Ransom, Recaptures, and Salvage.

Sometimes circumstances will not permit property captured at sea to be sent into port; and the captor, in such cases, may either destroy it, or permit the original owner to redeem it.

It was formerly the general custom to redeem property from the hands of the enemy by Ransom, and the contract is undoubtedly valid, when municipal regulations do not intervene. It is now but little known in the commercial law of England, for several statutes in the reign of George the Third absolutely prohibited British subjects the privilege of ransom of property captured at sea, unless in a case of extreme necessity to be judged of by the Court of Admiralty.

These contracts are generally drawn up at sea, and by virtue of them, the captain of the captor engages for the release and safe conduct of the taken ship, in consideration of a sum of money, which the master of the captured vessel, on behalf of himself and the owners of his ship and cargo, engages to pay, and for the payment of which he delivers a hostage as security. The contract is drawn up in two parts, of which the captor has one, which is called the ransom bill; the master of the captured vessel has the other, which operates as his safe conduct.

By the French law this safe conduct only protects the vessel to its own port, or its port of destination, if nearer that. In other countries the pass allows the ship to continue its voyage; but operates only to protect the vessel in the course prescribed, and within the time limited by the contract. It protects only against capture, unless by agreement it provides also against total loss by perils of the seas.

During war, and while the character of alien enemy continues, no suit will lie in the British Courts by the enemy, in proper person, on a ransom bill, notwithstanding it is a contract arising out of the law of war. The remedy to enforce payment of the ransom bill for the benefit of the enemy captor, is by an action by the imprisoned hostage, in the courts of his own country, for the recovery of his freedom.

The hostage consists generally of one or two principal officers of the captured prize, more generally one only.

As the ransom is in the nature of a pledge, the ransom cannot exceed the value of the ship, so that the master cannot bind his owner for a larger value; and on the same principle, the captor is bound to take the vessel or its value if abandoned by the owner, or what it sells for if the owner is insolvent. He is also bound to maintain the hostage, and that is an item in the ransom bill. In estimating the ransom and expenses of the hostage as a damage or loss, they are regarded in the nature of general average, and the several persons interested in the ship, freight, and cargo, must all contribute towards them.

Although in strictness every prize legally made, may be adjudged to the captor, yet there are cases where he ought to restore, wholly, or in part, that which he may legally have taken from the enemy. This is the case of recaptures.

According to the universal law of nations, the question whether the recapture ought to be restored to the first proprietor, seems to depend essentially on another, namely, whether the captor has become full proprietor of the prize, to the total extinction of the rights of the first proprietor. If we admit that he may have become so, there would be no further perfect and external obligation on the recaptor to restore property which has become that of the enemy; and on which the first proprietor has lost all claim. There may be a thousand reasons of equity why he should not enrich himself by the spoil of his fellow citizens or friends; but then, that restitution would not be according to the strict rule of natural law; if indeed all claim had so passed away.

The captor has, without doubt, a right to take away the enemy’s goods. He may, without troubling himself with the proprietor’s rights, detain them, with intent to appropriate to himself, in the same manner, in every respect, as he may seize res nullius in the time of peace; but it does not follow from thence that the effect of these two actions is the same, when applied to objects of so different a condition, or that the right of war alone, without cession or renunciation, is a title sufficient for a full property.

By the Laws of War the right and power of possession is in the captor; the right of property remains in the proprietor. This right of war, which is personal in the captor, not being capable of cession, cannot bind a third person, who acquires the prize by recapture during war; and nothing prohibits the original proprietor from prosecuting his rights against him; accordingly, without making any distinction between conquest, booty, or prize; the goods taken by the enemy, however legal that capture might be, however certain the possession of them might be, do not become his full property till the moment of peace; and that during the whole course of the war it may be claimed by the first proprietor from the hands of every third possessor. From this it follows that every recapture, made at any period of the war whatever, whether the capture may have been legal, or whether it may have been illegal; whether the recapture be made by a Sovran, or by a privateer; ought to be restored to the original owner on a just repayment of the costs and damages of every recaptor, unless the illegality of the recapture precludes the recaptor from the privilege of demanding the indemnification.

The costs and damages paid to the recaptor are termed Salvage. It was the ancient law of this country, that a possession of twenty-four hours was a sufficient conversion of the property, and unless it was reclaimed before sundown, the owner was divested of his property. Thus there was a complete obliteration of the rights of former owners. This was the ancient law of England, and was in accordance with the ancient law of Europe.

This rule has been receded from in this country, since the increase of her commerce. During the time of the usurpation, when England was becoming commercial, an alteration was effected by the ordinance of 1649, which directed a restitution, upon salvage, to British subjects; and the same indulgent rule was continued afterwards, when this country became still more commercial.

This country, as a commercial country, has thus departed from the old law, and has made a new and peculiar law for itself, in favour of merchant property recaptured, introducing a policy not then introduced by other countries, and differing from its own ancient practice.

