768 



PRIZE. 



so landed for the purpose of being transshipped 

 in hulk into another vessel, in pursuance of the 

 original destination of the cargo to the enemy's 

 country ; and that the port of Nassau was to be 

 used only as a port of transshipment of the 

 cargo. The material points of the evidence, 

 leading to these conclusions, were: that there 

 was no mention, in the bills of lading, of the 

 contents of any of the packages composing the 

 cargo, except some tea, coffee, and spices ; 

 that the manifest made no mention of the con- 

 tents of any of the packages ; that there were no 

 invoices of the cargo found on board ; and that, 

 besides army blankets, army clothing, cavalry 

 swords, bayonets, army brogans, navy boots, 

 tin plates, rope, saltpetre, and drugs, there 

 were found on board fifty thousand navy but- 

 tons stamped with the initials C. S. N., mean- 

 ing "Confederate States Navy," and eighty 

 thousand army buttons, some stamped with the 

 initial " I," some with " C," and some with 

 " A," representing severally the words " In- 

 fantry," "Cavalry," and "Artillery," aU of the 

 buttons being stamped with the name and 

 place of business in London of the claimants of 

 4he cargo. The non-contraband articles on 

 board were condemned on the ground that 

 they belonged to the owners of the contraband 

 articles, upon the well settled principle, that 

 where contraband goods destined for the use 

 of the enemy are found on board of a vessel 

 belonging to the owner of the contraband arti- 

 cles, even those goods which are innocent must 

 share the fate of the contraband goods. The 

 vessel was also condemned, upon the ground 

 that, under all the circumstances disclosed in 

 the case, she was employed in carrying on the 

 unlawful enterprise of transporting contraband 

 articles on their way to the enemy's country, to 

 be there introduced by a violation of the block- 

 ade ; and that she was so employed under such 

 a state of facts as made her owners respon- 

 sible for the unlawful transportation of con- 

 traband articles, and for the acts of the 

 master in relation to such transportation, to 

 such an extent as to justify the condemnation 

 of the vessel. The material points of the 

 evidence, leading to the condemnation of the 

 vessel, as distinct from the cargo, were : that 

 the charterer of the vessel was one of the 

 owners of the cargo ; that the agents in Lon- 

 don of the charterer were the agents of the co- 

 owners of the cargo ; that the master of the 

 vessel was the son of one of its three joint 

 owners ; that the master signed the bills of 

 lading for the packages on board, to be trans- 

 ported in time of war ostensibly to Nassau, the 

 principal port of call and transshipment for ves- 

 sels and cargoes destined to the ports of the 

 enemy by a breach of blockade ; that the bills 

 of lading and manifest were defective, and the 

 invoices wholly wanting ; that the master was 

 appointed to the command of the vessel by her 

 owners ; that the only instructions he carried 

 were instructions from the agents of the char- 

 terer to proceed to Nassau and report himself 



to a person there, and receive orders from that 

 person as to the delivery of the cargo ; that he 

 knew that there were invoices of the cargo, 

 and failed to carry them ; and that he declared, 

 in his testimony, his ignorance of the contents 

 of the cargo, or that there were contraband 

 goods on board. The case was regarded as one 

 of the carrying of contraband articles under a 

 false destination, and with false papers, making 

 the owners of the vessel responsible for the acts 

 of the master in so doing. 



The third case in New York was that of the 

 steamer Peterhoff, which was captured by a 

 United States vessel on the 25th of February, 

 1863, off the island of St. Thomas. Upon her 

 bills of lading, she was bound " for off the Rio 

 Grande, Gulf of Mexico, for Matamoras." Her 

 clearance was from London to Matamoras. The 

 court, in its judgment in the case, reaffirmed 

 the principles laid down in the two cases al- 

 ready referred to. The vessel left London early 

 in January, 1863. Her registered owner was an 

 English s abject. Her cargo was laden by a 

 large number of shippers, all of them British 

 subjects, with the exception of one, who was a 

 citizen of the United States, and a resident of 

 Texas at the breaking out of the war, and was 

 a passenger on the vessel. The shippers of the 

 cargo were twenty-six in number. There were 

 thirty-nine bills of lading, of which eighteen were 

 endorsed to passengers, and three to the master 

 of the vessel. Of the remaining eighteen bills, 

 nine were endorsed in blank, and were found 

 in the possession of the master or of some of the 

 passengers, two of the nine being shipments by 

 one of the passengers, and two others of them 

 being shipments by the owner of the vessel. 

 There were, in addition, one bill of lading, not 

 endorsed, of goods shipped by the master, and 

 eight bills of lading, not endorsed, of which no 

 duplicates were found, and which were in the 

 possession of the master or of some of the pas- 

 sengers. Duplicates were found of thirty of the 

 bills, and of one of them (being one of a shipment 

 by one of the passengers, endorsed in blank), 

 there were four sets found. The value of the car- 

 go represented by the passengers and master was 

 a very large proportion of the value of the en- 

 tire cargo, the portion represented by the pas- 

 senger who was a citizen of the United States 

 being in value more than one half of the whole. 

 No one of the thirty-nine bills, which covered 

 in all 4,472 packages, contained the name of 

 any consignee, with the exception of one for 52 

 packages addressed to a firm at Matamoras. 

 All the other bills declared the merchandise to 

 be deliverable to the order of the shippers. The 

 master testified that the entire cargo, except the 

 52 packages, was represented by himself and 

 the three passengers. The same kinds of arti- 

 cles were covered by the bills of lading en- 

 dorsed to the master and to the three passen- 

 gers. Those articles comprised gray blankets, 

 blucher boots, rope, horse equipments, quinine, 

 chloroform, morphine, opium, and other drugs, 

 and a cotton press. There were also on board a 



