Germ. In European marl-time law. A document furnished by the builder of a vessel, containing a register of her admeasurement, particularizing the length, breadth, and dimensions of every part of the ship. It sometimes also contains the terms of agreement between the party for whose account the ship is built, and the ship-builder. It has been termed in English the “grand bill of salein French, “contrat de construction ou de la vente d’un vaisseau" and corresponds in a great degree with the English, French, and American “register," (q. v.,) being an equally essential document to the lawful ownership of vessels. Jac. Sea Laws, 12, 13, and note. In the Danish law, it is used to denote the contract of bottomry
Source: Black's Law Dictionary 2nd Ed (1910)
