The Steamship Appam
The Steamship Appam | |
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Court membership | |
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Case opinion | |
Majority | Day, joined by unanimous court |
The Steamship Appam, 243 U.S. 124 (1917), was a
Background
On January 15, 1916, the British
Supreme Court
The German government appealed to the Supreme Court of the United States, which on March 6, 1917 handed down a decision that a belligerent nation may not bring prizes of war into a neutral port. The Supreme Court held that it would be unneutral for the United States to permit either belligerent to bring prizes into American ports, and that Germany could not claim such right under any of the existing treaties between that country and the United States. In bringing Appam into an American port, it was held, the German officials were committing a clear breach of American neutrality.
Ship and cargo, valued at between three and four million dollars, were delivered to the British owners March 28, 1917. The decision, written by Justice William R. Day, affirmed decrees by Federal Judge Waddill, and upheld the original ruling by Secretary of State Robert Lansing that prizes coming into American ports unaccompanied by captor warships have the right to remain only long enough to make themselves seaworthy. The court stated that neither the Treaty of 1799 with Prussia, the Hague conventions nor the Declaration of London, entitled any belligerents to make American ports a place of deposit of prizes as spoils of war under such circumstances.
The opinion adds:
The principles of international law, leaving the treaty aside, will not permit the ports of the United States to be thus used by the belligerents. If such use were permitted, it would constitute the ports of a neutral nation harbors of safety into which prizes might be safely brought and indefinitely kept. From the beginning of its history this country has been careful to maintain a neutral position between warring governments, and not to allow use of its ports in violation of the obligations of neutrality, nor to permit such use beyond the necessities arising from perils of the seas or the necessities of such vessels as to seaworthiness, provisions and supplies.
Aftermath
After return to its initial owners, the ship was renamed SS Mandingo for the rest of the war before reverting to her original name in 1919. Thereafter she traded for many years on routes to West Africa and was scrapped in 1936.[4]
See also
References
- ISSN 0002-9300.
- ISSN 0002-9300.
- ^ "British Liner Appam was Captured". Bryan Daily Eagle and Pilot. Bryan, Texax. February 1, 1916. p. 1. Retrieved February 1, 2016.
- ^ Dunn, Laurence (1964). Famous Liners of the Past Belfast Built. London: Adlard Coles. p. 72.
- Rines, George Edwin, ed. (1920). Encyclopedia Americana. .
External links
- Text of The Steamship Appam, 243 U.S. 124 (1917) is available from: Google Scholar Justia Library of Congress
- "Supreme Court Gives Appam to British Owners", New-York Tribune. (New York [N.Y.]), March 7, 1917. Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers. Library of Congress.
- "Appam Returned to British Owners", The Sun. (New York [N.Y.]), March 7, 1917. Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers. Library of Congress.