In continuation of the business of the Spanish steamer Cardenas, the
undersigned, envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary of her
Catholic Majesty, has the honor to transmit, annexed, to the Hon.
Secretary of State of the United States, copy of the proceedings,
sustained by documents, by which Don José Maria Morales, president of
the Cuban General Steam Navigation Company, shows that the damages
occasioned to them by the long detention of said vessel at New Orleans,
in consequence of the unjustifiable orders of General Butler, amount to
the sum of sixteen thousand three hundred and
forty-seven dollars.
In pressing this claim the undersigned entertains the confidence that the
government of the United States will admit its justice by indemnifying
the owners of the Cardenas for the losses they have suffered.
The undersigned avails of this occasion to reiterate to the Hon.
Secretary of State of the United States the assurance of his highest
consideration.
Hon. William H. Seward, Secretary of State of the United States.
[Translation.]
Most Excellent Captain General, Superior Civil
Governor: Don Jose Maria Morales, president of the Cuban
General Steam Navigation Company, with all due respect shows to you
that on the 13th of this present month arrived at this port from New
Orleans the Spanish merchant steamer Cardenas, the property of the
said company, and under command of their captain, Don Jose Ramon
Burguero. This vessel was cleared here for that port on the 31st May
last past, carrying freight and passengers, with all the formalities
and requirements necessary on the part of our authorities, and with
the intervention of the consul of the United States at this place in
all that concerned certificates to documents. On the 4th day of
June, at five o’clock in the afternoon, the said vessel reached New
Orleans, made fast to one of its wharves, and landed all the
passengers in the best condition of health, without any impediment
whatever made by the vessel of war and forts of that place. At eight
o’clock the same night an order of the government was made known to
the captain to cast off from the wharf, and drop down and anchor
below the forts, reminding him that he had entered the port without
having asked leave of the commander of said fort; and, although
Captain Burguero presented himself to General Butler, commandant
general of the department, with the intention of stating to him
that, never having been in that port, he was ignorant of its settled
usages, that notwithstanding he came to on passing before the forts
and on arriving at the Lagavette, nobody prevented him from going
on; that if any signal had been made to him to stop he would have
obeyed it; and that it did not appear to him to be just that the
interests of his owners and freighters should suffer by the
negligence of the commanders of those forts. The said General Butler
having refused to listen to his reasons, and threatening him with
sinking his vessel if he did not immediately comply with the order
which had been given
[Page 529]
him,
Captain Burguero, desiring to secure himself from responsibility,
and to guard, at the same time, the rights of the owners against the
heavy damages which he foresaw would follow upon such a strange
order to go into quarantine when there had not been a single sick
man on his ship, and to guard, also, the rights of some freighters
who had shipped fruits, which surely would rot and be thrown
overboard, as in fact took place, went at once, without delay,
accompanied by his consignees—Messrs. Avendaño Brothers—before her
Majestys consul resident at New Orleans to extend the protest which,
in form most solemn, he encloses to you, that you may thereby inform
yourself of its contents, and lay it before her Majesty’s
government, in order to obtain just reparation and indemnification
of the losses and damages which have been caused to those interested
in the vessel and to some freighters by the effect of the measures
which were so inopportunely and so unjustly taken with the steamer
Cardenas to cause her to suffer from twenty-two days of quarantine
with such rigor as to challenge attention, as exercised only with
that vessel, perhaps because she was Spanish, whilst the going up to
the port was allowed to other vessels coming from the same place as
the Cardenas, or subjecting them only to lighter quarantine, or
none, as occurred with the American mail steamer Roanoke, which
arrived from Havana a few minutes before the Cardenas.
