CLEARANCE. A certificate given by the collector of a port, in which it is stated that the master or commander (naming him) of a ship or vessel named and described, bound for a port named (and having on board goods described, in case the master requires the particulars of his cargo to he stated "in such clearance), has entered and cleared his ship or vessel according to law.
This certificate, or clearance, evidences the right of the vessel to depart on her voyage ; and clearance has therefore been properly defined as a permission to sail. The same term is also used to signify the act of clearing. Worcester, Dict.
By U. S. R. S. § 4197, the master of any vessel bound to a foreign port shall deliver to the collector of the district from which be sails a sworn manifest of his cargo and its value. To sail without a clearance is pun ishable by a fine of $500.
By R. S. § 4200, before a clearance can be granted to any foreign-bound vessel the own ers, shippers or consignors of the cargo shall deliver to the collector sworn manifests of their parts of the cargo, specify the kind of goods shipped and their value, and the mas ter of the vessel and the owners, etc., of the
cargo shall subscribe an oath as to the for eign place in which such cargo is intended truly to be landed.
The collector of the port cannot refuse clearance because a ship contains contra band ; Northern Pac. B. Co. v. Trading Co., 195 U. S. 439, 25 Sup. Ct. 84, 49 L. Ed. 269.
According to Boulay-Paty, Dr. Com. t. 2, p„ 19, the clearance is imperatively demand ed for the safety of the vessel; for if a ves sel should be found without it at sea It may be legally taken and brought into some court for adjudication on .a charge of piracy. See SHIP'S PAPERS.