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![handle is hein.slavery/ssactsengr0499 and id is 1 raw text is: THE DONNA BARBARA
testimonies to the general skill and good conduct of the commander of the cutter ;
and I treat the charge of ignorance against him, therefore, with as little attention
as those made against the salvors. I think that the services so rendered by towing
through such a passage was not an unseasonable assistance, and that they were
offered by the commander of the cutter with good faith and justifiable intentions.
At the same time, there is the evidence of the harbour-master and of a naval officer,
very competent witnesses, in favour of the original salvors, and stating that in their
opinion they were fully able to have effected the bringing of the vessel into port.
In such a case, I shall not detract from their merits, or deduct any portion of the
two-fifths which I award as the salvage usually given in derelict. But, thinking
that the services of the cutter were meritorious, and might have been very beneficial
in contributing to the protection of the property, I shall act on the authority of my
predecessor in the case of The Maria, by giving a small additional reward to the
cutter. The Court [366] there gave £50 to a King's cutter who took that vessel in
tow, and £30 to a pilot. In the present case I shall award £100 to the revenue cutter
to be paid out of the remaining property, together with the expenses.
DONNA BARBARA -(Luiz). July 13, 1831.-The instructions annexed to the
convention with Portugal, embodied in 5 G. IV, c. 113, imply that the seizures
of Portuguese slave ships are to be made under the personal direction of the
commander of a ship of war : Held, therefore, that a seizure by an open boat
(the crew of which was borne on the books of a King's ship), commanded by an
officer of the rank required to make the search, but actually putting off from
an unauthorised tender, and at a distance of 1500 miles from the King's ship,
did not entitle the ship to the moiety of the proceeds or to the bounties under
5 G. IV, c. 113, ss. 67, 68, the slave ship having been condemned by the com-
petent Court as prize to a tender to a King's ship.
[Reversed, 3 Hagg. 446.]
His Majesty's ship Sybille, commanded by Sir F. A. Collyer, one of a squadron
of which he was commodore, was stationed off the coast of Africa for the prevention
of the slave trade, and on the 10th of January 1829, being at the island of Fernando
Po, the commodore dispatched one of the boats of the Sybille, under the first
lieutenant (Harvey), with written instructions to seize and detain all vessels traffick-
ing in slaves, contrary to certain treaties. On the boat reaching Sierra Leone on
the 21st, the crew, to protect themselves from the climate, went on board the Paul
Pry, a former slave ship, which had been there condemned and purchased by the
commodore. On the 15th of March the Adorinta, a Brazilian brig, captured by
the Sybille, appeared off the entrance of the Sierra Leone river, in charge of Mr.
Browne, a prize-master from the Sybille. She had in company the Donna
Barbara, a Brazilian schooner, with a cargo of 367 slaves, shipped in violation of
the treaty between this country and the Brazils. This vessel and cargo had been
seized by Browne on his course to Sierra Leone. Lieut. Harvey [367] went off to
these ships in the boat of the Sybille, and upon his informing Browne that he
was not authorised to effect the seizure, and desiring him to release her, the latter
returned the papers to the master of the schooner, whereupon she was seized by the
boat under Lieut. H.'s command, carried into S. L., and there condemned by the
mixed commission, as having been taken and seized by the ' Paul Pry,' a tender
of the ' Sybille. ' *
It was alleged for the Sybille, that this description, as a tender, was owing
to some error in the institution of the proceedings ; for that at the time of the
seizure the Paul Pry remained moored a considerable distance up the river ;
and that the seizure being effected by a boat of the Sybille, detached therefrom
under the command of an officer of the rank required by the treaties, and the vessel
having been afterwards condemned by the commissioners appointed in virtue
* When this case came on in the High Court of Admiralty, it was postponed
for certain papers connected with it ; these were furnished by the Government, and
among them was the sentence of the mixed commission, which stated, that the
'Donna Barbara' was brought into Court, as a prize to the ' Paul Pry,' tender to
H.M.S. 'Sybille,' and commanded by Lieut. Harvey, duly authorised and furnished
with instructions to make seizures of vessels engaged in the illegal traffic of slaves.
2 HAGG. 366.](ViewImageLocal?handle=hein.slavery/ssactsengr0499&div=1&collection=&method=preview&ext=.png&size=3)