The Antelope

23 U.S. 66 (1825)

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Nature of the Case

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Facts

A privateer sailing under a Venezuelan commission, entered the port of Baltimore and clandestinely shipped a crew of thirty or forty men. He proceeded to sea, and hoisted the Artegan flag, assuming the name of the Arraganta, and prosecuted a voyage along the coast of Africa. Most of the officers and the greater part of her crew were citizens of the United States. She captured the following: an American vessel, from Bristol, in Rhode Island, from which she took twenty-five Africans; several Portuguese vessels, from which she also took Africans; and a Spanish vessel, called the Antelope, in which she also took a considerable number of Africans. The Antelope and the Arraganta then sailed in company to the coast of Brazil, where the Arraganta was wrecked, and her master, Metcalf, and a great part of his crew made prisoners. The rest of the crew were transferred to the Antelope, assumed the name of General Ramirez, under the command of John Smith, a citizen of the United States; and onboard, this vessel were all the Africans, which had been captured by the privateer in the course of her voyage. This vessel was found near the coast of the United States, by the revenue cutter, Dallas, under the command of Captain Jackson, and brought into the port of Savannah for adjudication. There were upwards of two hundred and eighty Africans aboard. The Africans were libeled and claimed by the Portuguese and Spanish Vice-Consuls. They were also claimed by John Smith, as captured jure belli. They were claimed by the United States, as having been transported from foreign parts by American citizens, in contravention to the laws of the United States, and as entitled to their freedom by those laws, and by the law of nations. Captain Jackson, the master of the revenue cutter, filed an alternative claim for the bounty given by law if the Africans should be adjudged to the United States; or to salvage, if the whole subject should be adjudged to the Portuguese and Spanish Consuls. John Smith's claim was dismissed. The United States claim was dismissed except as to that portion of the Africans which had been taken from the American vessel. The residue was divided between the Spanish and Portuguese claimants. There was no evidence to show which of the Africans were taken from the American vessel, and which from the Spanish and Portuguese. About one-third of the Africans died, and the court averaged that loss among these three different classes; and that sixteen should be designated, by lot, from the whole number, and delivered over to the Marshal, according to the law of the United States, as being the fair proportion of the twenty-five, proved to have been taken from an American vessel. This appeal followed.