The Sea Witch

Restitution of a neutral vessel ordered, which had apparently set out on a lawful voyage, though she was captured out of the most direct and regular course of it, and in a position open to some question ; there having been heavy weather which might have made her desirous to take the course she did, — one hugging a semicircular coast rather than a more direct one across its chord.

Appeal from the District Court of the United States for the Eastern District of Louisiana. The schooner Sea Witch was captured in the Gulf of Mexico on the 31st of December, 1864, by the United States war steamer Metacomet, for alleged breach of the blockade of the Texas coast, then established by our government. The schooner was a neutral vessel, with a neutral cargo, coflee, drugs, &c., regularly cleared from Yera Cruz for New Orleans, under a license granted by the vice-consul of the United States, in pursuance of the proclamation of the President, opening the port of New Orleans to trade, and of the regulations of the Secretary of the Treasury. But at the time of the capture she was out of the ordinary and most direct line of a voyage from Yera Cruz to New Orleans, and somewhat along the coast and in a position to go to Galveston, Texas, then blockaded. She had encountered heavy weather before the capture and was somewhat damaged; and it was alleged by the master that he had abandoned the voyage to New Orleans, and was about returning to Yera Cruz. Having been brought into New Orleans and libelled as prize in the District Court, restitution was decreed and a certificate of reasonable cause given the captors. The United States appealed.