Note 556 — Chapter II · THE OPEN SEA

But in the American case of the Ambrose Light (25 Federal 408; see also Moore, II. § 332, p. 1098) the Court did not agree with this. The Ambrose Light was a brigantine which, when on April 24, 1885, she was sighted by Commander Clark of the U.S.S. Alliance in the Caribbean Sea, was flying a strange flag showing a red cross on a white ground, but she afterwards hoisted the Columbian flag; when seized she was found to carry sixty armed soldiers, one cannon, and a considerable quantity of ammunition. She bore a commission from Columbian insurgents, and was designed to assist in the blockade of the port of Carthagena by the rebels. Commander Clark considered the vessel to be a pirate and sent her in for condemnation. The Court held that in absence of any recognition of the Columbian insurgents as a belligerent Power the Ambrose Light had been lawfully seized as a pirate. The vessel was, however, nevertheless released because the American Secretary of State had recognised by implication a state of war between the insurgents and the legitimate Columbian Government.