CO885-(10-11) — Page 209

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2727.

No. 165.

(BAHAMAS)

QUEEN'S ADVOCATE to FOREIGN OFFICE.

Doctors' Commons, March 12, 1863. MY LORD,

IAM honoured by your Lordship's commands, signified in Mr. Hammond's letter of the 9th instant, stating that he was directed by your Lordship to transmit to me a letter from the Colonial Office enclosing copies of a correspondence received from the Governor of the Bahamas, respecting the capture of the British schooner "Emms Tuttle," by the United States ship of war "Cambridge," and the subsequent resumption of the command of the "Emma Tuttle" by her proper captain.

Mr. Hammond was to request that I would take the case into consideration and report to your Lordship my opinion thereupon.

In obedience to your Lordship's commands, I have taken this case into consideration, and have the honour to

Report

That I see no just foundation for any claim on the part of the United States Govern- ment against Her Majesty's Government in this matter.

According to general law and usage a captor must take care of his own prize. He has no right to expect or require the authorities of a neutral state, much less of the state to which the prize vessel belongs, to assist him in maintaining his possession.

The statement of the master of the "Emma Tuttle" that he had been entreated by the captor to save the vessel and the lives of those on board from destruction, and had been offered his vessel again as an inducement, seems to me in the circumstances very probable.

It is certain that necessity, not choice, drove the captor of a British vessel to seek refuge in a British port.

It is also certain that the captor, with nearly all the prize crew, abandoned, with whatever object, the vessel for a time. There is no evidence that the collector of the customs forcibly or illegally detained (as suggested in the second but not in the first letter of the United States Consul) the vessel.

It was not the duty of that officer to interfere at all in any matter of prize, and it is to be regretted that even the tidewaiter was allowed to go on board, though he appears to have gone there rather as the agent of the captor, or perhaps of both parties, than in any other capacity. In this state of things the original master of the vessel obtains without any interference on the part of the local authorities possession of her and sails away with her. Whether it be true or false that he broke his promise to the captor Her Majesty's Government cannot tell and need not inquire. It is the business of the captor to secure his prize, not of the state to which the prize originally belonged to secure it for him.

The Earl Russell.

I have, &c.

(Signed)

ROBERT PHILLIMORE,

0 16276.-267. 95,--9/06.

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

C.O. 885

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