and the grand bill . of sale, which do not exist in our own. We consider, however, that the law is now well settled, especially in this country and by recent cases. If it be the intention of the * parties that the builder should sell and the purchaser buy the ship before it is completed, and at different stages of its progress, and a bargain is made sufficiently expressive of this intention, there is no reason whatever why the law should not enforce such a bargain. But no such bargain would be implied from the mere fact that payment is to be made by instalments, whether they are graduated merely on time, or on the state or condition or progress of the ship. Nor would this implication arise from, or be greatly aided by, the employment by the purchaser of a superintendent. These facts might assist in identifying the structure, or sustaining an action for a breach of the contract; and they might bear on the amount of damages. But they would not be sufficient to prove an actual sale and transfer of the property by the payment of an instalment, so that after such payment, if the property were lost or destroyed, it would be the loss of the purchaser. (a)

At the same time, it appears to be decided, that payment of instalments imposes upon the builder an obligation to finish and deliver under his contract the identical vessel. (b)

The original bill of sale by which the builder transfers the ship to the first purchaser, whether built by contract or otherwise, is called in England the Grand Bill of sale, (c) and is distinguished by this name from subsequent bills of sale - made by the purchaser or his transferees; but we have no such distinction in this country. (d) The builder should deliver his certificate to the first owner, and the owner give it to the collector, as required by the Statute of Registration. (e)

(a) Wood v. Bell, 5 Ellis & B. 772, 34 Eng. L. & Eq. 178, affirmed in the Exchequer Chamber, 6 Ellis & B. 355, 36 Eng. L. & Eq. 148; Baker v. Gray, 17 C. B. 462, 34 Eng. L. & Eq. 387; Woods v. Russell, 5 B. & Ald. 942; Battersby v. Gale, cited 4 A. & E. 458; Atkinson v. Bell, 8 B. & C. 277,282; Clarke v. Spence, 4 A. & E. 448; Laidler v. Burlinson, 2 M. & W. 602; Andrews v. Durant, 1 Kern. 35; Merritt v. Johnson, 7 Johns. 473; Johnson v. Hunt, 11 Wend. 135; Moody p. Brown, 34 Maine, 107. A conveyance of the keel after it is laid, vests the property of it in the vendee, and draws after it all subsequent additions. Glover v. Austin, 6 Pick. 209. See also Sumner v. Hamlet, 12 Pick. 76, 82. An agreement to pledge a vessel building to cover certain advances, and that the pledgee may purchase her at a certain rate, is neither a sale nor a mortgage or pledge, and transfers no property in the vessel, although the advances are made. Bonsey v. Amee, 8 Pick. 236. See Reid v. Fairbanks, 13 C. B. 692, 24 Eng. L. & Eq. 220. Where the property passes before the completion of the ship, the builder has a common-law lien, a right of possession to finish her and earn the full price. Woods v. Russell, supra.

(b) Andrews v. Durant, 1 Kern. 35.

(c) Abbott on Shipping, 3. In England the grand bill of sale is necessary to the transfer of a ship at sea. Atkinson v. Maling, 2 T. R. 462; Gordon v. East India Co. 7 T. R. 228, 234.

(d) Portland Bank v. Stacey, 4 Mass. 661; Wheeler v. Sumner, 4 Mason, 183; Morgan v. Biddle, 1 Yeates, 3.

(e) Act of 1792, c. 1, § 8, 1 U. S. Stats, at Large, 291.