Section 1
SECTION 1. Admiralty jurisdiction over all maritime contracts, torts, injuries, or offenses, is hereby conferred upon the several provost courts organized and existing in the open ports of the Philippine Islands, under authority of the Military Governor. This jurisdiction shall be exercised in each particular case by the provost-court existing at the port wherein the vessel is lying at the time of the institution of the proceedings in relation to which controversy arises. So much of General Order Number Sixty-four, issued from the office of the United States Military Governor in the Philippine Islands, on December fifth, eighteen hundred and ninety-nine, as declares the ordinary civil courts competent to take cognizance of offenses in admiralty is hereby repealed. The jurisdiction herein conferred shall apply to maritime, contracts, torts, injuries, or offenses heretofore made or committed, as well as to such controversies hereafter arising.