No. 385.
Mr. Davis
to Mr. Morgan.
Department
of State,
Washington, January 29,
1883.
No. 358.]
Sir: The American schooner Adriana, of San
Francisco, George Caleb master and part owner (Mr. Adolph B. Roth, of San
Francisco, being the only other owner), sailed from the latter port on the
12th of December, ultimo, and on the 26th of the same month, seeking shelter
from stress of weather, came to anchor in the Gulf of Lower California,
about 4 miles southeast from Cape Palmo. The vessel was bound for La Paz.,
Lower California, and San Bias, Mexico. The next day about noon a Mexican
customs officer from a revenue boat boarded the Adriana, examined her
papers, pronounced them regular and correct, and departed. On the same day
(27th December), about three hours later, the same officer and crew returned
with a sloop, which they claimed as a prize and which they made fast to the
Adriana. The Mexican officer, accompanied by a sailor armed with a musket,
boarded the schooner against the remonstrance and protest of Captain Caleb,
the master, made Captain Caleb a prisoner, directing the armed marine, or
sailor, to shoot him if he offered the slightest resistance. This officer
then assumed command of the Adriana, took her into the port of La Paz, with
her flag (United States) hauled down. Certain proceedings, of the precise
nature of which the Department is not as yet fully informed, were then
instituted the Mexican local customs officials; but enough is declared to
show that the schooner is still held under seizure and her captain detained
as a prisoner.
I inclose herewith a copy of a dispatch of the 9th instant, with its
inclosures, from Mr. Viosca, the United States consul at La Paz, which
contains all the information the Department has received on the subject. No
communication has as yet been received by the Department from the master of
the vessel. It is, however, to be expected that he will present a claim for
indemnity. So far he has had no opportunity to do so, owing to the
compulsory detention and annoyances to which he has been subjected. Coming,
however, as the information does, to the Department from one of its consuls,
who is known to be a prudent and careful officer, it is at once impressed
with the unnecessary and apparently wholly unwarranted severity of the
summary proceedings, resorted to by the local Mexican officials of La
Paz.
[Page 620]
You will, therefore, lose no time in bringing the subject to the attention of
the Mexican Government with a view to an early inquiry and full
investigation of the occurrence by that Government; and you will request in
the name of this Government that the schooner Adriana, in the mean time, be
immediately released and restored to her captain and owner, and that Captain
Caleb, if still held as a prisoner, be also released. At the same time you
will be careful to reserve all the rights of the master and owners of the
vessel as to any future claims for indemnity, and report the result of your
proceedings to the Department.
I am, &c.,
JOHF DAVIS,
Acting
Secretary.
[Inclosure in No. 358.]
Consul Viosca to
Mr. Hunter.
United
States Consulate,
La Paz,
Mexico, January 9, 1883.
(Received January 22.)
No. 12.]
Sir: On the 1st day of January, 1883, at 5
p.m., arrived at this port the American schooner Adriana, belonging to
George Caleb and Adolph B. Roth, citizens of the United States and
residents of San Francisco, Cal. The first named, Caleb, is the master
of the said schooner, which left San Francisco on the 12th December,
1882.
Upon her arrival without her flag being hoisted, I inquired why the
vessel was without a flag, and from all appearance with a Mexican armed
force on board; the reason of which I learn from public rumor to be that
the said schooner was seized by a Mexican revenue officer on board of a
“plonger,” which met the vessel anchored on the lower coast of Lower
California; that from the time of her seizure the said revenue officer
took command of the vessel and brought her over to La Paz under his
sailing directions; that on her arrival here the officer landed, leaving
Captain Caleb, mate, and crew “incommunicated “[incommunicado] on board, with a guard of armed men to prevent
any one from shore from communicating with them; that the ship’s logbook
was also taken by the revenue officer, brought ashore, and delivered to
the custom-house.
Early the next morning a communication was sent by me to the collector,
inquiring the reasons for such extemporary and unlawful proceedings, a
copy of which communication I have the honor to transmit for the
Department’s information, with also a copy of the collector’s reply.
On the second day, at 5 p.m., Captain Caleb, mate, and crew were brought
ashore in custody of a revenue officer, taken at once before the
collector, and while there, the captain, mate, and crew were forced,
under various threats of imprisonment, to-answer questions regarding a
certain Mexican boat, captured by the revenue officer, along the
seashore and within a mile and a half from the place where the schooner
hove her anchor on account of experiencing boisterous weather, the tenor
of which questions are explained in the copy of the captain’s, mate’s,
and crew’s depositions,-entered before me, and on the said subject, as
per inclosure herewith.
While such an action on the part of the collector was going on, the
district court, being advised of the same, began at once criminal
proceedings against Captain Caleb for the infraction of the article of
tariff mentioned in the copy of the reply from the .collector, the court
declaring his imprisonment on the 5th instant. Although Captain Caleb,
at my instance, pleaded being very sick, and a doctor’s certificate
having been presented by me to that effect, nevertheless he was confined
in the city hall, where he aiow remains very ill.
Up to the present time there is nothing, in my opinion, to justify the
Captain’s imprisonment, nor of seizing the vessel, contrary to the laws
of the country and against the treaty stipulations.
Even supposing that the vessel had any cognizance of where the captured
Mexican boat obtained the contraband goods found in it, the vessel was
not caught in the act of smuggling, nor does all the testimony rendered
to the court by either parties up to the present moment appear to
implicate the vessel, captain, or crew; besides, by the existing revenue
laws, the contents found in the boat are amenable to be lost, and the
perpetrator, whoever he may be, is liable to from two to five years’
imprisonment.
