Melville Fuller

“ And be it further enacted, That all captured national ships or vessels of war shall be the property of the United States,-all other ships or vessels, being of superior force to the vessel making the capture, in men or guns, shall be the sole property of the captors,-and all ships or vessels of inferior force shall be divided equally between the United States and the officers and men of the vessel making the capture. ”

“ But while the property in question was, in general, susceptible of condemnation in prize, it was, nevertheless, taken subject to the exercise of the power of restitution. The right of the government is supreme, and when, in its judgment, the public interest demands it, prizes may be restored, and the courts cannot proceed to condemnation. ”

“ Cargo is the lading of a ship or vessel and may be prize when the vessel is not, or the vessel may be when the cargo is not. The inquiry here relates to things belonging to the outfit of vessels of war, for whose capture prize money is paid, and for whose destruction bounty is paid. ”

“ These were naval stores taken at a naval station, by a naval force, as the result of a naval engagement, and the question is whether the fact that they were taken from a navy yard instead of from a vessel rendered the statute inapplicable.
Generally speaking, forts, cities, lands taken from the enemy, are called conquests; movables taken on land, booty; on the high seas, prize. And the high seas include coast waters without the boundaries of low-water mark, though within bays or roadsteads,-waters on which a court of admiralty has jurisdiction. ”

“ But we should remember that that statute, and Title LIV., into which it was carried, embraced prize in general, and that vessels and their cargoes most frequently constituted prize property brought in for adjudication. So that in making provision in that regard, Congress was obliged to use such terms as even to give color to the argument that an enemy's vessels of war could not be condemned at all for the benefit of captors, and that bounty was their only reward, as was the case under the act of 1799 [1 Stat. at L. 709, chap. 24] . ”

“ In our opinion it would be spinning altogether too nicely to hold that because enemy property on land cannot be taken in prize by land operations, public property designed for hostile uses, and stored on the sea shore in an establishment for facilitating naval warfare, might not be made prize, under the statute, when captured by naval forces operating directly from the sea. ”

“ Captures in war inure to the government and can become private property only by its grant. The right of the citizen to demand condemnation of vessels or property as prize for his benefit must be derived from acts of Congress, and their scope is not to be enlarged in his favor by construction. ”

“ Parsons, in his work on Marine Insurance, says that 'insurance on the ship covers all that belongs to it, as hull, sails, rigging, tackle, apparel, or furniture;' and he quotes from Emerigon (chap. 10, § 2, p. 234) : 'The expression 'on the body' embraces, in its generality, as I have just said, all that regards the ship. Such are the hull of the vessel, its rigging and apparel, munitions of war, stores and victualing, advances to the crew, and all that has been expended in the fitting it out.' 1 Marine Ins. ”

“ Lord Stowell held that it should, and that the word 'appurtenances' distinguished between cargo, which was intended to be disposed of at the foreign port, and having a merely transitory connection with the ship, and those accompaniments that were indispensable instruments, without which the ship could not perform its functions. ”

“ Adjudication is contemplated in all cases.
By § 4635 (U.S.C.omp. Stat. 1901, p. 3134) , a bounty is given for each person on board a vessel of the enemy which is 'sunk or otherwise destroyed' in an engagement, of $100 if the hostile fleet is of inferior, and of $200 if of equal or superior, force; and $50 for every person on board at the time of such capture, where the vessels taken are immediately destroyed in the public interest, but not in consequence of injuries received in action. ”

“ The Nanshan was a heavy ship, being loaded to the underwriters' mark with coal.
'At the time and during the battle of Manila the Nanshan was between 4 and 5 miles of the Spanish fleet engaged in that action. She was within signaling distance of the fleet that effected the destruction of the Spanish vessels, but was not in such condition as to afford effective aid, her guns not being able to produce any effect upon the Spanish vessels; she was ordered to lay off in the bay, clear of the fleet ”

“ Stat. 1901, p. 3614) , in respect of insurrection, and ¶9 of § 563 (U.S.C.omp. Stat. 1901, p. 457) , and ¶6 of § 629, Revised Statutes (U.S.C.omp. Stat. 1901, p. 504) , affect the result we have reached. ”