To James Madison from Isaac Clason, 15 February 1806 (Abstract)
From Isaac Clason, 15 February 1806 (Abstract)
§ From Isaac Clason. 15 February 1806, New York. “Inclosed you will receive herewith an exact Copy of Protest and Condemnation of my Ship Hare, and her Cargo, at Gibralter, by the British Court of Vice Admiralty at that place, by which you will see the Aggressions, which are daily committed on our Innocant American Commerce, and not only in the High Courts of Admiralty in England, but it plainly appears throughout the Globe wherever they can lay their hands on American property.
“My Ship which I allude to sailed from this Port about the 22nd day of April last with a Cargo of flour, with some Staves, bound to Cadiz and a Market, and at the time of her Sailing we had no information of that ports being Blockaded,1 and when the Ship arrived, there was no English Ships of War on the Coast, neither did the Commander see or hear of any on his Passage, and after his Arrival he Sold his outward Cargo for Salt, and Sherry Wine, which appears not only from his Protest but by every Document produced, of course presuming that he had an undoubted right to depart, he sailed bound to the port of New York, soon after being Seized by a British Frigate and towed into the Port of Gibralter, and notwithstanding he proved on his Trial by a Certificate from our American Consul that he had no information of the Port being under a state of Blockade yet at the same time he was refused Counsel to plead his Cause, by the Judge of the Court. Thus Sir I have given a simple Statement of facts which you will find corroborated as far as the documents Inclosed goes to shew2 the remainder can be supported by the Captains testimony when ever called for, and the Consular Certificate. I have thought it my duty to inform our own Government of so base a piece of piracy, which has been committed by a Nation with whom we was in Amity with, for even admiting the Port had been Blockaded after the Arrival of the Ship and the purchase of her Cargo, agreeable to their Own decissions she had a right to depart.”
Adds in a postscript: “I had forgot to mention I had some Salted provissions onboard which will appear from the Protest.”
RC and enclosures (DNA: RG 76, Preliminary Inventory 177, entry 180, Great Britain, Treaty of 1794 [Art. VII], British Spoliations, 1794–1824, box 3, folder H). RC 2 pp. For enclosures, see n. 2.
1. Although Adm. Charles Collingwood stated that the foreign ministers at the British court had been notified of the blockade on 18 Apr. 1805, chargé d’affaires George Erving did not receive official notice until 25 Apr. 1805 ( 10:233 n. 1, 9:292 and n. 1).
2. The enclosures (7 pp.) are copies of: (1) the 19 Aug. 1805 certification by notary William Toye of the 8 Aug. protest of Capt. Thomas John Chew against the seizure and detention of the Hare, which stated that they had left New York with a cargo of flour, beef, pork, and staves, arrived at Cádiz on 27 May and sold the cargo, had taken on a cargo of wine and salt, and sailed from Cádiz on 21 July for New York, that they had been captured by the Hydra, Capt. George Mundy, and carried into Gibraltar on 23 July, and that their case had come into court after they had performed quarantine; (2) the 29 Aug. 1805 decree by Gibraltar vice-admiralty court judge Richard Mountney Jephson, certified on 2 Oct. 1805 by deputy registrar Robert Morice, that although Captain Chew’s personal investment in two quarter-casks of sherry and fourteen barrels of salt provisions should be returned to him, the ship, fifty pipes and eight hundred twenty quarter-casks of sherry, and seventy-two casks of salt belonging to Clason, and two and one-half pipes of sherry belonging to John Innes Clark of Providence, were good prize. Chew’s protest was also signed by mate Ebenezer Smith and mariner Barnabas Howland.