824 WHALE-FISHERY. 



This is a hard case, and appears inequitable. The 

 reason wliy it is not modified, is, probably, that 

 many fish would be altogether lost which are 

 now captured, whilst a further cause for litiga- 

 tion would be opened. In the present state of 

 the law, for instance, disputes can only relate 

 to the circumstance — fast or loose ; but if the law 

 were modified, so that a fish struck by the peo- 

 ple of any sliip, should be the property of that ship, 

 fast or loose, so long as her boats continued the 



on its first appearance, Avas struck. All assisted in the cap- 

 ture. The Neptune's people expected it was their prize : 

 but their competitors seized it, when dead, together with 

 the boat and lines that had been drawn under water, 

 and took them, in spite of opposition, to their own ship. 

 The two captains who met to canvass the matter, parted with 

 angry violence : the one refusing to give up the advantage he 

 had so imhandsomely obtained : the other thi'eatening to refer 

 the case to a court of law. On the return of the ships, the 

 case was tried before Lord EUenborough, when the defendant, 

 having offered to give up the boat, tlie Jury gave a verdict for 

 the plaintiff, (the owner of the Neptune,) damages one shilling, 

 costs forty shillings. But it was found, that as soon as the 

 crew abandoned the boat, the fish was loose, and consequently 

 a free prize to the defendant. As this important case involves 

 the law with regard to boats, lines, and harpoons, when taken 

 away from the hands of the proprietors by a whale, as well as 

 the law relating to a loose fish, I have, for the satisfaction of 

 whale-fishers, given the trial at some length in the Appendix, 

 No. v., from a communication with which I have been favour-* 

 ed by Jiunes Gale, Esq. owner of the Neptune. 