If to such arbitrary action is added the strictness with which the
authorities of the port acted on the day of the departure of the
said steamer Cardenas an exact and general search being made on
board, without passing over the letters passengers were carrying
with them, which were opened and read in the presence of all, your
excellency and her Majesty’s government will not do less than admit
that there is just ground to claim from that of the United States
what may satisfy the dignity of ours and the injured interests of
our subjects, damaged by the effect of the incomprehensible orders
of General Butler; because, from the many interesting details which
are shown by the protest, is deduced the injustice and
oppressiveness of the penalty imposed on the steamer Cardenas,
making her, without cause, perform twenty-two days quarantine after
the vessel had received on board, on passing one of the forts, an
officer of one of the detachments which garrisoned them, who asked
the favor of being carried to the city, and after having been
landed, together with thirty-five passengers that she brought from
Havana, and finally after having been in full and complete
communication and contact all the evening of the 4th day of June
with the crowded population of New Orleans, which, through
curiosity, came to visit the vessel.
The Cuban General Steam Navigation Company, considering that the
round voyage of the steamer Cardenas could not exceed fifteen days,
supplied their vessel with mess rations and provisions for that
time, bearing in mind the scarcity and dearness of provisions in New
Orleans, in order not to delay their vessel in port more time than
was purely needful to take in cargo and passengers, that is to say,
three or four days; but, as it could not enter into their
calculations that twenty-two days of quarantine would be imposed
upon her, it cannot be brought in question but that for a short
time, while undergoing that quarantine, the captain was obliged to
have recourse to the city to provide himself with necessary food,
having had to pay thirty dollars a barrel for flour, half a dollar a
pound for meat, a dollar a dozen for eggs, and the rest in the same
proportion. The numerous crew of the vessel, exceeding forty
persons, including officers, seamen, engineers, firemen, and other
service, compulsorily brought upon her a daily expenditure of large
amount, besides towings, pilot dues, and other extraordinaries,
which have had to be paid three times in consequence of such
quarantine, so that the whole will not be less than four thousand
dollars; and if to this be added, as should be added, the estimate
of damage by the loss of time by twenty-two days detention in such
quarantine, during which the vessel might have made very easily a
voyage and a half, this is another damage of importance, which,
according to the data presented by the
[Page 530]
administrators of the company, may be
considered at the lowest at $12,450 under existing circumstances;
and this is the reason why the president of the company, who has the
honor to address himself to you, begs you will please to have
presented, in due form, the protest enclosed, with a separate note
of the estimate of damages brought upon the Cuban General Steam
Navigation Company, according to a memorandum signed by the
administrators, amounting together to $16,347. These documents are
placed in your influential hands, that in such manner and form as
you shall seem just most adequate claim be made for payment from the
government of the United States, as a just indemnification of the
damages which were caused to the said company as a consequence of
the unjustifiable orders of General Butler, commandant general of
the department of New Orleans, such being an act of justice which is
prayed from the government of her Majesty which your excellency so
worthily represents in this island.
J. M. MIRALES.
Havana, July 26,
1862.
[Translation ]
Administration of the Cuban General Steam
Navigation Company.
Amount of damages which, according to the notes of expenses presented
by the captain of the steamer Cardenas, and the usual product of a
round voyage to New Orleans at the present epoch, this
administration considers that the Cuban General Steam Navigation
Company has suffered, by the unjustifiable detention of twenty-two
days, which the said vessel was subjected to at the port of New
Orleans by the military commander and representative at that place
of the government of the United States of North America, maintenance
of the crew during twenty-two days, expenditure of coal, which was
necessary to be replaced, at sixteen dollars per ton, tow boats,
pilotages, errands of persons in employ, transportation of
provisions, commissions on purchases, loss on exchange of paper for
gold, &c., &c..............................................
$3,897
On a round voyage of a steamer of 407 tons, between this port and
that of New Orleans, the period of fifteen days is reckoned. Upon
this idea, the Cardenas ought to have made a voyage and a half in
the twenty-two days she was detained, and using as bases the net
product of that she had just completed, (if she had not been
delayed,) amounting to eight thousand three hundred dollars, the
company would have earned, for a voyage and a
half............................. 12,450
It results that the Cuban General Steam Navigation Company, which we
conduct, has suffered damages to the amount of sixteen thousand
three hundred and forty-seven dollars, by the detention of
twenty-two days, at the port of New Orleans, of their steamer
Cardenas.
