To James Madison from Stephen Cathalan Jr., 13 May 1806 (Abstract)
From Stephen Cathalan Jr., 13 May 1806 (Abstract)
§ From Stephen Cathalan Jr. 13 May 1806, Marseille. “I have the Honour of remiting you here inclosed the list [not found] of the American Seamen, discharged in this port of Marseilles, from American Vessels by Mutual consent, according to the third Section of the act Suplemeny. of the 28th. february 1803.1 in the year 1804 from whom I have retained one of the three months over & above wages,
| amounting to | $37.5. | ||
| on which after deducting what I have paid for distressed Seamen as ⅌ State annexed thereto | 10. | ||
| I have credited the united States treasury on the 31st. December |  |
for | $27.5. |
| “I inclose you Such a list of the Seamen discharged in the year 1805. [not found] from whom I have retained one month over Wages, & having paid nothing, I have credited the united States Treasury on the 31st. December 1805 for | 75. | ||
| Together | $102.5 | ||
“Here inclosed you will find, the State of the American Vessels arrived in this port of Marseilles, from the 1st. July to and included the 31st. December 1805. 15 vessels in All, with the State of the American Vessels Sailed from this port in that Same period ten Vessels in All [not found].
“By the here inclosed Instrument abstract from the records of this chancery, ⟨I⟩ give you a detailed Account of the whole proceedings which have taken place relative to the Ship Betzey of Kennebunk John Chipman Master2 from the 8th. March last, day of her arrival in this port & included the 12 inst. She Sailed this morning for new-york or Boston;3
“You will observe by its Contents that this Ship being not provided with a Register or a Certificate She was American property, in lieu of a Register, neither with an original Roll of Equipage from new-york from whence She Sailed bound for Europe; and Capn. Chipman having deposited on his arrival his Mediterranean pass, Sea letters, with a bill of Sale passed at St. Thomas, for his Said Ship, I thought it my duty to detain this Ship in behalf & on the Account of the united States, untill I should get proper informations from the American Consuls in London & Lisbon, where she had been previous to her arrival in this port, with the advices or opinion from the Minister plenopy. of the united States & Mr. I. Cox Barnet at Paris, with Mr. William Lee my Colleague at Bordeaux, whom I Consulted on that Subject.
“On the respective answers from these Gentlemen after having Consulted the laws of the united States with your instructions in your Circul⟨ar⟩ of the 9th. April 1803.,4 I have determined to release this Ship from any further detention, but on capn. John Chipman binding himself towards the united States, for the Value of his Ship estimated three thousand Dollars, that She is to proceed direct from this port to Newyork or any other port within the united States, where on arrival he is to deliver to the Collector of the district & port, the instrument of the proceedings passed in this chancery about him and his Ship Signed by him & by me in original with his Said bound at foot whereof, with his mediterranean pass, Sea letter, bill of Sale &a. which I have endorsed ‘to proceed from this port direct for newyork or any other port within the united States.’
“I hope you will after due examination of the whole, approve my conduct in this case, this being the first vessel which has appeared in this district with Such unregular papers.
“On the 3d. april I wrote by the Brig Lion Justus B. Lockwood master to the Collector of the district of Newyork David Gelster Esqre: Stating him the whole Case till that day requesting him to Send you a Copy of my letter to him.
“My opinion being that the American Consuls or Agents, must be very cautious about the regularity of the Ship’s papers, & it appears to me the Mediterranean pass & Sea letters, might be made with characteristick Marks as the Registers to prevent any forgery, or we might discovery their genuiness.
“I have duly received on the 5th. inst. your two Circulars of the 1st July 18055 thro’ fulwar Skipwith Esqre. arrived at Paris, with my new Commission as Commercial Agent of the united States in this port; but I have not received as yet the Copy of the laws passed at the last Session of Congress; it is not the only one which I have not received, and a Collection of all the laws relative to our duties, would be acceptable and Easier to be Consulted by ourselves, than intermixed, with So many other ones, when a part of them has not reached u⟨s.⟩
“I will very Soon answer more particularly to the Contents of your Said Circulars, to which I am Conforming myself.
“This health office has lately Softened the rigor of the quarantine on the Vessels from the United States, which is now reduced from 30 days whereof 15 to be performed at the Island of Pomego—to 20 days whereof 6 at Pomego & if their bill of health is accompanied with a certificate from the French Agent in the port the Vessel has cleared out, Stating, there was not any epidemical disorder, the quarantine is then reduced to 15 days & none at Pomego, to be performed in the inside of this harbor; the day the Capn’s arrival makes his declaration to this health office accounting for one, as well as the day has her free pratick at 7 o clock A. M.”6
RC, two copies, and enclosures (DNA: RG 59, CD, Marseille, vol. 2). First RC 4 pp.; marked “Copy”; in a clerk’s hand, signed by Cathalan; docketed by Wagner as received 5 Sept. 1806. Second RC in a clerk’s hand, signed by Cathalan; docketed by Wagner. Words and parts of words in angle brackets in the first RC have been supplied from the second RC. For surviving enclosures, see nn. 2 and 6.
