Section 4639 of the Revised Statutes contemplates that, under circumstances, all costs and expenses shall remain charged on the captured vessel though she be restored, and this court has repeatedly held that damages and costs will be denied where there was probable cause for seizure, and that sometimes costs will be awarded to the captors. The Venus, 5 Wheat. 127; The Thompson, 3 Wall. 155; The Springbok, 5 Wall. 1; The Dashing Wave, 5 Wall. 170; The Sir William Peel, 5 Wall. 517; The Peterhoff, 5 Wall. 28, 61, 62.

In The Dashing Wave, Chief Justice Chase said: “We think it was the plain duty of a neutral claiming to be engaged in trade with Matamoras, under circumstances which warranted close observation by the blockading squadron, to keep his vessel, while discharging or receiving cargo, so clearly on the neutral side of the boundary line as to repel, so far as position could repel, all imputation of intent to break the blockade. He had no right to take, voluntarily, a position in the immediate presence of the blockading fleet, from which merchandise might be so easily introduced into the blockaded region. We do not say that neglect of duty, in this respect, on the part of the brig, especially in the absence of positive evidence that the neglect was wilful, calls for condemnation; but we cannot doubt that under the circumstances described, capturing and sending in for adjudication was fully warranted."

In The Springbok, the ship was restored, but costs and damages were not allowed because of the misconduct of the master. In The Peterhoff, payment of costs and expenses by the ship was decreed as a condition of restitution. The Peterhoff was captured by the United States vessel of war Vanderbilt on suspicion of intent to run the blockade and of having contraband on board. Her captain refused to take his papers to the Vanderbilt and, in addition, papers were destroyed and a package was thrown overboard. The Peterhoff was searched, and it is stated in the opinion: "The search led to the belief on the part of the officers of the Vanderbilt that there was contraband on board, destined to the enemy. This belief, it is now apparent, was warranted. It was therefore the duty of the captors to bring

The Peterhoff in for adjudication, and clearly they are not liable for the cost and expenses of doing so." The court then commented on the destruction of papers, and the throwing overboard of the package, in regard to which it was unable to credit the representations of the captain, but in view of the other facts in the case, did not extend the effect of the captain's conduct and the incriminating circumstances to condemnation.

The case before us falls plainly within these rulings. This vessel had gone into San Juan on July 4th, although the captain had heard of the blockade at St. Thomas, but he says he had not been officially notified of it; he telegraphed to the consul at San Juan to know, and was answered that they had received no official notice from Washington that the port was blockaded; he also heard while in San Juan that "it would be blockaded some future time, but that was not officially." The vessel was boarded and warned by the Yosemite on July 5th, and the warning entered on her log. This imposed upon her the duty to avoid approaching San Juan, on her return, so nearly as to give just cause of suspicion, yet she so shaped her course as inevitably to invite it.

When the New Orleans succeeded the Yosemite, her commander was informed of the facts by his predecessor, and knew that whatever the right of the Olinde Rodrigues to be in those waters, she could not lawfully place herself so near the interdicted port as to be able to break the blockade with impunity. But when he sighted her the ship was on a course to all appearance directly into that port, and steadily pursuing it. And when he signalled, the Olinde Rodrigues apparently did not obey, but seemingly persisted on her course, and that course would in a few moments have placed her within the range of the guns of Morro and of the shore batteries. In fact, when the shot was fired she was within the range of the Morro's guns. The evidence is overwhelming that she did not change her course until after the shot was fired, even though she may have stopped as soon as she saw the signal. The turning point into the Culebra or Virgin Passage was perhaps forty miles to the eastward, and while she could have passed the port of San Juan on the course

she was on, it would have been within a very short distance. The disregard of her duty to shun the port and not approach it was so flagrant that the intention to break the blockade was to be presumed, though we do not hold that that was a presumption de jure.

The ship's log was not produced until three hours after she was boarded, and it now appears, that the papers furnished the boarding officers, "said to be all the ship's papers," did not include two Spanish bills of health in which San Juan was entered as the vessel's destination. These were destroyed after the ship reached Charleston, and, were, therefore, in the ship's possession when the other papers were delivered. Had they been shown, as they should have been, can it be denied that they would have furnished strong corroboration of criminal intent? Or that their destruction tended to make a case of strong and vehement suspicion?

