Chapter XVI: Section 3: Upon the completion of any such vessel, and the filing in

the office of the Secretary of the Navy of certified copies of the report of the Bureau of Naval Construction and Engineering, approving the plans of the hull and engines of such vessel, and also certifying that the estimate of the cost of such vessel is not excessive; and after actual tests of the speed of such vessel, under regulations imposed by the Secretary of the Navy; the said Secretary shall, if requested to do so by the owner or owners of such vessel, enter into a contract with such owner or owners, for a period of not less than ten, nor more than fifteen years, by which, in consideration of the privilege of taking such vessel by charter or purchase, at any time during the pendency of the said contract, on ten day's notice, the United States shall pay as an annual rental, to the owners or agents of such vessel, interest on her cost, as certified by the Bureau of Construction and Engineering, as follows:

1st. For vessels having a speed of nineteen statute miles or over, and less than twenty statute miles per hour, four per cent.

2nd. For vessels having a speed of twenty statute miles or over, and less than twenty-one statute miles, per hour, four and one-half per cent.

3rd. For vessels having a speed of twenty-one statute miles or over, per hour, five per cent.

Provided. That such annual rental shall in no case exceed the sum of one hundred thousand dollars for any single vessel.