Salt Lake Herald | 1894-09-19 | Page 14 | A Case Unique

A CASE UJflQUE What Constitutes Flrcarmn in Scaling Waters Victoria B C Sept 18 Captain Laughlin McCIean and the owners of the sealing schooner Favorite will proceed pro-ceed against the United States in the courts for damages arising from a seizure I seiz-ure of that vessel by Commander Clarke of the war ship Mohican and the lawyers here say it is a strong case When the sealers arrived the skipper immediately went to the custom cus-tom house with a curious looking weapon in his hand It had once been a No 10 shot gun but the barrels had been sawed off twelve inches from the trigger a pistol butt substituted for the old stock and it was generally old and battered looking That said the sealer holding it up is what I was seized for It is the firearms it is said I have carried to sea I took It as a rocket gun and it was so entered on the papers when I cleared The officers of the Mohican I boarded me August 4 ninety miles west northwest of Unalaska and when asked about firearms I showed them this in a joke To my surprise they seized me I told Commissioner Clark I would give 1000 for every seal I could kill with It but It made no difference dif-ference He said the gun came under the provisions of the presidential proclamation proc-lamation and sent me to Unalaska to report to the British gunboat Pheasant Pheas-ant There I was passed on to the collector col-lector of customs here The schooner was in the middle of seals when seized working with spears only and her expulsion from the seas is looked on here as an injustice