40 CAPTAIN ZACHARY G. LAMSON 



firmed in two thirds, but the proportion of 

 vessels released where no appeal was made 

 must have been much greater. Except 

 when influenced by some state exigency, 

 the decisions were usually fair. The total 

 number of seizures of American vessels by 

 France and England, prior and subsequent 

 to the English orders in council and French 

 decrees, is given by Mr. Monroe in his re- 

 port as 1475. 



As to the commercial danger of a voy- 

 age during the year 1808 something can 

 be learned from insurance statistics. Mr. 

 Pickering of Massachusetts in his speech 1 on 

 the embargo, in answer to Mr. Giles, states 

 that, taking the records of four insurance 

 companies on 218 risks, the losses amounted 

 to six per cent on the total insurance. The 

 premium on insurance to the West Indies 

 at this time was eleven per cent to go and 

 return; 2 to Sumatra, out and back, four- 



1 Nov. SO, 1808. 



2 In 1800 the rate of insurance in Wells, Me., for a voy- 

 age to the West Indies and return was four per cent. 

 BOURNE, History of Wells, p. 577. 



