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![handle is hein.slavery/ssactsengr0427 and id is 1 raw text is: nature. Whether the validity of these affidavits was objected to by the counsel, or
considered by the Court, I have not been informed ; and therefore cannot consider
them as authorities upon the subject, though perhaps it might be too much for
me to say, that the admission, even without opposition, is a fact of no moment what-
ever. It is possible, and perhaps to be wished, that upon an appeal on the general
merits of the present suit, the opiihion of the proper judges may be invoked for the
determination of this incidental question. All that I do has no effect, but that of
admitting this particular affidavit in this Court, leaving the question of the general
competency of Lord Cochrane to be definitely settled by the more appropriate
judges.
[194] PELICAN -(Moodie). July 9, 1817.-Goods imported, in a British ship
not manned and navigated according to law, are not liable to forfeiture, if the
imperfect manning of the ship was a matter of uncontrollable necessity.
This ship being under British colours, and having on board 12 serrons of indigo,
10 tons of logwood, 50,1811 dollars, and 1086 ounces insurgent dollars ; and also a
number of Spanish passengers, which came on board at Campeachy, was met with
at sea by His Majesty's ship North Star, Thomas Coe, Esquire, commander, on
the 7th March 1814, off Negril on the island of Jamaica, in the prosecution of her
voyage from Campeachy to Port Royal, and was seized and brought to Port Royal,
where she arrived on the 8th of the same month.
In the month of March 1814, a libel was filed against the schooner and cargo
stating the fact of the seizure off Negril, and reciting the following Acts of Parlia-
ment, viz., 12 C. 2, 7 & 8 W. 3, 15 G. 2, 26 G. 3, 27 G. 3, 34 G. 3, 43 G. 3; and further
stating, that on the 9th.February 1814, 190 bales of dry goods and four barrels of
other goods were exported from Port Royal aforesaid on board the schooner, she
not being of the build of England, Ireland, or of any of the colonies belonging to His
Majesty, and wholly owned by the people thereof or any of them; and navigated
with the master and three-fourths of the mariners of the said places only; and not
[195] being taken as prize and condemnation thereof made, and not having such
proof of her build and property, nor documented as is enacted in and by the said
several hereinbefore mentioned Acts of Parliament, whereby the said vessel hath
become forfeited.
The libel further alleged, that the said vessel being registered as a British vessel,
and required to be manned and navigated by a master and three-fourths at least of
the mariners British subjects, was not, when so seized as aforesaid, manned and
navigated by a master and three-fourths of the mariners British subjects, contrary
to the form and effect, true intent and meaning of the statutes in such case made
and provided; whereby the said vessel and all the goods, wares, merchandise, and
specie became forfeited; one moiety to our sovereign lord the King, and the other
to the use of the seizors ; for that she was navigated by foreign seamen and mariners,
not being natives of Great Britain or Ireland, nor any of the colonies or plantations
thereto belonging, nor His Majesty's naturalised subjects, the number of such
foreign seamen exceeding three-fourths of the mariners employed to navigate the
said schooner, and that thereby the said schooner, cargo, and specie became forfeited.
On the 21st of April a claim was given on behalf of Salvador Presiat, described
as late of the city and parish of Kingston, but then an absentee from the island of
Jamaica, a subject of the King of Spain, as the sole owner and proprietor of 23,000
Spanish milled dollars; and also for the rest of [196] the dollars, and the indigo,
on behalf of various other Spanish subjects.
The claimants in the said claim protest against the goods being liable to confisca-
tion ; and aver that some time in the month of February last, a certain schooner or
vessel, called the Pelican, arrived on the coast of Campeachy in South America,
where these claimants then resided ; and the said schooner then and there was, and
so continued until and at the time of her sailing from thence, and during her voyage,
under the command of William Moodie, whom these claimants were informed, and
believed to be a British subject, and had on board a British register, and was owned
(as appeared by the said register and as these claimants were informed), by British
subjects, and was, as these claimants were informed and verily believed, in all
respects navigated according to the British laws, and qualified to trade between
the island of Jamaica and the Spanish colonies in America; and these claimants
THE PELICAN
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