Hon. William H. Seward, Secretary of State.
Mr. Boynton to Mr. Bates.
United States District
Attorney’s Office,
Key West,
August 6,
1863.
Sir: I have the honor to acknowledge
the receipt of your letter of the 18th ultimo, concerning the
case of the prize steamer Victor, and to reply:
First. The case of the Victor has been heard in this court. The
decree was in favor of the claimant, restoring the vessel. I
thought it my duty to appeal to the Supreme Court, and did
so.
Secondly. The vessel was captured a short time after leaving the
port of Havana. The witnesses speak of the capture as having
taken place about six miles from the Moro Castle. The master, in
his claim, alleges that the capture was made within three miles
of a point of land to the westward of the entrance of the
harbor, which the captors stoutly deny.
Thirdly. One of the witnesses, the cabin-boy of the Victor, who
was a deserter from the capturing vessel, swears that he was
told by the shipping master, in the presence of the master of
the Victor, that the Victor was a blockade runner, and that she
was going to run the blockade, as he understood, on the voyage
for which he had been shipped.
The freight agreed to be paid for carrying the cargo to Matamoras
was about one-half the invoice value of the goods. The wages
paid the engineers and crew of the Victor was at least double
the usual wages for similar services.
Notwithstanding these extraordinary expenses, and the usual long
delay in discharging cargoes outside of Matamoras bar, (the
vessel could not pass the bar,) there was no charter-party and
no provision or agreement for lay days or demurrage at
Matamoras.
A motion for leave to invoke the masters deposition in another
case, where, as in the present case, the master, Pearce, claimed
to be the owner as well as the master of the vessel, and in
which the shippers of the cargo were the same parties who
shipped the greater portion of the Victor’s cargo, and where the
master himself swore that he was captured in the vicinity of
Cedar Keys in the Gulf of Mexico, and was bound to Bay Port, in
the State of Florida, was refused by the court. It is almost
impossible, in such a communication as this, to state clearly
all the minute circumstances of a prize cause which may point
either towards condemnation or restitution.
Fourth. It seems to me the Victor must be condemned in the
Supreme Court.
I am, &c.,
THOMAS J. BOYNTON, United States
Attorney.
Hon. Edward Bates,
Attorney General, Washington.