are always confiscated when transported to a belligerent destination, whether direct or indirect; However, such seizure shall be limited to smuggling itself and shall not extend to the ship or any other cargo, except in cases of fraud or bad faith on the part of the owners or the master with the sanction of the owners. It was perhaps a remarkable fact that, in most affidavits of ownership, the wording was of a kind that did not necessarily imply an unreserved assertion of real and just property, as opposed to title and ownership on the registry that British laws, such as ours, largely contemplate. For example, one of the documents stated: „Your memorialist is a British subject and the sole registered owner“ of the ship Bermuda &c. In another, Mr. Haigh stylizes himself as a „shipowner and merchant.“ In another case, he felt that certain contraband found on board should not affect his position „as the owner of the vessel“. Several cases of military awards have also been found &c.; shoulder pads for all classes; stars for the shoulder straps of officers in rank; Trumpets crossed swords and cannons for different types of cap fronts; swords for personnel and line officers; Arm hats; embroidered crowns „without U.S.“; [Footnote 2] different sizes of military buttons for coats and vests; some with the palm tree; belts with the same designations; other buttons and belts bearing the letters S.C.; L; [footnote 3] T.; [Footnote 4] &c. and with eagles surrounded by eleven It was what was called a lenient rule, and so it is. [Footnote 18] This is an important but very appropriate relaxation of the old rule that condemned the ship carrying both contraband and goods. However, it is based on the assumption that the smuggling was made without the consent of the owner in violation of martial rights or at least without his intention to be hostile to the land of the kidnappers, and it must be recognized and applied in all cases where this presumption is not rebutted by evidence.
Sir William Scott initially considered that the landing and storage of goods and the payment of import duties were a sufficient criterion for terminating the initial voyage and that subsequent export to a belligerent port was legal. [Footnote 16] But in a later case, in a detailed verdict, Sir William Grant [Fn. 17] all cases and noted the rule, which has never been shaken, that even the disembarkation of goods and the payment of customs duties do not interrupt the continuity of the movement of the cargo, unless there is an honest intention to bring it into the common stock of the country. If the intention is to ship the goods to an illegal destination, either at the time of the initial shipment or thereafter, the continuity of the journey in relation to the cargo will not be interrupted by transactions in the intermediate port. It is undeniable that much of their cargo was contraband in the narrow sense of the word. Part of it consisted of Blakely cannons and other cannons in suitcases, howitzers of cannons, not in suitcases, carts for grenade detonator rifles and other similar items – a total of nearly eighty tons – and seven boxes of pistols, twenty-one boxes of swords, seventy-one cannons of cartridges, three hundred whole guns, seventy-eight half-guns and two hundred and eighty-three barrels of gunpowder. Another part consisted of printing machines and paper and Material from the Confederate States: „The belligerent has the right to demand from neutrals open and bona fide conduct in their trade in time of war, and if they use fraud and false documents to evade the just rights of the belligerents and to conceal their own illegal purposes, it is not an injustice to impose the penalty of confiscation on them. „Attempts have been made to evade the public rule of law by interposing a neutral port between the cargo of the belligerent port and the final destination on the territory of the enemy, but in all these cases the goods have been taken as in a commercial transaction that makes them confiscated.“ Arriving from West Hartlepool on the east coast of England, Bermuda was now preparing for another trip. Supposedly, he went to Bermuda.
The cargo consisted of various things, some of which would have been quite useful in Bermuda, but which – cut off as the place had been by the trade blockade – were highly sought after in Charleston, such as tea-coffee medicines surgical instruments shoes leather boots saddler & c. Among the dry goods were five boxes of lawns, each with a card depicting a young man gallantly assembling a parapet and carrying the „FLAG OF THE CONFEDERATE STATES,“ spread out in all its colors in the wind. and war materials. In American circles, our fate is discussed quite freely; They let us lock ourselves up and hang up. Our friend from Hartlepool, Detective Maguire [footnote 6], has a job here again; is regularly seen on the dock to take a look at what is happening on board. They cause big trouble for customs inspectors because they go down every day and open boxes and suitcases – to satisfy J_____. The inspector told me yesterday that there was great jealousy about our cargo, but fortunately they cannot stop us. We are on a legal path; People will not believe it here; They must think that we are in favour of maintaining the blockade again. The Franklin, which was therefore carrying contraband with the wrong destination, was condemned after careful consideration by Sir William Scott in 1801. [Footnote 19] He said that „the benefits of easing can only be claimed through fair cases.“ This doctrine was applied to the Neutralitet shortly thereafter by the same great judge [note 20] and received the sanction of this court in an opinion of an equal judge in 1834. [Footnote 21] The guiding principle of this category of cases was very clearly stated by Mr. Justice Story in this statement: Justia Annotations is a forum for lawyers to summarize, comment and analyze the case law published on our website.
Justia makes no warranty or representation that the comments are accurate or reflect the current legal status, and no comments are intended to be and should not be construed as legal advice. Contacting Justia or a lawyer through this website, via a web form, email or otherwise does not result in a relationship between the lawyer and the client. Statutes, which, however, required a recommendation to obtain a license for everyone as Captain Frazer Trenholm & Co. in December 1861, declared that they had known Westendorff for ten years; that he served under an experienced skipper who left Charleston, and that he had then commanded one of their ships. Among them was Helen, a blockade runner. Westendorff was therefore legally authorized by the British trade authorities captain of Bermuda. 7. The objective alone justifies the seizure and conviction of ships and cargoes going to ports under blockade, and this objective also justifies the seizure of contraband when they go to ports that are not under blockade; But in the latter case, ships and cargoes that are not smuggled are exempt from seizure, except in cases of fraud or bad faith. There was also a large quantity of munitions of war; five Blakely cannons finished in suitcases with trolleys; six cannons – some throw some forged – not in the cases; a few thousand shells vary from seven to one hundred and twelve pounds and merge for them. Three hundred cannons seventy-eight half barrels and two hundred and eighty-three quarters barrels of gunpowder seven hundred bags of saltpeter; Seventy-two thousand cartridges Two and a half million percussion caps two boxes of Enfield rifles Twenty-one boxes of swords with the inscription ND (Naval Division?) seven boxes of pistols and a variety of similar or additional things – in total about eighty tons of weight. In addition, there was a large amount of army blankets, army clothes supplied with vulcanized fabric with fifteen hundred meters of adhesive plaster – these were large enough to be charged with 62500 US dollars.
certainly slight direct evidence showing that their immediate target was in a blocked port. As it was located on the east side of the Bahama group, it was in a straight line, as was said at the bar 160 miles from Florida 410 miles from Savannah to 430 miles from Charleston and 480 miles from Wilmington NC. The Mercedita sailed near the Abaco entrance to Nassau and it was claimed and perhaps rather given the appearance that at some point the order had been given, or rather was given, to conquer Bermuda wherever it was found on the high seas between England and the United States. An earlier conclusion, drawn from our agents in England and from reliable evidence tacitly gathered by order of our government, may have existed on the part of the government that the ship was built precisely for the purpose of operating the blockade. [Footnote 7] 6. A voyage from a neutral port to a belligerent port is a single voyage, whether hinterland or direct, with or without a stopover from one or more intermediate ports and whether it is made by one or more ships used in the same transaction and for the achievement of the same objective.