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The Case of the Confederate Prize Ship. Intriguing manuscript entitled, “Capture of Ship Marathon, May 1861,” apparently a draft legal statement of this noted episode - likely prepared during and for the Alabama Claims, circa 1885. In contemporary hand of ship’s trustee, the brother of the late Henry S. Tyler, one of the vessel’s owners, referring to having read testimony of the ship’s captain. On lined pale blue lettersheet, 8” x 10 ½”, 3 ½ pp. Some pen and pencil underlining; curious replacement of words “Confederate States” with “captors.” It took over twenty years, but in 1885 the Marathon’s original owners sued, in the Court known as Alabama Claims, for losses when their ship was captured on the high seas by the Confederate cruiser Music, and towed to New Orleans. “On arrival at New Orleans, Capt. Chauncey Tyler (one of the owners) made a simulate(d) sale or transfer to Anna Heaton, a British subject, for the purpose if possible of releasing his Ship from the Confederate States [crossed out and replaced with ‘Captors’]. The sale was not a bona fide transaction...done merely to prevent the condemnation as a prize of War, and for the purpose of misleading the Confederate Authorities, and obtain the escape of the vessel, and was not intended to divest the title of the real owners...and as the Ship’s Trustee(?) I continued to pay her bills & expenses, the same as before the pretended transfer...After the arrival of the Vessel at Liverpool in Aug. 1861 until she was sold in New York in Mar. 1862, she was a loss to the owners...and the complicated condition of the title was very embarrassing...” Listing owners of the ship, in sixteenth interests, including Chauncey, Horace, Christopher, and Selden Tyler, Richard Pratt, Wm. Palmer, Gideon Parker, Hezekiah Scovil, et al. In describing the members of his Tyler family, the writer continues, “There is no real difference...so any money received from Ship Marathon would go to the same parties...” Moderate foxing, handling, and edge wear, -a fascinating artifact of this saga, just weeks after Fort Sumter. The legal aspects of the case were unique and fascinating. From the beginning, the story became inordinately complicated. The litigants not only were exhaustive in their pursuit, but must have been exhausted themselves; in the end, the Court awarded no damages. Ironically, the success of the Alabama Claims Commission was due in large part to another Tyler - the former Confederate Treasury Secretary - whose postwar assistance was rewarded with a judgeship. Alabama Claims manuscript material has largely vanished from the market. With modern research. Click above links to read pages 2-4 of the letter. LL $450.
