James Moore Wayne

“ Courts of admiralty have always taken the same view of a mortgage of a ship, and of the remedies for the enforcement of them, that courts of chancery have done of such a mortgage and of any other mortgaged chattel. But, from the organization of the former and its modes of proceeding, they cannot secure to the parties to such a mortgage the remedies and protection which they have in a court of chancery. They have, therefore, never taken jurisdiction of such a contract to enforce its payment, or by a possessory action to try the title, or a right to the possession of a ship. ”

“ Where there has been a failure to pay, he cannot take the ship manu forti, but he must resort either to a court of equity or to statutory remedies for the same purpose when they exist, to bar the mortgagor's right of redemption by a foreclosure, which is to operate at such time afterward, when there shall be a foreclosure without a sale, as the circumstances of the case may make it equitable to allow. ”

“ It has been repeatedly decided in the admiralty and common law courts in England, that the former have no jurisdiction in questions of property between a mortgagee and the owner. No such jurisdiction has ever been exercised in the United States. No case can be found in either country where it has been done. In the case of The Neptune, 3 Hagg. Admiralty Reports, 132, Sir John Nicholl, in giving his judgment, observes: 'Now upon questions of mortgage, the court of admiralty has no jurisdiction ”