78 APPENDIX TO CASE OF GREAT BRITAIN. 
December, 1867, in which Mr. Seward informed Mr. Clay that much anxiety had 
been created in the United States by the report that a Russian armed steamer had 
ordered American whaling-vessels away from the shore near Okhotsk City, in the 
Sea of Okhotsk, and had fired upon the ship’s boat of the bark ‘ Endeavour” of New 
Bedford. Mr. Seward instructed our Minister to inquire what foundation there was 
for this report, and what instructions had been given by the Russian Government 
to authorize this action. 
At first the Acting Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs contented himself with 
claiming, not that the Sea of Okhotsk was a closed sea, but raising the same ques- 
tion of the 3-mile line which now forms so prominent a feature in our Canadian 
fishery troubles, and saying that by the laws in foree the American vessel had been 
properly warned off, she being within that distance. (This letter is published in 
“ Diplomatic Correspondence,” 1868, p. 467.) 
Subsequently, in reply to another remonstrance from Mr. Seward, stating that 
American whalers had been whaling in those bays unobstructed for seventeen years, 
M. Stoeckl, Russian Ambassador, transmits to Mr. Seward (same volume, p. 485) a 
copy of a Report from the Russian Minister of Marine, in which he admitted that 
there could not be found in the Department of Marine any trace of instrnctions 
given to Russian cruizers to take any restrictive measures touching the whaling 
fisheries in the Sea of Okhotsk. This ended the controversy with regard to that 
sea, which at this time was much more entitled to be considered an inland sea than 
the Behring Sea. 
One illustration of still later date may be given. In ‘‘ Foreign Relations,” 1882, 
p. 447, there is a letter from Secretary of State Frelinghuysen to Mr. Hoffman, our 
Chargé d’ Affaires at St. Petersburgh, conveying a complaint of a San Francisco firm 
of restrictions put by the Governor of Eastern Siberia on American fishermen in the 
Okhotsk and Behring Seas. This was after the cession of Alaska to the United 
States. Mr. Hoffinan (p. 452) transmits a note from M. de Giers, from which it 
clearly appears that the Russian Government made no pretence of treating either of 
those seas as closed seas. 
The entire fabric of the attempted censure of the State Department for failure to 
maintain American interests in the Behring Sea is thus thrown to the ground. It 
is shown that, so far from acknowledging Behring Sea to be a closed sea, the United 
States has placed itself on record as vigorously opposing any such assumption, not 
only with regard to Behring Sea, where there was a distance of 900 miles from shore 
to shore, but also in regard to the Sea of Okhotsk, which might perhaps have been 
properly regarded asa land-locked sea. In view of these historical facts, and of the 
important bearing which the maintenance of this doctrine of free, untrammelled 
rights of commerce, navigation, and fishing on the open sea, which the United States 
is now engaged in maintaining in other quarters where the national interests 
involved are immeasurably greater, it requires no spirit of prophecy to divine 
61 that the Revenue cutters ‘ Bear” and ‘‘ Rush,” which have been ordered by 
the Treasury Department from San Francisco to the Behring Sea, have prob- 
ably been ordered not to repeat the mistake of capturing foreign sealers unless 
detected flagrante delicto within the unquestioned maritime jurisdiction of the United 
States, namely, 3 miles from shore. 
WASHINGTON, May 28, 1887. 
No. 40. 
Colonial Office to Foreign Office.—( Received June 28.) 
DOWNING STREET, June 27, 1887. 
Stir: With reference to previous correspondence respecting the seiz- 
ure of Canadian sealing schooners in Behring’s Sea, I am directed by 
Secretary Sir Henry Holland to transmit to you, for such action in the 
matter as the Marquis of Salisbury may think proper to take, a copy 
of a despatch from the Governor-General of Canada, inclosing copy of 
an approved Report of the Privy Council respecting the action of the 
United States authorities towards British subjects in these cases, and 
urging that full reparation may be demanded from the United States 
Government. 
lam, Xe, 
(Signed) JOHN BRAMSTON, 