1. See , 2:203–4.
2. The enclosure (15 pp.; in a clerk’s hand, emended and signed by Cathalan) is Cathalan’s 12 May 1806 certified copy of consular records in the case of the Betsey, Chipman, which arrived at Marseille without the required register or rôle d’équipage, both of which were required, but with sea letters and Mediterranean pass both dated 20 July 1805 at New York. Chipman had a bill of sale for the ship from William Hunt to Edward Grant dated 25 Feb. 1805 at St. Thomas, a copy of a 27 Aug 1804 register from Biddeford, Maine, certified on 15 Mar. 1805 by Owen Eivers at St. Thomas, and a copy of an 11 July 1805 Biddeford permanent register with a note from collector Jeremiah Hill stating that the 1804 register had been canceled and sent to the Treasury. When Cathalan asked why Chipman did not have a certificate of property from Biddeford, Chipman said he did not have time to wait at New York for it. In place of the rôle d’équipage he offered a list of his crewmen given to him on 8 Feb. 1806 by William Jarvis, adding that either he had mislaid the original list from New York or it had been mistakenly taken by port officials at Marseille. Chipman was also unable to produce any instructions from Grant. Suspicion of forgery led Cathalan to compare Chipman’s sea letter and Mediterranean pass to those of twelve American vessels then at Marseille; he found no appreciable differences. Cathalan also questioned the crew and examined their protections, which had been certified by William Lyman at London. Cathalan further interrogated Chipman at the consulate in the presence of several American captains and merchants then at Marseille, and the port interpreter. Following this, Cathalan wrote to Vernet & Co., Marseille merchants and consignees of Betsey’s cargo, asking them to hold the $1,000 freight fee due Chipman, releasing only as much as was necessary for daily expenses, to which the company agreed. Cathalan also wrote to William Lyman, William Jarvis, and William Lee, asking their opinions on the case, and to Isaac Cox Barnet, asking that he obtain John Armstrong’s opinion. Lee replied that without seeing the papers he could offer no opinion and referred Cathalan to Armstrong to whom Cathalan wrote directly. Lyman replied that his books indicated that Chipman had shown only a sea letter and Mediterranean pass while at London, a fact he was then unaware of owing to illness, and which he would have investigated further had he known. Armstrong replied: “I know of no power possessed either by you or myself, that would enable us to dispense With any of the proofs required by law.” After considering these replies and reading again the laws pertaining to consuls and ships’ papers, convinced that Chipman was indeed American, and being aware of both the low value of the ship and the expenses Chipman was incurring by remaining in port, Cathalan decided to allow Chipman to depart directly for the United States on payment of a $3,000 bond on the condition that he present his papers to the collector of whatever port he reached and receive regularized papers for the future.
3. The Betsey arrived at Boston on 23 July 1806 after being becalmed and fired on by the Spaniards at Ceuta (Philadelphia Poulson’s American Daily Advertiser, 31 July 1806).
5. Ibid., 10:1–2, 59–60.
6. Following this the second RC adds: “I beg your refference to the inclosed to the Secretary of the treasury, which please to deliver him.” Filed with this letter is a copy of William Jarvis to Cathalan, 8 Apr. 1806 (8 pp.), stating that although it was impossible for him to remember distinctly the details of Chipman’s case after so many months, he noted that the ship’s register was dated 11 July 1805 at Biddeford, and the Mediterranean passport and sea letter were dated 20 July 1805 in New York; and that it was almost impossible for a vessel to leave Kennebunk for New York, take on a cargo, and depart in nine days. The certificate might have been requested to be sent from New York by mail while the cargo was being loaded, but it was unlikely that it would have passed muster at New York unless the collector there considered such a certificate the equivalent of a standard register, since few collectors at smaller ports had the standard register form. Jarvis further stated that although Chipman’s answers to Cathalan’s questions were unsatisfactory, he knew Chipman was an American citizen, believed him to be an honest man, and the papers from New York appeared authentic. He added that more information might be obtained from the crew and suggested that it was advisable to be careful in judging situations, since it was possible to err too much on the side of caution. He noted that had the papers appeared forged or fraudulent to him when the ship was at Lisbon, he would have stopped both ship and captain, that he knew Chipman from two previous visits to Lisbon but that his good opinion of him was based on his contacts rather than a personal partiality. He asked to be informed when the case had been resolved.