THE FISHERIES QUESTION 323 



headland, to forbid them to navigate the Gut of Canso, 

 and to deny them all privileges of traffic, including the 

 purchase of bait and supplies in the British colonial ports. 

 From 1839 down to 1854 there were numerous seizures, 

 and in 1852 the home government sent over a force of war 

 vessels to assist in patrolling the coast. " 1 It was contended 

 on the part of the United States that the three miles as 

 stated in Article I of the Treaty of 1818 meant three miles 

 from the shores of those bays, creeks, etc., following their 

 sinuosities. Therefore all bays with an entrance more than 

 three miles broad would be accessible to Americans for the 

 purpose of fishing, except within three miles of the shores of 

 the bay. 



On the other hand, the British interpretation of this 

 clause was that three miles from a bay meant three miles 

 from the mouth of the bay, "in other words, three miles 

 from a line drawn from headland to headland of the bay. 

 Moreover this construction was applied not only to the 

 great arms of the sea, as the bays of Fundy and Chaleurs, 

 but also to all indentations of the coast, as the north coast 

 of Prince Edward Island from North Cape to East Cape, 

 and the northeast coast of Cape Breton, from North Cape 

 to Cow Bay." 2 



Two notable cases of seizure arose from an attempt to 

 enforce the principle of the "headland doctrine.' On 

 May 10, 1843, the American schooner Washington, while 

 fishing in the Bay of Fundy ten miles from the shore, was 

 seized by a revenue schooner on the charge of violating 

 the treaty of 1818. She was carried to Yarmouth, Nova 

 Scotia, where she was decreed in the Vice- admiralty Court 

 to be forfeited to the Crown, and was ordered to be sold 

 with her stores. Under the Claims Convention of 1853, 

 the case of this vessel was referred to a joint commission 



1 Snow, American Diplomacy, p. 441. 



2 Moore, International Law Digest, I, p. 783. 



