Note 837 — Chapter IV · CONTRABAND

See Calvo, V. § 2767, p. 52. The case of the Swedish neutral vessel Commercen, which occurred in 1814, and which is frequently quoted with that of the Vrow Houwina (1 Wheaton, 382), is not a case of indirect carriage of contraband. The Commercen was on her way to Bilbao, in Spain, carrying a cargo of provisions for the English army in Spain, and she was captured by a privateer commissioned by the United States of America, which was then at war with England. When the case, in 1816, came before Mr. Justice Story, he reprobated the argument that the seizure was not justified because a vessel could not be considered to be carrying contraband when on her way to a neutral port, and he asserted that the hostile destination of goods was sufficient to justify the seizure of the vessel.