Statement of the case. does his estate, and it needed legislative action to ripen this equitable right into a legal title. Congress has acted upon this subject and confirmed the lands of the pueblo of San Francisco, including the demanded premises, and this confirmation could not enure to the benefit of any one claiming under a grant by an American prefect, unless there were an express declaration to that effect. As there is no pretence that the grant in this case was protected by legislation, it follows that the plaintiff has no title of any sort to rest upon. JUDGMENT AFFIRMED. THE SIREN. 1. The right of vessels of the navy of the United States to prize-money comes only in virtue of grant or permission from the United States, and if no act of Congress sanctions a claim to it, it does not exist. 2. No such act gives prize to the navy in cases of joint capture by the army and navy. 3. In cases of such capture, the capture enures exclusively to the benefit of the United States. APPEAL from the District Court for the District of Massachusetts; the case being thus: Prior, and up to the morning of the 17th of February, 1865, a naval force of the United States, composed of the Gladiolus, and twenty-six other vessels of war, were blockading the port of Charleston and assisting to reduce the city; a force operating also by land in the same general designs. During the night of the 16th and 17th, the rebel forces evacuated the forts about the harbor, and abandoned the city. At 9 o'clock on the morning of the 17th, an officer of the land force raised the national flag upon Forts Sumter, Ripley, and Pinckney. At 10 a military officer reached Charleston; and the city surrendered itself, and the rebel stores, arms, and property there to him. Contemporaneously with these transactions the army approached the city, and the fleet moved towards its wharves. As the latter came near Statement of the case. to land, a boy on shore gave information that the Siren, a blockade-runner, a vessel of force inferior to the Gladiolus, had run in during the night, and was lying in Ashley River; which makes a west entrance inland from the bay where the blockading fleet was stationed. The Gladiolus, one of the leading vessels of the fleet, dispatched a boat's crew towards the vessel. When they got there they found that her crew learning of the success of the Federal arms, and seeing the Gladiolus coming, had cut the injection-pipes of the vessel, set her on fire, and abandoned her. She was now in flames, filling with water, and surrounded by boats filled with negroes from the shore. The Gladiolus, herself, arrived at the scene soon after her boat's crew got there; and, with the people about, managed to put out the fire and tow the vessel to shallow water, where after great effort her leaks were stopped. She was then taken to Boston, and condemned as a prize of war, and sold; all questions as to the distribution of the proceeds being reserved. From the proceeds in the registry (less a certain sum, which on libel filed had been decreed to the owners of a vessel that the prize-crew of the Siren in bringing her into Boston for condemnation, had carelessly ran into and injured), the Gladiolus claimed both salvage and prize-money; claiming as the latter one-half of the proceeds. The other vessels named as part of the blockading force, set up a right to participate in the proceeds as captors with the Gladiolus. The statute under which the claim of all the vessels was made* is in these words: "The net proceeds of all property condemned as prize when the prize was of superior or equal force to the vessel or vessels making the capture, shall be decreed to the captors; and when of inferior force to the vessel or vessels making the capture, one-half shall be decreed to the United States and the other half to the captors." There was no statute which provided for joint captures by the army and navy. * Act of June 30th, 1864; 18 Stat. at Large, 306. Opinion of the court. The court below decreed in favor of the claim of the Gladiolus for salvage, and gave the residue of the proceeds, after paying the sum decreed as damages for the collision, to the United States alone. From this decree, depriving them of all prize-money, the present appeal was taken by certain of the blockading vessels. Messrs. Charles Cowley, and Charles Levi Woodbury, for the appellants; Mr. C. H. Hill, Assistant Attorney-General, contra. Mr. Justice SWAYNE delivered the opinion of the court. In the English maritime jurisprudence the jurisdiction of the admiralty court on the instance side, and the jurisdiction in prize, are entirely distinct and independent of each other. When exercising one, it is called the instance court, and the prize court when exercising the other. The rules of procedure and adjudication in