M. DE SARTINE TO THE COMMISSIONERS.
Translation.
Versailles, 16th September, 1778.
Gentlemen,
I have received the letter, which you did me the honor to write to me on the subject of the French ship Isabella, which the American privateer General Mifflin recaptured from a Guernsey privateer.
In the General Thesis, you may see the disposition of the ordinance of the Marine of 1681, which adjudges to captains, captors of recaptured vessels, when they have been during twentyfour hours in the enemy's hands, a third for the charges of rescue, when they are retaken before the twentyfour hours. The American privateers shall enjoy in France, without difficulty, the benefit of this law, if it has been adopted by the United States in such a manner, as that the French privateers may be assured of experiencing the same treatment, with respect to the recaptures they may conduct into the ports of North America.
The English laws, on the contrary, grant a privateer only one eighth of the value of the vessels retaken within the first twentyfour hours, a fifth within the second day, a third within the third and fourth, and afterwards one half, which leaves at least, in every case, the other half to the losing proprietors. It is possible, that the United States, as these laws are less advantageous to the privateers and more favorable to the original proprietors of recaptured vessels, would give the preference to those of France.
In these circumstances, the rules of reciprocity observed between the two powers require that arrangements be taken to adopt the law of one of the two nations, which shall be observed by the respective privateers, and in the meantime I am persuaded, that you will think with me, that the American privateer, General Mifflin, ought not to exact in France other advantages than what, in a similar case, a French privateer would meet with in North America.
This discussion, moreover, should not take place perhaps in the particular affair in question. I am just informed, that the French proprietor claims his vessel as retaken from pirates, offering to pay a third of its value to the American privateer, which delivered it. This is agreeable to the 10th article, under the title of Prizes, of the ordinance of 1681, which appears justly applicable to this particular case. If it should be found, that the Guernsey privateer falls under the description of those pirates, whose depredations have obliged his Majesty to order general reprisals, and that she has not been furnished with new letters of marque, which the Court of London did not grant before the month of August, to cruise against French vessels, as appears from the declaration of the Captain of the Isabella, this question will be necessarily submitted to the decision of the tribunals; and I cannot do otherwise than see, that the most prompt justice be rendered to the American privateer. I request, at any rate, that you will be pleased to give me your opinion on the principal question, taking for granted the different laws of the two nations with respect to reprisals or rescues.
I have the honor to be, &c.
DE SARTINE.