309 



crew, -who were turned on shore without funds or means to help them 

 home." 



The Hope was captured without cause ; was tried in the court of 

 admiralty, and restored. Her master and crew had previously exerted 

 themselves to save the lives of the crew of an English vessel. 



The Commerce was seized in the Gulf of St. Lawrence. The cap- 

 tain states the facts as follows: "While employed," he says, in dress- 

 ing the mackerel which they had caught (on, that day,) "there came on 

 a gale so severe that the vessel was hove down on her beam-ends ; part 

 of the fish, to the amount of fifteen barrels, was washed overboard, the 

 rest being stowed in the hold ; the only boat was carried away, and the 

 gib was split in two." The next morning, being near the harbor of 

 Port Hood, he thought " it prudent to put in to repair sails, and pro- 

 cure a boat. On arriving there he came to anchor, at 9 o'clock; and 

 while salting the fish, to keep them from spoiling, and waiting for the 

 sails to dry," the commander of a colonial cutter came on board, from 

 an old black fishing-shallop, with eleven men, and told him that he 

 " had violated the treaty by salting his mackerel in the harbor." The 

 colonial officer "put the men, except two, on shore, without money or 

 friends, and took the vessel, with the, captain and. the two other men, to 

 the Gut of Canso, where his cutter was lying, and on the following 

 day to Arichat. The vessel was here stripped of her sails and rigr 

 ging." On a hearing before the admiralty court, the Commerce was re- 

 leased; and, continues the captain, he "received an order, which was 

 sealed up, addressed to the officer at Arichat, directing, as he was in- 

 formed, the clearance of his vessel free of all expenses, and leaving 

 him to get back as he could. On arriving at Arichat, he found one 

 anchor taken from his vessel, and he was compelled to pay $22 for 

 wharfage, and for taking care of the vessel." The American consul 

 for Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, and Newfoundland, corroborates the 

 captain in the most important particulars. He remarks : " Off Prince 

 Edward Island, one of our fishing-vessels lost her boat and injured 

 her sails, and was obUged to put into Port Hood for a harbor. While 

 there the captain was cleaning some of his mackerel, when his vessel 

 was seized by the British revenue cutter and taken into Arichat, where 

 the vessel was stripped of all her sails. As soon as I heard of the par- 

 ticulars from my consular agent at Port Hood, I immediately informed 

 our government of the facts, and laid the case before the authorities at 

 Halifax, who, after a delay of some three months, concluded to release 

 the vessel; the consequence was, the owners were put to great ex- 

 pense, and the captain and crew, many of whom had large families, lost 

 their whole fishing season." 



The number of our fishing vessels seized between J818 and 1851 

 was fitty-one ; of which, twenty-six were released without trial or by 

 decree of the admiralty court, and twenty-five were condemned. The 

 cases which we have examined embrace upwards of one-half of the 

 whole number captured during a period of more than thirty years. 

 Fifteen or sixteen thousand voyages, at the lowest computation, must 

 have been made to the coast of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Prince 

 Eward Island; and yet, notwithstanding the hostile spirit which has been 

 manifested by the first-named colony, firom the first, and notwithstanding 