* * * * * * *
[Page 621]
The vessel was captured without a shadow of right or of legal precedence
on the part of the custom-house collector, giving great offense to our
maritime and commercial interest, besides the disrespect also to the
laws and flag of the United States. Her American clearance papers, along
with the Mexican consul’s manifest and invoices of cargo, were found
correct by the said boarding officer and by the customhouse here, after
appraising them.
In substance, the court is continuing the trial of Captain Caleb, and the
vessel’s detention will continue until the case is decided, the result
of which I will communicate from time to time to the Department.
I am, &c.,
Mr. Viosca to the
collector of customs at La
Paz.
United
States Consulate,
La Paz,
Mexico, January 2,
1883.
Sir: Information has reached this consulate of
the arrival of the American schooner Adriana, which vessel anchored in
this port yesterday at 5 o’clock p.m., without having hoisted her flag,
which is against international usage and against the rules of the
harbor; and up to the present moment the captain of said vessel has not
complied with the rule of depositing the ship’s papers in this
consulate, which is also as great infraction of the laws of the United
States. The above statement and various other rumors in public
circulation such as that the said Adriana was boarded somewhere about
the coast of this peninsula by some revenue officer while the said
vessel was anchored under the coast’s land protection on account of
boisterous weather; that the said officer jumped on board of the
aforesaid vessel and forcibly took the command of the vessel from its
captain, ordering some of his armed men (if a refusal of the same was
made by the captain or any threats made to prevent the said officer’s
action) to shoot him or any of the men attempting resisance on board of
said Adriana.
That whatever might have been the crime or infraction of the rules and
laws of the country committed by the captain and crew while the said
Adriana was in the waters of the jurisdiction of Mexico, it does not
lessen the vessel’s rights of nationality or permit the commission of
any infraction of the treaty by the said officer.
I therefore have the honor to request of you to be pleased to inform this
consulate, if such as above related has happened, what is the breach
against the rules of the custom-house committed by the said vessel,
captain, and crew, or if any arbitrary act on the part of your officers
has been acted upon as aforestated.
With the highest considerations, &c.,
JAS. VIOSCA,
Vice-Consul, Acting
Consul.
The collector of customs at La
Paz to Mr. Viosca.
In answer to your note of January 2, 1883,1 beg to state that the
American schooner Adriana was captured and conducted to this port by the
custom-house officer, Ysidro Ysais, for having been fouud violating
section 1 of article 86 of the tariff of customs of November 8, 1880, in
the waters of the jurisdiction of Mexico, as it appears by the
declaration signed by the captain of said vessel, which exists in this
office.
And I also beg to state that the rumors which you mention are without
foundation fas I suppose the said captain has by
this time acquainted you.
With the highest considerations, &c.,
Deposition of Captain Caleb, of the Schooner
Adriana.
United
States Consulate,
La Paz,
Mexico, January 4,
1883.
George Caleb, citizen of the United States, master and owner of the
American schooner Adriana, declares: That we left San Francisco, State
of California, on the 12th of December, 1882, regularly dispatched for
La Paz, in Lower California, and San Bias, Mexico, and on or about the
20th of the same month we encountered boisterous
[Page 622]
weather on reaching the Gulf of California which
became a gale. The vessel being heavily laden with a large load on deck,
the sea was high and washed the decks, and the cargo shifted, and the
sails were split, compelling us to seek shelter, which we did on the
26th, coming to anchor about 4 miles southeast from Cape Paltno, on the
coast of Lower California, Mexico. We secured the deck load, mended
sails, and, while so engaged on the 27th, about 12 m., a custom-house
boat boarded the vessel, examined the papers, and pronounced them all
right. About two or three hours thereafter they returned with a sloop
which they claimed as/a prize, and made fast to the Adriana without any
permission from me, George Caleb, the master thereof, and a Mexican
sailor, armed with a musket, made me a prisoner on board my own ship for
two or three days and until the officer of the customs allowed to go
free the persons said to have been caught in possession of the captured
sloop.
The wind meanwhile got to the southeast, and we were uneasy about
dragging our anchors and of going ashore with the vessel, and we made
sail, when another boat, which we found to be a custom-house “plonger,”
came and made fast to our vessel, and an officer with several men took
full possession of the schooner and my log-book and myself, the master,
and brought us to the port of La Paz.
While coming into port I endeavored to hoist the ship’s flag, but was
prevented by the men in charge; then I wished to call for a pilot, which
was also denied; then I entreated to have an interview with the consul
of the United States in this port, which was also denied me; then I
asked for counsel, which was likewise denied, and I was compelled to
sign certain papers, the contents whereof are unknown to me, and which I
signed under compulsion and fear of my life, and to enable me to obtain
the .attendance of a physician, which had become indispensable in view
of the state of my health. The physician came and told me I was in
danger of my life unless I kept quiet and undisturbed; but the
custom-house officers have persisted, and do persist, an plaguing me
with questions, and now threaten to put me in prison and keep me
“incommunicated” to the great danger of my ship’s cargo and my own life,
and in-contempt of the flag under which we navigate. Therefore we, and
each one of us, duly protest, &c.
Sworn to and subscribed before me.
(Certified to as correct by the mate and three seamen.)