The entire record considered, we are of opinion that restitution of the Olinde Rodrigues should be awarded, without damages, and that payment of the costs and expenses incident to her custody and preservation, and of all costs and expenses in the cause except the fees of counsel, should be imposed upon the ship.

The decree of the District Court will be so modified, and as modified affirmed.

Mr. Justice McKenna dissented on the ground that the evidence justified condemnation. (Scott, Cases on International Law, pp. 835-844.)

10. Judgment of Sir William Scott in the Case of the
Jonge Margaretha

THE DOCTRINE OF CONDITIONAL CONTRABAND AND ITS APPLICATION TO PROVISIONS

SIR W. SCOTT. There is little reason to doubt the property in this case, and therefore passing over the observations which have been made on that part of the subject, I shall confine myself to the single question, Is this a legal transaction in a

neutral, being the transaction of a Papenberg ship carrying Dutch cheeses from Amsterdam to Brest or Morlaix (it is said) but certainly to Brest; or as it may be otherwise described, the transaction of a neutral carrying a cargo of provisions, not the product and manufacture of his own country, but of the enemy's ally in the war- of provisions which are a capital ship's store - and to the great port of naval equipment of the enemy?

If I adverted to the state of Brest at this time, it might be no unfair addition to the terms of the description, if I noticed, what was notorious to all Europe at this time, that there was in that port a considerable French fleet in a state of preparation for sallying forth on a hostile expedition; its motions at that time watched with great anxiety by a British fleet which lay off the harbour for the purpose of defeating its designs. Is the carriage of such a supply, to such a place, and on such an occasion a traffic so purely neutral, as to subject the neutral trader to no inconvenience?

If it could be laid down as a general position, in the manner in which it has been argued, that cheese, being a provision, is universally contraband, the question would be readily answered; but the court lays down no such position. The catalogue of contraband has varied very much, and sometimes in such a manner as to make it very difficult to assign the reason of the variations; owing to particular circumstances, the history of which has not accompanied the history of the decisions. In 1673, when many unwarrantable rules were laid down by public authority respecting contraband, it was expressly asserted by Sir R. Wiseman, the then King's Advocate, upon a formal reference made to him, that by the English Admiralty, corn, wine, and oil, were liable to be deemed contraband. "I do agree," says he, reprobating the regulations that had been published, and observing that rules are not to be so hardly laid down as to press upon neutrals, "that corn, wine, and oil, will be deemed contraband."

These articles of provisions then were at that time confiscable, according to the judgment of a person of great knowledge and experience in the practice of this court. In much later

times many other sorts of provisions have been condemned as contraband. In 1747, in The Jonge Andreas, butter, going to Rochelle, was condemned; how it happened that cheese at the same time was more favourably considered according to the case cited by Dr. Swabey, I don't exactly know; the distinction appears nice; in all probability the cheeses were not of the species which is intended for ship's use. Salted cod and salmon were condemned in The Jonge Frederick, going to Rochelle, in the same year. In 1748, in The Joannes, rice and salted herrings were condemned as contraband. These instances show that articles of human food have been so considered, at least where it was probable that they were intended for naval or military use.

I am aware of the favourable positions laid down upon this matter by Wolfius and Vattel, and other writers of the continent, although Vattel expressly admits that provisions may, under circumstances, be treated as contraband. And I take the modern established rule to be this, that generally they are not contraband, but may become so under circumstances arising out of the particular situation of the war, or the condition of the parties engaged in it. The court must therefore look to the circumstances under which the supply was sent.

Among the circumstances which tend to preserve provisions from being liable to be treated as contraband, one is, that they are of the growth of the country which exports them. In the present case, they are the product of another country, and that a hostile country; and the claimant has not only gone out of his way for the supply of the enemy, but he has assisted the enemy's ally in the war by taking off his surplus commodities.

Another circumstance to which some indulgence, by the practice of nations is shown, is, when the articles are in their native and unmanufactured state. Thus iron is treated with indulgence, though anchors and other instruments fabricated out of it are directly contraband. Hemp is more favourably considered than cordage; and wheat is not considered as so noxious a commodity as any of the final preparations of it for human use. In the present case, the article falls under this