EXHIBIT G.
(1.)
The memorial of the Eagle Fishing Company to the Department of State of the United States respectfully shows:
That the Eagle Fishing Company is now, and was at the time when the claim hereinafter set forth had its origin, a corporation duly organized and existing under and by virtue of the laws of the State of California, and having its principal office and place of business in the city and county of San Francisco, State of California, and makes this claim and memorial in its right and for its own benefit.
That the names and residences of the stockholders, officers, and directors of said corporation are as follows, to wit:
Johan H. C. Prien, San Francisco, president; Charles W. Preiss, San Francisco, vice-president; Charles A. Wagner, San Francisco, secretary; Louis Schmidt, San Francisco, director; Lawrence M. Furman, master of vessel.
That the above-named stockholders own all of the capital stock of said Eagle Fishing Company, and that they and each of them are now, and were at the time when the claim hereinafter set forth had its origin, citizens of the United States, and duly qualified and registered voters in the city and county of San Francisco, State of California.
The said Eagle Fishing Company claims from the Russian Government the sum of $100,000, being the entire sum hereby claimed; the company believes that the sum so claimed would not reimburse it for the losses sustained by the wrongful act of the authorities of the Russian Government, hereinafter set forth; and that this company has received no money or other equivalent or indemnification from insurance or otherwise for the whole or any part of the loss or injury upon which this claim is founded.
That the said claim is based upon the following facts and circumstances, to wit:
The said Eagle Fishing Company, in pursuit of its regular and legitimate business, was at all the times herein mentioned the owner of the American schooner C. H. White, which said schooner was enrolled and registered in the port of San Francisco, and said schooner was regularly cleared from said port for a fishing and hunting voyage in the North Pacific Ocean or elsewhere, as the master might direct, having at the time on board said vessel a hunting and fishing outfit, consisting of rifles, shotguns, powder, and hunting and fishing gear, all of which will more fully and at large appear by the certified copies of the original clearance papers and outward manifest of said schooner, which are herewith filed, and that the reason why the original of all the said papers are not filed is that all of said original papers were seized as hereinafter mentioned.
That Lawrence M. Furman, one of the stockholders and directors of the Eagle Fishing Company, was then, and at all the times hereinafter mentioned, the fully acting and qualified master of the said schooner, and is now, and was at the time when the claim herein set forth had its origin, a citizen of the United States of America and of the State of California, and that the said Eagle Fishing Company was, prior to and at all the times hereinafter mentioned, and now is, the owner of a fishing station on Atu Island, the most westerly of the Aleutian Islands, belonging to the United States; that the said schooner C. H. White, on the 7th day of May, A. D. 1892, under command of the said master, and with a good and sufficient crew and a hunting and fishing outfit on board, as aforesaid, did set sail and depart from the said port of San Francisco, bound for the North Pacific Ocean, said vessel being at the time and at all the times hereinafter mentioned seaworthy, and in all respects fit for the voyage which it took, as herein mentioned; that the master and crew proceeded with said vessel on their voyage without disaster of any kind until the 15th day of July, A. D. 1892, and that prior to said day and in the open Pacific Ocean, more than 30 miles south of the Aleutian Islands,” and not in Russian waters, had [Page 231] caught 8 barrels of mackerel and 1 ton of codfish, and had killed 20 seals, all of which were caught and killed on the voyage from San Francisco, and more than 30 miles south of the Aleutian Islands, and not in Russian waters; that said master and crew, on about the 12th day of July, A. D. 1892, being then fishing about 40 miles south of Agattou Island, one of the Aleutian Islands, with said vessel, then set sail for the Kurile Islands, off the coast of Japan, intending to fish there, and the master of said schooner, finding that his chronometer was out, wanted to sight land to correct the chronometer, and accordingly deviated from his course or route to Kurile Islands for the purpose of sighting either Copper or Bering Island to correct his chronometer, and on the 15th day of July arrived at latitude 54° 18’ north, longitude 167° 19’ east, by correct observation, and had not fished or sealed in said place, nor at any place within 50 miles thereof, or in Russian waters at all, and the wind being light, but the vessel sailing on its course as aforesaid, and no boats being out from said vessel, either for hunting or fishing, and no one from said vessel being either hunting or fishing.
Said latitude 54° 18’ north, longitude 167° 19’east by correct observation, measured on the United States Coast Survey Chart, No. 900, more than 80 miles from Cooper or Bering islands on the high seas, and not in Russian waters, when, at said time, and in the latitude and longitude above mentioned, on the 15th day of July, A. D. 1892, as aforesaid, and not being at the time hunting or fishing, and not having at any time fished or hunted seals in Russian waters, but being at said time on its course for the Kurile Islands, as aforesaid, the said schooner was boarded by an officer from the Russian war cruiser Zabiaca, which said war cruiser Zabiaca was at all the times herein mentioned a steamer regularly commissioned as a war cruiser, and belonging to the Russian Government; armed for offensive and defensive warfare, and acting under the authority and by the direction of the said Russian Government, and the master was by said officer ordered to come on board of said cruiser, with all the schooner’s papers; the master accordingly went on board, and the captain of said cruiser, after examining the schooner’s papers, arrested the master, and then had all the crew of said cruiser [sic] except the mate, brought on board of said cruiser, and master and crew of said schooner were kept on said cruiser as prisoners. The said Russian cruiser then and there seized said schooner C. H: White and towed it to Nicholovsky Bay, Bering Island, and then placed said schooner under a prize crew and sent it to Petropaulovsky, and the cruiser, with the master and crew of said schooner as prisoners, sailed to Petropaulovsky, and arrived there on the 20th day of July, A. D. 1892.
The Russian Government seized said schooner C. H. White as hereinbefore set forth, but this company does not know what disposition was made of said schooner, but is advised and believes, and therefore alleges, that said schooner was repainted and refitted and used by said Russian Government, and is now in its possession, and by it used.
That the master of said schooner C. H. White duly protested at the time to the captain of said war cruiser against the seizure of said vessel and against all the other acts herein complained of; that on the 5th day of August, A. D. 1892, the said master duly noted a protest against said seizure and said acts with the governor of Petropaulovsky; and that said master on the 31st day of August, A. D. 1892, duly made a marine protest against said seizure to James G. Swan, a notary public in and for Port Townsend, State of Washington, United States of America, immediately upon his arrival at said city, and said city being the first place in the United States at which he arrived.
That the seizure of said schooner C. H. White and all of said acts by said Russian war cruiser by the officers thereof and by the Russian officials were in violation of the law of nations and of the right of citizens of the United States, and in contravention to the treaties existing between the United States of America and Russia, and that this claim is founded upon the principles of international law and the rights which every nation and every person has upon the high seas, and upon the fact that all the above-mentioned acts by the Russian Government and its officials were in violation thereof.
Wherefore this company hereby requests the interposition of the Government of the United States of America against the Russian Government for the presentation of this claim against the Russian Government.
Eagle Fishing Company,
By
[seal.]