PERIOD FROM 1818 TO 1836. 341 



[Inclosure 1 In Memorial No. 3.] 



United States of America, 



State of Maine, Washington, ss. 

 Be it known to all to whom these presents may come : That on this 

 22d day of July, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred 

 and twenty-four, before me, Solomon Thayer, notary public, by legal 

 authority duly commissioned and sworn, and dwelling at Lubec, 

 county and State aforesaid, personally appeared Harding Clark, 

 master of the pink-sterned schooner Hero, of Dennysville, Ephraim 

 Clark, and William H. N. Brown, fishermen on board said schooner, 

 who, being severally sworn, do depose, declare, and say : That on the 

 11th day of June, now last past, they sailed from Dennysville in said 

 schooner Hero, fitted for a fishing cruise of six weeks, and arrived on 

 Monday morning, being the 14th of said June, on the fishing ground 

 called the Grand Menan Banks, from nine to twelve marine miles from 

 land, and commenced fishing; that they continued to fish till Wednes- 

 day, the 16th day of said month, when the schooner struck adrift. It 

 was then about 9 o'clock a. m. Got under way immediately and 

 attempted to regain the fishing ground, but could not effect it by rea- 

 son of a strong tide. Kept beating to windward towards the fishing 

 -round, and, the tide slacking, got within about half a mile of it, and 

 from six to nine miles from any land, when an armed boat, said to 

 belong to the British armed brig Dotterel, fired two muskets, loaded 

 with balls, across said schooner Hero. She was rounded to, and an 

 officer came on board and took forcible possession of the vessel and 



her papers. 



The declarants further depose and say, that they were kept some- 

 times on board said schooner, sometimes on board the Dotterel or 

 :,«• of her boats, from that time till the twenty-ninth clay of said 

 June, and were allowed for a part of this time only one meal per 

 day. Thai they were every night in harbor and near home; but 

 though they earnestly solicited to be set on shore, it was not granted 

 them, but were forced, by threats and menaces that they would be cut 

 in piece- in ca -e of refusal, to do the same duty as the common British 

 -a dors. They were at last lauded at St. John, a distance of eighty 

 miles from I )enn v-ville. and even subjected to great expense and 

 disl ress in getting home. 



The declarants further say, that said schooner Hero has been 



manned and armed, and LS still made, use of as a tender for said brig 



Dotterel, and has never been Libelled <>r sent in for trial. And the 

 -aid Harding Clark for himself saith, thai when he was set <>n shore 



at St, John hi- pocket hook and private papers were taken from him 

 and detained. 



Wherefore they do protest, and I. the Said notary, in their behalf, 



do solemnly protest, against the winds, seas, tides, armed boats, 

 pirates, the wanton and flagrant abuse of power, and whatsoever else 

 that caused the seizure and detention of said schooner //< ro, and for 

 all damages, costs, and expenses sustained, and to be sustained, by 

 reason ol such illegal and wanton detention of said 9choone"r as 



aforesaid; and I. the Sftid notary, do aver thai the same was caused. 



not bj a breach of the revenue laws of Great Britain and the United 

 States respecting the fisheries, done, made, or committed by said 