the latter are said to be no more like those which prevail in the former, than they are like those of any court in Westminster IIall. But from time immemorial both jurisdictions have been exercised by the same judge. As judge of the admiralty or instance court he is appointed by a commission under the great seal. This commission specifies fully and particularly the subjects of his jurisdiction, but is wholly silent as to prize. To give that jurisdiction, and bring it into activity, a commission under the great seal, in every war, was issued to the lord high admiral, to require the judge of admiralty to take cog nizance of all captures, seizures, prizes, and reprisals of all ships and goods that should be taken, and to hear and determine according to the course of the admiralty and the law of nations. A special warrant was thereupon issued by the admiral. Since the reign of Elizabeth it does not appear that any special authority has been given to the judge. He has exercised exclusive jurisdiction in prize under his commission from the king, or under the power inherent in his office, or by virtue of both.* * Lindo v. Rodney, 2 Douglas, 613, note. Opinion of the court. Prize was wholly the creature of the crown. No one could have any interest but what he took as the gift of the king. Beyond this he could claim nothing. The reasons upon which the rule was founded were: that right of making war and peace was exclusively in the sovereign; that the acquisitions of war must, therefore, belong to him, and that their disposal might be of the utmost importance for the purposes both of war and peace. It was held that it must be presumed from these considerations that the government did not intend to divest itself of this important attribute, except in so far as such a purpose was clearly and unequivocally expressed. The right is not the private property of the sovereign, but a trust confided to him for the public good. In private grants the construction is most strongly against the grantor. In all concessions touching capture the opposite rule prevails. A presumption arises against the graut, and it can only be rebutted by language so explicit as to leave no room for doubt upon the subject.* The lord high admiral exists now only in contemplation of law. It was deemed expedient to assign to him a certain portion of the rights of the crown to maintain the dignity and splendor of his office. Hence the doctrines of droits of the admiralty, and of captured property which belonged to the king, virtute coronæ. The lord high admiral is now represented by the king, who holds the office, but in a capacity distinct from his regal character, and the droits which belonged to the office, so far as they still subsist and are not otherwise disposed of, have in the progress of time become reattached to the crown.‡ To the legal scholar the subject is full of the interest of antiquarian research, but its examination is not necessary to the decision of the present case. The proper limits of this opinion forbid us to pursue the inquiry further. While the American colonies were a part of the British empire, the English maritime law, including the law of prize, *The Elsebe, 5 Robinson, 155 The Maria Francoise, 6 Id. 293. The Rebeckah, 1 Id. 227; The Mercurius, Ib. 81; The Joseph, 1 Galli. son, 545; Reeves's History of the English Law, 197. דיז Recapitulation of the case in the opinion. From the close of was the maritime law of this country. During the late civil war a land and naval force of the United States were beleaguring Charleston in South Carolina. The rebel fortifications and forces kept both at bay. This had been the condition of things for a considerable period. In the night of the 17th February, 1865, the insurgent troops evacuated the neighboring forts and abandoned the city. This became known the next morning. The fleet thereupon approached the city by water and the army by land. The Gladiolus, a steam propeller of the navy, was one of the leading vessels. When she was off the Battery at Charleston, a boy from the shore gave information that a blockaderunner was lying near by in Ashley River. A boat's crew from the Gladiolus was dispatched in quest of her. They found her on fire and surrounded by boats filled with colored people from the shore. The crew of the boat and others present proceeded to put out the fire. The Gladiolus reached the scene a few minutes after the arrival of the boat. The fire was extinguished; the crew of the Gladiolus assisted in putting it out. It was found that the pipes of the vessel had been cut and that she was filling with water. The Gladiolus towed her to shallow water and her leaks were stopped. *Thirty hogsheads of Sugar v. Boyle and others, 9 Cranch, 198. The Joseph, 1 Gallison, 555, 558; Dos Hermanos, 10 Wheaten, 310. |