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![handle is hein.slavery/ssactsengr0596 and id is 1 raw text is: CRAWFORD V. SPOONER [1846] IV MOORE IND. APP,, 179
[179] ROBERT WIGRAM CRAWFORD,-Appellant; RICHARD SPOONER,-
Respondent * [Dec. 11 and 15, 1846].
On Appeal from the Supreme Court at Bombay.
A ship built in a foreign port in India, in 1817, within the limits of the Company's
Charter, by foreigners, and which sailed under foreign flags, until 1838,
when it was then and thereafter owned by, and belonged to, British subjects,
resident at Bombay, is entitled, under the Proclamation of the Governor-
General in Council, and the Act of the Legislative Council of India, No. X.
of 1841 (passed in pursuance of the powers, granted by the Statute, 3 and 4
Vict., c. 56), to be registered at Bombay, as a British ship, for the purposes
of trade, within the limits of the Company's Charter.
This was an action on the case, brought by the Appellant (the owner, to the
extent of eight sixty-fourth parts, of a vessel, called the General.Wood), against the
Respondent, the registering officer of ships, at the port of Bombay, appointed under
the Act of the Legislative Council, No. X. of 1841 ; for refusal to register the ship,
at that port. To the declaration, the Respondent pleaded, that the ship was not, on
the 11th of September 1844 (the day named in the declaration, when the refusal
was made), or before, had not been, or was then, entitled to the privileges of, or to
[180] be registered as, a British ship and thereupon issue was joined. It was
afterwards agreed between tle parties that the following special case should be
stated for the opinion of the Court.
In the year 1816, a ship was laid down, and in 1817, was completed and built
at Damaun, a Portuguese settlement in India, within the limits of the Company's
Charter (as those limits are defined by the 3 and 4 Vict., c. 56), for and as the
property of one Manoel Pereira, a Portuguese subject, and resident at Macao, who
continued to own the ship, and navigate her, under the flag of Portugal, until the
year 1824, when he sold and assigned the ship to one John Hudson, British subject,
a master mariner resident at Calcutta.
John Hudson owned the ship, and navigated her under the British flag, until
1826, when he sold and transfei red her to Francis Mendez, Portuguese, a merchant
of Calcutta, who, in 1827, transferred her to Antonio Pereira, also a merchant of
Calcutta. The vessel was shortly afterwards transferred to subjects of Portugal,
at Macao, and, in 1832, was transferred by them to John Burd, a master mariner,
resident at Singapore, but a subjcct of Denmark.
In 1833, John Burd had the vessel registered as a Danish ship at Altona, and,
in 1838, be sold and transferred her to Mr. Henderson, a British subject and
merchant, then resident at Bombay, by whom the ship was, in 1838, sold and
transferred to Messrs. Jardine, Matheson and Co., British subjects, and merchants
of Canton, in China, by whom the ship was, in the same year, re-transferred to
John Burd.
In 1841, John Burd sold and transferred the ship back to Messrs. Jardine,
Matheson and Co., who, in the present year, sold and transferred the ship to Sir
[181] Jamsetjee Jeejeebhoy, Sons and Co., British spbjects and merchants, resident
and carrying on business in Bombay, and who had since sold eight sixty-fourth
parts or shares in the ship, to the Plaintiff in this action, a British subject, residing
in Bombay.
The ship was navigated under Danish colours whilst owned by John Burd; but
on being transfemred to Mr. Henderson, a pass was granted by the Master Attendant
at Bombay, under the provisions of Act No. XIX..of 1838, of the Legislative Council
of India, entitled, 'An Act for prescribing the rules to be observed, in order that
ships or vessels belonging to ports within the territories under the Government of
the East India Company, or belonging to Native Princes or States, or their subjects,
might become entitled to the privileges of British ships, under a Proclamation of
the Governor-General in Council, in India, made in pursuance of the Statute, 3 and
Present: Members of the Judicial Committee,-Lord Brougham, Lord Lang-
dale, the Right Hon. Dr. Lushington, and the Right Hon. T. Pemberton Leigh.
Privy Councillors,-Assessors,-Sir E. East, Bart., and Sir E. Ryan, Knt.](ViewImageLocal?handle=hein.slavery/ssactsengr0596&div=1&collection=&method=preview&ext=.png&size=3)