9. Recording.—
No mortgage of any vessel of the United States is valid against third parties unless it is duly recorded in the office of the collector of customs where such vessel is registered or enrolled. She must be registered or enrolled 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. Unless a mortgage is properly recordable in the custom house, the mere fact that it is recorded there is insufficient to give it validity against others than the mortgagor. Record in the wrong office and premature record in the right office are equally invalid. Thus a mortgage was held bad against general creditors in the case of the Empire Shipbuilding Company, 221 Fed. 223, where it was made before the ship was completed and recorded on the same day she was enrolled. The proper course would have been to first enroll the ship as a vessel of the United States and then execute and record the mortgage. As we have observed in Chapter II, § 16, supra, where a vessel at sea is mortgaged it is wise, in order to be safe until she returns, to record the mortgage at the home port, as shown by her outstanding document, as well as at the new home port if there is to be a change of home port.