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the captor, and is properly termed the Ransom Bill, and the other is given to the master of the captured vessel, and serves as a Pass or Safe-conduct for him. The master of the captured vessel at the same time delivers up to the captor one of his crew, generally the mate of his vessel, as a hostage for the payment of the money stipulated in the Ransom Bill The ransomed vessel is thereupon permitted to proceed to a designated port by a prescribed route and within a limited time. A failure to comply with any of these conditions places the vessel and her cargo out of the protection of the ransom bill, otherwise the ransom bill serves to secure the vessel and her cargo from all molestation from the cruisers of the belligerent state of which the captor is a subject, or from the cruisers of its allies, until she has reached the port of her destination. It has been justly observed that all compacts with the common enemy must bind allies, when they tend to accomplish the object of the alliance; otherwise the ally would reap all the fruits of the compact without being subject to the terms and conditions of it, and the enemy with whom the agreement was made would be exposed in regard to the ally to all the disadvantages of it ticipating in the stipulated benef

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liable to be adjudged good prize to the second captors, in which case the debtors under the bill of ransom will be discharged from their contract, and the amount stipulated in her bill of ransom will be deducted from the total proceeds of the prize, the residue only going to the second captor. On the other hand, if the vessel of the captors should be taken by the enemy with the ransom bill and hostage on board, the ransom bill is thereby discharged, and it cannot be revived by recapture. So when the vessel of the captor, after he has transmitted the ransom bill, is taken with the hostage on board, the ransom is discharged by such recapture of the hostage. But if the hostage and the ransom bill have both been transmitted by the captor to a place of safety, and the captor's vessel be subsequently taken by the enemy, the ransom remains due notwithstanding such capture. In such a case there is nothing on board the captor's vessel that represents the ransom of the captured vessel; and where the hostage and ransom bill have both been conveyed to a place of safety it is equivalent to the prize itself having been carried infra præsidia. So if the commander of a privateer should have ransomed an enemy's vessel, under a condition, amongst others inserted in the ransom bill, that the full amount should be paid notwithstanding "the hostage should come to die, or to desert, or that the said privateer should perish or be taken with the hostage on board," and the privateer should have been subsequently captured by the enemy with the hostage and ransom bill on board, but the ransom bill should not have been delivered up to the captors of the

62 Valin, Traité des Prises, c. 11. § 1-3. Pothier, Traité de Proprieté, § 134-137

63 Emérigon, Traité des Assurances, c. 12. sect. 23. § 8. 64 Ibid.

privateer, nor have ever come into their possession, the original captor has been held entitled to recover on the ransom bill 65. So likewise if the commander of the ransomed vessel should have given a bill of exchange to the captor as an additional security, together with the ransom bill, and the bill of exchange should have been negotiated in good faith to the order of a third party for value received, it is to be paid by the owners of the ransomed vessel, although the hostage should have been recaptured on board the privateer; but if the bill of exchange has not been negotiated for value received at the time of his recapture, the owners of the ransomed vessel are absolved from their obligation under the bill of exchange, as well as under the ransom bill itself66.

§ 182. When a captor releases an enemy's vessel Hostages. on Ransom, it is allowable for him to take one or more hostages from the ransomed vessel. The French Ordonnance de la Marine enjoined all captors, if they released a vessel and her cargo par composition, to seize all her papers, and to bring away at least two of the principal officers of the captured vessel. In practice however one hostage only is taken, who is liable to be detained as a prisoner of war until the ransom is paid. The validity of the ransom bill does not in any way depend upon the taking of a hostage, but the hostage serves as a security to facilitate the recovery of the ransom in a court of law; for the hostage has a right of action in the courts of his own country against the master, and against the owner of the ship and cargo, to compel them to

65 Corner v. Blackburne, 2 Douglas, p. 640.

66 Emérigon, c. 12. Tit. XXII. 67 The practice of ransom is recognised by this Ordinance in Tit. VI. Des Assurances, § 66.

and Tit. VII. Des Avaries, § 6.

68 Valin, Ordonnance de la Marine, Tit. IX. § 19. Lebeau, Nouveau Code des Prises, Tom. I. p. 89. Azuni, Droit Maritime, Tom. II. c. 4. Art. VI.

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perform the conditions of the contract under which their property has been restored to them, and the due performance of which is a necessary condition for the recovery of his freedom 69. But the hostage is merely a collateral security, like bills of exchange, and the escape or death of the hostage does not discharge the ransom bill. The master of a ship cannot bind the owners of the ship and cargo to pay a ransom which exceeds their value", as they may always discharge their liability under a ransom bill by abandoning the vessel and cargo to the holders of the bill, just as the owners of a ship and cargo may abandon the ship and cargo in the Instance Court of Admiralty to the holders of a bottomry bond; when the vessel and cargo are insufficient to defray the ransom bill, the master is liable to be personally sued for the payment of the balance of the ransom bill, and for the expenses of the hostage. The loss of the ransomed ship by stress of weather does not discharge the ransom bill or release the hostage. But if the ship and cargo have been abandoned by the owners and sold under a decree of the Admiralty Court, and the proceeds should be insufficient to discharge the ransom bill, and the master should be insolvent, the captor in such a case is bound to release the hostage on payment of the sum for which the vessel and cargo have been sold by the decree of the Court; in other words, the Court of Admiralty will not suffer the money to be paid out of the Registry until the hostage is released".

§ 183. The practice of releasing captured vessels upon ran on ransom being considered to be less beneficial to

som.

69 The Hoop, I Ch. Rob.

p. 201.

70 Azuni, Droit Maritime, Tom. II. c. 4. Art. VI. § 5.

71 The Gratitudine, 3 Ch. Rob. p. 258.

72 Yates v. Hall, 1 Term Reports, p. 80.

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