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![handle is hein.slavery/ssactsengr0500 and id is 1 raw text is: THE COGNAC
Court in The Melomane was against it. I think the detachment of boats and
officers, mentioned in the proclamation, must be understood with some limitation ;
and I can suggest no other than such a practical dependence on the orders of the
commander, to be executed within the sphere of his personal superintendence and
direction, as will substantially connect him with the responsibility attached to the
capture.
It is asserted in the act on petition that the clause respecting detached boats was
introduced into the late proclamation with reference to this class of cases ; but that
is not correct, since it was inserted first in the proclamation of 1816, relating to
revenue seizures, and has been since continued.* It is said, also, that in The
Nicanor, and The Principe de Guin6e, bounties were granted for slaves captured
by the tender of the Maidstone, lying at Sierra Leone, at a distance of eight or
nine hundred miles from the ship ; and, in one case, I believe, by boats from the
tender. In The Fabiana there were no slaves on board ; and no bounties had
been paid. In The Nicanor and Principe de Guinge, there was a special
reference to the Admiralty, which recognised the use of that tender ; and it must
be presumed to have been properly authorised. Those'cases, moreover, were not
referred to this Court; and, therefore, whatever may have been done in them, if
contrary to the letter or spirit of the law, will not justify me in exercising such a
discretion.
It is said, also, that no instructions under the [377] treaty have been furnished
to any tender but the Black Joke. The instructions under the treaty seem to
be confounded in the act on petition, perhaps by both parties, with the orders or
permission of the Admiralty to employ tenders : such employment is authorised,
as I am informed, by official letters sanctioning the purchase or use of such vessels ;
and it is granted only for a limited number of such vessels, with reference to the
service on which the ship is employed, the number of her crew, and other considera-
tions of a public nature, by which the fitness and expediency of such a measure must
depend. No such permission is alleged in support of this claim; and I am bound
to pronounce that, taking the facts of this capture in any way in which they can be
represented, either as a capture by the Paul Pry, or by the boat of the Sybille,
it will not entitle the Sybille to the bounties claimed under the Act of Parliament.
COGNAC -(Ewen). February 15, 1832.-Though the Court of Admiralty has
jurisdiction to reduce the premium on bottomry bonds, yet it must act, in the
exercise of such power, with great caution, and take into consideration all the
circumstances of each particular transaction. The registrar's and merchants'
report, reducing the premium on a bond (given in France for a voyage to
London) from 20 to 124 per cent. overruled; but sustained where it disallowed
a charge of commission for the unshipping and care of the cargo, at 5 per cent.,
as unreasonable-though agreeable to the custom of the place; and in lieu
thereof substituted an allowance of 5 per cent. on the disbursements: and
the Court also sustained the report, where it disallowed a charge for wages
advanced to the crew abroad, on the ground that the payment might never
have become due.
[Referred to, The Heart of Oak, 1841, 1 W. Rob. 215 : The Pontida, 1884,
9 P. D. 103; affirmed, ibid., 177.]
This question arose on a bottomry bond. In December 1830, the Cognac,
with a cargo of brandy, clover, and coriander seed, having sustained considerable
damage in her voyage from Charente to London, put into the port of La Flotte,
in the island of R6, to repair. Her cargo was there unladen, the damage repaired,
the cargo reladen, and the ship refitted and ready for sea in March 1831, when the
master, in order to meet [378] the expenses, executed a bottomry bond on the ship,
her tackle, apparel, furniture, and cargo, for the voyage to London. The bond set
forth that the master of the ' Cognac,' assisted by the British vice-consul for the
ports of the island of R6, acknowledged the receipt of 24,170 francs 57 cents.
advanced to him by Messrs. L'Hermitte, Marsillacque & Co., merchants of Rochelles,
for defraying the sundry expenses he had been at while at the said port, and so as he
* See the Proclamations of 1824, 1825, and 1827.
2 HAGG. 377.](ViewImageLocal?handle=hein.slavery/ssactsengr0500&div=1&collection=&method=preview&ext=.png&size=3)