PRIVATEERING LAWSUIT.


Before the Most Noble and right Honorable the Lords Commissioners of Appeals in Prize Causes, Schooner COMET, JOB THURSTON, Master. [London]: Brooke, 1801. 6 pp. Folio (400 x 300 mm). Library binding. Creasing and toning, some soiling at folds, library stamps. An interesting glimpse into the legal justifications for privateering. In August of 1797, the Comet was seized by a privateer at St. Bartholomew by the Prince William Henry under the command of Samuel Faulkner. The US Agent for Claims and Appeals in Prize Causes, Samuel Williams, sues Faulkner for damages relating to the lost property on board and the ship itself. The case features the examinations of the Comet's captain, Mate, and several seamen, some of whom tell a mysterious story of throwing papers overboard at their Captain's command (which he, in his own testimony, denies). Not surprisingly, the British court finds in favor of the privateer, concluding that as the ship and its cargo are the enemy's property, "the Trade in question is illegal."