2. The X is a Spanish merchant vessel, and since I have been in command of her as aforesaid has traded between ports in England and Spain and the United States and West Indies; the vessel carries no passengers or mails, but is exclusively a cargo carrier.
3. In the ordinary course of her said business as a common carrier, the vessel, in the month of April, 1898, loaded a full cargo of lumber, at Ship Island, Miss., and on the 14th of April, 1898, the vessel and cargo were cleared at the Custom House in Scranton, Miss. The cargo was destined for Rotterdam, in the Kingdom of Holland, but the vessel was cleared coastwise from Scranton for Norfolk, in the State of Virginia, to which port the steamer was bound for coals. In the ordinary course of such a voyage the foreign clearance of a vessel for Rotterdam would have been obtained and issued from the Custom House in Norfolk.
The vessel was laden at the loading port under the agency of W. S. K. & Co., an American firm as I am informed and believe, and conformed there in all things to the laws and regulations of the United States and of said port. She was detained at Ship Island by the low water on the bar until April 19th, 1898, between 8 and 9 o'clock A.M., when she sailed from said place and proceeded on her voyage toward Norfolk, Va., as aforesaid.
But for her capture and detentions as heretofore set forth, she would have reached Norfolk, and would have coaled and sailed from said port prior to May 21st, 1898.
4. It appeared from the ship's papers delivered to the captors, and was a fact, that her cargo was all taken on board prior to May 21st, 1898. And as I am informed and believe, the vessel was not otherwise excluded from the benefits and privileges of the President's Proclamation of April 26th, 1898.
5. At all times before the ship's seizure on April 22d, 1898, I and all my officers were ignorant that war existed between Spain and the United States, and the vessel was bound and following the ordinary course of her voyage.
6. While on the said voyage and in due prosecution thereof, at about 7 or 7.30 of the clock in the morning of April 22d, 1898, said steamship X being then about eight or nine miles from Sand Key Light, was seized and wrongfully captured by the United States ship of war N., under the command of a line officer of the United States Navy, and by means of a prize crew then and there placed on board, was forcibly brought into this port of Key West. On being stopped by said United States ship of war, N., and being informed of the existence of war, the master and officers of the X submitted without resistance to seizure and to the placing of a prize crew on board of said vessel, proceeding therewith, under her own steam, into port.
7. Deponent is informed and believes that by the existing policy of the Government of the United States, as evidenced by the repeated declarations of its Executive, and by the Proclamation of the President of the United States, issued and published April 26th, 1898, as well as upon principles in harmony with the present views of nations and sanctioned by recent practice, in accordance with which the President has directed that the war should be conducted, the steamship X, at the time and place, and in the circumstances under which she was seized, was not liable to be treated as enemy's property, but on the contrary, having sailed from a port of the United States prior to the 21st of April, 1898, and being bound to another port of the United States, which in the ordinary course of her voyage she would have reached and left, with her coals, long prior to May 21st, 1898, was exempt from capture as prize of war.
O. P.
Sworn to before me this 18th day of May, 1898.