Falkiner — Illustrations of Commercial History of Dubli)i. 143 



one ; but when, after a lapse of some years, nothing? had been heard of 

 her, she was assumed to have been lost at sea with all hands. The 

 owners duly claimed their insiu'ance-money, which was paid by the 

 underwriters ; the ship was deemed to have made her last voyage, and 

 the commercial txansactions in respect of her to have been finally 

 closed. But it fell out that not very long afterwards, to the astonish- 

 ment of all concerned, the " Ouzel Galley " cast anchor in the port of 

 Dublin. The captain had a strange tale to tell. Proceeding in her 

 eastern course down the Mediterranean, the " Ouzel " had fallen a 

 victim to the Algerine corsairs, who in those days, and, indeed, for 

 long after, were still the scourge of the mercantile marine, and being 

 a large and well-found ship, she had been appropriated by her captors 

 to their own uses. But by some fortunate chance the crew of the 

 "Ouzel" were enabled to turn the tables on their conquerors, to 

 repossess themselves of their ship and its cargo, and to return in 

 safety to the port from whence they had sailed. 



So far all was for the best. But the return of the "Ouzel," 

 unfortunately, proved the occasion of a knotty legal difficulty involv- 

 ing troublesome litigation, which in one form or another lasted for 

 several years. The " Ouzel " brought home in her hold, not alone the 

 peaceful merchandize which it was her mission to carry, but the 

 piratical spoils of her sometime Algerine masters. This loot was of a 

 value far exceeding that of the legitimate cargo, and immensely in 

 excess of the amount for which the ship had been insured, and for 

 which the owners had been compensated. A question at once arose 

 as to the ownership of the plunder. Was the booty the property of the 

 original owners under whose auspices it had been gained? Or did it pass 

 to the underwriters in virtue of their completion of the contract of 

 indemnity ? The point was a nice one, which apparently had not then 

 been settled, and the gentlemen of the Law Courts exerted their 

 ingenuity in the endeavour to determine the destination of so rich a 

 prize. No records of this litigation are now traceable ; but it is 

 reputed to have engaged the Courts for years without any result being 

 reached ; and the case was ultimately referred to the arbitration of a 

 committee of merchants, through whom a compromise was effected, 

 and the litigation terminated. 



To celebrate this triumph of the elastic principle of arbitration 

 over the unaccommodating and dilatory procedure of the Courts, the 

 merchants of Dublin resolved to found a society which should have for 

 its object the settlement of all commercial disputes without having 

 recourse to the winding mazes of the law ; and they gave to their 