There is one exception to this law. The Prize Act provides that if a recaptured ship, originally taken by her Majesty’s enemies, shall appear to have been by them “set forth as a ship or vessel of war,” the said ship or vessel shall not be restored to the former owners or proprietors; but shall, in all cases, whether retaken by any of Her Majesty’s ships, or by any privateer, be adjudged lawful prize for the benefit of the captors. When the former character of the vessel has been once obliterated by her conversion into a ship of war, the title of the former owner, and his claim to restitution, are extinguished, and cannot be revived by any subsequent variation of the character of the vessel.

Setting forth does not necessarily mean sending out of port with a regular commission. It is sufficient if she has been used as part of the national force of the enemy, by those in competent authority.

As it has been stated above, in cases of recapture, the material question is, whether there was such a capture made by the enemy, as to found a case of re-capture.

This is settled by the question whether the enemy have an effectual possession; by this is not meant the complete and firm possession obtained by condemnation in a Court of Prize, but that effectual possession, that if not interrupted by recapture, would have enabled the captor to exercise rights of war over her. For this purpose it is not necessary that the possession should be long maintained. The following are some examples of such effectual possession.

An English merchantman, separated from her convoy during a storm, was brought to by an enemy’s lugger, which came up and told the master to stay by her till the storm was abated, when they would send a man on board; a British frigate coming up afterwards chased the lugger and took her, thus releasing the merchantman; the frigate was held entitled to salvage.

But when a small English vessel, armed with two swivels, forced a privateer row-boat from Dunkirk to strike, but was not able to board her, because the English vessel has only three men, and no arms but the swivels, the Frenchman being filled with a well armed crew; and subsequently, the row-boat was forced to put into the port of Ostend, then the port of an ally; this might not be a capture under the act, so much as it was under the general maritime law.

A vessel brought out of port, and which was in the power, though not in the actual occupation of the enemy, was thus rescued from considerable peril, was held to be recaptured.

Similarly, with a vessel abandoned by the enemy, having possession of her, through the terror of an approaching force.

There is no claim to Salvage where the property rescued was not in the possession of the enemy, or so nearly as to be certainly and inevitably under his grasp.

England restores the Recaptured Property of her Allies, on the payment of salvage; but if instances can be given of British property retaken by them, and condemned as prize, the Court of Admiralty will determine their cases according to their own rule.

It is not the practice of modern nations to grant Salvage on the Recapture of Neutral Vessels; and upon this plain principle, that the liberation of a clear neutral from the hand of the enemy, is no essential service to him; for the enemy would be compelled by the tribunals of his own country, after he had carried the neutral into port, to release him with costs and damages, for the injurious seizure and detention. This proceeds on the supposition, that those tribunals would duly respect the law of nations; a presumption which, in the wars of civilized states, each belligerent is bound to entertain in their respective dealings with neutrals. But in the wild hostilities declared and practised by France in the Revolutionary War, there was a constant struggle between the governing powers of France and the maritime courts, which should most outrage the rights of neutral property; the liberation of neutral property out of their hands then came to be deemed, not only by Lord Stowell, but by the neutrals themselves, a substantial benefit; and salvage for such service was not only awarded, but thankfully paid.

The rule by which things taken by the enemy are restored to their former owner, upon coming again under the power of the nation to which they formerly belonged, is termed jus postliminii, or the right of postliminy. Real property, which is easily identified, is more completely within the right of postliminy than moveable property, which is more transitory in its nature, and less easily recognized. During war, the right of postliminy can only be claimed in the tribunals of the belligerent powers, and not in the courts of neutrals; for by a general law of nations, neutrals have no right to enquire into any captures, except such as are an infringement of their own neutrality.

It often happens that captains of ships of war and privateers make seizures of native or neutral vessels, under the impression that such vessels are occupied in illicit trade or other condemnatory acts. This may arise from error, and in such cases the vessel is restored to the owner by the prize court; but still there may be circumstances justifying the seizure, though not condemnation; and if condemnation is not granted, the owner sets up a claim for any damage that may have occurred to his vessel.

And the rule is, that where the capture is not justifiable, a captor is answerable for every damage.

But if a seizure is justifiable, all that the law requires is that the captor shall be held responsible for due diligence; it is not enough that the captor should use as much caution as he would in his own affairs, the law requires that there should be no deficiency of due diligence.

When property is confided by an owner to another person, the care that the owner would take of his own property may be a reasonable criterion of the care that he may expect his agent to take. But in the case of capture, there is no confidence reposed, nor any voluntary election of the person in whose care the property is left. It is a compulsory act of justifiable force, but still of such force as removes from the owner any responsibility for the imprudent conduct of the prize-master. Hence, where the prize-master refused to take a pilot, and the ship and cargo were lost, restitution in value was decreed.