''Harpooner'' was launched at Bristol in 1791. A French privateer captured her in 1793 on ''Harpooner''s first whaling voyage to the South Seas and took her into Boston. This gave rise to an important court case.
Career
''Harpooner'' entered ''
Lloyd's Register
Lloyd's Register Group Limited (LR) is a technical and professional services organisation and a maritime classification society, wholly owned by the Lloyd’s Register Foundation, a UK charity dedicated to research and education in science and ...
'' (''LR'') in 1791 with Ramsdall, master, changing to B. Folger, J. Caves, owner, and trade Bristol—South Seas fishery.
[''LR'' (1791), №H413.]
/ref> She was reported to have been at on 11 September 1791, and on the coast of Peru on 10 April 1792 with 25 tons of sperm oil.[British Southern Whale Fishery Database – voyages: ''Harpooner'' (Bristol).]
/ref> Also, in 1792, she visited Callao.
''Lloyd's List
''Lloyd's List'' is one of the world's oldest continuously running journals, having provided weekly shipping news in London as early as 1734. It was published daily until 2013 (when the final print issue, number 60,850, was published), and is ...
'' (''LL'') reported on 27 August 1793 that the French privateer ''Marsellois'', of 22 guns and 180 men, from Dunkirk, had captured ''Harpooner'' and two Dutch vessels from the West Indies, and sent all three into Boston.''LL'' №5237.
/ref>
Court case
The case of ''Folger vs. Lecuyer'' was important because it resulted in the United States ending French extraterritorial rights with respect to privateers and their prizes.
On 6 December 1793, a federal court in Boston declared federal jurisdiction in the prize case involving the British whaler ''Harpooner''. The French privateer ''Marseilles'', Jacques Louis Lecuyer, master, of Le Havre, had seized. Unfortunately for the French, her captain was Brown Folger, who was a well-known whaler from Nantucket. Not only was he an American citizen, he was part owner of the cargo. Folger argued that his cargo was landed before the outbreak of war between France and Britain, and that Article 14 of the Franco-American Treaty of Amity and Commerce exempted cargoes of whale oil. Lecuyer argued that the French Republic's consulate in Boston had jurisdiction based on the Treaty of Alliance of 1778 and the Consular Convention of 1787.
By its decision the Massachusetts District Court asserted Federal jurisdiction in Admiralty matters, and ended the French Republic's extraterritorial rights in such matters. Justice John Lowell
John Lowell (June 17, 1743 – May 6, 1802) was a delegate to the Congress of the Confederation, a Judge of the Court of Appeals in Cases of Capture under the Articles of Confederation, a United States district judge of the United States Distri ...
ruled that it was not the intent of the Treaty to bind the United States and France to make common cause in all future wars that either country might engage in.
Notes
Citations
References
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* {{cite book , first=Rif, last=Winfield, title=British Warships in the Age of Sail 1793–1817: Design, Construction, Careers and Fates, publisher=Seaforth, year=2008, isbn=978-1-86176-246-7
1791 ships
Whaling ships
Captured ships